Oscar Night

Well, another Oscar season came and went, and this particular one was pretty lackluster overall. The excitement over the nominee list, the winners, there was too much predictability. It's the first sweep year we've had since The Lord of the Rings won 11 Oscars (it wasn't a clean sweep, but still a sweep), which are actually my least favorite years in terms of predicting Oscars, because it takes away from the excitement. I still thought Slumdog Millionaire was an amazing film, and I think it's a worthy addition to the list of Best Pictures. It's an uplifting, hope-filled film, a fairy tale of sorts that leaves you wanting to dance as soon as the final kiss is presented on the film, and then, what do you know, there's a dance number at the end, one that makes me want to get up and dance every time I hear it on my IPod (yes, I downloaded the song into my IPod, I'm a loser). I loved Danny Boyle's speech. He looks to be one hell of a guy, and I look forward to seeing more of his earlier work (already saw Millions and Sunshine), and the Best Picture win, in which everybody involved with the film went up to accept, including those adorable children (they made the film worth it, every second they were on screen), was such a rewarding Best Picture moment, probably more rewarding than having just the producers accept. This film belongs to India, and everybody who was involved. The only thing that upsets me about Slumdog's sweep were the wins in both music categories. I mean, the score was amazing, and I love the winning song, but I wish one of those Oscars had gone to Wall-E and Thomas Newman would finally have an Oscar to show for his career after 10 straight nominations without a win. Plus, I wish Wall-E, my favorite film of the year, had gotten a second Oscar, and maybe a third (Sound Effects Editing should have been a good one for it). I mean, I'm happy it won Best Animated Feature, but that was a given. It's an Academy-Award winner, but it was still a given. I wish it could win just one more Oscar, just for being arguably the best film Pixar has ever made (of course, "arguably" being the operative word).
Now, if I were to pick the winner for Best Picture out of my personal preferences, I would've gone with Milk, which is why I'm happy it won two Oscars, though both of these wins come with some disappointments. And I don't mean the speeches. Dustin Lance Black and Sean Penn gave two of the best speeches of the night, and I was happy to see them win, but this is what gives me pause. In the Best Actor category, I've kept going back-and-forth between Mickey Rourke and Sean Penn, not just who would win the Oscar, but who I like best. It's so hard to choose, they both gave amazing performances. I usually settle on Sean Penn for his energy, his smile and the fact that he gave us such a beautiful human being, but then images of Mickey Rourke's beautifully layered and heartbreaking performance flash through my mind, as well as seeing the man in the person. This guy is always just happy to be there, happy to be welcomed back into the club and given a second chance. Also, this is Sean Penn's second Oscar, and I don't think he deserved his first win. The more I think of Mystic River, the less I like both the movie and his performance. It's one of the times when I wish the Academy had waited to reward an actor, and that they'd given Best Actor to Bill Murray in Lost in Translation back in 2003 (or to make some fanboys and girls happy here, Johnny Depp in PotC, which I agree is a great performance). Anyway, I loved Sean Penn's speech, and I was glad to see him up there for what I believe is his best performance to date.
As for the Original Screenplay Oscar, it was great to see Dustin Lance Black give such a beautiful speech, but in a category with such amazing nominees, Milk doesn not feel like the best screenplay. It has great moments of writing, but it doesn't feel unique or to have a particular voice. Happy-Go-Lucky and In Bruges were both scripts with very distinctive voices and beautifully layered characters, and I know they would never vote for an animated film in this category, but I wish they had started with WALL-E. A film that could express such a beautiful romance with a very limited amount of dialogue is truly an accomplishment. Oh well, I'm glad Milk won two Oscars, showing love for a story that needs to be told and very much relevant to our times (though it can get a little annoying when Oscars get political).

Now, Kate Winslet's win, I'm going to see it as a career Oscar rather than a win for The Reader, because I do not think it's one of her best performances. She can do no wrong, and in this film she does no wrong, it just doesn't reach the depths that she's reached before, and reached this same year with Revolutionary Road. I wish she had won the Oscar for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (did Hilary Swank really need a second Oscar back then), but still, it's good to finally be able to utter "Academy-Award Winner Kate Winslet. She deserves the title, and I hope she wears it proudly. I loved her speech too. My favorite moment of her speech was her dad whistling to let her know where he is. That was so adorable.
Last year, Javier Bardem was the first Spanish actor to win an Oscar. This year, the first Spanish actress to ever win an Oscar is the lovely and talented Penelope Cruz. I loved her in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. It's hard to give a bad performance under the direction of Woody Allen (unless you're Scarlett Johansson, whose been great in other films, but not under Woody Allen), and Penelope Cruz really sells this exotic spitfire of a woman whom we are told to fear way before she makes her grand entrance, and while she's on-screen, she makes the best out of it. I loved Penelope's speech, her nearly fainting on stage, her nod to previous directors who have made her successful (I especially loved the mentions of Fernando Trueba (director of Belle Epoque, one of her first films in which she's amazing) and Pedro Almodovar (she's been amazing in so many of his films)), and even though some people may say the Spanish part of the speech is obligatory for a Spanish-speaking winner, well so be it, because I never get tired of it (I love hearing that language).
As for Heath Ledger, well, we all saw it coming, but it was still rewarding. I always pictured Jake Gyllenhal accepting the award for some reason, but I am so glad it was his parents and sister who received the award. Three people who were not used to speaking to a crowd of celebrities, and were therefor very humbled by it. I love how genuine the moment felt.
A few obligatory Oscars went to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (it was beautiful to look at, so I can't begrudge it that much), and one Costume Design Oscar went to The Duchess (when will the Academy start valuing costumes that are not period pieces), and The Dark Knight won a sound award. Not that many films won Oscars this year, but like I said, it's a sweep year.
As for the ceremony itself, there were things I really liked, and things I hated. What I hated the most were the acting presentations. I mean, everything that those actors to said to every one of those nominees, that congratulatory crap that was so over-the-top it would earn the Razzie for worst performance (well, I'm exaggerating, but it was still annoying). Why did they get rid of the acting clips. They're rewarding a performance, why not see a piece of that performance. Why not see those actors in character, doing what they're being nominated for, especially with films that only got an acting nomination, we saw no clips of them, like the films didn't exist. It may have been an idea to make the nominees feel like winners, but it was too long, and way too cheesy. I really hope this doesn't happen again (though apparently it will, since people responded to it). One thing I really liked was the theme of the ceremony, presenting the awards in the order that the crafts happen. Start with the screenplay, then build the sets, then shoot it, then add effects, sound and edit, and finally add the music, with the acting and other categories scattered throughout.
Hugh Jackman was an amazing host. Energetic, charismatic, great singing voice, great comic timing, not trying too hard to be funny. He was just being himself. And, the musical numbers were actually quite entertaining. I loved his opening musical number, particularly his dance with Anne Hathaway, and the clips of the year in comedy, animated, action, well, I'm not really a fan of montages during the Oscars, but apparently, they will continue to happen.
Anyway, 2008, was a pretty weak year for films, but there was still plenty to celebrate. I'm kind of glad it's over though, because I really want the Slumdog Millionaire backlash to start dying down (and I want to see how it ages as the years go) and I want to see what 2009 has to offer. Judging by the montage at the end of the show, it looks like we have some pretty good films coming up this year, some people will have great years.
Until next year.