Anyone watch the Oscars last night? I didn't but I've seen clips of the best picture presentation, and it is pretty incredible. If anyone actually did watch, what was your reaction?

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'But very bright were the stars upon the margin of the world, when at times the clouds about the West were drawn aside.'

We watched. It was pretty horrific. All those poor La La Land people cut off in the middle of their joy, and all those poor Moonlight people who had their moment overshadowed by the screwup.

I haven't seen either film yet, but people I follow seem happy overall with the actual result. Certainly it helps a little with the Oscars So White problem.

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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

I was watching but about to go to bed. Then I was all like, "Whaaaa?" It was such a mess.

I felt bad for the La La Land people, but he handled it very graciously. Jimmy Kimmel made it lighter with the joke about Steve Harvey, and Warren Beatty accepted the blame, even though it wasn't his fault. So, all in all, everyone handled it as well as possible, so there is that.

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Moonlight is an exceptional film though. I'm glad, and a little surprised, that it won.
The only disappointment was that Zootopia won over Kubo and the Two strings. The latter was by far the better film, even though I do love Zootopia.

I've seen 8 of the 9 best picture nominees and I'm in agreement with most of the results.

Arrival 9/10
Hell or Highwater 7.5/10
Manchester by the Sea 8.8/10
Hidden Figures. 8.8/10
Moonlight 9.5/10
La la land 8/10
Hacksaw Ridge 8.5/10
Fences 8/10

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I did finally see Arrival the night before the awards, though I knew it wasn't going to win. What a great movie!

Hidden Figures and La La Land are also on the immediate list. I want to see Moonlight and Lion as well. Of the rest, some are too violent and some are too heartbreaking for me to face them.

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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

I only saw Moonlight and Arrival this year. I was unimpressed by both. I am fairly certain I would hate La La Land.

I've been noticing more and more that my tastes rarely align with critical consensus anymore, and that movies and music that seem fairly ordinary to me are often now, to my bafflement, being called "great".

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I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

This tweet has a photo of an adorable and relevant library display.
https://twitter.com/SteveHoffmanTV/stat ... 70977?s=09

I'm planning to finally see the Hidden Figures tomorrow.

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“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens