Thoughts on the Oscars - The After Edition

Well the dust has settled a bit and the 82nd annual Academy Award ceremony has just concluded, running a very characteristic 30 minutes or so over schedule. Why they don't just give the ceremony more time is a mystery to me and instead of cutting everyone's speeches short there could have been a lot more trimming. Did we really need interpretive dancing for the best score nominees? Seriously folks whose bright idea was that torture? Plus having an extended introduction for the best actor and actress nominees was a nice idea in theory, but in actuality it stretched out beyond infinity, considering the telecast was already past it's allotted time and well how much ass kissing can you stomach in one night? Well until I'm given the opportunity to produce the show I guess I'll have to keep on complaining.

As for the awards and reactions let's get down to business. I can't say I'm terribly surprised that Kathryn Bigelow won best director and that The Hurt Locker walked away with the top prize. Not to say she was a shoe in but it was hardly a shock. Now of course my pick for best picture was Up, not because I thought it would win, but because I thought it was the best film of 2009 and easily the best film nominated. It was already relegated to it's consolation prize of best animated feature (which it did win) so there was no one betting on Up for the top prize, a little surprised Tom Hanks didn't even announce the nominees before handing out the final Oscar. Perhaps a second viewing of The Hurt Locker might be in order but I can't say the film blew me away, then again I wasn't terribly impressed with Slumdog Millionaire. Lee Daniels would have been my pick for best director but I can certainly admire what Bigelow did in her film and for historical purposes neither selection would have been too bad. In fact all five best director nominees were well deserved, and James Cameron can at least take comfort in the fact that he may have been the most thanked person of the evening.

As for the acting prizes there will be no complaining for Jeff Bridges much deserved Oscar. Bridges has typically been great over the years and although this go round wasn't a surprise either it felt right and deserving. I'm yet to see A Single Man so I can't say completely that he was the best of the nominees but of the four I saw he clearly stood above everyone else. Now when it comes to the actress prize, that doesn't sit well with me. I couldn't even figure how Sandra Bullock managed to bamboozle everyone into giving her a nomination let alone win, but I guess that's what happens when the category is this weak. I know I shouldn't bad mouth the nominees this year, but seriously this was one of the weakest groups of best actress nominees in memory. Meryl Streep got another useless nomination for a clearly supporting role that required virtually no range of emotion just mimicking a very parody friendly figure. Amy Adams displayed even more range in her role in the film that was relatively without conflict to begin with. Carey Mulligan would have most likely gotten the prize if I were God, her performance was affective convincing and had some depth that the other nominees seemed to lack. Sandra Bullock though? Has the world gone bonkers? Maybe I'm just a hater but I haven't really liked her in any movie she's been in and her strong willed southerner here did absolutely nothing for me. Wow she stood up straight and talked back to men, but well maybe I'm in the minority here. Helen Mirren was already cursed with a recent Oscar and a film that I don't think anyone even saw, good luck finding a theater within 100 miles playing The Last Station, yet Cop Out is on multiple screens at some theaters, there's no accounting for public taste I guess.

I would have hoped Michael Haneke would get his Oscar for The White Ribbon but was surprised to see the virtually unknown Argentine film El Secreto de Sus Ojos win the prize. Perhaps this will allow that film to get some sort of distribution and I can compare, I'll hold off on crying for blood until I get more acquainted with the other nominees in this category.

As for the supporting actor and actress winners I'm not sure when the last time two horribly unlikeable characters won the award. No one was denying the great performances by Christoph Waltz and Mo'nique who once again made all the experts look smart by winning their much predicted trophies. It would have been nice to see more awards for the films these two came from but well this was clearly the Avatar vs. Hurt Locker awards and unfortunately films like Precious, Inglorious Basterds, and Up in the Air had to settle for "glad to be nominated" recognition.

As the night comes to an end I feel relatively familiar with the nominees from this past year. My last minute catch up involved seeing Wes Anderson's great film Fantastic Mr. Fox which didn't stand a chance in the animated feature category despite how great it was and how much critics liked it. Sometimes it seems like that award could easily be renamed "The Pixar Award". I'm not disagreeing with Up, as I've previously mentioned here but like most of the categories it didn't even seem like there was any competition. In fact this whole ceremony lacked any surprise or conflict. It was one overly long snore fest that mercifully came to an end 30 minutes too late. Perhaps when films like Paranormal Activity and Anti-Christ get Oscar nominations some credibility might come back, but well I don't see Lars Von Trier getting any sort of industry support any time soon. Perhaps even one day the foreign language Oscar won't be dictated by national politics and simply represent the five best films (from any country) that happen to be in a foreign language. In fact El Secreto wasn't even the best reviewed film from Argentina last year, I saw much more glowing reviews for Lucrecia Martel's film The Headless Woman, which would probably never get a nomination of any kind from the Academy.

Ah well another year, another list of "what should have happened" after all you can't expect people to agree with the Academy's choices every year do you? Over the next couple of months I'm sure I'll turn up more great films from 2009 that failed to be noticed, this happens. Perhaps when I feel confident enough with my research I'll post a belated top ten from last year, but there's still plenty of research left to do. However I can't help but feel this was one of the weakest Oscar telecasts ever, and we didn't even have to suffer through the best song performances.