Well, I watched the Oscars all the way through for the first time in many, many years. Why? So I could bring you this column. You read Nick’s transcript and here is my look at the winners and losers.
We start with the opening monologue with Jon Stewart and it was pretty damn good. The main highlight was when he talked about Norbit being nominated for makeup effects and mentioned that too often Oscars ignore movies that aren’t good. I just wish I could have seen the response from the nominees.
Costume Design: I was expecting La Vie en Rose to win but wanted Sweeney Todd to win. They gave it to Elizabeth: The Golden Age. My wife tells me it is deserved because it is such an accurate eye to detail and I guess I can’t argue with that but I really wanted Sweeney Todd to win damn it. By the way, Jeremy picked Sweeney Todd too, so from here on I’m gonna keep track of our ineptitude at picking winners. (Shawn 0-1 / Jeremy 0-1)
Animated Feature: The three nominees this year are Ratatouille and two others. Ratatouille wins. No surprise here. (Shawn 1-1 / Jeremy 1-1)
Best Makeup Effects: La Vie en Rose won and deserved and won this award because it actually used makeup without smashing the fact over your head. It also should be noted that the movie saved us from Oscar winning film Norbit. (Shawn 2-1 / Jeremy 2-1)
Best Visual Effects: Hey, it’s The Rock!!!!! Sorry about that. I was picking Transformers but – what the fuck? – The Golden Compass took it. That is so much bullshit, I can’t even express it to you. (Shawn 2-2 / Jeremy 2-2)
Best Art Direction: Jeremy misses another but I am happy to see Sweeney Todd take this award (since it’s the only one it will win). To give some credit to Jeremy, he did say it would be close. (Shawn 3-2 / Jeremy 2-3)
Best Supporting Actor: This is a great fucking group of actors. Javier Bardem is going to walk away with this award easy, but look at his list of contenders: Casey Affleck, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Hal Holbrook and Tom Wilkinson. Every one of those guys deserves to win this award. Wouldn’t it be cool if Affleck won it? Hoffman was the best part of Charlie Wilson’s War. Bardem wins. Cool. (Shawn 4-2 / Jeremy 3-3)
Best Short Film: Like most people, I have never seen any of these films. Hey, it’s OWEN FUCKING WILSON! Awesome. Le Mozart des Pickpockets. (Shawn 4-3 / Jeremy 3-4)
Best Animated Short Film: See above award. Peter and the Wolf won. It was announced by Jerry Seinfield (except looked like an animated bee) and OWEN FUCKING WILSON actually handed over the award. (Shawn 4-4 / Jeremy 3-5)
Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett? Maybe. Amy Ryan? That would be really cool. Ruby Dee? That could be cool too. Tilda Swinton? That would be deserved. Saoirse Ronan? Give her a few years to prove herself. Swinton looks more feminine in the clips than she does in person. Swinton wins and seems completely shocked. Very nice and a good acceptance speech. Great stuff here. (Shawn 5-4 / Jeremy 3-6)
Best Adapted Screenplay: I really want P.T. Anderson to take this award, but The Coen Brothers trump him. I can live with that. Great acceptance speech as they pretty much don’t say anything except that they thanked Cormac McCarthy for the inspiration. They mentioned how picky they are and they have only adapted screenplays by McCarthy and Homer. Funny stuff. (Shawn 5-5 / Jeremy 4-6)
Best Sound Editing: It is scary how much Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill look alike. I mean really scary. Bourne Ultimatum wins, although I really was pulling for Transformers. I won’t complain because Ultimatum was excellent as well. (Shawn 5-6 / Jeremy 4-7)
Best Sound Mixing: It is scary how much Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill act alike. Bourne Ultimatum takes the award and Transformers goes 0-3 for the night. That is a shame. (Shawn 5-7 / Jeremy 4-8)
Best Lead Actress: I just knew Julie Christy would win. I would also have been happy to see Ellen Page take it. Fuck you Juno haters. Man, watching the clips makes me realize how much La Vie en Rose really deserved that makeup award. Marion Cotillard wins!!!!! This was my biggest shock of the night so far. Great, great winner! That was awesome! I’m glad I was wrong here. (Shawn 5-8 / Jeremy 4-9)
Best Film Editing: Bourne Ultimatum is destroying the competition and has gone 3-0. However, There Will Be Blood would have been nice here. I am getting worried P.T. Anderson will not get an award this year (although Daniel Day Lewis will get one for his role), and that would be a shame. (Shawn 6-8 / Jeremy 4-10)
Best Foreign Language Film: Jeremy picked The Counterfeiters and I picked 12. Jeremy wins this round. (Shawn 6-9 / Jeremy 5-10)
Best Song: Once has the song that everyone on the internet wants to win this, from the looks of things. I like the August Rush song too, but I guess I would like to see “Falling Slowly” win. I’m not real high on any of the Enchanted songs but one of them is decent enough. “Falling Slowly” wins and that is a giant F-U to those in the Academy that tried to keep it out. The artists were really gracious too. Actually, Glen Hansard was. They cut off Markéta Irglová when she started to talk. Kudos to Jon Stewart for calling her back out after the commercial break and letting her talk. Awesome. (Shawn 7-9 / Jeremy 6-10)
Best Cinematographer: This one should belong to Roger Deakins, but I think his votes will be split between the two movies he was nominated for. Yep, it went to Robert Elswit, and while I am disspointed that Deakins lost, this breaks There Will Be Blood’s ongoing shut out tonight. (Shawn 7-10 / Jeremy 7-10)
Best Score: Atonement wins. Let’s hope it is their only win tonight. (Shawn 8-10 / Jeremy 8-10)
Best Documentary Short: This was a nice moment as presenter Tom Hanks came out and then led people’s attention to the big screen where some soldiers from Baghdad presented the winner. Freeheld wins. (Shawn 8-11 / Jeremy 8-11)
Best Documentary: Am I the only one who wondered what would happen if Sicko won and Michael Moore got a live mic again? Probably. I still think Sicko was a great film and Moore’s best to date. Taxi to the Dark Side won but I don’t know anything about it. (Shawn 8-12 / Jeremy 8-12)
Best Original Screenplay: Wouldn’t it be cool if the former stripper won this award? Holy Shit! The stripper won (Juno)!!! Good for her! (Shawn 9-12 / Jeremy 9-12)
Best Lead Actor: No one will beat Daniel Day Lewis for this award. I don’t know if anyone will ever beat him for an award again. One day George Clooney will get his big boy award (he won a supporting actor award for Syriana). Maybe Johnny Depp will get one too someday. Not this year. No one could top Daniel Day Lewis in this category. (Shawn 10-12 / Jeremy 10-12)
Best Director: I want P.T. Anderson to win this. I think the Coen’s will take it, but I am choosing Anderson because I want it so much. The Coen Brothers win it. Once again, funny acceptance speech and they are really humble guys. They gave an interesting anecdote about how they have as much fun making movies now as when they were kids making films. And because of my P.T. Anderson loyalty I have let Jeremy pull ahead of me. (Shawn (10-13 / Jeremy 11-12)
Best Picture: I really thought There Will Be Blood was masterful, but I think it deserved the Director’s Award and not the Best Picture Award. That belonged to No Country for Old Men, and that is the movie that won. (Shawn 11-13 / Jeremy 12-12)
FINAL SCORE
Shawn 11-13
Jeremy 12-12
After a slow start, Jeremy pulled to an even 50% with his picks while thanks to my P.T. Anderson love I fell one pick back. Damn those Coens. The Oscars ended fifteen minutes early and as usual was full of a little too many montage moments. I felt the awards were, for the most part, deserved and it was a pretty good year. That’s it for tonight. See you tomorrow with a new Special Edition. I’m out.