Pic of the Day: “At some point, everything’s gonna go south on you… everything’s going to go south and you’re going to say, this is it; ‘This is how I end’. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That’s all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem… and you solve the next one… and then the next. And If you solve enough problems, you get to come home.” (10th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “I’m on duty.” “What’s your day off?” “Sunday.” “It’s a big world… must be Sunday somewhere.” (35th Anniversary)
97th Academy Awards Recap
Another one down.
This was an interesting year because in the end, there was a consensus, even if it didn’t feel (to me) like there necessarily was one throughout the process. But they got there.
Also another year absent any major surprises. The biggest surprise was, “Oh, so they went all in on Anora.”
Otherwise — not a whole lot of note for me about the awards or the show. Felt like it went crazy long again, even with the earlier time slot. Conan did exactly what Conan does. They went for a more classical ‘movies are magic’ feel. Definitely doesn’t feel as innovative as last year’s ceremony, though they did a few things that felt like they were trying to be innovative (having one presenter talk about all the nominees — though notice they distinctly didn’t do that for the lead acting categories — or having the filmmakers discuss aspects of the film during the video packages).
Mostly this is just a ho hum kind of ceremony to cap a ho hum kind of year. (more…)
Pic of the Day “You were jealous that your husband was schtupping Yvette. That’s why you killed him, too!” “Yes. Yes, I did it. I killed Yvette. I hated her, so much… it-it- the f – it -flam – flames. Flames, on the side of my face, breathing-breathl- heaving breaths. Heaving breaths… Heathing…” (40th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Think of it like this: jump ahead, ten, twenty years, okay, and you’re married. Only your marriage doesn’t have that same energy that it used to have, y’know. You start to blame your husband. You start to think about all those guys you’ve met in your life and what might have happened if you’d picked up with one of them, right? Well, I’m one of those guys. That’s me y’know, so think of this as time travel, from then, to now, to find out what you’re missing out on. See, what this really could be is a gigantic favor to both you and your future husband to find out that you’re not missing out on anything. I’m just as big a loser as he is, totally unmotivated, totally boring, and, uh, you made the right choice, and you’re really happy.” “Let me get my bag.” (30th Anniversary)
The B+ Oscar Ballot: Guide to the 97th Academy Awards
It’s that time again.
This is such an interesting year because it feels like we’ve had such a wild swing throughout the season. We’ve had a general consensus of films throughout the race, but unlike most years, we usually start down the path with the likely winners winning from the jump and then it’s just jockeying for position or shoring up the lead. Here, we had two films win at the top, and then proceeded to see very different films pull through the rest of the way. It makes things feel like we’ve got a fairly wide open Best Picture race on our hands, the likes of which I haven’t seen in a decade.
Most times on these ballots, you’ve got a lot of automatic winners at the top, and that allows you to play around and take chances with the handful in the middle that could go one of a few ways (and then hope for the best on the ones that always can go one of a few ways). Here, all the open categories seem to be the ones at the top. That’s gonna be high risk for the people who only measure their ballots on how many they got right. But, good luck. Let’s see how we can do and let’s see what chaos 2024 hath wrought.
As I always say, if I can get the analysis right and be on track with how things play out, even if I personally guess wrong, I’ll be happy. Plus I do the Scorecard now anyway and that’s my measuring stick. Still, my goal here is to lay the foundation for other people to do well on their ballots. I’m just here to have fun. (more…)
Pic of the Day: “Problem with the plane, Don?” “What’s that? What’d you fucking say, cunt? What? Problem? Fucking problem? No, mate, no. No fucking problem with the plane, cunt. The fucking plane was fine. Fucking plane was alright. Fucking plane was perfect. It’s you! You’re the problem! You’re the fucking problem, you fucking Dr White honkin’ jam-rag fucking spunk-bubble! I’m telling you, Aitch, you keep looking at me I’m gonna put you in the fucking ground, I promise you!” (25th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “He’s going back to the land at the end of this voyage.” “Olsen? He’ll never get home. Three times I’ve seen him paid off. And it’s always one drink with the boys, and then… after this trip, he’ll stop trying.” “Yes, I dare say you’re right.” “You’re different from the rest of us.” “Something on land | has still got a hold on you. It’s you ought to be going home.” (85th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Why give people false hope?” “Come on man. Most people spend their whole lives hanging on to hopes and dreams that are never going to come true but they hold on to them. Why are you going to give up on them now when you need them most?” “You are assuming I’m one of those people who has hopes and dreams.” “I find it hard to believe that a man who learns to fly never had a dream.” “Look, how can I let those people build that plane when I don’t believe it will work? And, every day they waste trying to build it brings them one day closer to dying.” “I think a man only needs one thing in life. He just needs someone to love. If you can’t give him that, then give him something to hope for. And if you can’t give him that, just give him something to do.” (60th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Say now, that wasn’t true, what you said about teachers. Some of us do care, you know? (70th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “It’s a system error.” “Fix it!” “Fix it?” “Yeah! We’re not a pit crew at Daytona. This can’t be fixed in seconds.” “You didn’t have seconds, you had three weeks. The universe was created in a third of that time.” “Well, someday you’ll have to tell us how you did it.” (10th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Did you ever want to be a proper politician in your own right?” “Of course, didn’t you want to be a proper writer?” (15th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “In the years that followed, hundreds of bankers and rating-agency executives went to jail. The SEC was completely overhauled, and Congress had no choice but to break up the big banks and regulate the mortgage and derivative industries. Just kidding! Banks took the money the American people gave them, and used it to pay themselves huge bonuses, and lobby the Congress to kill big reform. And then they blamed immigrants and poor people, and this time even teachers! And when all was said and done, only one single banker went to jail.” (10th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Are you like me? Huh? Was this good enough to fight Sugar Ray? Never had to win, did I? You gotta do more in there. You gotta win a title. For you, for me, for Lowell. This is your time, all right? You take it. I had my time and I blew it. You don’t have to. All right? You fuckin’ get out there, and use all the shit that you’ve been through, all that fuckin’ hell, all the shit we’ve gone through over the fuckin’ years, and you put it in that ring right now. This is yours. This is fuckin’ yours.” (15th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Over the next few days you’re going to be the human component in a Turing test.” “Holy shit!” “Yeah, that’s right, Caleb. You got it. Because if the test is passed, you are dead center of the greatest scientific event in the history of man.” “If you’ve created a conscious machine, it’s not the history of man. That’s the history of gods.” (10th Anniversary)
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