Oscar Review

I just haven't been seeing movies enough to keep this updated but hopefully an oscar review will get me back on track. Before I get to the actual movies, I did some interesting "research" last night on the best picture category and box office grosses. The results of which will come in the next post probably tomorrow with what I think the implications are from the Oscars. But first, a review of the categories. I was going to do all but then decided against some categories.

Best Picture: Winner/My Pick - The Departed
Thank you academy for not picking Babel. Although Little Miss Sunshine was ranked ahead of Departed in my earlier rankings, I think I really thought this was a BETTER film. I would have loved to see LMS win as well, but its hard not to think the Departed deserved it. Ultimately, I would have most liked to see a split award for Departed and Little Miss Sunshine but wasn't going to be disappointed if either one won.

Director: Winner/My Pick - Scorsese
Yep, not really anyone all that contentious here to give him a run for this money. Eastwood did a very good job in Iwo Jima and I heard that United 93 was excellent, but Scorsese was absolutely fantastic. I saw Departed for the 3rd time last week and you can't stop appreciating how well done it is. The cuts, the angles, everything. Well deserved for Scorsese.

Best Actor: Winner/My Choice - Forest Whitaker.
Although I agree with this selection ultimately, the category was flawed without the inclusion of Leonardo DiCaprio's Departed performance, and arguably Jack Nicholson from Departed as well. In addition, other potentially snubbed nominees include Aaron Eckhart from Thank You For Smoking. Out of all actors, my pick would be Forest Whitaker JUST ahead of DiCaprio for the Departed.

Best Supporting Actor: Winner/My Choice - Alan Arkin
Way to go Academy. Not picking Eddie Murphy should give us all faith again in the Academy's abilities. Look, Eddie Murphy was very very good and probably the best person in Dreamgirls but just wasn't that great. Alan Arkin was really fantastic and deserves this. Although correct in its ultimate decision, the nominees were WAY off here. Probably every male actor in both Little Miss Sunshine and The Departed had a reasonable claim to be nominated here. Most absurd were Jack Nicholson (if not best actor), Alec Baldwin, Steve Carrell, and Greg Kinear.

Best Actress: Winner- Helen Mirren; My Pick - Meryl Streep
So, I don't have a real strong opinion about Meryl Streep winning, although I did think she was excellent. I would also admit that I haven't seen Volver, Notes on a Scandal or Little Children so can't really fairly gauge them. What I do know was that Helen Mirren just wasn't that great. I don't think her character was one that really warranted such recognition given how wooden the role was. Just as Matt Damon was very good in Departed, his character was kind of wooden, so was hard to be that good. I really don't think Mirren deserved this.

Best Supporting Actress: Winner - Jennifer Hudson; My Pick - Abigail Breslen
Kinda similar to previous category, where I mostly take issue with the winner, not who didn't win. Look, Jennifer Hudson sang amazingly well in Dreamgirls, really, truly, amazingly well. But that is not acting. Give her an Oscar for best song or a Grammy, but she did not deserve this for acting. Some times in musicals, people do both (Richard Gere in Chicago and Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls) but Jennifer Hudson did not.

Adapted Screenplay: Winner/My Pick - Departed
Fantastically written movie. It picks up all the cop/Irish/criminal dialogs really well. But in addition, there's lots of really memorable, funny, meaningful lines. I'd now see any movie written by Monahan. This category screwed up in 2 big ways. First, Borat: not a screenplay, not really adapted. It's mostly people responding to him, not written lines. I think this was really just the Academy trying to fit Borat somewhere into the show. Second, THANK YOU FOR SMOKING WASN'T NOMINATED. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Probably the third best written movie of the year and some of the best dialog of any movie ever.

Original Screenplay: Winner/My Pick - Little Miss Sunshine
I was glad Michael Arndt got credit for this. Think about writing this story and coming up with all the lines, all the plot twists. Would love to see the next movie this guy does.

Art Direction: Winner/My Pick - Pan's Labyrinth
Kind of an easy choice here.

Cinematography: Winner - Pan's Labyrinth; My Pick - Children of Men
As much as I really liked Pan's Labyrinth, what was most impressive about Children of Men was its cinematography. The movie overall wasn't that amazing, but two scenes double-handedly make it an easy pick for the winner. The chase scene pulled off some amazing shots from inside and outside the car and from numerous angles all in one take. Moreover, one of the final sequences of entering and then escaping the building (also one take) was maybe the best technically filmed scene in recent memory.

Documentary: Winner/My Pick - An Inconvenient Truth
Not a lot to say about the movie itself. It was a very well done movie and its commercial success is probably most impressive. (45mm worldwide gross) What was most disappointing about this category was that Wordplay wasn't nominated. This was a really interesting, really entertaining and really well done movie about the NYTimes Crosswords and their annual tournament. Go rent it if you haven't seen it.

Editing: Winner/My Pick - The Departed
Sorry, not much to say here. If you thought something else should have won, you're wrong.

Foreign Language Film: Winner - The Lives of Others; My Pick-Pan's Labyrinth/Iwo Jima
So first off, what bothers me about the Oscars is that Iwo Jima wasn't in this category. It represents a larger picture of people needing to game out where their picture or actors, etc... has the best chance and can't really get into other categories. Iwo Jima is probably easily the best foreign language film of the year, but Eastwood didn't want it to be in the category b/c he probably thought it would hurt his chances of Best Picture. Anyway, Pan's Labyrinth most definitely deserved this.

Makeup: Winner/My Pick - Pan's Labyrinth
I was shocked to see that the faun was makeup and not CGI. Even more impressive makeup than I thought.

Original Score: Winner - Babel; My Pick - Pan's Labyrinth
Babel had no memorable music. I can't remember when watching the movie thinking that the music was good. Pan's Labyrinth, exactly the opposite. It's hard to resist humming the song just sitting here thinking about it.

Original Song: Winner - I Need To Wake Up; My Pick - some Dreamgirls song
Same deal as score really. I don't remember Inconvenient Truth even using any songs. As much as I didn't like Dreamgirls, the music was fantastic, and definitely deserved a win here.

Overall, the Academy surprised me on the upside. I thought they'd go more artsy but they made generally the right decisions. The biggest mistakes were in the nominations, not giving any to Thank You For Smoking, and more to The Prestige.