oscars: my reaction

The Oscars were great last night! I loved the opening number with Neil Patrick Harris, I loved the dancing (although Adam Shankman had promised we'd see So You Think You Can Dance dancers we know and love, but the shots were all so wide that I had a hard time picking anyone out), and much of the fashion was fantastic. Sandra Bullock in particular looked dazzling. Why did J-Lo wear packing sheets for her dress, though? And can someone please work on Miley Cyrus's posture?


I was mildly surprised that Kathryn Bigelow/The Hurt Locker won both Best Director and Best Picture. I had thought that she would split the categories with James Cameron/Avatar. I figured she'd take Best Director, but that voters couldn't overlook Avatar given that it is the highest grossing film ever. Oh, well. I was wrong. I'm happy that Bigelow won Best Director, though, because it is high time that a female broke into that boys' club, and she apparently deserved it (having never seen The Hurt Locker, I can only go off popular opinion, but that seems to be the consensus).


I was very happy for Sandra Bullock. While her performance may not have been the very best of the year, I think this is the Academy's apology for ignoring her because she sticks with romantic comedies most of the time (a genre oft-overlooked by Academy voters). With everyone touting the category as a showdown between Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock, there was a chance that voters would split between them and Gabourey Sidibe would sneak in and steal it from under them, but that didn't happen. Sandra Bullock impressed me with her acceptance speech - her tribute to her mother was especially touching, and I don't think anyone could help but feel happy she'd won.


Another plus of the night, I thought the co-star tribute bit to introduce the Best Actor and Best Actress categories was classy and emotional. Very well thought-out, and it allowed for some fantastically emotional (and sometimes hilarious) moments.


I had been worried about Mo'Nique's acceptance speech for Supporting Actress, given some of the things she said in her Barbara Walters interview. However, she was fantastic. Her shoutout to Hattie McDaniel (first African-American Oscar winner (Supporting Actress) for 1939's Gone With the Wind) was great. At the time, African-Americans in movies were pretty much relegated to servant roles, so that win was a big deal. Her giving credit to Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey was classy and well-spoken.


The James Taylor live-accompanied tribute to those who died in the past year was nice, but did anyone else notice the conspicuous absence of Farrah Fawcett? Looks like Michael Jackson overshadowed her all over again (he was in, what, The WIZ, and that's it, but he got a section?).


A few quabbles: if the same people are going to win for Sound Recording and Sound Mixing, why are they separate categories? I mean, I know people in sound recording technology, so I know the distrinction, but I would think that the nominees would differ, and the winner might, too. Also, why are so many winners so inconsiderate as to eat up all the time their co-winners would have for their acceptance speech? Too many times the first person ate up all the time, and they had to cut off the second person. It's obvious that they had a time limit that was well delineated (one of the guys started freaking out when they were warning him his time was up), so you would think they'd be more considerate. And with all of the ushering off and stuff, how did they go over by an entire half hour? Lastly, it's obvious that you shouldn't waltz up to the stage with a banner promoting your own cause, even if it's a good one. The guy from The Cove was pretty dumb doing that.


And in the end, a bunch of my favorite movies of the year hardly got blinked at, because that's not how the Oscars work. In fact, my wife hadn't even heard of half of the Best Picture noms. It's too bad so many movies get put together just to garner Oscars attention, and that it actually works. :P


That's about it.