Thursday, May 13, 2004

More Oscar Observations

Impressing your friends with your Oscar savvy

I did promise this a while back now, didn't I. Alright, here are a few things you can use next time the Oscars roll around:

Documentary Feature and Short Subject awards.

Other observers have picked up on this independently, so it should no longer be a surprise. The documentary awards are almost always given to films about, in this order:

  • The Holocaust

  • Severely handicapped people overcoming great adversity.

  • Very old people.

This year, there was no short film nominated about the Holocaust, so the choice was between "The Red Jacket," about the Afghan war, or "Two Soldiers," adapted from an Arthur Miller story about two American soldiers from WWII. I had picked "The Red Jacket," because its subject looked so very close to the red coat scene in "Schindler's List," but the award went to "Two Soldiers"

For the Technical Awards, especially the Sound Editing, look to films that are already available on home video. Then, which of these is your local stereo store using to show off the speakers on their display home theatres. Of course, "Lord of the Rings" wasn't on home video yet this year, but that's because it wasn't a summer movie. My theory here is that most screenings for Academy members take place in small screening rooms that don't show off the movie's technical credentials to best effect. So those who care to vote on the subject pick one that sounds good at home. Academy members get special "screeners" that for a while were being blamed for film piracy. Looks like the practice won't be stopped after all, so as long as the membershp gets to watch nominated films at home, this theory should still prove viable.

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Giving Up Beer for Lent;

Giving Up Beer for Lent; Drnk_McDermott makes a huge sacrifice: A RateBeer Feature

I wrote this about my experiences trying to "do without" like a good Catholic boy, and posted it to the Ratebeer.com website. Enjoy.