Oscar Predictions: THR's Awards Expert Scott Feinberg and Critic Todd McCarthy on Who Will Win, Who Should Win

After yesterday's topic, I am sure I will have breakfast for all three meals today.

The Oscars can wait.

I was up reading all of the glorious comments on breakfast, my favorite meal - at any time of day or night!  AND COFFEE - lovely coffee!  MUST not forget the coffee...... with french bread and butter.... mmmmmmmmmmmmm
 
But the topic today is the Oscars - I did enjoy "The Help" and hope they do well.  I guess I will save my opinion until later in the evening..... good evening everyone!

Penelopetx, have not seen "The Help."

Plan to do so after the Oscars.

One treat I wish I had to eat during the Oscars:

A Fat Rascal.

Or two.

Or three.

Or . . .

Preferably from Bettys in York.

Interesting story on red carpets in the Saturday/Sunday Weekend Edition of the Wall Street Journal. Don't anticipate that I will ever walk one but it is interesting to read about them.

It looks like The Help is a viewer favorite in every poll. 

lotlot:  I've walked the red carpet for a few chaity galas.  Its not all its cracked up to be.  Of course, I went down the carpet before the Oscar winning special guests, so no one really cared.  
 
 My advice is don't wear black shoes unless the heels are extremely high.    

Missing out on all of the movies (since they're not closed captioned -- and why is that?  It seems that it would be a simple matter, perhaps on the same line as using 3-D glasses so that those who would find it intrusive won't see it...but that's for another day.) I can't really comment on the acting until it's on television or CD.  However, the book "the Help" was wonderful and if they followed it at all, it probably was a great movie. 

Good morning Sensible Ones! I don't have to see the movies to have an opinion. When I was a girl watching the MIss America Pageant was a not to be missed event complete with snacks and never ending commentary by all viewers. As an adult, the Oscars fulfill the same treat need for me.

I love George Clooney. I want him to win. I think its awful that Meryl Streep hasn't gotten an Oscar since 1983...she has enhanced my life. Of course Christopher Plummer has to win, he's 82.

I have not seen many of the nominated pictures but Brad Pitt was awfully good in Moneyball so he would be acceptable if they don't finally give George the statue. I don't like his wife though.

Finally, (for now) I miss Joan Rivers on the Red Carpet. Say what you will, but I am a huge fan of hers. Her devastating honesty and machine gun delivery crack me up.

What did you have for breakfast?

Andy:  I agree with you that movies should be closed captioned.  Not only would this be great for the hard of hearing but it would get people to read.  I'm not being sarcastic.  I do think that the brain can only benefit from reading and watching at the same time.  It forces you to pay attention to detail and become more active in the viewing process.

We don't get out to the movies much.  The price is high enough ($9-$12 even for seniors) that it is easier to buy a DVD and watch it at home.  However, with my daughter's acolades, we went to see The Help.  It is, indeed, a wonderful picture, and deserves every Oscar it gets.  On the other hand, Meryl Streep is the best actress I know of.  In Sophie's Choice, she speaks German with a Polish accent and does it perfectly, though she had not spoken German before and certainly is not Polish.  Nor will we watch the Oscars; we do not watch television unless there is an historical event - Princess Diana's funeral, Obama's speech on election night 2008 in Chicago, etc.  Most movies these days tend to be regurgitations of gratuitous violence; most television I find simpering nonsense.

The biggest smackdown will be Canadian Christopher Plummer vs. Swedish Max von Sydow for Best Supporting Actor. Neither has won an Oscar, and both are in their ninth decades. Von Sydow is the better and more versatile actor, I believe, but Plummer is excellent and has made more films over the long haul that are to the Academy's middlebrow bourgeois taste. I put 5:4 odds on Plummer to win.

CHEFD......................were w separated at birth? I become a gay man on Oscar night. Just th way when I was a little girl I loved the beauty pageants. I too adore George Clooney..........missed his movie, but plan to see it when it comes out. I also agree w/ you & LYNN..................Meryl Streep is just a national treasure. But I honestly had no desire to see the movie. I bet your Oscar snacks will be stupendous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I think The Help is a little overrated......................I think the wins would be more PC wins, but I have been wrong a trillion times before. I will say that Octavia Spencer was a standout & she had one of the greatest scenes in a movie. To me it is a movie that will not stand the test of time and will look dated very quickly.
 
ANDY.....................................I never thought about closed caption & how watching the Oscars would not be as fun for you. I am truly sorry about that.
 
DPR...........................wherever you might be, our forever resident movie lover & expert............................I hope you enjoy the Oscars tonight. And if you feel like popping in and sharing your thoughts I know there would be many happy people................by the way I have changed my mind about John Stossel...................

One stinkin' little personal link to the Oscars this year: we watched "Moneyball" on PPV and that was all. It was a good story but will not and should not win.
I'll try to do better next year but only because it would be pleasing to the Beauty.
As to the glamor of the runway event, the attractiveness of women like Julia M notwithstanding, I am an old, old fashioned and small town guy.
The best any of the Miss Wisconsin contestants ever looked to me was filing into the old grade school we had all gone to. It was being used as a staging area and they  drifted in in jeans and sweatshirts or shorts and tee shirts.
It was a most convenient traffic jam that day and, looking back, I hope that it wasn't just me clogging up Irving Street.
The very high heel fashion has been a source of confusion: they look better than flats which are lamely unattractive but leave woman unprepared to react o anything and probably grateful for the moment they kick them off and collapse.
Even further astray: foot partialism or worship seems like it should be pedophilia but is podophilia and I am not its victim.

KSS ~
Who could argue?
How you been?

bebe ~
Changed from what to what?

STONEY.......................I rented Moneyball from Redbox yesterday, but life got in the way & we did not see it. I am not that much into seeing it, but my husband wanted to. I have heard from various people your very opinion. It shouldn't & it won't. I would also say that my husband mirrors you..............he goes to more movies he has no interest in for me. And that's what it's all about isn't it? I always think young girls & young women look their best being as natural as possible...................I see so many who are just dazzling on their own w/ no bells & whistles. Yours was every boy's dream...................
 

STONEY & BEBE--my biggest observation about Moneyball (aside from it being better than I expected) was that Brad Pitt eats in EVERY scene. No mention is ever made of it, but it had to be intentional. I became quite involved with tracking while watching.

The 27th Film Independent's Spirit Awards had Plummer saying backstage: "I'm not crazy about the red carpet. I was so grateful at one of the award nights to see a grey carpet. It was such a relief!" The Artist and particularly The Interrupters require no red carpet to determine artistic value and then there's Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives..but who's counting? Not People Magazine or Big Studio Lapdogs but alas the Capitalist and P.T. Barnum in me says give em what they want and what they will pay for including 30 minutes of commercials before the feature even starts. Now that torques my Twizzlers and has me polishing off my $10 popcorn and soda before the film begins.

GOOD  DAY  TO YOU ALL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
MISS JULIA:  Your Comment about causing people to Read ... is Excellent !!! I couldn't agree more, especially in light of the fact that the Reading Exercize is the ONLY redeeming value that would come out of most of the Films produced these days ... LYNN has the Count right, altho' he decorusly left out all mention of T & A, which seems to occur with increasing frequency and bombast .......
 
I appreciate the Beauty of Women as much as any other Real HeteroSexual Man does, but there is a Time&Place for everything, and a Movie Screen is not it .......
 
My Family HAD to watch the Oscars, for years, because I had a Cousin in the Business ... but like the Miss Universe Pageant, it is all a terrible bore, to me .......
 
Y'all Have a Fine Sunday !!!
 
 

I like the spontaneity of live television.

I just started reading 'The Help' - so please, everybody, keep the ending secret. Things like the Oscars bore me to death. The award ceremony I enjoyed was when most of the red carpet was outdoors, and it poured with rain. The carpet bacame sodden and as all these people in their finery paraded upon it, the residual carpet shampoo in the pile produced masses of foam which had to be squeegeed off by less elegantly dressed people.

Chef Deb~ Looks like our comments crossed in the post. The incident I mentioned was live broadcast and it was sooooo funny it deserved an award.

See Haze? I love it. And as women's heels rise tp the level of ballet toe shoes I feel there is even more chance of some fun. And I like seeing how they react to winning or losing.

Usually I haven't seen enough movies to bother; too soon for Netflix to have them. This year, for a wonder, several came to town, and two friends and I haunted matinees.  One has invited us two to a slumber party (which we called them in our youth; I hear, now, "sleepover," but that's new to me).  Neither has a husband; mine's invited out of courtesy but has other plans; so it's just "the girls (loosely speaking)." If I watch the Oscars at all it's always been alone, as hubby can't stay awake, so this will be an adventuure. No one's a better cook than our hostess, so supper, nibbling, and breakfast will be delicious. I'll report.  I printed Mr. P's helpful corallary reading to take along.
 
It's odd about The Help: as time passed after I saw it, I liked it less and less, and found ever more ways it is inaccurate, over-the-top, not atall true to that reality, which I lived; when finally I picked up the paperback in Walmart, it didn't engage me even through the first chapter -- rare, as I usually feel obliged to give the author his due.  If I didn't know precisely how things were at that time, perhaps I'd buy into it. Unfortunately, I do know.  To people who DON'T know, it seems exotic, somehow, and I've no doubt it'll receive more honors than I give it.  (Haven't read more about the brother-and-sister-in-law of the author who sued her?  Anyoine know?) 
 
As to The Artist, every costume in which was made for me and I adored them all, it's getting hullabaloo simply because it's unique -- not because it's worthy, in my view.  WHen Piers Morgan (CNN) interviewed the entire cast, he posed the question, "Will it work again?" To a man (and woman), they answered NO, it was a one-time thing.
Those wonderful period costumes, by the way, are no better than those in Paris at Mignight, which I hope wins something.... But I'm a fool for that period, saw Paris at Midnight twice, and would again. 
 
DEscendants I loved, and hope it wins big, but doubt it. It, too, I'd see again.,  Fascinating how lilting Hawaiian music beautifully opposed the angst the George Clooney character experienced. 
 
How Iron Lady can fail I can't imagine: Meryl STreep, who can do anything, beCAME Margaret Thatcher in more ways than I would've dreamt.  The help she accepted on public speaking and all that goes with it were stunning. Her failing days, as dementia set in, were true and disturbing.... Politics aside, she was superb.  No one else could have done that role; made me want to re-read Sophie's Choice.
 
That's my limited view....
 
CHEFDEB, I love high heels and how they flatter the leg, but sadly took all to the consignment shop, in favor of lower heels and flats...hate it, but danger of falling, and nursing a husband who stubbed his toe on the doorsill followed by TEN months in hospitals summer 2010 (why I was absent from The Village awhile) made me do it.  
 
 

Radio has long since lost its immediacy consisting mostly of preprogrammed music or chatter.
That being the case, if you limit yourself only to depressing televised events, as mentioned above, how does the news of a bridge out, a political assassination, an impending weather disaster or an airport closing reach you… in tomorrow's paper?

Georgia ~
Way to go! Having seen the moving pictures is a big plus in this kind discussion.
I trust your reviews… and that's saying something.

How could I forget?!
 
After criticizingng The Help, I must add the actress who plays the character Abilene deserves all they'll give, and more.  Some say the Minnie character is more deserving, but -- again, I lived that time, know those people, white and black -- Minnie was given a dramatic moment (the pie) no one could fail to applaud.
 
While Abilene more movingly, honestly depicts the plodding life of her character. No big moments, no drama. But how bold was she! You'd have to KNOW the Abilenes to appreciate her boldness.  She risked her livelihood and the wrath of her employer, her family by even talking to Skeeter. 
 
The Abilenes of this world trudge undramatically on, doing what they must. And it was through Abilene the author reached the other maids.  The last scene in the film shows Abilene walking wearily towards the bus stop. Alone -- and thinking she might one day write.

Saw The Help (read the book first), Moneyball, The Iron Lady, but not the others...no BW silent movie intrigues me enough to pay big bucks to go to a theater to see it...maybe later on Netflix streaming...Likewise with Descendants....Clooney is ok, and maybe gorgeous to look at, but since I found out he and Will Ferrell are big supporters of the current WH residents, I have no interest in him. Grew up in the South and never knew anyone like the protrayals of The Help, either race.

We never had a maid, except one lady who ironed for my mother because mother was a full time teacher and sponsor of many high school sports/activities and just could not keep up with the ironing in pre-permanent press days....That lady was very nice, well-paid, and not the least subservient. Hated the negative portrayal of Maggie Thatcher in Streep's version. Enjoyed Pitt in MB, and the whole film, but it is entertainment, not the level of a "Great" movie that I expect for Oscar status. Getting too critical in my old age!

Saw Arrietty with the grandchild today, and save your money....It is a Japanese Saturday morning cartoon of Thumbelina...nice flowers, colors, music, and sweet story, but not worth the cash it takes to go to a theater. In addition, there was a water main break in town and there was no water in any bathrooms or fountains....ughhhh!

Moose---Thanks for the unintended affirmation......we do not frequent movies....my husband is extremely adept at finding most anything we would ever-ever!-want to watch and downloading it.     I cannot think of any current or semi-current movie that I would pay the money to see....................In my preschool teaching days it saddened me to see the kids so into current film (kidz film) culture......all the tie-ins and crap--pardon my french!--Oscars do nothing for me......except for the few like Harold Russell from "The Best Years of Our Lives"----too much hype, too little reality.  Too many trussed up, overdone, vacuous souls--using that word loosely--parading as great people.   Harold Russell at least had a reason to take himself seriously.......the rest?  pfffft!!                           It is a GREAT EXCUSE FOR A PARTY, though...........so enjoy your laughs and good foods and good friends!
 

Julie & Bebe ~ I still watch the Oscars and it's still fun.  It's just that it seems to me to be such a simple thing, after all, once the movies are on DVD, most of them have captioning.  Why not do it first.  I know from experience that the closed captioning on our television is annoying to those who don't need it, so my thought was to provide the same glasses they provide for 3-D movies that would then cause the captioning to show up for those that need it.  I've tried the earphones that are available, but they seem to work better in live entertainment than reproduced sound.  Not earth-shattering and certainly we can muddle through without it, but it is a little segment that I miss out on that doesn't seem necessary. Chef Deb ~ I too love her wit.  Admittedly it's a little hard to look at her these days, but she is still really funny.

The Help~ when we were living in Africa, a lot of people with sad stories came knocking on our door asking for work and Dad found it hard to say 'no'. We had a lot of 'help'. The gardener, a very handsome man, a refugee from the Belgian Congo was delighted when I started to learn French in school and tutored me as I kept him company watering seedlings or whatever. When we'd got enough French, he told me I was a blessing to him as he missed his own children so much. When my family decided to move back to the UK, he cried like a baby.

I hopped online and peeked to see what everyone was wearing on the red carpet. While perusing the photos, one fellow looked familar.  I went back to his photo. 
This one man on the red carpet had been a high school classmate with me!  How about that?He was nominated for an Oscar in the past, and there he was again!  I'm so proud of him!

Spring - That's so cool!  As a New Yorker, I know who that feels.  I used to live in a big apartment building and half of the people were actors and musicians.  They'd disaappear from the neighborhoood for a while and then you'd see them on the big screen or in a commerical.  All the best to your friend.