I'm becoming quite the movie buff, so when the Academy Awards roll
around, I'm eager to watch, even though I've usually (being a movie buff
of modest means) seen only a few of the films in the running an award,
usually in technical categories. I fared little better with this year's
nominees, having watched Little Miss Sunshine, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Superman Returns, Cars... Gee, is that all? I need to get out more.
Anyway, I never got around to seeing The Queen, Dreamgirls or, top of my list despite the inevitably required face-shielding, The Last King of Scotland. I almost saw Pan's Labyrinth
just in time to have some basis for enthusiastically predicting it
would win in all its nominated categories except Best Screenplay. I have
a feeling it may be the first of the bunch I see.
I don't
know why I was so looking forward to the Oscars this year. It certainly
wasn't like 2004, when I got to bask in the glory of Return of the King,
up for - and eventually winning - half the awards of the night. I
wasn't particularly passionate about any of the potential winners,
though Forrest Whittaker has always impressed me and the idea of a
recent American Idol alum getting an Oscar was pretty intriguing.
Ellen Degeneres
had something to do with it; back in nineties, I'd never watched her
show and had only the vaguest notion of who she was. A wildly incorrect
notion that was amended the first time I saw her do a stand-up routine
on The Late Show
and realized how incredibly funny she is, and how refreshingly devoid
of crudeness her humor is. I've enjoyed her a great deal ever since, so I
was interested in seeing her as the host.
Certainly she
wasn't as over-the-top as some, and her whole approach was very low-key,
with the exception of that Gospel choir, whose jubilant singing just
gave her an excuse to do some of her trademark dancing. The
up-close-and-personal moments with the various stars were nice - passing
off a screenplay to Martin Scorcese, posing for a picture with Clint Eastwood. And bidding the audience goodnight half an hour before the show was over. Classic.
I got a big kick out of the trio performance of big-haired Will Ferrell, scathing Jack Black and inspirational John C. Reilly. Melissa Etheridge's performance of what ended up being the Best Song winner was powerful, and the Dreamgirls
"reunion" was flashy and fun. My favorite of the Best Song
performances, however, was Randy Newman, looking mighty classy behind
that piano, and James Taylor, his voice rippling with warmth as he crooned the gorgeous Our Town, his face alight with a gentle joy that put the focus on the beauty of the memory rather than the sting of loss. Poor Cars,
thwarted at both turns by global warming. Because if there was one man
in the crowd Sunday night who was a bigger deal than Martin Scorcese, it
was Al Gore. Hollywood says Al's going to save the world, and to help
him do it, they're going to vote for whatever complements their green
theme.
Not to say that Etheridge didn't deserve the win, and for all I know the slyly political Happy Feet was fantastic. But I sure love Cars,
and that song was phenomenal. Still, it's nice to see America getting
serious about the environmental issues that have been creeping up on us,
largely thanks to a combination of industrialism and apathy. Though
heavy-handed An Inconvenient Truth was high on my list of movies not
to see, because global warming gives me enough sleepless nights without
Al Gore drumming it into my head for two hours, I'm glad he was
recognized for his valiant efforts to increase awareness.
On a
lighter note, aren't Oscar commercials fun? JC Penney's, Diet Coke and
Mastercard were really falling all over themselves to produce epic,
inspiring commercials, which was grand, except it made me afraid to
leave the room for fear I'd miss something. There were many wonderful
ads with movie tie-ins, but my favorite commercial was the one for
Mastercard with the elephant going to the store to buy a care package
for his under-the-weather zookeeper. Soooo sweet...
I didn't
make out a list ahead of time of who I thought would win. I made my
predictions as the nominees were announced for each award, and I was
right exactly half of the time. Pan's Labyrinth certainly did well, and if I was intrigued before, now they've really
got me hooked. The short films got my attention; it's a shame those are
always so hard to come by. I was surprised by Alan Arkin, but good for
him. I like him, and his character in Little Miss Sunshine was a lot of fun.
Jennifer Hudson seemed truly overwhelmed, and really, what an amazing thing for her, to get on American Idol, make it halfway through the top 12, and then get cast in a movie and end up with an Oscar. Awesome. Helen Mirren
seemed surprised too, though from all the buzz surrounding them I
figured both of them for shoo-ins. I thought her speech was nice,
especially the bits about the queen. And Forrest Whittaker was much more collected here than at the Golden Globes and gave one of the most powerful speeches of the evening.
The response for Martin Scorcese was thunderous. Poor Peter O'Toole...
But I'm glad Scorcese got his due. Obviously a lot of people felt it was
past time. They must have given him a little extra time to talk because
it seemed like his speech was longer than most, and just the standing
ovation should have taken up about half his time. I hate it when they
play them off the stage. I like the gentle So Long, Farewell
outro they played this year, though - much less abrasive than that loud
band music they usually have, and still struck up a couple times, which
was strange. Why doesn't everybody get the lullaby?
The
special awards and the video tributes were nice, especially the
composing award with the speech that seemed so much more moving because
it was not given in English. Clint Eastwood didn't seem like he was in
top form as he presented the award and translated the speech, but maybe
he was just emotionally overcome. He seemed to have very great respect
for this man.
We sure saw a lot of Jack Nicholson. When did he shave his head? And must he always wear those sunglasses? Leo DiCaprio was another face that showed up a lot. They must have had a hunch that The Departed would take home top honors...
Anyway, those dancers who came together to form symbols of different movies... way cool. The Snakes on a Plane
thing was hilarious, and all of them were just really clever. Just as
amazing: the sound effects choir. I never heard of such a thing, but it
sure was fun to watch them work. It's a hundred Fred Newmans - or maybe
Fred Newman split into a hundred pieces... At any rate, I was most
impressed.
Were the 79th Oscars too long? Of course. But I
didn't really care. I snuggled up under my blanket on the couch and
absorbed the warmth of movie magic for four hours. And vowed that
somehow, come this time next year, I will have seen more of the
nominees...
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