Oscars

Well, I can at least say this much: I won my Oscar pool. Of course, I won it by betting on Million Dollar Baby to sweep, which is a shame because I think it's grossly overrated. I would have much rather seen The Aviator take home the top awards, although that would have taken away Scorsese's distinction as the Susan Lucci of the Oscars. The only other positive thing besides winning the pool was seeing Charlie Kaufman win the Citizen Kane Award, aka Best Original Screenplay, for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which would have swept the awards if the Academy had any taste and/or sense.

Otherwise, I keep my expectations low and thus am rarely disappointed. It's a silly spectacle, and as such this wasn't really any worse than past years. I thought Chris Rock was at least as good as Steve Martin, and had a strong monologue and a number of good lines. Not everything he did was perfect; the bit at the Magic Johnson Theater was good but the Adam Sandler bit was terrible. As expected, I wanted to kill Beyonce, and how insulting was it that they wouldn't even let Minnie Driver sing her own song from The Phantom of the Opera? Maybe if the song nominees weren't universally dreadful I would have been more forgiving, but every time they started singing I took a bathroom break. Giving out the awards in the aisles or with all the nominees on stage was especially insulting, as was having the nominees for Costume Design read by an animated character who is a parody of costume designers. I mean, not that they don't deserve parody, but at least show them some respect when you're about to give one of them an Oscar. Also, respect to the Sound Editing guy who noted that his category (and the other "ghettoized" categories) is artistic, too. It's one freakin' night a year; let these people who do such important work have their moment in the spotlight without belittling them.

I'll have to do a post soon with all the positive feedback I've gotten from my negative review of Million Dollar Baby. I'm sure after tonight, I'll be getting plenty more.