Pop culture ramble # 72814 OR: Why Mickey was Robbed

Watching the 81st annual Oscars last night was not nearly as painful as I had thought. Sure, Hugh Jackman's grandiose production numbers were a touch embarrassing (Wolverine doesn't sing and dance in tails, guy), but the show in and of itself wasn't that bad. Sure, it's Hollywood being self congratulatory, but everyone loves movies, and theres nothing wrong with celebrating the medium every so often. I think the worst part of any award show is the peripheral pre and post shows, where culturally bankrupt media outlets send their shallowest correspondents to try and drum up enthusiasm for celebrities and judge them based on what their stylist picked out for them to wear.

Natalie is STOKED to be photographed.

So I skipped the part where they revive Joan Rivers and drag her reanimated corpse around to sass people with actual careers (or do they just rely on bitchy overweight gays to MSpaint cum on their mouths now? thus lowering the bar even further...), and just watched the damn show.

(search for "Zombie Joan Rivers", and you get this)

Bullet Points!!

• Ben Stiller's Joaquin Phoenix impression was amusing, but isn't parodying a parody a little much? Joaquin's whole Letterman fiasco couldn't have been more obviously staged (as a part of the mockumentary he's making with Casey Affleck). In parodying a movie that hasn't even been released, Stiller's kind of getting into Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer territory. Eep.
  
  
• Is it just me, or was the evenings big winner, Slumdog Millionaire, just like a more mainstream accessible version of City of God?
  
  
  
• As my title indicates, Mickey Rourke was robbed, and I think everyone knows it. Sean Penn, while a competent albeit overrated actor, was playing the part of a real person. All Penn had to do was watch the documentary about his life and learn a few of his mannerisms. The audiences pre-awareness of the actual person does the leg work. It's basically just doing an impression. Whereas Mickey had to invent a character. Perhaps Randy "The Ram" Robinson doesn't have the same kind of depth as Harvey Milk, but The Ram was a total fuck up, and Mickey Rourke made you care about him. I had more invested in The Ram in half of 1 movie than I did in Rocky after 6 movies.
  
  Plus, who else can rock not only a pinky ring, but Dentures with a silver tooth??
  I mean really.
  
  Heres the acceptence speech from his win at the independant spirit awards, why couldn't this have happened at the oscars? damn...
  
  
  
• And lastly...
  
  Well deserved.