I Would Like to Thank . . .

...my dear friend Elise for hosting our Oscar party, filmmakers for providing such excellent work this year, critic Tom Tangney for helping me fill out my ballot, and the Academy for such a wonderful program last night. Yesterday, I won our little Oscar pool--I got 19 out of 24 right!--and so received a brand-new copy of The Last Samurai which I've never seen but I've heard it's quite good, so I'm rather excited. In case you live in a dark cave, last night the 81st Academy Awards were presented, and it was an excellent night of television; if you didn't catch it, you missed out. It was even better with good friends and good wine. The big winner of the evening was Slumdog Millionaire which won eight awards including Best Director and Best Picture. I, along with Alec Baldwin, was thrilled. Slumdog was such an excellent and hopeful movie and I really want to see it again before it leaves the cinema. I was quite pleased that "Toyland" and "La Maison en Petits Cubes" won which were of course my favorite shorts as I have already written. And Wall-E won animated feature, though Kung Fu Panda had won a lot of animation awards in the weeks leading up to last night. The biggest upset as far as I'm concerned was in the Foreign Film category. I had expected Waltz With Bashir to win, but Departures which I have never even heard of won instead. I am still excited to see Waltz which is coming to SLC here in the next week.

Hugh Jackman was a surprising and excellent presenter. He is not generally considered a comedian, which is the type of person the Academy usually chooses to MC, but he was most excellent. His opening number was hilarious and Anne Hathaway should win an Emmy for her performance as Nixon/Langella. The whole night was great and refreshing. People always say how every year the Oscars are less and less interesting and watchable and blah blah blah. First of all, I don't give any credence to these people because year after year I am riveted. But I think last night was fresh and funny and completely watchable. They also didn't play anyone off the stage (as far as I remember) which was nice, but also meant that no one droned on and on and on and so was forced off. The only thing I didn't like was that they didn't play clips of the nominated actors--instead they had five actors, who had each won that specific award, present the nominees, which was a nice touch. Shirley MacLaine gave a wonderful and heartfelt presentation of Anne Hathaway which was lovely. However, they forgot Eartha Kitt during the In Memorium segment which was a shame. There were several lovely comedic parts where we relearned the age-old truth that nothing is sacred when it comes to comedy. Tina Fey and Steve Martin were enchanting, and the skit featuring James Franco and Seth Rogen was delightful.

Penelope Cruz won Best Supporting Actress as I had hoped. Now Viola Davis gives a devastating performance and turns Doubt on a dime in a single powerful scene where Davis goes tete-a-tete with Streep's fierce Sister Aloysius. If Davis had won, I would have been happy, but Cruz was fantastic in Vicky Christina Barcelona and so I picked her. Cruz gave a fantastic speech about art and how it crosses globabl boundries and can make us all better people. I nearly cried. Heath Ledger, of course, won Best Supporting Actor and his family picked up the his statue to a standing ovation. I intuited that Sean Penn would win over Mickey Rourke for Best Actor. Penn can act circles around Rourke and he fully inhabited the character of Harvey Milk while downplaying it ever so nicely. That being said, I'm sure Penn will be nominated multiple times in the years to come, and this was Mickey Rourke's one and only chance. Not only that, but Rourke's dog, Loki, who was his best friend and once saved his life, died last week. And the Academy loves an underdog (and a slumdog). If Rourke had won, it would have been a lovely gesture, but Penn gave a much finer performance. And Penn did give a nice speech in which he admitted that he sometimes makes it hard for people to like him. Penn is an amazing actor, but a very crazy person. Kate Winslet and Meryl Streep dueled for Best Actress. I wanted them both to win; I justed wanted Streep to win more. She did earn a record fifteenth Oscar nomination, so good for her. She's won two Oscars, but her last win was in 1983. She really needs to win at least one more time. Streep was absolutely gorgeous in a gray silk gown (at the SAGs she didn't even buy a dress!). Kate Winslet was also beautiful, and like Streep, she is one of the finest actors of her generation. (By the way, Amy Adams was so gorgeous. I just loved her dress!) So it was high time Winslet finally won an Oscar--she's been nominated six times already. At the end of her acceptance speech she called her other nominees goddesses and said "Suck it up, Meryl Streep!" at which point I instantly forgave Kate for winning. My favorite speech besides Cruz's was Dustin Lance Black's who won Best Original Screenplay for Milk and who is a former Mormon, and I just want to quote this part of his speech here: "But most of all, if Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he'd want me to say to all the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, by the government or by their families that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures who have value. And that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you." And I think I'll end this here, and it's time for Gossip Girl! XOXO