The big awards night has come and gone and left us with more sure bet announcements than surprises. Looking back at my Oscar predictions I must say I'm pretty pleased with my predicting abilities. 12/14, not bad. I should have played the odds in Vegas!
Unfortunately I missed a step with the best foreign language film category by choosing Waltz with Bashir over Departures. On second thought, I shouldn't have predicated that category as Waltz was the only film I had seen. I felt that because of how good it was and the buzz it had been receiving that it had a great chance to win. I guess I was wrong.
The other miss came on the biggest shock of the night. No one will say that Sean Penn was undeserving of his award. In fact, my original "Who will win" was a toss-up between Mickey Rourke and Penn. Alas, I changed it to just Rourke. I truly believed it was his night and his chance to win. Hearing Penn's name called over Rourke's was shocking, but not all too shocking.
The Wrestler was snubbed once the nominations came out. It only received nominations for best actor and best supporting actress when it should have been receiving much more. Best director and best original screenplay would have been good for starters. Not to mention Bruce Springsteen's original song that could have been added to a category that only had three nominees to begin with. I guess the Academy simply doesn't care much for wrestlers. Is it that shocking that a film about gay rights and human movement took an acting award over one about a brooding wrestler? Not really. It just doesn't feel right. Unless another perfect role for Rourke pops up, this might have been his last chance to capture the award. Ah well, what can you do? Nice acknowledgment from Penn during his speech, he knows what's up.
Winslet, Ledger and Cruz picked up the other major acting awards. Slumdog Millionaire absolutely cleaned house as it should have. A.R. Rahman took home his Oscars for his music, Boyle got directing and so on. The film, which was my personal favorite of the year, as evidence in my review here. It's a stunning film and deserved every award it took home tonight.
There's not much left to say. I'll be disappointed by the Rourke snub for a little while but in the end it's just a statue. The Oscars have screwed up before and they'll certainly screw up again.
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2 comments:
I have a communication professor who is absolutely in love with Slumdog Millionaire and told our entire class to view it.
When I was in London over winter break I saw it advertised all over the city, even on buses.
I haven't seen the movie, but your post has convinced me that I should.
That's one smart professor. I'm glad my post convinced you that you should see it. It's one enjoyable flick.
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