The Oscars

Well, I was quite surprised. Normally the Oscars are hosted by someone attempting to be funny by telling a bunch of really bad jokes and things and generally mucking it up. Ellen Degeneres did an excellent job though of moving the show along and not being annoying. In fact, she was surprisingly pc about everything and her good slightly quirky nature made this years show a lot of fun to watch. PLus they had some really cool performances and alternatative fringe groups such as a sound effects choir. This year's show was great to watch. Degeneres added that required effect of class back to the Academy Awards which helped make it the prestigious award it is, good job Ellen! As for the awards itself, well, there were a few shockers but nothing that wasn't too hard to figure out. So here we go.

One of the biggest surprises was Pan's Labryinth which won 3 awards for best cinematography, art direction, and makeup but lost in the category of best foreign film to the recently released powerhouse, The Lives of Others. I'm not saying that this was a bad choice, just odd considering how much praise and how many awards Labryinth garnered. In the sound department these awards were used to comfort those who lost out on the bigger race of movie picture. Best Sound Editing = Letters From Iwo Jima which was certainly deserved; Best Sound Mixing = Dreamgirls; Best Score = Babel; and Best Song = the song from An Inconvenient Truth? Honestly, this was probably the most insulting since I don't remember being impressed with that movie and its music whereas I'm positive the same cannot be said for Dreamgirls. Also, An Inconvenient Truth won best documentary which is really overkill, yes its good education material but Jesus Camp that I reviewed earlier might be a better documentary in terms of helping us to try to see each other or understand our neighbors. Another surprise of the night was the loss of Eddie Murphy for best supporting actor to Alan Arkin who honestly doesn't deserve it. He was good, just not around long enough. So yes, Eddie has been robbed of his one chance for Oscar gold, now go put on a fat suit and sell out for more money.

Then of course there were those that were supposedly guarenteed wins that became guaranteed. Jennifer Hudson of Dreamgirls for Best Supporting Actress, Forest Whitaker for Best Actor, Helen Mirren for Best Actress, oh yea and Marty finally got it. Martin Scorcese got his Best Directing and Best Motion Picture all in one night. He was the favored one, but there was a lot of speculation leading up to it that he could have lost yet again. Now Scorcese fans, you can relax, the man has his one required Oscar. The Departed also won for Best Film Editing, which is surprising since Babel was the favorite on that category and I don't really remember the editing being particularly amazing, although looking back at the well-crafted story it was, maybe it was worth nominating but I still think Babel was better in that category. And then of course the real shocker, Happy Feet beat Cars for Best Animated Feature! John (Lasseter)! Say it ain't so John!

Other awards included the best costume design by Marie Antoinette, a rather same old but with a rock glam flair. Then William Monahan for his screenplay The Departed for best Adapted Screenplay. Also Michael Arndt for best original screenplay on Little Miss Sunshine, which completely didn't deserve to be at the Oscars this year. I am so bitter about that damn movie. Best Visual Effects (aka movie that sold out story for cgi) Pirates of the Caribbean: The Further Adventures of Johnny Depp. And then the shorts which I will have to pick up later, The Danish Poet for Best Animated Short; West Bank Story, which looked hilarious from the clip they showed, for Best Live Action Short; and The Blood of Yingzhou District for Best Documentary Short.

My surprise consists of how little awards favorites such as Dreamgirls, Babel, and The Queen raked in. Letters From Iwo Jima, despite being good has been on life support ever since the crippling Flags of Our Fathers came out. Besides The Departed had earned the most money of all the nominees and everyone knew it was time for Marty to get something. But the lack of awards for the other three is very surprising since they were so heavily nominated. The other huge surprise is how well Little Miss Sunshine did at the awards, besides being only a mediocre movie and its own genre as a dark comedy and the usual dislike of comedies at the Oscars. At least they recognized a lot of what made Pan's Labryinth great if nothing else. Maybe next year will be a better year for Bill Condon, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, John Lasseter, Stephen Frears, and Guillermo Del Toro, except now I don't feel as bad for del Toro.

Wannabe

P.S. The whole thing about Letters From Iwo Jima and being on life support is the fact that Clint Eastwood angered a lot of people by overhyping Flags of Our Fathers which failed miserably in box office and critical praise. After that he released Letters From Iwo Jima which not many people were inclined to want to watch and potentially like another war movie of his having just seen his last one.