I'll make this brief, and entirely stream-of-consciousness. I watched the Oscars last night as I do every year, and in general I was pleased with how they turned out. Here are some random thoughts, a day after the official end to the movie awards season:
- Glad Avatar was vanquished by The Hurt Locker. The biggest money-maker of all time beaten by the smallest box office earner to ever get best picture. Loved the David-Goliath element, and loved James Cameron getting beat by his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow. I was hoping Bigelow would shout "I'm the queen of the world!" during her acceptance speech, just to rub it in.
- Sandra Bullock winning was great. And her acceptance speech was one of the best I can remember. Funny, sincere, humble. Say what you will about her, but she was wonderful in The Blind Side and single-handedly made that movie the hit that it was. And props to her for showing up to claim her Razzie the night before.
- No one ever deserved "best supporting actor" more than Christoph Waltz. Too bad Inglourious Basterds didn't win anything else though. It was the best of the the 10 nominated best pictures. A Serious Man is a close second.
- Jeff Bridges won. No big surprise. But I wish it had gone to Morgan Freeman.
- The expanded field of 10 best picture nominees was a shrewd marketing move. More audience buy in for their favorite movies of the year. Result? Ratings up 14% for the ABC telecast.
- Biggest snub? The White Ribbon not winning best foreign film and losing to AVATAR (really??) for best cinematography. People, you NEED to see The White Ribbon. As soon as possible.
- General thoughts about the Oscars' relevancy: They barely scratch the surface of the best films of any year. IMHO, these ten films should have been nominated for best picture (I have 3 in common with the Academy's nominees). In fact, I would have done all of the nominations a lot differently.
- For an overall better, more life-enriching celebration of cinema, I suggest you check out the 2010 Arts & Faith Top 100 list. Now that is a group of films deserving of accolades.