Thoughts on last night's Oscar, 2008 version

13 / 21 = 61.9% correct. An improvement over last year's 55% accuracy =)

Thing's I am happy about last night's oscar:

"Falling Slowly" from Once won the Best Original Song category. It is without question not only a great heartfelt song, but the only worthy nomination in the category, really. The rest are just typical disney crap mainstream songs. Many have thought this is the worst Oscar category that should be removed and had "Falling Slowly" not won, I'd have joined the agreement.

The Bourne Ultimatum won The Best Editing. Wow, I was pleasantly shocked about this. The Bourne Ultimatum was the best action film last year and huge credit goes to the watertight editing of the "shakycam style" of the action and chase scenes that makes them fast-cut and yet coherent. I thought that the Academy would normally ignore action movies but kudos for them for recognizing this one. Now, if only Michael Bay would work with this editor.

Ellen Page did not win Best Actress. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Ellen Page and Juno very much. I love Ellen Page for her talent and natural sassiness so much that I wish for a great acting career ahead for her. Winning an Oscar at this point when she's still so young would put so much expectation and pressure that her career could be in danger of collapsing if she's not careful. The last thing I want to see is Ellen becoming another Lindsay Lohan. Hopefully, Juno is only a sign of more wonderful things to come.

Things that puzzled me:

Tilda Swinton won for Best Supporting Actress in Michael Clayton. Tilda Swinton is a very talented actress with an interesting body of work. But her work in Michael Clayton certainly isn't her best and she wasn't in it much. It was really something out of the blue. Great acceptance speech though, no matter. Speaking of which, George Clooney/Batman & Robin jokes are getting really old.

The Golden Compass winning Best Special Effects over Transformers?!?!? wtf?!?! Man those scenes of Nicole Kidman and her monkey pet sure is a phenomenal achievement in special effects.

Transformers also lost the sound categories. I'm not a big fan of Transformers, but I thought that film was loud and boy the sounds created for the robots stood out. Note to self: louder doesn't mean better.

Miscellaneous:

Jon Stewart was meh as a host. Totally mediocre. It wasn't all his fault though. The writers' strike was only over recently and I guessed there wasn't enough time to make the jokes. There's also the factor of the current media climate where playing safe and not having controversy dominate live shows, especially award shows like Oscar. But Jon Stewart himself isn't really funny All BY himself. If you watch The Daily Show, the show is funny because the politicians are already making a fool of themselves in highlighted footage and Jon doesn't really have to do much to ridicule them. It also seemed that he was only capable of making political jokes. For an occasion like Oscar, film jokes would be very welcome too.

I watched the Oscar with my girlfriend. She asked me why the guy who won the best editing seemed indifferent when he made his acceptance speech and then left. I explained to her that people who work behind the scenes in filmmaking (such as editors, cinematographers, art directors etc) tend to be more humble since they work from job to job and need to work their best to keep getting hired. They tend to be more passionate and value their professions highly and therefore it's in their best interest to be unfazed by the glitz and glamour of the industry and just keep doing the best job they can. This is unlike actors or directors who usually get emotional when they win, partly because the spotlight is always on them.

This is also another year where the best pictures of the year don't get seen by many. Of all best pictures nominee, I saw No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, and Michael Clayton last week few days before the ceremony. As good as they are, they aren't really mainstream friendly (Only Juno has grossed over $100 million). Also, if you read entertainment news a lot, u know it's not hard to guess which film has the momentum to win best picture: No Country For Old Men or that Daniel Day Lewis would win the best actor. I really missed the days when Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Titanic, Saving Private Ryan won or were nominated. Oscar seemed more unpredictable and audience friendly then.