Monday, February 26, 2007

Oscars 2007

Hooray for Hollywood! Last night's Oscars was wonderful and upbeat and full of highlights:

  • West Bank Story won for best live action short. Now, I hadn't heard of this movie before, but the acceptance speech was so great that I looked it up. I love that it is based on my favorite movie, West Side Story, but also incorporates peace in the Middle East.


  • Will Ferrell, Jack Black, and John C. Reilly put on a hilarious musical number that pointed out the sad truth that the Academy ignores comedians when choosing Oscar nominees. I didn't really like the conclusion that the actors should take on serious roles, but I guess you can't be a guest in someone's house and then spit on them.


  • I was very surprised by a couple winners. First, I thought Eddie Murphy would win Best Supporting Actor because this was really his one chance. As mentioned above, the Academy snubs comedians so this was a great time to give it to Eddie. Of course, Alan Arkin is a comedian and played a comedic role in Little Miss Sunshine, so...yeah.
  • Another winner that surprised me was Marie Antoinette for Best Costume Design. See, in the preshow, they interviewed the Devil Wears Prada costume designer with Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway. Then they had Emily and Anne present the award and make all these jokes about how they know fashion the best b/c of the movie, and then they had to give the award to Marie Antoinette! Talk about a letdown. Although, I thought the acceptance speech was very nice.


  • Another huge upset was when Melissa Etheridge won for Best Original Song for An Inconvenient Truth. Right before the award was announced the cast of Dreamgirls performed 3 songs they were nominated for and it was huge and Broadway-tastic. Ellen even said, "I would hate to have to follow that." And then Melissa won. Yes, this Oscars had a lot of the rug being pulled out from under people.
  • The one category where I wanted this to happen was in Best Picture. I was rooting for Little Miss Sunshine, but instead it went to The Departed. It's interesting because a couple years ago I wanted The Aviator to sweep the Oscars - Leo as best actor, Scorsese as best director, and The Aviator as best picture. But instead, that honor went to The Departed to give Scorsese his long-deserved Oscar.
  • Ellen was an amazing host, and kept the banter light and apolitical, which was very different form Jon Stewart last year. She would randomly run into the audience with gags, like this one:


So it was a night of upsets and highlights, and as always, a memorable night where dreams came true for many people.

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