The News: Oscar Coma Edition

Taxi to the Gold Side: Producer Eva Orner and director Alex Gibney celebrate their Oscar victory (Photo: Getty Images)

By S.T. VanAirsdale

Some of today's movie news of note from around New York:

----Thanks to everyone who came out to The Reeler and Spout's Oscar party last night at DIP; it was a terrific evening all-around, with guests Nick Doro and Liz O' Mara sharing the glory of Oscar Pool Victory and me attempting to make sense of the most anticlimactic Oscars of my lifetime. I'm going to be blogging most of today over at Little Gold Men, so I hope you'll keep me company there as I try to shake off this post-Oscar grogginess and sort everything out.

--It wasn't all bad, of course -- I was thrilled to see Marion Cotillard come through in the end, and Tilda Swinton's agent does deserve an Oscar for... something or other, I'm sure. But if the writer's strike wasn't a damaging enough blow to The Daily Show, that neuter job that the Academy put on Jon Stewart will be tough to reverse in time for this week's shows, don't you think?

--Two NYC highlights for the ages: Freeheld director Cynthia Wade's shout-out to her New York peeps in accepting the Best Documentary Short award; and Taxi to the Dark Side director Alex Gibney sneaking in to nab Best Documentary from vanilla front-runner Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight. NB: This is the first Tribeca Film Festival world premiere and acquisition to win an Oscar -- and not a minor one, either. Add Wade's fellow short doc nominee Salim Baba and last year's nominated feature doc Jesus Camp, and we might have an burgeoning non-fiction showcase for your Oscar consideration.

--While everyone and his/her mother was apparently liveblogging the Oscars, The House Next Door opened up its typically democratic alternative: Open comments! As usual, they're worth a look.

--I'll be parsing the other liveblogs later, but for now it looks like Lou Lumenick's score-tallying, Ryan Seacrest-bashing coverage at his New York Post blog is the one to beat for sheer seasonal exasperation.

Posted at February 25, 2008 10:20 AM