Blogocentric Formulations

Oscars

The Oscars have come and gone for another year. For anyone who's interested, my thoughts:

BEST PICTURE
WHO WON: The Hurt Locker
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: The Hurt Locker
Although Up In The Air and District 9 rounded out my Top 3 of the year, The Hurt Locker was an incredible film in just about every respect. Completely deserving of taking home Best Pic... and I'm very happy it didn't go to Avatar.


BEST DIRECTING
WHO WON: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
There's an interesting debate about this award. The Oscar category is "Best Directing" while the Directors Guild (DGA) Award category is "Outstanding Directorial Achievement." To some people, the difference (while largely a matter of semantics) could be construed as the difference between "best directing" as a representation of the director's technical skill (getting performances out of actors, visual style, etc.)... and "best directing achievement" as a representation of the of the director's managerial skill as it applies to the overall quality of the film. In this case, I happen to think Kathryn Bigelow deserves both categories (with Jason Reitman in a close second for Up In The Air), but it's an interesting debate for someone like James Cameron who clearly created an amazing product in Avatar, even if the quality of the acting, writing, etc. was lacking, as many people point out.


BEST ACTOR
WHO WON: Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart
I actually haven't seen Crazy Heart, so I can't in good conscience challenge the award... but by all accounts, this was the defining performance of Bridges' already accomplished career. Still, would have loved to have seen Jeremy Renner take it for his incredible performance in The Hurt Locker.


BEST ACTRESS
WHO WON: Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia
Again, haven't seen The Blind Side so I can't make a definitive ruling, but this was one of the few times I think Streep actually deserved to win, this time for her performance in Julie & Julia. Her portrayal of Julia Child was simply flawless. Still, I was happy to see Sandy win. I love it when good things happen to good people.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
WHO WON: Christoph Waltz for Inglorious Basterds
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Christoph Waltz for Inglorious Basterds
Stanley Tucci was a distant second for The Lovely Bones. Seriously, the two Supporting acting categories this year were a total lock. If you've seen Inglorious Basterds and Precious, you know why. Absolutely mesmerizing performances.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
WHO WON: Mo'Nique for Precious
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Mo'Nique for Precious
Thanks in large part to Mo'Nique's performance, this was a haunting and deeply disturbing movie. Although I was secretly pulling for Anna Kendrick for Up In The Air, there's no denying that this gold man went home with the right lady.


BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
WHO WON: Up
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Up
Never bet against Pixar in this category. Seriously... just don't do it.


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
WHO WON: Mauro Fiore for Avatar
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Barry Ackroyd for The Hurt Locker
While cinematography is technically a technical award as much as it is a creative award... and Avatar deserves every technical achievement in the book, I can't help but feel like it should have gone to The Hurt Locker. When I watched that movie, I actually felt like I was in there in the desert with the soldiers... and that's not easy to do.


BEST EDITING
WHO WON: Bob Murawski and Chris Innis for The Hurt Locker.
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Julian Clarke for District 9
Yes, The Hurt Locker was amazing. But to make District 9 look like a retrospective documentary while simultaneously moving the narrative forward and keeping tension and conflict high in real time... that's quite an editing feat.


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
WHO WON: Geoffrey Fletcher for Precious
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner for Up In The Air
I'll say it. Up In The Air was downright robbed in this category. My definition of a good adaptation is one in which the writer respects and honors the source material, while at the same time bringing something of himself to the project and taking it beyond what the original achieved. Seeing as Reitman and Turner completely changed Clooney's job, and added an entire character to the script (and made the movie better for it), Up In The Air deserved to walk away with this one.


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
WHO WON: Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker
I thought Up was in the running, and will begrudgingly give a nod to Inglorious Basterds as well... but Boal deserved this award for his incredible screenplay for this film.


BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
WHO WON: Avatar
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Avatar
Even though I thought Star Trek and especially District 9 were the far superior movies overall, it's pretty hard to argue against a VFX Oscar for a team that invented an entirely new technology that will revolutionize the effects industry in the coming years.


BEST ART DIRECTION
WHO WON: Avatar
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Avatar
So here's an interesting conundrum... since art direction is largely related to the film's visual style (and, in fact, the set decorator is one of the people who accepts this trophy), is it still technically "art direction" if the film is largely shot on green screen with CGI? Can it really be considered an artistic achievement in the category of physical set design and decoration if the majority of the sets are "designed" and "decorated" with computer graphics? It may very well be a debate that becomes an issue in the future... but I still give it to Avatar because the film looked amazing.


BEST COSTUME DESIGN
WHO WON: Sandy Powell for The Young Victoria
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Sandy Powell for The Young Victoria
Although Colleen Atwood probably gave her a run for her money with Nine, never bet against period pieces in the costume design category. You can't compete with the big, flowing Victorian wardrobe.


BEST MAKEUP
WHO WON: Star Trek
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Star Trek
When you're using prosthetics and spending hours creating dozens of life-like alien races, doing the makeup on regular 'ol people just doesn't really measure up.


BEST SOUND EDITING
WHO WON: The Hurt Locker
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Star Trek
C'mon... phasers and spaceships and aliens versus explosions and the sounds of war? The Hurt Locker was great, but I'd give it to the movie with more sounds going on.


BEST SOUND MIXING
WHO WON: The Hurt Locker
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
This is the only time you'll ever hear me say that a Transformers movie deserves to win an Oscar... but if there's one thing Michael Bay does well, it's have a million loud things going on at the same time.


BEST ORIGINAL SONG
WHO WON: "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart
Randy Newman's Disney songs might do the trick most years... but don't bet against movies with stories about musicians that go through the trouble of actually creating songs for them to perform.


BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
WHO WON: Michael Giacchino for Up
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Michael Giacchino for Up
If you've seen the movie, you'll know why... it's an amazing, uplifting, endearing composition. I don't know what the hell those "So You Think You Can Dance" dancers were doing while the nominees were being played (thanks for plugging your own show, Adam Shankman), but the right guy definitely won here.


BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
WHO WON: The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos)
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: I have no idea.
I didn't actually see any of the nominated movies this year, although I heard The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band) was the one to beat. So I guess that's a bit of a surprise.


BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
WHO WON: The Cove
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: The Cove
Although Food, Inc. was also excellent, The Cove was amazing. It's an added bonus that Fisher Stevens made the movie, so now we can all say that "The Plague" from Hackers has an Oscar.


BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
WHO WON: Music By Prudence
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: China's Unnatural Disaster
Admittedly, I haven't seen any of these, but it looked like China's Unnatural Disaster was a freakin' modern marvel the way they got some of the footage they did. Still, can't officially fault a winning film I haven't seen.


BEST ANIMATED SHORT
WHO WON: Logorama
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Logorama
Although I hadn't seen any of these either, I'm going to have to change my Oscar rule of never betting against Nick Park's "Wallace & Gromit" films. Still, Logorama (which I saw after) was incredible. A well-deserved win.


BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
WHO WON: The New Tenants
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON: Haven't a clue.
The New Tenants wins for star power alone... but I haven't seen any of these and therefore can't say whether it was truly a well-deserved win.


There you have it; my full Oscar run-down. To recap, for those of you looking to get a little bit of an edge for your Oscar pools next year:

- Never bet against Pixar in the Best Animated Film category.
- Never bet against period dramas (especially Victorian era) in the Best Costume Design category.
- Nick Park (Wallace & Gromit) are almost always a safe bet.
- Original Songs from dramas about musicians are usually good bet.
- When someone invents new visual effects technology, they'll win the Oscar.
- It's more likely that a makeup team will get an Oscar for making realistic-looking aliens and monsters than they will for making pretty people look prettier.

See ya next year!