The Oscar Re-Wind

Okay so “Hollywood’s Biggest Night” aka THe Academy Awards is over and if I had to aggregate my sentiments into one word it would be ECSTATIC! About two hours through the 3.5 hour broadcast I began mentally kicking myself for not entering a betting pool… I would have made some major bucks! First off I’ll confront my previous grievance and applaud Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic for BRINGING BACK THE MOVIE CLIPS!!!! Words can’t express how thrilling it was to actually see portions of the nominated films… this goes especially for the artistic categories where we get to see how the set decoration sketches morph into an elaborate production, the lines from a script come to life on the screen, and of course THE PERFORMANCES. Good choice guys… way. to. go.

Now let’s talk about the tributes. I’ll be the first to admit that in years past when the show has decided to take a brief recess from the awards and show us video compilations of scenes from yester-year, it has often fallen flat. That was definitely not the case last night! The touching tribute to John Hughes initiated by Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick which led to a montage of his iconic 1980s teen flics and concluded with a parade of his former teen stars (including: Ally Sheedy, John Cryer, and McCaully Culkin to name a few) left many a damp eye in the audience and my apartment. The effect was underscored by the recognition of his wife and children in the audience. The overall reaction emphasized the indellibility of his mark on American cinema.

To continue with the tributes, last night’s awards brought us one of the most touching “In Memorium” montages to date. With a live rendition of The Beatles’ “In My Life” by James Taylor it opened with an image of Patrick Swayze which immediately struck an emotional chord that continued throughout. That said, I’m going to have to question why on earth the Academy would leave Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, as well as Bea Author out of the montage. What seems an inexcusable exclusion to me may have some explanation floating around out there but for the time being I remain bewildered.

The tribute to Hollywood Horror Films began with a dapper looking Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart to present. My only comment here is that it seems Kristen Stewart could not resist the moment to show forth her “awkwardness” by COUGHING ON TAYLOR in the middle of their introduction. Alas… this is what I remember from the Horror montage.
Now to speed this up… Neil Patrick Harris’ musical openning left a lot to be desired in my book. Thumbs up to Adam Shankman for the awe-inspiring dance performance that enlivened the Best Originial Score category (and made me personally regret abandoning all those dance classes and 16 years of all that hard work!)

Now… the moment you’ve all been waiting for: THE WINNERS Let’s start with the speeches…
My eyes began to well up about 20 minutes into the show when Cristoph Waltz so humbly and graciously accepted his award for BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR lauding Quentin Tarantino as a “fearless Explorer” who led him to that very moment. It really was quite touching.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY went to Geoffrey Fletcher, who also picked up an Independent Spirit Award two nights prior, could barely get through his emotions during his acceptance as he dedicated the award to “precious boys and girls” everywhere… again I teared up.
Mo’Nique, to no surprise won BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS and gave a powerful acceptance proclaiming that “Sometimes you have to forego what’s popular in order to do what’s right!”… I couldn’t agree more!

BEST ACTOR went to Jeff Bridges and can I just say that this category was full of some classic actors who showcased compelling humility during their respective introductions: Colin Firth, Morgan Freeman, Jeremy Renner, George Clooney… I was most touched as Freeman’s Shawshank Redemption co-star Tim Robbins extolled their friendship and congratulated his colleague. That said, the moment belonged to Jeff Bridges who received a standing-O and thanked his “mom and dad” for their inspiration and support… another great Oscar moment!

I had a feeling Sandra Bullock wasn’t going home empty handed and I was proven right. Her win began round 5 of me kicking myself for not enterting that betting pool! Her acceptance speech for BEST ACTRESS was emotional, inspirational, humble, gracious, and hilarious altogether! How does she do it? Seriously guys, check this one out on YouTube, the lady should write a book on what to say in order to not get the music cued on you when the show’s already gone past time by half and hour!

I’ll end this monstrosity of an Oscars re-cap by stating my complete exhileration for Kathryn Bigelow’s no-brainer win for BEST DIRECTOR. She’s the first lady to do so and the film speaks for itself. My exhileration accompanied both my and the rest of the world’s surprise when The Hurt Locker and NOT Avatar won BEST PICTURE. (Just a tidbit for all you nay-sayers: Rottentomatoes.com the most trusted online film review aggregate has THL as the 13th Highest Ranked Best Picture WInner of all time and holder of the highest ranking for any War Film). All politics aside, I like what this triumph (combined with the wins of Precious and Crazy Heart) says about the presence and infuence of Independent films in the industry today. It proves that movie magic isn’t determined by box office revenues. So, as I predicted last night was an Academy Awards broadcast that for all its history making, controversy, oddity, and grandeur is sure not to be forgotten!

This is Myah, signing out from Palisades Tartan!!

***Oscars Preview***

It's that time of year again and for our inaugural post I thought it nothing short of appropriate than to provide you with a preview of the 82nd Academy Awards. On my way to the Q train this morning while charging through the sleet during my early morning rush/commute from Brooklyn, my mind was abuzz with anxiety about the upcoming Oscars (Sunday, March 7 2010). With the exception of Slumdog Millionaire's win for Best Picture and AR Rahman's whimsical medley performance with John Legend, last year's Oscars was a slight bust. I mean, whose wise idea was it to nix all the movie clips??? During the Grammy's we get a slew of music performances, and rightfully so. Therefore, I'm honest to God praying that this year's producers have decided to go back to the old tradition of announcing the nominees with compelling snippets of their performances instead of using previous winners to introduce them (who else felt extremely awkward when Alan Arkin introduced Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Seymour Phillip Hoffman???). That said, let's get on to the nominees.

It would be phony for me to pretend that I've seen ALL of this year's top films. But I have done my fair share of media research/coverage on the ones I haven't. I for one have experienced theatrical viewings of both Avatar (in 3D, at the IMAX... oh my!) and The Hurt Locker. All I have to say on this subject is that for Kathryn Bigelow to direct the (arguably) first critically successful cinematic account of the Iraq War with a nearly all male cast, literally EXPLOSIVE imagery, and precision of story telling the way she did... there's no way on earth she should leave the Kodak theater Sunday night without a Best Director statuette! Her confrontation of the story was nothing short of BALLSY and arguably one of the BEST war films I've seen (in my humble opinion, reminiscent of Gillo Pontecorvo's poignant La Battaglia di Algeri). James Cameron can have BEST PICTURE all he wants (I concede him this because I do think that Avatar speaks volumes in relation to where the new age of cinema is heading... the film to me is the equivalent to the technological advances of sound and Technicolor seen in The Jazz Singer (1927) and The Wizard of Oz (1939)). I disagree with the critics who say that the story is lacking. I for one found profundity in its "simplicity" and appreciated the emotional evocation of just the visuals (the scene when the tree falls aflame left my mouth agape). In the words of Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that"...

In a statement that may have me hanged by my cinema studies colleagues at NYU I will be so bold as to declare my desire to see Sandra Bullock win BEST ACTRESS for her performance in The Blind Side. There I said it! And I'm not going to qualify it except to say that it's about time that the same 4 actresses cease the juggling of the golden statuette. We know who they are and I'm ready for some new blood on the winner's podium (to reference the recently passed Winter Olympics). It's time we get past our elitist pretension and look deeper at this performance to see the genuine portrayal of an ordinary person who did an extraordinary thing. Leave the politics aside and surrender to the performance. It was a breath of fresh air... and face it, who doesn't love Sandra Bullock?

Second to last, I liked Up but would not mind the impending upset of Coraline sneaking away with the BEST ANIMATED FEATURE award. Something about the intricacy and passion in Henry Selick's stop motion pictures (James and the Gian Peach, The Nightmare Before Christmas to name a few) reminds me of the subtle potential for magic that the cinema still offers.

Lastly I'll make a case for one of the films I haven't seen but still harbor an opinion about...

--Just re-viewed Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show and found the young Jeff Bridges so engaging and classic that had I an Academy membership I'd vote for him for BEST ACTOR in Crazy Heart in half a heartbeat...

Phew! So that's my preview of the Oscars for you and now that I've gotten it all off my chest I feel relieved and hope you feel amused, informed, or even contested. It's good to harbor different opinions. After all if it can't spark debate the movie arguably has not done its job. One thing's for sure, 2009 is arguably one of the best year's for movies (in my opinion) in a while, so Sunday's Oscars is bound to be a monumental showcase! Well my lunch break's over and this is me signing out from Palisades Pictures... please comment below if you feel so inclined!!!

-Myah