So who out there sat through the 4 hour show? I did and I thought of a way to make it shorter. First get rid of the art awards. I just don't care. Documentary shorts, animated shorts, (those are the only thing short about the oscars.) And get rid of the best songs. They should play 20 seconds of each song and then announce the winner. I don't need to see people dancing across the stage and singing to some bland Disney song. I actually would perfer hearing the scores more. Let's hear some brass bands or Yo Yo Ma playing the cello. I would have loved to hear the score from "There Will be Blood" or "Requim for a Dream." That is so much more tolerable. So yeah, cut out the songs and keep the basics: acting, writing, directing, etc.
Now about the winners. Mostly pleasing. I agreed very much with Daniel Day Lewis winning. He was amazing and so was the movie. I highly recommend seeing it before you die. I would have liked to see Ryan Gosling nominated for best actor for his work in "Lars and the Real Girl." I was very happy that Marion Cotillard won for best actress. She had a hard role to play as Edith Piaf. She shaved off her eyebrows and hairline for the role. She deserved it the most. I was worried, everyone was saying Julie Christie but I disagreed. Although Christie was very good in "Away from Her", She had a very limited role. She had very few lines and most of it was facial expressions. So the academy got that one right. Javier Bardem winning was quite obvious. He scared everyone that was in the theater. He was ruthless. Loved him. Now best supporting actress went to Tilda Swinton. This I didn't really have a favorite so I didn't really mind anyone winning. However, perhaps it would have been better if someone who was wearing something other than a Hefty bag should have one. Her outfit will go down in history like Bjork's swan thing. She is a beautiful, unique looking woman who looks amazing without a stitch of make-up and she is skinny minny. She obiviously doesn't feel comfortable in dresses cause she usually wears pant suits, so what happened? She was dressed like a judge and it was all loose and baggy on her tiny body. It was worse than Paltrow's pink dress mishap. I would have preferred Swinton to have worn Britney Spear's dirty shredded fishnet stockings. Best original screenplay was a good choice. Diablo Cody's screenplay for "Juno", was great. Her outfit was a little scary. The leopard print with the high slit and the crossbone earrings. Mishmosh. But congrats. And Coen brothers won adapted screenplay, directors, and picture. They deserve screenplay & directors. But I don't think "No Country for Old Men," was the best film of the year I think "There Will be Blood," was. Hands down. I enjoyed "No Country..." it was good, it was a fun ride, but "There Will..." was just more moving and touching and all that jazz.
And in a long conclusion this is what I did not like about this years oscars. I enjoyed John Stewart. I was never ga-ga about any host so I don't really care. I enjoyed Ellen. Please never invite Billy Crystal or Whoopi back. Okay so first I HATED that Michael Clayton was nominated for best picture. It was lame and I enjoyed it the 1st time when it was called "Erin Brockovitch." Was George Clooney great, sure. It stops there. What movie should have taken that place you ask? "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," starring Philip Seymore Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei and Albert Finney. That was one of the best films of this year. If you have not seen it, it has to be added to your must list. It should have been nominated and it was shafted. Shame, shame. Well, I'll be the first to say the Oscars don't always get it right...(tune in for more of that at a later date.) And the thing that pissed me off entirely was the memorial footage. You know when we honor those who we have lost over the year? Anyway, since when do we honor agents? This is the 1st year that they added agents and why? Why are we honoring them? What the hell do they have anything to do with the production of films? Why don't we start honoring the actors lawyers? And they should have had a longer honor for Heath, yes the other actors died this year but most were over 60, this guy was under 30. And did we forget someone?? What the hell happened to honoring Brad Renfro? Did he not die a week before Heath. Did he not make over 10 films? Was he not a very talented young man? What a slap in the face to his family and fans that may have tuned in to see the honor. They should be ashamed and make a public apology. This is just another time that the Academy Awards has disappointed me terribly but never the less I shall tune in again next year.
