The House Next Door

[Actor] should have beat [Actor] for [Generic Award].

And [Director] was robbed.

If I can't fall asleep tonight, I MIGHT turn on ABC.

But ... the only time I'm going to sit through a "Those Golden Naked Guy Thingies" award show is if I'm there myself, waiting for my Best Adapted Screenplay "Those Golden Naked Guy Thingie."

I am liveblogging it. Because I have no life.

Where are all the comments? I guess you folks are so .. . . whatever that you don't even watch and if you do can't muster up the effort to write about it? I want comments! Or maybe they're about to post .. .

In the meantime, I shall parcel out my own laser sharp insights:

How can anyone in that business not be stunned into some kind of trance-like state of permanent awe by Frank Langella's Nixon? How could a performance in the mediocre Milk win over that transcendent piece of transcendence in an extraordinarily well-made film?

That's how I'd fill in your blanks, John Lichman.

I'm also surprised at the lack of comments.

I have nothing to add, save for Manny Farber's inclusion in the In Memoriam montage gave me the biggest smile of the night.

Nomi: The lack of comments could reflect that many of us were Oscared out before the ceremony. In my case, I pretty much talked myself out Sunday night.

That said, I'll bite ...

Langella's Nixon is an impression of a Nixon impression. Note first and foremost that the voice doesn't sound like Nixon at all. Watch clips of the actual Frost-Nixon interviews. The real Nixon pronounced words crisply, despite his hound dog appearance. Langella croaks words out from his esophagus. Then again, after decades of Nixon impersonators, maybe that feels more "real" these days, and/or more true to the vision of the character Langella was exploring. Fair enough. But I can't say I was ever in a trance -- though that might be the fault of the screenplay and Ron Howard's direction as much as anything. (Talking head interviews? Really?)

(Note: It couldn't have helped that I saw the Frost/Nixon trailer roughly 637 times prior to the film's release. No joke: After the second time, I closed my eyes and plugged my ears whenever it came on, hoping to preserve the film's magic for the film. Still, by opening weekend, the magic was gone.)

An impression of an impression. Wow. You know, libel is against the law.

I want to say, "So is stealing ..." just to be quippy.

But the truth is, I enjoyed Langella's performance well enough. And I think it's a rather original embodiment of the man. I just wasn't moved by it.

Were you moved by Michael Sheen?