Monday, March 06, 2006

78th Annual Academy Awards

I usually don't give a rat's ass about award shows. However, since this year, I actually saw all five movies that were nominated for best movie, I was interested in who would win. Here's how a few things played out:

Best Picture: Crash
Achievement in Directing: Ang Lee, for Brokeback Mountain
Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon, for Walk the Line
Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, for Capote
Best Adapted Screenplay: Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana, for Brokeback Mountain
Best Original Screenplay: Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco, for Crash
Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz, for The Constant Gardner
Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney, for Syriana
Best Original Song: 'Hard Out Here for a Pimp' - Music & Lyrics by Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard, for Hustle & Flow

OKAY. I've got a few things to say about this...
Best Picture: This was a super-hard one. I'm really glad to see that Crash won, however, because it was an AWESOME movie (despite being tough to swallow at times) and it addressed an issue that is still very delicate in this country.

Achievement in Directing: Again, super-hard category. While I'm glad Brokeback Mountain won in an esteemed category, I don't think this was the "best directed" among the group of nominees. Munich, Crash, Capote, and Good Night & Good Luck were all VERY well directed. Each movie had its own style; I didn't see anything all that special about Ang Lee's directing. Munich had some interesting angles (not to mention the overlap of real-time versus story-time AND all the explosions). Crash's directing made the movie very personal with close-up shots. Capote was a little bit of everything - good camera angles, wide and long shots, great acting. Good Night & Good Luck was a bit jarring in style - definitely artistic. All in all, I just don't see what stood out about Brokeback's directing...

Best Actress: Reese will always be my girl, in any competition. (Mainly because I've been told no less than two dozen times that I look like Reese. What a nice compliment, even though I don't see it.) However, the other nominees were spectacular as well - Felicity Huffman played a man for goodness sake! Charlize Theron is always brilliant when she has to look ugly. Dame Judy Dench is wonderful in any role she takes on. Keira Knightley - I give her mad props for memorizing and acting a period piece like Pride & Prejudice!

Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman DESERVED to win. He was brilliant in his portrayal of Truman Capote.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Don't know enough about this category to comment.
Best Original Screenplay: Again, don't know enough about this category to comment.

Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz. HOLD THE PHONE. Are you serious? I think the Academy awarded this to the ROLE that Miss Weisz played and not the actual acting. I truly think Amy Adams (for Junebug) or Catherine Keener (for Capote) should have gotten the award. They were brilliant. (By the way, if you haven't seen Junebug you might want to rent it. It's a quirky and weird little film.)

Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney. Brilliant, as always. Enough said.

Best Original Song: These three stuck out like a sore thumb. They looked ridiculous and their performance was NOT outstanding. I think Jon Steward summed it up best, saying "For those keeping score, Three Six Mafia 1; Martin Scorsece 0." (The song from Crash, In The Deep, should have won.)

And a final word about the host, Jon Stewart. He was disappointing, at best, but got a few good lines in there...

Anyway, there's my two cents worth the 78th Annual Academy Awards. Don't expect this from me EVER AGAIN.
Posted by Jessie_b :: 8:48 AM :: ---------------oOo---------------