Rehashing the 2010 Academy Awards

In 2008, I was more prepared for the Oscars than I’ve ever been. I’m thinking that record will stand for quite a while; I certainly didn’t approach it this year. Prior to the 82nd Academy Awards, I saw only eight of the nominated films, though there were several others I had planned to watch. I’ll have to play catch-up later. Still, I was informed enough to have an idea of who might take home the gold in most of the categories.

The ceremony seemed on the long side, but I really can’t think of anything I would have cut, except the horror tribute and perhaps the Best Score dance sequences, and I would have replaced those with the ousted Best Song performances, which would have taken longer anyway. I thought that kicking things off with a showy song-and-dance number from Neil Patrick Harris was hilarious, definitely a fun way to start the show, and Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin consistently made me laugh throughout the night.

The one actor I was whole-heartedly rooting for this year was Christoph Waltz, whose performance in Quentin Tarantino’s Nazi farce mesmerized me, before I had ever heard anything about him. As genteel and loquacious as Anton Chigurh was silently menacing, he created one of the most chilling characters I have ever seen on film. Waltz, meanwhile, is a hard-working actor who has been in the business for decades and is just now receiving widespread recognition. He seems like an incredibly sweet, humble, articulate man, and I was unsurprised at the eloquence of his speech, having seen him deliver one of the few truly rehearsed speeches at the Golden Globes. I can’t help wondering what kind of psychological effects playing such a despicable character would have on such a nice person. I couldn’t help noticing that after they showed the clip from The Lovely Bones, Stanley Tucci looked utterly disgusted by his own performance as a serial killer specializing in young girls.

I hadn’t seen any of the nominated films for the Best Supporting Actress category, but Mo’Nique seemed to have been getting most of the attention. Precious is definitely on my list of movies to see, and it looks like she gave a powerhouse performance. I also enjoyed her speech, though I preferred the one at the Golden Globes. Part of me wanted to see Gabourey Sidibe win for Best Actress, though this is her very first movie, and she still has plenty of opportunities down the road. She seems like an incredibly mature, poised young woman; I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve seen of her so far. I’ve also heard great things about the movie, and the fact that it won for Best Adapted Screenplay makes me want to see it even more.

I loved Up so much that I wanted it to win Best Picture. I didn’t expect that to happen. But I thoroughly anticipated it winning Best Animated Feature Film. I enjoyed the animated segments with characters from the nominated movies that preceded the announcement, and as always, the master filmmaker from Pixar gave a great speech. Up was pretty much a perfect movie, so it was lovely to see it acknowledged as such up on stage. And because I was so sure it would win for the feature, I was even more excited that it won for Best Score. I thought the music for that movie was brilliant; well, of course it was, as it was written by Michael Giacchino, the genius behind the music of LOST. And though his speech was quite short, it was one of my favorites of the night. Michael Giacchino’s parents rock.

Honoring one’s parents seemed to be a big theme of the night. Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges both gave emotionally-charged speeches thanking their parents for all of their help and inspiration. Always a nice acknowledgement. I almost saw The Blind Side for free in a preview showing locally but by the time I got out to get my tickets, they were gone. I still meant to catch it in the theater but never did. I’d also like to see Crazy Heart, which from what I’ve seen reminds me of Tender Mercies.

I really did miss the Best Song performances, especially since I hadn’t heard any of the movies containing those songs. Evidently Crazy Heart really delivered on that score. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that one of the writers of the winning song - the lyricist, I presume - would come up with what I thought was the best line of the night: “I love you more than rainbows.” Now that is a romantic statement worthy of John Denver.

Speaking of John Denver, another of my favorite musicians got to do the In Memoriam segment. I thought James Taylor might do Fire and Rain; couldn’t really think of another of his songs that seemed memorial-ish. But his rendition of the Beatles’ In My Life was simply beautiful, and he was looking quite classy in that tuxedo. Also, thankfully, the camera didn’t swoop around the stage like it did last year, so it was perfectly easy to read the names. Of course, a few ended up getting omitted, and I’ve seen a lot of grumbling over Michael Jackson being included, but he was in a handful of movies, and at any rate I feel like more people would’ve objected if he’d been left out.

The tribute to John Hughes was quite extensive, and it was moving to see both the clips from his movies and so many of the people he helped turn into stars standing up there and honoring him. I thought it was rather annoying, though, that they kept cutting to the Disney channel and Twilight gang, who looked like they had no idea who John Hughes even was. Are they trying to make us all feel really old?

But they were not the most childish guests in attendance that night. That award would have to go to Elinor Burkett, who shoved her way into the middle of Roger Ross Williams’ speech for Best Documentary Short Subject, completely hijacking his moment. Evidently she was involved in the movie but dropped out due to creative differences. Clearly that rift remains. Really weird moment reminiscent of the famous Kanye West debacle.

As usual, I was pretty much unfamiliar with all those short films, along with the foreign films and documentaries. I actually had heard of The Cove, but only because I’d seen it at the video store the day before. It was about the only Oscar contender in stock at Family Video, but we gave Blockbuster a try and managed to snag copies of The Hurt Locker, Julie and Julia and A Serious Man. So we didn’t go for the movie about dolphin slaughter, but I might have to amend that sometime if I think I can stomach it. Fisher Stevens was the second member of the LOST family to take home an Oscar. I had no idea he was a producer or that he was so passionate about dolphins. Up until a couple of years ago, I associated him exclusively with Short Circuit, in which he plays the hilarious Ben Jabituya, a scientist of ambiguous ethnicity. But in 2008, he joined LOST as George Minkowski, a friendly communications expert who runs afoul of the weird temporal displacement that also afflicts Desmond. It was good to see him again. How about a brief repeat appearance on LOST?

When it comes to LOST resonance, A Serious Man probably ranks highest in the list of nominated movies. But it didn’t win anything, sadly. I was rooting for Best Screenplay, but that went to The Hurt Locker, which turned out to be the big winner of the night. It also took home the statues for Editing, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. I was glad that Star Trek managed to win at least one of the technical awards, for Makeup. It’s hard to believe that the franchise has never picked one up before, especially for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I’d never even heard of The Young Victoria, which got the Best Costume Design nod. I thought it was nice that Sandy Powell mentioned those who work on less eye-catching movies, but on the whole I found her speech obnoxious. Maybe the Academy did too; she seemed to get played off the stage pretty quickly.

Another movie with several LOST parallels is Avatar, which picked up three awards and was the subject of a couple of amusing gags, one by the hosts and one by Ben Stiller, who was all decked out as a Na’vi, complete with blue skin, yellow eyes and adorable ears, not to mention that massive braid and his attempt at approximating the invented language. James Cameron’s ultra-big-budget movie won for Best Art Direction, Visual Effects and Cinematography, and it should have, because whatever you think of the story, you have to admit that the look was pretty eye-popping.

I’m glad that I got The Hurt Locker in at the last minute. While I’m not much for war movies, I agree it was very well done, and it was pretty cool to see a woman take the Best Directing prize - though, oddly enough, for a movie geared mostly toward men. In any event, Kathryn Bigelow seemed thrilled, both for the Best Directing and Best Picture nods. I had to laugh at the swiftness of Tom Hanks’ presentation. Talk about no build-up! Was he always expecting to zoom through that so quickly or was it just because the telecast was running so long? Threw me for a loop.

On the whole, an enjoyable ceremony. I liked the hosts and the tribute speeches, and I was satisfied with the winners. And now, I have to go see a lot more movies...