Oscar and me

Last night I went over to Gene‘s and we watched a couple of great movies: Yes Nurse! No Nurse!, a fun musical from the Netherlands based on a 1960s TV series, and Best in Show, which I’d seen before but not in its entirety, I realized.

Speaking of movies, the Academy Awards are tonight. Eh. Some of you may remember my “pick the winners” contest from a few years ago, but since then my interest in the Oscars has waned a bit. I used to make a point to watch all the Best Picture nominees, but of this year’s group, I’ve only seen The Aviator, which was quite good by the way, better than I had expected. I think I’ll TiVo the Oscars and after it’s started, skim for interesting bits. (I don’t say this often enough, but I love you, 30-second skip button.)

[Addendum 1 (Feb. 28): Some quick asides: (a) Cintra Wilson’s Oscar review in Salon is hilarious; (b) for me the star of the evening was Roy Christopher’s set design, with its hundreds of screens embedded in the stage floor and streaming out of the proscenium over the audience; and (c) it turns out that Jorge Drexler, who composed the nominated song from The Motorcycle Diaries (“Al otro lado del rio”) and performed it in the movie, was not pleased that Antonio Banderas was chosen to sing it for the ceremony. Not pleased at all.]

[Addendum 2: Did you see Billy Crudup as the cashier in that MasterCard commercial that takes place in a convenience store? Who knew that he’s been the voice behind all these “priceless” commercials? Maybe you, but not I. Good on them for bringing him out in front of the camera. (He’s such a cutie.) The Times picks this ad as one of their favorites during the Oscars.]