Oscar spoilers below, for those waiting for the delayed telecast!
Happy International Women’s Day, Kathryn Bigelow! Bigelow has become the first woman ever to win Best Director. Her film Hurt Locker also won Best Picture, and four other awards.
RIval film Avatar, widely tipped to sweep the awards, ended up getting complimented on its prettiness (art direction, cinematography and visual effects), and nothing else.
Commentary on my twitter feed varies from jennifergearing’s:
Quote from @stephendann: “So how long till there’s a bunch of guys whinging abt the oscars being ruined now?”
Forget it, Steve. Bigelow is not taking her hand off that damn statue.
to sharpest_rose‘s:
The Hurt Locker is in so many ways an “um, no, it’s not QUITE like that” counterpoint to Avatar, though. It’s a significant win.
to jfecke’s commentary on the music:
Oh, Jebus on a cracker. “I Am Woman?” Are you fucking kidding me with this shit, Oscar?
to kehealey’s succint:
EAT IT, WHITE MAN’S BURDEN. HOW DOES IT TASTE? HOW DOES IT TASTE?
And lastly, via HuffPo, James Cameron joke-choking Kathryn Bigelow before the ceremony. Violence against women – always hilarious!
Categories: arts & entertainment, gender & feminism
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Next big task – Oscar for a female director of a movie that isn’t about men and war (disclaimer: I haven’t seen The Hurt Locker, the last movie I saw was pre-children)
Lessee. I… complained about the really appalling racial narratives throughout the evening — Mo’nique wins Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the abusive, incestuous mother in Precious, the film about scary non-white non-English-speaking people killing cute animals white people like and making a nice white lady cry* won for Best Documentary, Sandra Bullock won for Best Actress in a film where she civilizes a young black man FROM THA HOOD and teaches him how to play USian football which he totally did not know how to do before being drafted by a major university nope nuh-uh** and Gabourey Sidibe did not win. That was kind of really appalling.
On the non-appalling side, I really liked the award for Best Costuming going to Sandy Powell who a) wore and awesome hat and b) gave a kick ass speech and the best indictment of her industry ever. And some lady won like some best director best picture junk and COMPLETELY OWNED JAMES CAMERON’S NARROW WHITE PUNK ASS now and forever world without end a-men! That was kinda cool yeah.
* Look okay I like dolphins too but holy shit y’all this was heinous. The white people were all righteous and the non-white people were all mean and killing dolphins and EATING THEM (man that should completely be in wiggly spooky letters) and could it have been more manipulative? Seriously? Maybe if they’d thrown in some USian blonde white girl sex slaves. From like Colorado Springs or Phoenix or some shit.
** Note: NCAA Division 1-A USian football is Big Damn Bidness at large USian universities. They make an enormous amount of money off these kids. So one such program recruiting a kid who had athletic potential but couldn’t play? Will happen at roughly the same probability as live monkeys flying out of my butt.
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I don’t know if the bumps (voice-overs going into and coming out of commercials) will be in the Oz broadcast. but this gem aired in the US: “Will it [Best Director] be the first female winner in Oscar history, the first African-American, or will James Cameron, Jason Reitman or Quentin Tarantino bring home the prize?”
Yup. It’s The Black, The Woman, or one of the white guys who are individuals with their own names and everything.
Notgruntled: Ugh! The “Who Shall Remain Nameless” phenomenon is a particular peeve of mine.
I’m doing the happy dance for Kathryn Bigelow, but I’m very very disappointed that Gabourey Sidibhe did not win, since she freakin’ walked away from the other nominees in terms of acting.
I’m calling sympathy vote for Sandra Bullock, given that she’s never had an Oscar nod, and she’s ancient by Hollywierd standards – over 40? Are there any women that old???! [/sarcasm] – and the fact that the movie was another tired “white people save the poor brown people!” cliche made all the white Academy members comfortable.
And Holy inappropriate opening monologue, Batman! Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were (are) cringeworthy.
I expect there are some men who will be quitting directing now a woman can win the Oscar, but I say good riddance. I do find it interesting that Bigelow was married to Cameron, and wonder how it compares to, say, Gentileschi’s father also being a painter.
@attack_laurel: “since she freakin’ walked away from the other nominees in terms of acting.”
I wonder how much of her not-winning was ascribable to the fact that so many people have thought she was playing herself? (As in: I’ve seen a lot of references to reporters etc calling her “Precious” at interviews, asking how her kids are, that sort of thing.)
Apart from the whole obvious racism thing, the pervasive idea that she was just doing what came naturally (an idea which is also racist) would have made her acting seem less good to someone influenced (even/especially subconsciously) by it.
And can that be extended to: because she was so good it looked natural, might it have actually reduced her chance of winning?
@Aqua: Yeah, I’ve been wondering something like that, too.
@Jo Tamar: I have absolutely no doubt that there were a large number of Academy members who assumed that she would of course know all about being an abused poor teenager, because don’t all black Americans have the same experience? [/sarcasm]. Of course, it was a real stretch for Bullock to play a rich middle class white woman with a saviour complex. *rolls eyes*
@Aqua: Bigelow got ladybusiness all over teh menz directing jobs! Oh woe! 😛
Now I have mental images of Bigelow gleefully smearing ladybusiness (looks like green goop, it glows in the dark) over a big Oscar statue. 🙂
Also, my @Aqua comment was ambiguous. I meant I’ve been wondering about the relevance of the Cameron-Bigelow connection – influence, perceived influence etc. (And my bet is that people are assuming any influence is all one way: but I’m thinking she must have had an influence on him, too!)
@Jo Tamar: it’s a simple test, really. Aliens and Terminator 2 both pre-date their divorce. I can’t remember Cameron making anything that woman-friendly since.