So what surprises there were were generally positive. All four acting winners were my personaly favorites, and while it was obvious that Day-Lewis and Bardem would win, I was very happy for Cotillard and Swinton, since I didn't think they had a real chance. Obviously I'm also happy that the Academy rewarded No Country for Old Men, a challenging and thoughtful thriller and probably the best Best Picture winner since Schindler's List, and the Coens, and even though my personal favorite for the top awards was Paul Thomas Anderson, his time will come in the decades to come. Otherwise, hey Coens? You need to fill up on Affect, you both seem to be a couple quarts low. And who knew that Scott Rudin was gay? (Okay, a lot of people but not me.) I knew he loved to scream at and fire his assistants and underlings, but this has got to be the first time a Best Picture winner has thanked his same-sex partner, right?
On the downside, even though Robert Elswit did great work in There Will Be Blood, I would have preferred for Roger Deakins to win for Cinematography, and some small part of me was still hoping that Brook Busey-Hunt (aka Diablo Cody, I hate pseudonyms) wouldn't win Best Original Screenplay. And there were too many lame filler pieces, like the remembrance 'When I won my Oscar...' things and the stupid 'Inside Price Waterhouse' thing, that felt like they had been shot before the strike ended and included because hey, we already shot and edited them, so let's use them to pad the show out!
I ended up going 14/24 on my predictions, which is typical for me. I had no idea The Golden Compass would win for Best Visual Effects and or Elizabeth: The Golden Age would win for Costume Design, among others.
4 comments:
Yes, but now Ms. Busey-Hunt is all set to inspire an entire generation of film scripts that will seem hopeless dated in 25 years.
At least Ms. Busey redeemed herself with an acceptance speech that for once in her professional writing career dropped all snark and pretense and seemed genuine, honest and heartfelt.
I didn't know Rudin was gay, either, and my NY friends gave me grief for being so out of the know. Oh, well. Straight or gay, the word that still best defines him is one that knows no orientation -- "gross."
Agreed, Craig, her speech was genuine and unaffected, which was especially nice considering how incredibly blase the Coens appeared to be. Good thing they had Frances McDormand there to be excited on their behalfs (behalves?).
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