Oscar Night in Review: The Fashions (Pt 1)

I promise this is the last post on Oscar Night 2010. Oh wait. There's 3 more. DAMNIT! It'll never be over.

also: worst & weirdest moments | wonderful moments | complete Oscar '09/10 season

Before we get to the best & worst, I would like to give out a shout out to the blacktresses that were working the red carpet on Sunday. Hollywood is even harder on them their white counterparts (so few roles to go around). So unless they're nominated -- like the Precious girls -- they almost never get any media attention. So let's take a brief looksie. I've omitted Gabourey Sidibe and Mo'Nique because you've already seen the "money shot" and Mo'Nique got plenty of air time (but yes, I loved the Hattie McDaniel tribute with the dress color and the gardenia. I wish more people would do themes.)

Stacey Dash wasn't really there. I stole this from one of the parallel Oscar parties (a little more on those in part two) because I dig the slightly freaky spiderweb vixen dress. Anika Noni Rose (who we're always pulling for) didn't get to sing at the Oscars (boo! producers) so I wanted to feature her. She seems to be doing an inverted take on Carey Mulligan's favored look (the black poofy dresses with color hewhaw appliques on the bodice). Jennifer Lewis, who was also in the voice cast of The Princess and the Frog almost made my worst dressed list. But then I decided I loved that she was dressed as a cartoon super-villain that she made up in her own head "Cruela de Frill". Finally we don't usually see this much of Paula Patton (Precious's "Blu Rain") but there's more of her to be see since she's very pregnant! That's the most orange I've seen since Valentino: The Last Emperor.

BEST DRESSED

From left to right: Kristen Stewart finally looked great. And like the Fug girls said, she didn't have to not look like herself to do it. You have to give credit when it's due, so I have to say that she pulled it off. (I'm more surprised than you are). Jennifer Lopez seemed to be wearing a bubble-wrap wedding gown but it's breathtaking (and we don't normally go as gaga for her style choices as the rest of the media does). I thought Sandra Bullock was wearing silver and then somebody said "did you like her gold dress" and then I had to look again and whatever -- silver/gold/champagne -- it's the color of win. Vera Farmiga is #1 for me because this my berry-colored gown isn't "safe" and it's just BIG and confidently weird and beautiful enough to be an absolute head turner rather head scratcher.

Meryl Streep looked classy and pristine in white but I'm shocked to hear that this is by Chris March (who was always doing very over the top looks on Project Runway). I imagine Molly Ringwald will make the worst-dressed lists (I'm so behind on my interweb readings) but I think it's just weird enough with the curlicue accessories and the bold color and assymetry to be a daring choice that still totally works for her. Elizabeth Banks is as dreamy as she is funny. Are you following her on twitter? Finally, you knew I had to have my goddess in here: Michelle Pfeiffer wore red which is and always has been her very best color. This dress is saved from being too plain (she does always play it elegant/safe, that one) by it's interesting pattern and textures.

WORST DRESSED

From left to right: Virginia Madsen is stupendously beautiful but always look dowdy on awards night. The cut of the waist on Kate's dress is not flattering. That's right, cover it up Winslet. My friend Joe says that Miley Cyrus's dress is "dragging her down from the boobs" haha. I think that's just her posture. But you probably shouldn't be walking red carpets if you can't yet stand up straight. Faith Hill depresses me sartorially speaking...and otherwise speaking. Zoe Saldana looked like she was having a ball so points for that. But this belongs on top of a float or as the trim of a float since it's that type of pinata-esque fabric at the bottom. Different dress up top. For some reason SJP's outfit makes me think she was doing homage to A Single Man's era. I value her status as a fashion icon but I think this might be the worst she's ever looked. (Maybe if her hair hadn't have been sticking out all over the place?) I don't know what kind of fabric Melanie Griffith is wearing but it reminds me of a chain link fence trapped in an oil slick or perhaps the treated hide of The Blob. Hate it. And, oh Charlize... bra stuffing turned inside out? Really?

What did these dresses do to your eyes? And would you rearrange the best and worsts? I know there were a ton more but I can't stare at dresses all day. I had to draw the line at twenty.

Hot Link Injection

I Need My Fix pics from the Shutter Island premiere. Scorsese gets the stars out
Worth 1000 "Mate a Movie" contest. Fun entries my favorites being Lt. Aldo Raine of the Na'Vi tribe and a Coen Bros/ The Wolfman mash-up
/Film An Avatar novel to tide you over until the sequel?
Studio Daily Lance Acord, one of the best living cinematographers (Where The Wild Things Are, Marie Antoinette), speaks
In Contention concludes its annual opinionated shots of the year column
MTV Movies Oren Moverman (The Messenger) moving on from depressed soldiers to depressed rock stars. A Kurt Cobain biopic is next
Upper Playground 'The Lost Art of Inglourious Basterds'. Mmmm, movie artwork.

Finally, today is Molly Ringwald's birthday -- happy 42 -- and since I grew up idolizing her (ohhh, the 80s!) I had to share this great print celebrating The Breakfast Club. It's going for $10 a pop. Isn't it fine?


I should also note that the Oscars will have a tribute to John Hughes this year. That should be fun but I think it's kind of a bummer that the BFCA already went there. And it's a little suspect since I remember my young self being h-o-r-r-i-f-i-e-d when they passed Mr. Hughes over for screenplay nominations for this immortal film. Among others. He was never nominated for an Oscar.

John Hughes (1950-2009)

To say that I was obsessed with The Breakfast Club growing up would be an understatement. It's one of five or six movies I've watched more times than any others. I hate watching movies on television (the dubbed over profanity makes my purist self revolt) so I haven't seen it in several years now but it's burned into my brain cells. I was madly in love with Molly Ringwald for two whole years. I obsessed over Ally Sheedy and the simple profundity of "...they ignore me" as chief behavioral, sartorial influence. My best girlfriend and I use to talk about the movie daily, wondering about our future selves...

When you grow up, your heart dies.

...and vowing to remember how we felt in high school if we ever looked back on the movie and felt it wasn't totally brilliant and deserving of multiple Oscars.

Oh, teen angst! You are so hateful to live with and then immediately loveable the second you've moved out.

So for The Breakfast Club alone, I must thank writer/director (and then mostly just writer) John Hughes who passed away today at the age of 59. And that's just one of the great things he gave us. There's also the other indisputable Molly Ringwald classic Sixteen Candles and the choice dialogue and monologues of St. Elmo's Fire which are both godawful and wonderful, often at the same time.

I've never quite understood why a director that popular quit so early (at 40 actually... though he continued to write, moving his focus to sequels and franchises) and I'll never understand why people have to die young. But his films or, more accurately, his enormous contributions to pop culture, will live on.
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High School Nostalgia

John Hughes seminal high school classic The Breakfast Club puts five barely acquainted students from different social orders into the library on a weekend to serve out a detention. The day begins with stereotype reinforcing banter. It’s easy to differentiate the jock (Emilio Estevez) from the outcast (Ally Sheedy), the spoiled rich girl (Molly Ringwald) from a nerdy A student (Anthony Michael Hall) and the burnout (Judd Nelson) from all of them. But soon their forced conversation –what else can they do? —leads to soul-searching confessionals and the crumbling of the social order walls that their high school identities impose on them. The Breakfast Club ends with the following quote, written by the brain, but delivered via voice-over with each student chiming in:

“You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basketcase, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.”

The simple genius of the movie is in the way it manages to accept and discuss those labels without really subverting them... (Read my full nostalgia heavy article at Zoom-In)
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