Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

The Original BJ wrote:Julianne Moore tweeted this late last night, after the awards:

i forgot to mention #MarionCotillard in my speech tonight and i am mortified. she is exquisite in everything + especially in #2days1night

That makes me happy. She really is a class act.

Will she be up against Amy Adams in the proposed Janis Joplin biopic? Because that would be one hell of a fight...I think Adams will finally win for playing Joplin. It's her best opportunity, IMO. And it sounds like it's still in the planning, so it may be 2016 before it releases. Perhaps we'll added Julianne to the list of back-to-back Oscar winners.

Julianne Moore tweeted this late last night, after the awards:

i forgot to mention #MarionCotillard in my speech tonight and i am mortified. she is exquisite in everything + especially in #2days1night

OscarGuy wrote:She did mention Felicity Jones. But you're right, she didn't reference Cotillard. I'm guessing she hasn't seen her film and didn't want to convey a false platitude (though, it sounds like she just doesn't like her, which I'm sure is an oversight).

Oh, okay. I must've missed the Jones shout-out. I was sort of half-watching it while getting ready for work this morning.

It'll be interesting to see how Moore fares next year in Freeheld. It's a rather meaty role.

She did mention Felicity Jones. But you're right, she didn't reference Cotillard. I'm guessing she hasn't seen her film and didn't want to convey a false platitude (though, it sounds like she just doesn't like her, which I'm sure is an oversight).

I thought it was interesting that Julianne Moore mentioned a strength of each co-nominee's performance except for Felicity Jones and Marion Cotillard. Her dedication to her friend with Alzheimer's was lovely though.

Michael Keaton's speech, again, was the best of the night. Thanking everyone who ever "did him a solid" was great. He also subtly hinted that he'd like to make more acceptance speeches in the near future.

Also, I really enjoyed Jessica Chastain's classy MVP speech. And, just having seen A Most Violent Year last night, it was also fun to learn that she and Oscar Isaac went to Julliard together. Rene Russo, sadly, was sort of, how shall I say it, not up to the task of introducing Kevin Costner. Between the laryngitis and the bizarre auctioneer-style rattling of off his entire oeuvre by some fat man with flop sweat who hopped up on the stage and gave her an awkward hug, the entire presentation was a complete fail.

Jennifer Aniston was looking quite glum the whole evening. There were about seven different reaction shots to her throughout the ceremony.

Yes, Strahan did remind me of Whoopi's African Queen, but then the Oscars had a more elaborate budget. You can't compare the Critics Choice Awards to the Oscars. It's like comparing clothes bought at Old Navy to clothes bought at Bloomingdale's. For what it was, it was better than any of their previous presentations, most of which were really awful. At least they're trying.

As for lack of surprises, there was some suspense. For one, with Keaton having won the superfluous Best Actor-Comedy award, they might have gone elsewhere for the overall Best Actor award, but didn't.

I don't know why they wouldn't announce the Foreign Film winner, but I suspect with the Documentary award going to a film about one of their own they may have wanted to downplay the self-congratulatory aspect of the awards which were the most obnoxious part of previous presentations. On the other hand, maybe it was Costner's long winded speech and Appatow and Mann's nonsense that drove it past the two-hour mark requiring they eliminate two of the planned on-air presentations so as to keep overtime payouts at a minimum. They couldn't very well leave out Best Picture, Actor or Actress.

I found it mostly boring. They never even said who won foreign language film or documentary (as if neither of those were very important awards).

They mostly stuck to the "pick our predictions for Oscar winners" narrative all the way through, giving Birdman 7 awards, but thinking that its technical and acting achievements just weren't up to the task of being better than the stunt-that-worked.

Michael Strahan had a lot of bad jokes, he was funny a few times, but his costume schtick was stolen directly from Whoopi Goldberg who famously came out as The African Queen back in 1998 among other costumes that year (and they were much more interesting and slickly-produced costumes back then). The cheap, threadbare design verified the fact that this group doesn't have the funds to stage a too-lavish get-together. I know there were critics there, but for a critics award, having the "Critics' Choice is" the only remnant, which is disappointing. I know this is about Hollywood, but we so seldom get a chance to be important figures in these events that it would be nice to get shout-outs.

Anyway, I don't like surprise-less events. I thought I did when things became predictable a few years ago, but this dreaded feeling of inevitability makes everything feel ever so boring.

Did anyone besides Wesley and me watch this?

There are still too many categories, but it was more slickly produced than previous presentations. There were no self-congratulatory speeches by any of the critics. Host Michael Strahan was actually quite funny, coming out in different costumes throughout the evening, He moved abut in the audience, too, but the only table he spent time at was the one with Emily Blunt and John Kraskinski. Most of the presenters were good. The speeches were mostly good. Michael Keaton, Julianne Moore and Patricia Arquette were all quite polished and gave different speeches than they did at the Globes. Jessica Chastain set the tone for most of the speeches when she accepted her MVP award, saying movies were a collaborative effort and everyone connected with her four films this year were MVPs. She ended with a heartfelt PC speech about diversity. Chris Pratt, who introduced her, revealed a fun fact I hadn't known, that she and co-star Oscar Isaac went to school together at Julliard.

Worst speech was Kevin Costner's. He was self-deprecating accepting his career achievement award, saying he felt he was a substitute for Sean Connery, Gene Hackman and other, better actors who weren't available and then thanked everyone who ever worked on a film with him. Fine, but he just kept going on, more or less repeating the same thing over and over, saying he didn't know how to make a two-minute speech anymore than he knew how to make a two-hour movie. Eventually he thanked his wife and got off the stage.

I couldn't figure out who the annoying woman was who co-presented with Josh Gad until the equally annoying Judd Appatow came on and it clicked that it was his wife, Leslie Mann. I pity anyone who has to be around those two all the time. I get the clear impression that neither one ever shuts up.