Watch, Watching, Watched -- Until the Sun Comes Up

[BigFatCoward]

Can we all agree though, that at least not having a clue what any actress was wearing and who designed it is a positive to come out of this incident?

[Heartofice]

The Oscar Slap has caused me to go down a YouTube wormhole of watching videos of Will Smith and his wife. 
 

I’d heard about the open relationship thing before , but watching them sit next to each other on tv and describe how she cheated on him, and Smith trying his best not to cry or get angry is pretty hard to watch.
Then watching Smith tell Oprah about how they can just separate sex from love, how his open relationship is great ..his face betraying his real feelings.. again a hard watch.

Clearly there is a lot going on between him and Jada , it seems incredibly complex. That he didn’t react till he saw her face is telling, suggesting he felt compelled to ‘appear’ protective and do something. 
 

Either way, I’m not excusing it, slapping someone for telling a joke is a pathetic thing to do, especially when he was going to have the platform for hitting back at Rock in a way that would elevate him.

[Ran]

You know, I went and watched the Good Hair documentary. It's a fun and illuminating one about a topic most people know nothing about it, and I recommend it. But on reflection, it actually strikes a somewhat different take from me.

In Good Hair, so many of the women have wigs and weaves. It is practically de rigeur. Pinkett Smith has spoken very candidly about her initial fear and distress... but in the last year has said she has accepted it, embraced it, and has even made her own jokes about it. Just a few days prior to the event, she stated on her Tiktok that she didn't care what anyone thought of her bald head, she loved it. She could have gone the route so many other black women have taken with wigs, and no one would have said anything about it because it's just so very common anyways. But she didn't, because she's made her peace with it, is happy with it, and it's fine.

So, to me, it's hard to square her public stance of embracing it proudly and being willing to joke about it and owning it, with the idea that a comedian making extremely mild light of it -- suggesting she could follow up Demi Moore's shaved head (in a film made at the height of Moore's fame and popularity, mind) -- is somehow an unspeakable taboo.

Did Rock take her at her word that she was proud of how she looked and didn't care, so could take the joke? He apparently thought wrong. Or is it that it was the messenger, not the message, that was the real issue? Would she have reacted the same way if Tiffany Haddish had made that joke? It goes without saying that I don't think Will Smith would have reacted the same way, regardless of how Pinkett Smith responded to it.

  

3 hours ago, dbunting said:

Did you even watch the movie or do you just like making comments? He is portrayed as a total ass to everyone in his life in the movie. His wife almost leaves him, his kids love him but from a distance, his business partner can't stand him. 

They're probably referring to the fact that Richard Williams beat his wife Oracene on at least one occasion,  as she was admitted to a hospital with broken ribs but when police investigated she said someone had done it to her but refused to name the culprit (he would later claim it was a jet ski accident, to which she responded that she doesn't ride jet skis).

And while it alludes to his other children by other women, suffice it to say they don't all hold him in anything like the same regard as the Williams' sisters appear to. The film chose not to delve into some of those parts of his life, and understandably, but his portrayal in the film is a half-truth. Which is fine, it's a feel-good sports movie, not cinema vérité.

[The Sunland Lord]

41 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Can we all agree though, that at least not having a clue what any actress was wearing and who designed it is a positive to come out of this incident?

Oscars are for those things, among others. Designers and other guests must feel left out now, since Will Smith made it all about himself.

I've read his apology, so fair play to him on that. His sentence - "I am a work in progress" is telling; he goes through something and tries to get out of it.

[Heartofice]

It should be said that Alopecia is an absolutely horrible condition to have, for anyone, male or female, and bringing race into it doesn't seem justifiable. Try telling someone who lost all their hair that they've got it easier, that won't go down well.
 

43 minutes ago, The Sunland Lord said:

I've read his apology, so fair play to him on that. His sentence - "I am a work in progress" is telling; he goes through something and tries to get out of it.

Curiously a few years ago there was a spate of videos and speeches by Smith, very much in the mould of being inspiring self help kinda things. Smith was absolutely holding himself up as a model for success to be emulated. This is one of the reasons to be very sceptical of anyone claiming to have the answers, and self help in general. He doesn't appear to be fixed at all, he looks more broken than ever.

[Ran]

Just because on-line opinions are shared, YouGov published a poll on the subject, breaking down across political orientation, age, gender, and race. Other than young people being a tad more willing to accept violence, for the most part a majority of Americans of all ages, races, political orientations, and genders disapproved of what Will Smith did. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Can we let Will and Rock die in this thread?

I don't think we need to give either of them anymore energy.

[Isis]

9 hours ago, Cas Stark said:

Interesting. I thought it was mediocre, leaning toward bad and I saw nothing very special about Stewart's performance.  If they were going to go surreal fable, they should have leaned into it a lot more, or made it a standard biopic with a few 'dreamy' elements.  As it was, the viewer really has no clue what's real or not real.  

What I noticed is that there were only a couple of times in the film that you saw Kristen Stewart's own face. The rest of the time (and she was on screen for what, 95% of it?) you were seeing Diana's face. That facial performance, along with the posture, mannerisms and the voice was highly impressive to me. That head tilt and downcast eyes, seen in millions of photos, was really quite haunting to behold. 

As for the rest of it (the family, the marriage, the traditions...), I found it all as feasible and as realistic as any other drama about the royals. All the 'but we've always done it this way' traditions were reminiscent of Gormenghast and the outlandish ceremonies and outfits and lists of exactly what should be done. It's hilarious and also horrifying, but absolutely entertaining. Overall, the whole 'Diana' story is a deeply sad one, the scenes with William and Harry are especially painful to watch. I am no royalist and I am all for getting rid of the whole royal family, but they are actually people. Diana, the so-called people's princess was never genuinely allowed to be a person. That's the film's theme but it's also what I saw growing up in this country, the way she was treated by the press was horrible. For those calling the film a fable - it seemed legit to me.

[Annara Snow]

14 hours ago, DMC said:

Well, I don't really see how this contradicts the people applauding Smith for defending his wife.  Will clearly didn't have a problem with the joke initially, but Jada rather clearly did so..that seems to align with their argument.

It just feels very performative. "Imma club you for insulting my wife because my wife is displeased so I can play a hero in front of her and the audience, instead of my wife getting angry at me for laughing". It also looked like barely a punch, so I'm not surprised by some  people thinking it was staged. I',m not saying it is, but it seemed kind of like putting on a show in the moment.

I mean, if punching if the right answer, surely Jada could have done it herself...

[polishgenius]

4 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

It also looked like barely a punch,

 

That's coz it wasn't a punch to be fair.

[Spockydog]

51 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

 

That's coz it wasn't a punch to be fair.

Whatever it was, it looked fake as fuck. Smith's body shape, Rock leaning into it. Honestly, until he started yelling from his seat, I thought it was just another lame-ass part of the show.

 

[Heartofice]

There are lots of people who think it was fake.. because it distracts from the great reset and hunter bidens briefcase 

[Spockydog]

Good grief.

[Ran]

We've gone over the limit, I noticed. So I'll leave off with the Oscar-winning animated short, The Windshield Wiper:

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

8 hours ago, dbunting said:

Did you even watch the movie or do you just like making comments? He is portrayed as a total ass to everyone in his life in the movie. His wife almost leaves him, his kids love him but from a distance, his business partner can't stand him. 

I've only caught part of the film, found it boring and basically what I read and heard about it rung true. That it's not very good and even if it wasn't a completely flattering portrayal it still was a whitewash, both of his behavior and what their collective struggle was. Richard Williams is universally viewed as a bad guy and Idk why we needed a movie about him when it's his daughters we should be celebrating. 

57 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Whatever it was, it looked fake as fuck. Smith's body shape, Rock leaning into it. Honestly, until he started yelling from his seat, I thought it was just another lame-ass part of the show.

 

It looked incredibly fake at first. That's what makes it so funny. How often do you see someone get slapped like that? Now make it one of the most famous stars of all time slapping one of the most famous comedians of all time. At the Oscars. How could it not be staged until it very clearly wasn't?