Hollywood's Annual Night of Cinematic Mercy (1)

So, now that awards season has finally commenced with the grand soirée of them all, the Academy Awards, I want to reflect on yet another convoluted whirlwind this awards cycle. But before that, my thoughts on the changes/caveats/everything else about this year's ceremony, "the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", after the jump. Once again, I embedded a few YouTube clips for your convenience. :)
More musings...
The Good:
-Hugh Jackman actually turned out to be a fine host. I had slight qualms about the Oscars steering away from the comedian emcee thing they have long established as a trademark. Hugh's song and dance background ideally fits the mold of the Grammys or the Tonys more so than the Oscars, but I was wrong this time around. His "recession-proof" opening number was a lot of fun to watch and contained great jokes ridiculing the inevitable problem of how much of the general public has no interest in the nominated films. And, of course, he was uber-charming. :)
-New presenter format for acting awards: If you've watched the show before, you're probably aware of the tradition they have of bringing back the 4 winners from the previous year and have them present the award of the opposite sex (i.e. last year's Best Actor present Best Actress) in kind of a "passing of the torch". This year, many awards watchers panicked when Oscar producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark mentioned they were abandoning this tradition. However, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by the new "passing of the torch" approach. For each acting award, they brought back 5 past winners to introduce each of the 5 nominees, and one of them was designated to open the envelope. Very cool and a method that truly never crossed my mind until yesterday.
Here's a sample (Best Actress):

-Queen Latifah singing during In Memoriam: Again, a lot of awards watchers were initially confused by this new addition. Usually, they just play some nostalgic-sounding classical music, sometimes played live by a famous classical musician (always nice and perfectly appropriate), but this year, the talented Queen Latifah sang a lovely song to accompany the montage of the people the film industry lost this year. It was a interesting change, but it worked it pretty well. Of course, the reel culminated with one last tribute to the legendary Paul Newman.
The Bad:
-the Original Song conglomeration: Shows how much the Academy cares about this category. First, b/c of their uber-puzzling preferential ballot system in this category, they only nominated three instead of the usual five songs. Then, they give each song a mere 60-65 seconds of performance time in a mash-up of sorts. Come on.
-no film/acting nominee clips: I like these b/c they give people an idea of what the nominee did to deserve (or in some case, didn't deserve) their nomination. Normally, they omit these if they have time constraints, and obviously they did with this year's new presenter format, which took up the time normally allotted for the clips. So, they actually had a good reason to omit these, unlike years past, where they've sometimes just eliminated that portion for seemingly no reason.
The Ugly:
-Montages: Like every show, I was hoping there would be less of them this year, but there were actually more. But instead of them being random featurettes of different aspects of filmmaking or whatever else they like to use in montages, each montage was a "Yearbook" of the year in Romance, Action, Comedy (featuring a clever short film from Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, and James Franco), and Animation. While it's nice that they're using this to mention the films they don't nominate, I must object when they put, for lack of a better term, crappy movies in a montage with good movies. For instance, the Romance montage featured moments from the likes of Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Revolutionary Road combined with those from Mamma Mia!, High School Musical 3, and Twilight. Wrong choice. The latter group, no matter how popular they are, DO NOT BELONG AT THE ACADEMY AWARDS IN A MONTAGE WITH OTHER GOOD FLICKS.
-a vast majority of the presenters: They didn't belong there (btw: Huffington Post has a poll about this topic). They didn't deserve to be there. Especially sitting in the same room and breathing the same air amongst living legends like Meryl Streep, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Robert DeNiro, etc. Robert Pattinson? Zac Efron? Sarah Jessica Parker? The list goes on. I mean, every year, they get a few odd presenters that seem out of place (last year, Miley Cyrus owned this category), but this year, I felt like it was nearly everyone. Was the rest of the world unavailable? Geez. Interestingly enough, I thought I was the most peeved about this (I always complain about undeserving presenters), but my co-editor was practically shouting when we were discussing this in our conversation today. He said, and I quote, that "it was like they just picked up some random hobos off the streets of L.A. and had them present. Every time, I was shouting at the TV, 'Get off the freaking stage!'" And, I hate to admit it, but he's right. I absolutely concur; it just didn't feel like the Oscars with those talentless idiots handing out all the awards. And, another observation: many of them presented multiple awards in a row. Seriously AMPAS, was no one else available???
-Red Carpet, as usual: You've probably figured out by now that I'm pretty apathetic towards these, and while I did jot down some things during E!'s always horrendous Red Carpet (only they can get away with using the phrase "glamastrator"), there's really not much you missed.

Big 8 Awards Summary (I accurately predicted all of them, but it's nothing to brag about since this year was so pre-determined by the precursors/zeitgeist):
•Supp. Actress- presented by Tilda Swinton (2007), Whoopi Goldberg (1990), Anjelica Huston (1985), Goldie Hawn (1969), & Eva Marie Saint (1954)
Winner: Penélope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)- A lot of Oscar pundits suddenly began predicting Viola Davis (my personal fave of the nominees) last week, but I played it safe and stuck with Penélope. I just couldn't see why the Academy, of all people, would change it up.
Great speech to start out the night! I especially appreciated the part about "protecting art", which never gets old around these parts. And just like her fellow Spaniard Javier Bardem last year, she ended with a little bit to her Spanish fans and family.
•Original Screenplay- presented by the hilariously awesome Tina Fey and Steve Martin (one of the only good presenter pairs)
I'm glad they brought back the feature of reading a few lines from each screenplay while playing that particular scene. It provides a brief glimpse into the arguably most important part of filmmaking, the blank page.
Winner: Dustin Lance Black (Milk)- WALL•E had a pretty good shot here, but in the end, I think the Academy preferred the perpetually rousing speeches to the perfectly measured silence.
Another powerful, but political speech (starts at about 3:54) which I know people thought might have been too deep, but you have to understand how personal Milk was to this guy. He's openly gay, and after hearing Harvey Milk's story, he was determined to write the film and pitch it to studios even though it was deemed a huge risk by others. Bravo!
•Adapted Screenplay- presenters: ditto.
Winner: Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire)
This was a given, so not much to say here; the 1st of 8 Oscars for Slumdog last night, at least according to the mental tally I kept.
•Supp. Actor- presented by Alan Arkin (2006), Cuba Gooding Jr. (1996), Kevin Kline (1988), Christopher Walken (1978), & Joel Grey (1972)
Winner: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)- There was no way they weren't going to give it to him, especially after his tragic death, winning pretty much every award on the face of the Earth for this role, and his family flying all the way out from Australia to accept it on his behalf. Say what you will about the excessive hype, but Heath deserved it. That said, I feel bad for the other Supp. Actor nominees, who were great too but had no shot at all.
Anyway, God bless his family for staying strong and delivering one of the most heartfelt moments of the evening.
•Director- presented by Reese Witherspoon
Winner: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)- No room for surprises here.
Even though I'm not the biggest fan of Slumdog, I give major props to Danny Boyle for having the guts to take a camera straight through the streets of Mumbai and shoot the film without big stars or hefty studios. Here's to a job well done, maestro.
•Actress- presented by Marion Cotillard (2007), Nicole Kidman (2002), Halle Berry (2001), Shirley Maclaine (1983), & Sophia Loren (1961)
You guys know about my affinity for the amazing Kate and my irking feeling of her winning for the wrong role this year (well actually the wrong year too. IMO, she should have won 4 years ago for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.) I've gradually come to terms with it, and it all came full circle last night during Marion Cotillard's moving tribute during the nominees presentation (0:58 on the aforementioned video). I was once more reminded of why I love this actress and her truly sublime work over the years, and at that moment, I realized, this girl deserves it for everything. She deserves it, and I will be happy. And I am, b/c it's about time.
Winner: Kate Winslet (The Reader)- Some prognosticators were sticking to their guns and predicting Meryl. Others sensed a potential vote split and made their last minute prediction to indie darling and "actor's actor" Melissa Leo. They were possible outcomes, but ultimately, it's the year of the Kate.
"Academy Award Winner Kate Winslet" has quite the ring to it! Her speech is at 5:10 on the video, so I don't need to discuss it. More contained and less teary than her second Globes speech.
•Actor- presented by Adrien Brody (2002), Sir Anthony Hopkins (1991), Michael Douglas (1987), Sir Ben Kingsley (1982), & Robert DeNiro (1980)
I really enjoyed Best Actor this year because, aside from Brad Pitt's excruciatingly mediocre turn in ...Benjamin Button, we were treated a phenomenal crop of nominees this year. Yes, I was bitter over one equally fabulous contender (*cough* Leo DiCaprio *cough*) being overlooked by everyone except the Globes, but life goes on. (Unfortunately not for the fanboys, who can never get over anything.) It's never perfect. More on this later in my reflections.
Winner: Sean Penn (Milk)- As I eluded to previously, the Best Actor race this year has constantly shifted between Sean and comeback story of the year Mickey Rourke. It was presumably a really close vote, but Sean probably won because of his performance being incredibly transformative and pertinent to today's political landscape. It should be noted that Sean lost two major precursors, the Golden Globe and BAFTA, to Mickey, but these were largely due to a general apathy towards Milk by the two organizations. However, these "commie, homo-loving sons of guns" got it right. Go Sean!!
•Picture- presented by Steven Spielberg
Winner: Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight)
SHOCKER. Yay for the cute little Indian kids! Fox Searchlight supposedly spent a lot of money and effort to get them all there, but they made it.
Note: I don't predict the other 16 awards b/c of my lack of awareness of them, and it would take way too long to summarize everything. :(

I deeply apologize for the length; that's definitely enough for today. I promise my reflections post tomorrow will be shorter(!) and the last cinema post for a while. We all need a break from this stuff.