Oscar Thoughts and Results

A few cursory Oscar thoughts…

-Weather conditions meant that the planned trip to Lindsey’s place to watch the show had to be scrapped, which seriously bummed me out. I’m sorry, Linds! I’ll be out that way soon, I promise! Instead, thanks to the wonderful hospitality of the Shannon family, I was able to watch the show at their place, which was tremendous fun. Thanks again!

-I was overall very pleased with how the show turned out, at least from a standpoint of who got the awards. My picking sucked (as you will soon see), but more often than not, my “should win” ended up with the statue. So I was happy most of the way.

-I was less pleased with the production of the show itself. The fault lies not with Ellen DeGeneres, who did a terrific job as host and is welcome back whenever she wants. But the show this year was an oddly-produced slog through endless video packages and utterly pointless silhouette shows, and the producers decided the best way to maintain interest in the show was to put virtually ALL the categories people care about near its end. Even the traditional show-opening Best Supporting awards were pushed back, and we opened with some technical awards instead. And the timing between presentations seemed way off…at one point, we went from one commercial break to another without giving out a single Oscar, which is a first to my recollection. The show went nearly 4 hours and felt longer. Much tighter production will be needed next year.

-But Ellen was great as host. A much more laid back personality than your traditional Oscar fare, Ellen freely wandered the crowd and backstage, giving her work a much looser feel. Two favorite moments: Submitting a screenplay to Martin Scorcese and getting a photo with Clint Eastwood (taken by Steven Spielberg) for her MySpace page.

-Another favorite bit: Will Ferrell, Jack Black and John C. Reilly doing a musical number in tribute to the comedic actors who never get nominated. Reilly: “I was in both Boogie AND Talledega Nights!”

-First surprise of the night: Alan Arkin winning Best Supporting Actor over much-predicted-favorite Eddie Murphy. Could “Norbit” have really done that much damage, or did Arkin’s work and status as an elder-statesman of the craft win over voters? Maybe a little of A and a little of B.

-Second surprise of the night: “Pan’s Labyrinth,” which had been winning technical Oscars hand-over-fist, gets shunned in the Best Foreign Language Film category, as the award instead goes to Germany’s “The Lives of Others.” Who the hell booked that one? Admittedly, I haven’t seen the film, but this award was as much a given as the year “Crouching Tiger” won. Making it more confusing was the director’s acceptance speech, where he apparently thanked, of all people, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Bwa?

-Another funny bit: Al Gore apparently getting ready to announce his candidacy but being cut off by the orchestra for being over time.

-Speaking of Mr. Gore, “An Inconvenient Truth” won big, as the film not only received the Best Documentary Oscar, but Melissa Etheridge’s “I Need to Wake Up” won in an upset over three original songs from “Dreamgirls” (a moment that produced the night’s first pleasantly surprised shout of “YES!” from me). It was clear Gore was one of the stars of this Oscar year, as in addition to the above comedy bit, “Truth” received a standing ovation with its victory, he was thanked by everyone onstage connected with the win and by Etheridge in her speech, as well.

-Mental note: if it’s at all possible, seek out Best Short Live Action Film winner “West Bank Story,” which looks HILARIOUS.

-Jennifer Hudson’s win for “Dreamgirls” was expected, but her acceptance speech was emotional and lovely. She was also extremely fun to watch performing the aforementioned original numbers from the film, though we had a near-wardrobe-malfunction involving the dress she wore in said numbers, illustrating quite well the dangers of combining large amounts of cleavage and low-cut dresses. ;)

-The main performance awards also went as expected, though some (such as Heather) were quite disappointed with Peter O’Toole’s loss in Best Actor. I love Peter, too, but I can’t argue with Forest Whitaker’s win for his work in “Last King,” which was marvelous. Helen Mirren’s win was also well-deserved.

-As always, the memorial video brings a lump to your throat, as we lost more great people this year than I recalled, ending with an image of Robert Altman, to terrific applause both in Hollywood and at Heather’s place.

-When Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas ALL come to the stage to present the award for Best Director, you kinda get the feeling that they kinda knew who was walking away with the trophy this time. Yep, Martin Scorcese finally, finally, BY GOD FINALLY wins a damn Oscar, though by this point it’s the award that benefits from Scorcese’s victory more than Scorcese does, as one of the big blemishes against the Academy (our greatest director has received no hardware) has finally been righted. Martin’s classic first line, after the long standing ovation: “Could you double-check the envelope?” :)

-I guess I should have seen it coming early on, with the surprising lack of wins for “Babel” (it ended up winning but one award, for its score) and the high number of wins for “The Departed” (which had won for screenplay, editing and director). Still, I was very nicely shocked at “Departed”’s win for Best Picture, which marks the second year in a row that Jack Nicholson has pleasantly surprised me in reading out the winner. I may have been rooting for “Letters from Iwo Jima,” but I loved “The Departed,” too, and its win was a great exclamation point on a great night for Marty. All in all, a tremendously enjoyable Oscarcast, hampered only by the questionable production choices.

And now, the winners, and my picks…well, at least I cleared .500...

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:
Will Win: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”
Should Win: “Superman Returns”
Did Win: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (1 for 1)

BEST SOUND MIXING:
Will Win: “Dreamgirls”
Should Win: “Dreamgirls”
Did Win: “Dreamgirls” (2 for 2)

BEST SOUND EDITING:
Will Win: “Letters from Iwo Jima”
Should Win: “Letters from Iwo Jima”
Did Win: “Letters from Iwo Jima” (3 for 3)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG:
Will Win: “Listen,” “Dreamgirls”
Should Win: “I Need to Wake Up,” “An Inconvenient Truth”
Did Win: “I Need to Wake Up,” “An Inconvenient Truth” (3 for 4)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:
Will Win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Should Win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Did Win: “Babel” (3 for 5)

BEST MAKEUP:
Will Win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Should Win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Did Win: “Pan’s Labyrinth” (4 for 6)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Will Win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Should Win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Did Win: “The Lives of Others” (WTF?!?!?!?) (4 for 7)

BEST EDITING:
Will Win: “Babel”
Should Win: “The Departed”
Did Win: “The Departed” (4 for 8)

BEST DOCUMENTARY:
Will Win: “An Inconvenient Truth”
Should Win: “An Inconvenient Truth”
Did Win: “An Inconvenient Truth” (5 for 9)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN:
Will Win: “Dreamgirls”
Should Win: “Marie Antoinette”
Did Win: “Marie Antoinette” (5 for 10)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Will Win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Should Win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Did Win: “Pan’s Labyrinth” (6 for 11)

BEST ART DIRECTION:
Will Win: “Dreamgirls”
Should Win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Did Win: “Pan’s Labyrinth” (6 for 12)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:
Will Win: “Cars”
Should Win: “Cars”
Did Win: “Happy Feet” (6 for 13)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Will Win: “Babel”
Should Win: “The Queen”
Did Win: “Little Miss Sunshine” (6 for 14)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Will Win: “The Departed”
Should Win: “The Departed”
Did Win: “The Departed” (7 for 15)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Will Win: Jennifer Hudson, “Dreamgirls”
Should Win: “Jennifer Hudson,” “Dreamgirls”
Did Win: “Jennifer Hudson,” “Dreamgirls” (8 for 16)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Will Win: Eddie Murphy, “Dreamgirls”
Should Win: Alan Arkin, “Little Miss Sunshine”
Did Win: Alan Arkin, “Little Miss Sunshine” (8 for 17)

BEST ACTRESS:
Will Win: Helen Mirren, “The Queen”
Should Win: Helen Mirren, “The Queen”
Did Win: Helen Mirren, “The Queen” (9 for 18)

BEST ACTOR:
Will Win: Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland”
Should Win: Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland”
Did Win: Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland” (10 for 19)

BEST DIRECTOR:
Will Win: Martin Scorcese, “The Departed”
Should Win: Martin Scorcese, “The Departed”
Did Win: Martin Scorcese, “The Departed” (11 for 20)

BEST PICTURE:
Will Win: “Babel”
Should Win: “Letters from Iwo Jima”
Did Win: “The Departed” (11 for 21)