A Night for the Movies
February 26th, 2007 by brian
I am a big movie fan and greatly anticipate the annual coronation of the film industry known as the Academy Awards. I make a concerted effort to see all the nominated films in the major categories so I can truly enjoy the show and root for some favorites. Enjoying this year’s Oscars was easy with Ellen DeGeneres taking over the hosting duties, but the show on a whole was very bloated and long. In fact, this was the third longest Academy Awards show in history, and it had about an hour of irrelevant salutes that could have been eliminated.
Aside from the boring filler and length of the show, I thought Ellen did a great job hosting. She kept it clean and avoided politics while treating us to her usual brand of humor. I certainly hope the consensus is positive and that she is asked back to host in years to come.
One of my favorite moments of the night was the bit with Jack Black and Will Ferrell… totally hilarious. It can get dicey when calling out actors sitting in the audience (remember the Uma-Oprah fiasco with David Letterman), but they nailed it and had me in stitches throughout the whole thing.
As for the awards, The Departed won a highly contested race for Best Picture, nudging out Little Miss Sunshine (my personal favorite) and Babel. It was also a wonderful night for The Departed director Martin Scorsese, who finally won an Oscar after years of being criminally overlooked.
Helen Mirren (The Queen) and Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) shocked no one by taking home the statues for Best Actress and Actor, though there was some speculation that Peter O’Toole (Venus) would win the sentimental vote and take home Oscar for the first time after eight nominations.
In the supporting categories, Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls) was rewarded for what I thought was the best performance by any actor or actress this past year. She stole every scene she was in, which is no small feat for an American Idol reject who had never acted before. I am looking forward to the next step in this burgeoning career.
Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) pulled what could be the upset of the night by winning Best Supporting Actor over the favored Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls). Some may speculate that Arkin’s award was given as a salute to his long career, but at the same time it can be argued that Murphy’s chances were hampered by the release of the critically-panned Norbit while Oscar ballots were still being submitted. Having loved Little Miss Sunshine more than any other film this year, I was very pleased with Arkin’s triumph, though he made a faux pas and read his speech from a piece of paper and rarely looked up at the audience. Not the most inspiring moment on stage, but it was kind of sweet and endearing in a rambling-old-man kind of way.
Al Gore seemed to take Hollywood by storm and was enjoying every moment of it. And, who can blame him after his An Inconvenient Truth won Best Documentary Feature and the always-great Melissa Etheridge took home the Oscar for Best Original Song from that film (“I Need to Wake Up”).
Another year in the books. Now we will be treated to crap movies and major blockbusters while we wait for the next Oscar season to heat up next fall.
