Oscar Night was filled with tears and joy and the lamest dead celebrities montage in recent memory. I didn't watch the telecast live. I tuned in only for most of the major categories ( I missed best supporting actor... snoooze) because i was busy tending to other things. If it weren't for the innovation of the Digital Video Recorder, more commonly referred to as the DVR, i would have totally missed out on a event that would have put Terri Schiavo into a DEEPER coma. Am I the only one who thought last years affair was far more jubilant and out-of-the-box creative than this year? And I would think- with 10 Best picture nominees ranging from Sci-fi to fantasy to dark urban drama to whimsical family film to Sober war film- that there would be a creative surge that would affect the celebrities in the rows wearing gowns and tuxedos that equal the down payment on modest flat in the city or a down payment on a house in suburbs. Things that really consume us.
But I could not be any happier that Katherine Bigelow walked away with the prize for best Directing AND Picture for the Hurt Locker. God...didn't we all want to be piece of James Cameron's brain matter for at least an hour after that! Actually as Barbra Streisand rattled off that a woman could be the FIRST to take home the prize I was soooooo certain Sophia Coppola had won that prize already for the incredibly boring "Lost in Translation"- But i was wrong and she was right and Bigelow raced up to that stage and took one golden statue and in less than 5 minutes later got ANOTHER. One could imagine the sound of glass breaking in James Cameron's smug little mind. I don't know for a fact he is smug but he smell of it to me... and I was actually overjoyed a film about the trauma soldiers undergo in Iraq under senselessness and a sense of duty was chosen than a fantasy film dubbed the most expensive film EVER by press- a rather disgusting feat only Americans could dream up and manage into reality. To spend $500M, according to The Times, on a single film boggles my fragile little mind. It took only $15 million to make the Hurt Locker. You do the maths- how Hurt Lockers fit into Pandora. So I was quite thrilled at that result. Again... god i wanna be in his BRAIN! Damn!
I was also Thrilled with Mo'Niques win for the portrayal of Mary Jones, The abusive, despicable and completely un-empathizable (If that isn't a word a made one up) welfare mom to Gabourey Sidibe's Precious. The performance was the definition of grit and I couldn't possibly have imagined that Mo'Nique (best known for the blockbusting and critically acclaimed performances in Soul Plane and Phat Girlz) could pull such a black voided character out of her hat. She did! And she WON, like we knew from Day one (who as actually seen Up in the Air? I haven't met anyone yet... who were those two white women anyways?*ahem*) she'd take the prize in another first. This would be the very first Oscar given to a descent of Chewbacca. As it is widely known, Mo'Nique recently did genealogical research and found out that from a Galaxy Far Far away Her great great grandfather was Chewbaccan and in honor of that heritage she does not shave her legs. THAT was left out of the Barbara Walters Interview and left IN was Mo'Nique's admission to being sexually abused by her brother which was where she did pull Mary Jones out. I must admit I was underwhelmed by her acceptance speech.
Lastly Sandra Bullocks win for the Blind Side, which was like De'ja vu for me.(Remember Ellen Burstyn vs Julia Roberts in Erin Brocovich Did she deserve the win? absolutely not. Am I happy she did... ya know... yeah. Sandra Bullock career has last longer than most other cancers because, unlike most cancers she actually is likable. Sally Field 2. Her speech was heartfelt and funny... and although Siddibe truly should have won... the grace in which Bullock took her statue made it a pleasing win.
Did I miss anything?
