| Feb232009 | Oscar Night |
So, I wasn’t particularly interested in watching the Academy Awards last night. I typically fall asleep during the less glamorous awards at the beginning of the show and I found out about the big winners the next morning. Also, there’s a good chance I’ve only seen one of the five films that bag a lot of nominations.
Thankfully, I can declare this Oscars Night a huge success. I was already asleep by the time the Oscars started and woke up to catch the Best Supporting Actor. Sure, I missed out on the (super fabulous) opening dance number, Anne Hathaway playing the sexiest Nixon ever and Best Supporting Actress but that’s ok. YouTube bailed me out.
I adore this new format of getting past Oscar winners to say something about the nominees. It was magical to see the torch passed on like that and it really makes it feel like a night where they celebrate their peers and their profession. Anne Hathway got this amazing praise from Shirley McClaine that was easily worth as much as an Oscar if not more.
Personally I think it was a foregone conclusion that Heath Ledger would win. By now, I’ve learned to accept that few people win an Oscar based on their work on a single film. If perhaps he hadn’t so tragically passed, I believe he still would have been the favorite but I probably would have been more nervous.
Slumdog, oh Slumdog. I don’t see why people love you so much. I like you and I think you’re a very solid movie but I don’t get the critical acclaim. The whole love story didn’t entrance me as much as it did others. Don’t get me wrong, I loved all the scenes with the little children but I got tired at the end. I felt Jamal was a little too single-minded about this girl that he doesn’t even know anymore, too wrapped up in trying to ride in on a white horse. I thoroughly enjoyed being introduced to glimpses of Mumbai but I wanted them to push it further: really highlight the disparity of the class system and why no one would ever expect a slumdog to have the answers.
The same goes double for Benjamin Button. Sure, Cate Blanchett looks fabulous as a dancer but the movie just didn’t sweep me up. If I had to pick one thing it would be all the scenes that were set in the present-day hospital room. To say that Katrina was fast approaching and that the diary was real just pulled me out of the fantasy. That being said, I loved Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), her character was like something straight out of a fairy tale.
Finally, one of my favorite parts of award shows like this is recognizing snippets of past films during the montages and identifying all the talent that the camera shows quick shots of. I do believe I spotted Tina Fey over someone’s left shoulder.
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