The Oscars are one of my favorite events of the year. Not because of the Oscars so much, as those are usually disappointing, but because I love a good Oscar party. As a quick aside, not everyone is lucky enough to attend an awesome Oscar party. Camilla Larsson of the Göteborg Film Festival stayed home and watched a screener of CLEANFLIX instead of Oscars. How depressing. You can read her tear-jerker of a blog here. So, anyway, I consider myself lucky that my friend Kristin throws an amazing Oscar party every year complete with tantalizing hors d' oeuvres, voting ballots, and a prize for the winner (this year it was a hand-drawn portrait of Robert Deniro). It is always a great time and I do love me some movies, so it is fun to cast your votes and see who wins.
This year, as usual, the Oscars were kind of meh. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin seemed like an inspired choice, and there were indeed some funny moments, but the humor was a little stale and I think the co-hosting resulted in less comedy overall. As Rachel put it, "They're just telling a bunch of Dad jokes." I still maintain that Jon Stewart was the best Oscar host in my lifetime, but apparently he was a little too hard on the celebrities on their special night. Actors are a sensitive bunch.The best part of the night for me was that James Cameron got a little taste of humility. Not just losing to his ex-wife for Best Director, but also falling short of that Best Picture award that you know he thought was in the bag. I'm not a hater, but ego-maniacal Cameron did not deserve those awards. I'm so thankful that we didn't have to endure another "King of the World!" speech or cringe as the guy speaks frickin' Navi (as he did at the Golden Globes). That said, there were plenty of awards that Avatar deserved, and I think it won all of them--the only undeserved Avatar Oscar being Cinematography. My choice would have probably been Christian Berger for The White Ribbon, but the Academy chose Mauro Fiore. Seriously? Fiore didn't shoot or light any actors or sets. Great job! More power to those Avatar computer geeks, though. All of their awards were very well-deserved.
Then there were the two Best Screenplay awards which were kind of a shock. I loved both Hurt Locker and Precious, but I am really surprised either of them won screenplay. I'd say the screenplays were the weakest link of those films...and in a year with so many great screenplays, it was a little disappointing. My choices would have been Inglourious Basterds and Up In the Air all the way.I'm also not sure about The Hurt Locker as Best Picture. Again, I love the movie. It totally deserved Best Editing and Best Direction, which were (for me) the two biggest elements that gave the film the superb tone and tension that makes the movie stand out from the crowd. It is a great movie, but is it memorable in the way most Best Pictures are? Does it belong in a category with Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, Lawrence of Arabia, The Godfather, etc? For me, the only film this year that can hang with those amazing flicks is Inglourious Basterds. It is a landmark film. As my friend Malcolm said, "The Hurt Locker is this year's Crash." That may be going a little too far, but I do think it will be among those lesser Best Pictures like Shakespeare in Love or Life Is Beautiful that people look back on a few years later and say "What were we thinking?"
My only other complaint from the Academy Awards last night was the make-up category. The entire category! Every one of the nominees were ridiculous and the winner is...Spock ears? I can do Spock ears! Ben Stiller's make-up was more impressive! A real horror tribute would be to give one of this year's horror make-up artists a nod. I mean, give the award to Drag Me to Hell or Zombieland. Heck, even the make-up of Harry Potter and the Whatever was more impressive than any of those nominees.But the selection of nominees has always been a mystery to me. There were a few big snubs this year that really got under my skin. Those were Where the Wild Things Are, 500 Days of Summer, Anvil: The Story of Anvil, and Moon. It is a travesty that those films weren't nominated--at least, as much of a travesty as something as trivial as movie awards could produce. And often the winners are just as perplexing as the nominees. As my friend Jimmy said, "I wish the academy had to honestly explain why they picked certain winners. Jeff Bridges wins, not so much for his new movie but because its about time...Avatar may have won but we are all fed up with Cameron." Somehow, none of this keeps me from watching. It is kind of sickening. So, here's to another disappointing year at the Oscars. Can't wait until next year!
