Watched the Oscars last night, doing my usual semi-inexplicable obsessive view of the whole event. For the first time ever they were shown live here, in mid afternoon, and then repeated at night in a cutdown version. That probably explains why I missed the writing categories…
It was largely as expected win-wise, with Sean Penn nabbing Best Actor being the only surprise, and even that was only slightly surprising. Supporting Actress was up in the air, but Penelope Cruz wasn’t that surprising. Slumdog Millionaire roared to victory with eight wins, Benjamin Button got three (nothing major though), and Milk and Dark Knight got two each. Anything else got just one, which spread things out quite well.
Heath Ledger was the unopposed winner for Supporting Actor, and his family made probably the best speech of the night — quiet, dignified and moving. Sean Penn’s speech was surprisingly good as well — “I know how hard I made it to appreciate me” — best line of the night.The animated sequence around the Best Animated Feature was a hoot — and Wall-E was a worthy winner there too.
Hugh Jackman was great as host –laconical and laid back and fun, but also different with the song and dance bit. Good change of pace for the show… and I really liked Jon Stewart last year because I’m a fan!
I’m just a suck for something like the Oscars, even though I’m horribly behind on my movie watching. I usually make the winners my attempted viewing choices for the rest of the year, but I haven’t even got through last year’s, so who am I to talk?
But just seeing creative people being rewarded, especially the lesser known techie types, and seeing them talk about their dreams, and what drove them in their youth… that’s good stuff. Makes you think about why you, or anyone, gets into that field. Gets me every year.