In the heart of every storm there's a quiet night

[sovay]

I slept nearly ten hours last night. I am unclear as to precisely why my brain took this as an invitation to an anthology of nightmares, but here we are. Next time I had better at least get Rod Serling as a host or something.

spatch and I wanted to make feijoada for dinner, but due to a shortage of sausage and black beans we ended up making chili con carne instead, if you can make chili with lentils and smoked paprika. Whatever it was came out spicy, savory, and very filling, served over buttered rice. We had sequestered Autolycus the Mooch, but that left room for the stealthy Hestia to put one casual paw upon the dining room table and then another, just taking the air, not too close to the food, nothing to see here, move along. (She was tragically, discourteously removed.) I think we did all right.

I did not expect The Shape of Water to win Best Picture! I had my fingers crossed for Get Out and would have been happy with Lady Bird or Call Me by Your Name, but I had braced myself for something safely prestigious like Darkest Hour or The Post. Instead: fish people. This was a surprisingly congenial set of Oscars. When the nominees were announced in in January, I did not expect that anything I cared about would actually win. But Coco won for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, Jordan Peele took Best Original Screenplay for Get Out, Guillermo del Toro pulled off Best Director as well as Best Picture, and Paul Denham Austerberry et al. really did take Best Production Design for the rain-stained, river-rippling world of The Shape of Water. I would have liked to see Daniel Kaluuya as Best Actor instead of Gary Oldman and Willem Dafoe as Best Supporting Actor instead of Sam Rockwell. Frances McDormand was not a surprise as Best Actress, but she did nice things with her speech. I am fine with Dunkirk winning its two awards for sound design: it was very well done. I am ambivalent about Roger Deakins winning Best Cinematography for Blade Runner 2049 because of my feelings about the movie, but at least it didn't go to Hoyte van Hoytema (and since Rachel Morrison shot Black Panther as well as Mudbound, with any justice in the universe she'll return next year). I didn't realize I had a stake in Best Adapted Screenplay until I was delighted to hear about James Ivory and Call Me by Your Name. Ditto Best Foreign Language Film and A Fantastic Woman. I could have lived with Peele and del Toro splitting Director/Picture between them, if that was who the votes came down to, but I am fine with Christopher Nolan not walking off with either. I am very sorry that Lady Bird won nothing at all; it did not look like my kind of movie, but it looked like a very good one of its kind, not to mention a written-directed-starring female triple threat. Next year.

In short, the 90th Academy Awards: BITE IT, LOVECRAFT.

Comments

[nineweaving]

In short, the 90th Academy Awards: BITE IT, LOVECRAFT.

Hee!

Nine

[moon_custafer]

My brain keeps trying to sing your subject header to the tune of “There’s a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place).”

Tangentially – is it just me, or has everyone’s Tumblr feed contained a lot of references to Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” in the last month? Perhaps it’s this year’s “The Cask of Amontillado.”

[gwynnega]

I was genuinely surprised that The Shape of Water won Best Picture. If any of the other nominees had won over Get Out, I would have grumbled that it was robbed, but I was fine with this choice, especially since Get Out won for Best Original Screenplay.

I'd liked Lady Bird a lot less than I'd expected to, but I was still surprised it was completely shut out.

[kore]

I am ambivalent about Roger Deakins winning Best Cinematography for Blade Runner 2049 because of my feelings about the movie, but at least it didn't go to Hoyte van Hoytema (and since Rachel Morrison shot Black Panther as well as Mudbound, with any justice in the universe she'll return next year). I didn't realize I had a stake in Best Adapted Screenplay until I was delighted to hear about James Ivory and Call Me by Your Name. Ditto Best Foreign Language Film and A Fantastic Woman. I could have lived with Peele and del Toro splitting Director/Picture between them, if that was who the votes came down to, but I am fine with Christopher Nolan not walking off with either. I am very sorry that Lady Bird won nothing at all; it did not look like my kind of movie, but it looked like a very good one of its kind, not to mention a written-directed-starring female triple threat. Next year.

Your thoughts are as my thoughts. I was rooting for Get Out, after that Ladybird or Call Me By Your Name, was perfectly happy with the Shape of Water/del Toro win. If only because in my little deluded brain, these awards are all really for Crimson Peak, Film of My Heart. (cleolinda telling everyone about CP over Twitter was awesome.) The only big disappointments for me were Best Actress and Best Actor, and TLJ not winning anything, but HFS Daniela Vega on the red carpet and up onstage and getting to accept the Oscar too? That is worth a whole amazing lot.

Ivory is also the oldest winner of the adapted award! I hadn't realized he had NEVER WON before, which seemed criminal.

[dhampyresa]

I can't believe the lady got an award for fucking the fish.