Can We Please Have Jon Stewart Back?
He’s my favorite Oscar host of recent years, mostly because he liked to poke pins in Hollywood’s self-congratulatory little balloons. But the Academy people didn’t like him, probably for that same reason. And so this year Ellen DeGeneres hosted, played it safe, and was extremely unfunny. And overtime. If you’re not going to be funny, you could at least be concise.
Anyway, aside from my general annoyance at the lack of humor, I was of course upset that The Departed managed to take the top two awards of Best Picture and Best Director last night. Grrr. Now, I admit I’ve never seen The Departed, and most likely never will, because I don’t like gratuitously violent organized-crime movies. But, having seen Scorsese’s abysmal work in The Aviator, I can’t say I’m a fan.
But . . . there was a corgi at the Oscars last night! Didn’t I say that I wanted to see one there? Someone was listening! So it was sneaked in as an accessory in the Costume Design tableaux (a category in which The Queen was nominated . . . and lost), but, still, it was there. On stage. I almost died of joy. Lucky Hollywood people who got to share the stage with a corgi.
That was the highlight. Second best was Helen Mirren’s completely unsurprising victory. I was also pleased at Jennifer Hudson’s and Forest Whitaker’s wins. I was disappointed that The Queen didn’t win Best Original Screenplay, but Little Miss Sunshine did, so I wasn’t too disappointed (and that victory was especially exciting, given that Michael Arndt is a first-time screenwriter).
Several upsets were, well, upsetting. Despite liking Little Miss Sunshine, I felt like Alan Arkin, as just one member of the film’s tightly woven ensemble (and perhaps the member with the least to do), didn’t quite deserve Best Supporting Actor. I would’ve given it to Eddie Murphy for Dreamgirls, but voters probably were punishing him for making Norbit his first post-Dreamgirls role.
Speaking of Dreamgirls . . . what on earth happened in Best Original Song? I know that having three songs from Dreamgirls probably split the vote, but, still, who in their right minds could have voted for Randy Newman’s snore-inducing “Our Town” or Melissa Etheridge’s equally dull (and ironically titled) “I Need to Wake Up”? Maybe they voted for the latter because they needed to get rid of environmental guilt . . . but that’s why you vote for An Inconvenient Truth (which did win Best Documentary, by the way, and deservedly so), not for a song that didn’t even appear until the movie’s credits. I think the Academy ought to only nominate songs that actually appear within a movie—otherwise, how is it a measure of anything cinematic?
Most people in the know were betting that Best Cinematography would go to Children of Men (since, you know, it won pretty much every pre-Oscar cinematography award). Pan’s Labyrinth stole it away, though. I don’t know anything about cinematography, really, but the one clip they showed from Children of Men almost had me crying . . . again. And I think part of that is due to the camera work, even if I’m not particularly aware of it. Did the voters just not watch Children of Men? ‘Cause it won squat, and it deserved lots.
Grand totals for the evening? The Departed led with four awards, and Pan’s Labyrinth followed behind at a very respectable three (despite losing Best Foreign Film to Germany’s The Lives of Others). Little Miss Sunshine, Dreamgirls, and An Inconvenient Truth each won two awards. Every other film that won something just got one award.
And can I just say, “the Oscar-winning film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”? That certainly makes up for some of the evening’s disappointments. Hurrah for pirates and corgis!
Also, I kind of liked the weird shadow-acrobat people. Especially their tribute to Snakes on a Plane.
Best Dress of the evening goes to Anika Noni Rose’s red gown, worn during her performance of Dreamgirls’s nominated song “Patience.” Runners-up: Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Helen Mirren, who always looks regal.
1 comment February 26th, 2007