Oscars Report

While watching the Oscars in the wee wee hours of Monday morning I posted a string of facebook status updates so the world at large (if they even gave a damn) could see my thoughts on the biggest night in entertainment. This article is those updates, dragged into chronological order, and spell checked to compensate for my tired state of mind. It was also edited to make it, you know, actually readable.

Joint hosts Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin are lowered in from the ceiling surrounded by dancing girls. Only at the Oscars…

Baldwin and Martin play off each other very well, make some good topical jokes at the expense of those sitting in the first four rows, and each other. Makes me wonder why joint comic hosts haven’t been tried in recent years before…

Oh, first bit of controversy. One of the producers on Best documentary winner “The Cove” held up a sign essentially saying “save the dolphins”, so the camera cut away for about thirty seconds until he left the stage. Doesn’t strike me as the most extreme thing to say, but there you go.

Another unexpected surprise as “A Prophet” doesn’t win best foreign film, losing out to Argentina’s “El secreto de sus ojos”. First time Oscar win for Argentina’s film industry, well done!

And to follow this up the absolute opposite of controversy as “Up” wins best animated feature. Pixar and their Midas touch have done it again.

“Avatar” wins best visual effects. What an absolute upset! (I know it is hard to convey sarcasm over the internet but in case you didn’t know, this is it!) Still an exceptionally well deserved award though.

“The Hurt Locker” picks up best sound editing and best sound mixing. Who knew the sounds of gunfire, explosions, and warfare could sound so sweet to the Academy. Mind you, Saving Private Ryan did win in sound also. Clearly a trend for war films…

“Up” wins its second Oscar, this time for best original score thanks to Michael Giacchino. He has served Pixar well, earning a nomination for Ratatouille a couple of years ago.

In other news “Crazy Heart” has won Best Original Song for its theme “The Weary Kind”. Mind you, it is a film about a singer so was this to be expected…?

“Avatar” wins for Art Direction and for Cinematography. Art Direction I completely agree with, as Pandora was truly immersive. But Cinematography? How much could there have been to do, the whole thing was shot in front of blue screens on a sound stage somewhere with imaginary aliens, animals, plants, everything! How do you frame with a camera what you can’t see until post production?

“The Hurt Locker” steams ahead of Avatar again with an editing Oscar. This really is a close race.

A best original screenplay Oscar pushes “The Hurt Locker” further ahead (sadly beating Quentin Tarantino). On the other side of things “Precious” took best adapted screenplay beating out Armando Ianucci’s “In the loop”.

With every other major award already in their pockets Mo’Nique wins best supporting actress while Christoph Waltz takes best supporting actor. He also then proceeds to carry out an Oscar rarity by giving a memorable, entertaining, interesting, and heartfelt thank you speech (YouTube it. All his other award speeches are fantastic too). I hope to see him in many more films to come.

Sandra Bullock beats out our very own Dame Helen Mirren and the titan of female acting Meryl Streep for the best actress gong. Interestingly, she also won the worst actress golden raspberry award (or razzie) earlier the same day. Not for the same film though, that would just be silly (or sillier).

Ladies and gentlemen, The Dude abides. Jeff Bridges gave the best performance of the year and as such is rewarded with the Oscar. Well deserved!

Onto the big two now, and Kathryn Bigelow beats ex-husband James Cameron to the best director Oscar being the first female ever to do so (win the Oscar, not beat her husband to it). No sooner has she left the stage than she is called back onto it to claim the best picture Oscar for “The Hurt Locker”. As she, the other producers, and the stars of the Iraq war drama take to the stage, James Cameron can only look on, surely placated by the fact that his film has made hundreds of millions of dollars more than “The Hurt Locker”. Money isn’t everything, but it sure must help him feel better now.