Salon.com > 2013 oscars http://www.salon.com Sat, 25 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 I’ll tell you what’s funny http://www.salon.com/2013/03/02/ill_tell_you_whats_funny/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/02/ill_tell_you_whats_funny/#comments Sat, 02 Mar 2013 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13216471 Humor is a complicated phenomenon, and highly dependent on context, as Seth MacFarlane recently learned. The Oscar host’s much-discussed performance – and in particular his quasi-ironic opening musical number, “We Saw Your Boobs” – has inadvertently launched a cultural debate about several interlocking subjects, including sex and gender in Hollywood, whether p.c. attitudes are destroying humor, and the role of Twitter and other social media during major cultural events. That’s without even getting into the unresolvable and inherently subjective question of what’s funny and what’s not.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/02/ill_tell_you_whats_funny/feed/ 135 Ben’s right: Marriage is work. That’s not necessarily a bad thing http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/bens_right_marriage_is_work/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/bens_right_marriage_is_work/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:02:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13213903 When Ben Affleck picked up the Oscar Sunday night for "Argo," the actor/producer/director/Jimmy Kimmel love slave turned those boring last minutes of the broadcast into a memorably strange statement about marriage. As he looked out at his beautiful wife, Jennifer Garner, he told her – and the world – "I want to thank my wife, who I don't normally associate with Iran. I want to thank you for working on our marriage for 10 Christmases. It’s good. It is work, but it’s the best kind of work, and there’s no one I'd rather work with." And if nothing else had happened the entire broadcast, it would have been worth it for the pinched, "Honey, whaaaaaa?" smile on Garner's face as he said that.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/bens_right_marriage_is_work/feed/ 20 Anne Hathaway: Hollywood’s most polarizing star http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/anne_hathaway_hollywoods_most_polarizing_star/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/anne_hathaway_hollywoods_most_polarizing_star/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13211734 Anne Hathaway has it all: The movie star jumps between lucrative studio pictures like "The Dark Knight Rises" and and passion projects like "Rachel Getting Married." She recently wed boyfriend Adam Shulman in a Valentino gown. And her occasional missteps haven't hurt her one bit -- potential career-enders like "One Day" and "Get Smart" give way to bigger and better movies. Her former boyfriend's imprisonment for running a Ponzi scheme was brushed aside. She flopped as an Oscar host in 2011, but came back to win the best supporting actress trophy for "Les Misérables" at this year's ceremony.

And her public finds it all so infuriating.

Hathaway is the subject of more vituperative, angry scrutiny than perhaps any actress working today. "Shut up. Shut up, Anne Hathaway. I honestly don’t know what it is. Maybe I’m jealous, but I don’t feel jealousy. I watch her in outtakes, and I feel like she’s not a real person," wrote a blogger for women's-interest site Crushable. "I don’t find her perfection charming. I find it annoying."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/anne_hathaway_hollywoods_most_polarizing_star/feed/ 167 “We Saw Your Boobs” celebrates rape on film http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/we_saw_your_boobs_is_a_celebration_of_rape_on_film/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/we_saw_your_boobs_is_a_celebration_of_rape_on_film/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:10:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13212333 Seth MacFarlane has made millions off being an immature man-child. In fact, it was the success of his particular brand of gross-out offensive humor (served with a smile, of course) that got him the Oscar gig in the first place.

So it came as little surprise, then, when base misogyny and racism dominated MacFarlane's performance on Sunday. And while the musical opener "We Saw Your Boobs" has been called immature (true) and sexist (also true) -- it wasn't just a harmless roundup of spicy movie scenes. Four of the films MacFarlane crooned about featured nudity during or immediately following violent depictions of rape and sexual assault, stripped of their context and played for laughs. Scarlett Johansson found herself on the list because of a real-life violation: Her nude photos were stolen from her phone and leaked online.

Oh, your privacy was invaded and your breasts were splashed across the Internet against your will? That is hilarious!

So let's talk about those "boob" scenes and see how "funny" they play in context.

"The Accused"

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/we_saw_your_boobs_is_a_celebration_of_rape_on_film/feed/ 391 How to mock a child http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/there_is_a_way_to_make_fun_of_a_child/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/there_is_a_way_to_make_fun_of_a_child/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:29:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13212442 Hey, everybody who thinks we're the PC police: It's not that you can't make a joke about a child. It's that the rules of comedy apply no matter the subject matter -- you have to be funny about it.

As we all well now know, Oscar night 2013 will be remembered as that time Seth MacFarlane made joshing reference to Quvenzhané Wallis as an imminent object of George Clooney's sexual attentions, and then the Onion drastically upped the ante by calling her "kind of a cunt." (They later deleted and apologized for it.) The backlash to both outbursts was swift and loud, followed inevitably by the "Can't you take a joke?" backlash to the backlash.

One of the most agonizing side effects of a controversial comedy routine – generally a crude one that involves violence, tragedy, or is at the expense a minority group  -- is the scramble to explain why some things are funny and some are not. And explaining a joke is only slightly more magic-defusing than watching how sausage is made. Comedy is alchemy. The minute we say, "That's not funny because…" we risk the approbation of those who'd call us humorless scolds, uptight and fussy party poopers.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/there_is_a_way_to_make_fun_of_a_child/feed/ 32 Must-see morning clip: Colbert on the Oscars http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/must_see_morning_clip_colbert_on_the_oscars/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/must_see_morning_clip_colbert_on_the_oscars/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:20:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13212307 Stephen Colbert was outraged to report that Michelle Obama presented the award for Best Picture at Sunday's Oscars, what he called "big government out of control."

"Now the private sector can't even broadcast its own self-congratulatory strokefest without federal intervention?" Colbert asked. "What's next, regulatory limits on how much Joaquin Phoenix can eat during the ceremony?"

Watch:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/must_see_morning_clip_colbert_on_the_oscars/feed/ 1 Senate reportedly drops “Zero Dark Thirty” probe http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/senate_reportedly_drops_zero_dark_thirty_probe/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/senate_reportedly_drops_zero_dark_thirty_probe/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:26:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13211975 The Senate Intelligence Committee has reportedly dropped its investigation into contact between the CIA and the "Zero Dark Thirty" filmmakers, Reuters reports, citing an anonymous congressional aide.

The Committee began its investigation shortly after Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., condemned the film for depicting torture as key to uncovering the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. All three senators signed a letter to Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton, calling the film “misleading” and “grossly inaccurate.”

From Reuters:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/senate_reportedly_drops_zero_dark_thirty_probe/feed/ 2 The Oscar posters that should have been http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/the_oscar_posters_that_should_have_been/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/the_oscar_posters_that_should_have_been/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:35:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13211833 Now that the Oscars have come and gone, it is time for Hollywood to look back and wonder, "What could we have done differently?" Our advice: look in the direction of Austin, Texas' Mondo Gallery. Through a partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Mondo commissioned a series of limited edition silk-screened posters that, we think, put the actual campaigns to shame.

Who knows – perhaps with the right poster, "Wreck-It Ralph" might have snagged best picture!

Be sure to view these in full-screen mode.

[slide_show id="13211482"]

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/the_oscar_posters_that_should_have_been/feed/ 0 The Oscar posters that should have been http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/the_oscar_posters_that_should_have_been_2/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/the_oscar_posters_that_should_have_been_2/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:34:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13211482 http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/the_oscar_posters_that_should_have_been_2/feed/ 1 Jennifer Lawrence’s fall to grace http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/jennifer_lawrences_fall_to_grace/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/jennifer_lawrences_fall_to_grace/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:46:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13211616 Last night, a debate broke out among our friends on whether the 22-year-old Jennifer Lawrence, now crowned by the academy as the best actress for her terrific performance in "Silver Linings Playbook," will have staying power. One insisted she was a flash in the pan. The rest of us, who first fell hard for her in "Winter's Bone," argued that she really does have the chops. Who can say, really. Remember, Dr. Haing S. Ngor won an Oscar for his brilliant performance in "The Killing Fields," and that was pretty much the last we saw of him. So, only time will tell how her career pans out, though she's poised — with the Hunger Games franchise, and a new deal to reteam with David O. Russell — to stick around for a while. Really, the question that lingers is: Why are young women held to such scrutiny?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/jennifer_lawrences_fall_to_grace/feed/ 22 Oscars: They were dreary, desperate and insincere. But it had its moments! http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/oscars_dreary_desperate_and_insincere_with_some_good_points/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/oscars_dreary_desperate_and_insincere_with_some_good_points/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:55:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13211140 I don’t know that Daniel Day-Lewis’ deadpan gag about switching roles with Meryl Streep – “I was all set to play Maggie Thatcher, and she was Steven’s first choice for ‘Lincoln’” – was actually the funniest joke in the world, but it pretty much brought down the house just before midnight on Sunday. It was one of the few occasions during the Oscars when someone who seemed to have an adult sensibility and an education was speaking on that stage, and I for one felt almost pathetically grateful. Most of the rest of the overextended, hit-and-miss spectacle formerly known as the Academy Awards went back and forth between dreary and desperate to please, which is a pretty good description of host Seth MacFarlane as well.

Of course it’s standard operating procedure for someone in my position (or yours, for that matter!) to mock the Oscars for all kinds of reasons: The terrible musical numbers, the doomed attempts to seem hip and relevant, the amazing empty stretches in the middle of the evening occupied only by technical awards no one outside the film industry understands and commercials for “financial products.” In a year when the most famous awards ceremony in the history of show business changes its name in a last-minute branding panic, that’s all way too easy. It wasn't clear that the Oscars had any further to fall after the legendary James Franco-Anne Hathaway debacle of two years ago and the emergency Billy Crystal early-'90s flashback of last year -- and indeed I suspect this year wasn't worse -- just cruder, stranger and more detached from the Oscars' alleged and theoretical purpose.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/oscars_dreary_desperate_and_insincere_with_some_good_points/feed/ 65 The Onion’s vile Quvenzhané Wallis tweet http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/the_onions_vile_quvenzhane_wallis_tweet/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/the_onions_vile_quvenzhane_wallis_tweet/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 05:41:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13210951 UPDATED: The Onion has since deleted this tweet from its account.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/the_onions_vile_quvenzhane_wallis_tweet/feed/ 108 Oscar’s very weird night http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/oscars_very_weird_night/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/oscars_very_weird_night/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 04:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13210880 As Academy Award nominee Abraham Lincoln once said, "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." The Oscars are our annual endurance test of both. It's the Olympics of show-business power — a cage match whose outcome determines future development deals and stratospheric salaries. For the viewer at home, however, somewhere around the third hour/fifth ill-advised musical number, it tends to deteriorate into a trial of audience stamina and fortitude.

The show's organizers have in recent years flailed about before our eyes to make the evening's proceedings a less grim broadcast – bringing James Franco and Anne Hathaway in hopes of making it a dewy, youthful affair, then turning around and trotting out Billy Crystal with the promise of the balm of the reassuringly familiar. This year, the spaghetti it threw at the wall of television viewers was Seth MacFarlane, and the pitch was basically, "Let's try making the show saucy and fun -- like the 2012 Golden Globes, but without a British person." And now we know how well that idea works.

Herewith, then, are our most memorable moments of a show that will go down in history as the time the awards gave over its power to Stewie Griffin, and the adversity that followed.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/oscars_very_weird_night/feed/ 45 It’s Ben Affleck’s evening http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/liveblog_the_2013_oscar_award_ceremony/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/liveblog_the_2013_oscar_award_ceremony/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 01:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13208056 [liveblog id=66]

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/liveblog_the_2013_oscar_award_ceremony/feed/ 5 LIVEBLOG: 2013 Oscars Red Carpet http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/liveblog_2013_oscars_red_carpet/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/liveblog_2013_oscars_red_carpet/#comments Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13208241 [liveblog id=67]

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/liveblog_2013_oscars_red_carpet/feed/ 2 The 2013 Oscars: All the winners http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/the_2013_oscar_awards_who_won/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/the_2013_oscar_awards_who_won/#comments Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13210273 BEST PICTURE
"Amour"
WINNER: "Argo"
"Beasts of the Southern Wild"
"Django Unchained"
"Les Misérables"
"Life of Pi"
"Lincoln"
"Silver Linings Playbook"
"Zero Dark Thirty"

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"
WINNER: Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln"
Hugh Jackman, "Les Misérables"
Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master"
Denzel Washington, "Flight"

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Alan Arkin, "Argo"
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master"
Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"
WINNER: Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained"

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"
WINNER: Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour"
Quvenzhané Wallis, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"
Naomi Watts, "The Impossible"

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Amy Adams, "The Master"
Sally Field, "Lincoln"
WINNER: Anne Hathaway, "Les Misérables"
Helen Hunt, "The Sessions"
Jacki Weaver, "Silver Linings Playbook"

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/the_2013_oscar_awards_who_won/feed/ 5 Sometimes Oscar gets it right! http://www.salon.com/2013/02/23/sometimes_oscar_gets_it_right/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/23/sometimes_oscar_gets_it_right/#comments Sat, 23 Feb 2013 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13209375 It’s way, way too easy to pick the big, howling mistakes of Academy Awards history. (Speaking of which, it really bugs me that they have dumped the venerable term “Academy Awards” this year. Too old-fashioned! Too many syllables! Vaguely sounds like it has to do with school!) I’m sure you have your favorites, from recent history or the deep past: “Dances With Wolves” beating out “Goodfellas”; Paul Lukas in “Watch on the Rhine” beating out Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca”; the non-nomination of any number of the greatest movies ever made, from “Modern Times” to “Vertigo” to “2001: A Space Odyssey.” But what about turning the question around, and giving the Oscars some credit for the years – fewer in number, perhaps – when they got it right, or pretty damn close?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/23/sometimes_oscar_gets_it_right/feed/ 90 The week in 10 pics http://www.salon.com/2013/02/23/the_week_in_10_pics_2/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/23/the_week_in_10_pics_2/#comments Sat, 23 Feb 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13208452 http://www.salon.com/2013/02/23/the_week_in_10_pics_2/feed/ 0 Is “Lincoln” just a big yawn? http://www.salon.com/2013/02/20/lincoln_too_boring_for_the_oscars/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/20/lincoln_too_boring_for_the_oscars/#comments Wed, 20 Feb 2013 21:15:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13206829 If Ben Affleck’s “Argo” is indeed named best picture in Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony, as most people in and around the movie business now expect, then one of the lingering questions for Academy-watchers will be: What the Sam Hill happened to “Lincoln”? Steven Spielberg’s historical opus seemed like a film perfectly constructed to win awards – which may, in a sense, have been the problem. A gorgeously detailed and beautifully photographed recreation of a pivotal moment in American history, it features a star-studded cast anchored by a great performance from one of the leading screen actors of our day. Tony Kushner’s glittering screenplay is alive with ideas, Lincolnian anecdotes, philosophical collisions and parables about politics and power.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/20/lincoln_too_boring_for_the_oscars/feed/ 38 Sex surrogacy is my calling! http://www.salon.com/2013/02/20/sex_surrogacy_is_my_calling/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/20/sex_surrogacy_is_my_calling/#comments Wed, 20 Feb 2013 17:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13205627 Standing outside the theater doors, Cheryl Cohen Greene, who inspired Helen Hunt's Oscar-nominated role in "The Sessions," leaned in and told me in a hushed tone, "I've watched it 11 times and I cry every time." Just feet away, an audience sat in the dark, watching the Hollywood version of her life -- or at least her experience working as a sex surrogate with severely disabled poet Mark O'Brien -- unfold on the big screen.

Cohen Greene and I were at Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley, Calif., the city where the movie takes place, for a Fox-sponsored screening ahead of this year's Academy Awards. It was our first time meeting but, having watched the movie, I felt like I already knew her. Hunt nailed Cohen Greene's Boston accent, not to mention her radiant warmth and penetrating gaze. In real life, as on-screen via Hunt, she brings an immediate, disarming intimacy to even clothed conversation. In fact, standing there in the theater lobby with her, I felt a bit naked.

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