Oscar Night Results

I've lost count of how many "Oscar Parties" I've hosted. I know the first one was sometime between 2001 and 2004, and if I skipped any years, it can't be more than one or two, but the event has definitely evolved over time. The most lasting effect of the night is the "Oscar Pool", because whoever wins it, gets the pile of DVDs (many of them terrible films, and you'll realize why in a second) assembled by the guests for the occasion. And for my part, whatever I win, I promise to watch and review on this here blog before the next year's Oscars. I win about half the time, even when I don't try (you get a feeling for this sort of thing), so they love to plonk down the very worst and cheapest dreck they can find (though some are just trading out DVDs they got on BluRay, and so on, it's not all crap). Even if I don't win, the winner passes down the crap THEY put in, and anything they already have, to the next in line. Four or five people can legitimately expect to go home with something.

This year, I had my work cut out for me. For the first time, I invited my new downstairs neighbor Mathieu Lewis, a big movie watcher, and for the few years I've known him, he's always matched or bettered my score. But he and the other usual frontrunners scored the lowest they EVER have, while I ended with 18 correct answers to win it by a wide margin. I mean, I was under the impression the winners would be pretty cut and dry this year, and relative to my picks, they were. My only big surprises were in the two documentary categories, where I SHOULD have voted for those I liked best and didn't. And I do think Baby Driver deserved editing and sound mixing, but Dunkirk's not a bad pick either.

So I won, but had put the lion's share of movies in the Oscar Pile, so the runner-up (hi Amélie!) got a treasure trove of both good and bad films. And I got... Grease 2, Life Is Beautiful, three frontier movies from the Love Comes Softly Series (says here the boxed set is vol.2), and oh boy, a Hallmark movie 5-pack headlined by Melissa Gilbert in Thicker Than Water. It's gonna be a rough year getting through this small pile...

And then there are the Oscar Food Puns. Bit of a late night pot luck, and guests are invited to bring something either named after a nominated film (any category), or else bring food featured in a movie (like say, hard-boiled eggs from The Shape of Water). For my part, I made a fruit plate entitled War for the Planet of the Grapes:

But we also had The Shape of Watermelon, Coco-nut Chocolate Skulls, Get Take-Out, Three Layers Outside Ebbing Mint-souri, Three CHEESEBOARDS Outside Ebbing Misouri, Call Me By Your Name Peach Cobbler Surprise, Spicy I,Tuna Rolls, Get Oat-meal Cookies, Breadwieners, Boss Baby Duck Sparkling Wine (and Baby Duck Driver Sparkling, second bottle), and Brownie Squares.

So... is this post too long to get a jet ski?