Oscars 2009

Wow, this is late, but I wanted to actually see all of the front-runners before I made my own decisions. Let’s just say It took me awhile to get around to “The Blind Side.”

Some were too easy:

Best Documentary:
1. Food Inc. 

I didn’t actually see any of the other documentaries. “The Cove” has been #1 on my Netflix queue for the last three weeks. Still a “Very Long Wait.”

Best Original Song:
1. The Weary Kind (Crazy Heart) 

Again, I didn’t see the other nominated films. Though, that shouldn’t matter in this notoriously weak category. The Weary Kind was a good song. You hardly ever need to be great to win here. 

Best Visual Effects:

1. Avatar (winner)
2. District 9
3. Star Trek

Well, duh. Is an explanation needed? Is there anyone who hasn’t seen this movie yet?

Best Animated Feature
1. Up (winner)
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox

This was one of Pixar’s worst movies (by that I mean it was only good) and there are still no other animators around that get close to them. Pixar has won this award five times out of the last seven years. One of those years they didn’t even have a movie and the other year the idiotic “Happy Feet” somehow edged out the vastly superior “Cars.”

Best Film Editing

1. The Hurt Locker (winner)
2. District 9
3. Sherlock Holmes
4. Avatar
5. A Serious Man

I have to admit I don’t really know how to judge Film Editing. Nor do I know how to judge Sound Editing or Sound Mixing. I didn’t even bother making a list for those two categories. Other Categories that are missing: Foreign Language Film, Short Films, Makeup. I plead ignorance.

From here on out, I basically saw all the movies that were nominated:

Best Original Score
1. Up (winner)
2. A Serious Man
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox
4. Where the Wild Things Are
5. Avatar

Best Cinematography
1. Avatar (winner)
2. The Hurt Locker
3. A Serious Man
4. Inglourious Basterds
5. Up in the Air

The only Cinematographer that I know is Roger Deakins. He’s the guy who does all the movies for the Coen Brothers (He did “A Serious Man” last year). He’s been nominated 8 times and hasn’t won an Oscar yet. At least he is guaranteed a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Best Supporting Actor
1. Tom Waits (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) (winner)
2. Ed Helms (The Hangover)
3. Zach Galifinakis (The Hangover)
4. Tom Hollander (In the Loop)
5. Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)

Tom Waits isn’t an actor. He’s a musician. But there isn’t a better person in the world to play his character, The Devil. I can’t really describe it and give it justice. Look up some of his music on YouTube (maybe “Little Drop of Poison”) and imagine him playing The Devil in a movie. He gave me the chills every time I saw him on camera. When he talked…watch out. Nobody has ever sounded so sinister. 

Best Supporting Actress
1. Mo’Nique (Precious) (winner)
2. Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air)
3. Anna Faris (Observe and Report)
4. Aubrey Plaza (Funny People)
5. Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air)

Nobody really got close to Mo’Nique this year. This is a win for comedians everywhere. I said in a previous review that I thought Maggie Gyllenhaal’s nomination represented the tremendous lack of imagination the Academy has when it comes to nominating good performances in comedies or blockbusters. So whom would I nominate instead? Anna Faris, that’s who. Yeah, I said it.

Best Costume Design
1. Where the Wild Things Are (winner)
2. The Imgainarium of Doctor Parnassus
3. An Education

I heard that those big Wild Things weren’t CGI but actual people in huge suits. I wonder if that counts. 

Best Art Direction
1. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (winner)
2. Avatar
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox
4. Sherlock Holmes

Believe it or not, but there was more imagination going on visually in the Imaginarium than on Pandora. May not have been as spectacular but was still something to behold.

Best Actress
1. Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia) (winner)
2. Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) 
3. Carey Mulligan (An Education)
4. Gabourney Sidibe (Precious)
5. Alison Lohman (Drag Me to Hell)

Sandra Bullock may have done an admirable job elevating mediocre material into a great performance but Meryl Streep elevated great material into a superior performance. The real reason Streep lost is because she had already won two Oscars and Bullock hadn’t won any. That’s also the reason why Streep didn’t win for ‘Doubt’ last year or for ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ three years ago. 

Best Actor
1. George Clooney (Up in the Air) (winner)
2. Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)
3. Peter Sarsgaard (An Education)
4. Sam Rockwell (Moon)
5. Paul Rudd (I Love You, Man)

It’s the same thing. George had already won an Oscar and Jeff Bridges, a very cool dude, had yet to win. We all like giving the Dude nice things, but that’s the reason why we have Lifetime Achievement Awards. Otherwise these sort of things kind of screw us down the line. We give Denzel Washington an Oscar for an okay film called “Training Day,” when we should have given it to him for “Malcolm X.” But we didn’t that year because we gave Al Pacino the Oscar for an okay film called “Scent of a Woman.” Al Pacino should have won for “Godfather Part II,” but Art Carney instead won for “Harry and Tonto.” Who the hell is Art Carney and what the hell is “Harry and Tonto.” You could probably say the same for “Crazy Heart” in about ten years. (You won’t say that about “Up in the Air.”) Anyway I bet Art Carney was a cool dude who had paid his dues. But then again, aren’t the Oscars supposed to be about movies?

Best Original Screenplay
1. (500) Days of Summer (winner)
2. The Hangover
3. A Serious Man
4. The Hurt Locker
5. Observe and Report

What a snub it was that (500) Days of Summer wasn’t even nominated. The biggest snub of the year. At the very least, it was the densest screenplay of the year. (By “dense” I mean that it had the highest amount of ideas, jokes, creativity, etc. per minute). 

Best Adapted Screenplay
1. In the Loop (winner)
2. Up in the Air
3. Precious
4. An Education
5. District 9

Besides its boring title, there are just as much laughs in this movie than any other this year (Yes, its on par with the Hangover). It was unfairly overlooked because it is from England and is about government work, but hey did you like the Office. Now imagine the job concerns weapons of mass destruction and everybody curses like a sailor. 

Best Director
1. James Cameron (Avatar) (winner)
2. Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
3. Spike Jonze (Where the Wild Things Are)
4. Marc Webb (500) Days of Summer)
5. Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)

I really don’t see how you can’t give it to James Cameron. He took nine years, invented the technology, spent $200 million dollars, and produced exactly the mind-blowing experience he had promised. He had grand ambitions and he met them. The Hurt Locker may be a better film, but Avatar showed us the future of movies. And it couldn’t have been done at all without James Cameron. 

Best Picture
1. (500) Days of Summer (winner)
2. Where the Wild Things Are
3. Up in the Air
4. In the Loop
5. The Hangover
6. The Hurt Locker
7. A Serious Man
8. An Education
9. Avatar
10. Precious

(500) Days of Summer is an awesome film. I strongly suggest you see it. Hell I suggest you see all of them.