Recapping the Oscars

This year's Oscars will sadly go down as the one that no one watched, which is a true shame since it honored a lot of great cinematic work and there wasn't an undeserving winner in the crowd. Or any particularly painful jokes. Jon Stewart did well; he wasn't Billy Crystal in his prime but he was consistent and, as importantly, he really seemed to dictate the flow of the show. The "He is sooo arrogant" remark after Glen Hasnard spoke was the line of the night (in my humble opinion) and his opening monologue was solid, considering it involved no props, guest stars, or random-but-hilarious video spoofs. Well done, Mr. Stewart, well done.

I was, obviously, thrilled by Marion Cotillard's (semi-surprise) win. I won't run it into the ground too much, but if you've seen La Vie En Rose, you know how incredible she is. And if you haven't, watch a little of this. Daniel Day-Lewis and Javier Bardem were predictable, but still nice. (Although why did Lewis have great speeches at the SAGs and Critics Choice and then was utterly corny at the Oscars? And was he purposely trying to look like the spitting image of Kristin Scott Thomas?)

I started to feel bad for Amy Adams about fourteen seconds into "Happy Working Song" when I realized she wasn't going to be aided by any dancing cockroaches. But Kristen Chenowith (ugh) gets a production number that rivals the presidential inauguration? Very painful. Thank God it went to a song from the best soundtrack of the year, Once. The fact that it jumped to number 1 on iTunes' album chart is a testament to the timeless beauty of the song. And when they brought Marketa Irglova back out to speak, after she had been cut off: that was the classiest thing I've ever seen on the Oscars. Her encouragement to all the artists that "spend most of their time struggling" deserved to be heard.

I would have been unsurprised/surprised no matter who won Best Supporting Actress, but I was really happy to see Tilda Swinton take it (and for Michael Clayton to get something.) I watched Michael Clayton again the day of the awards and she really is stellar in it; she layers that character with so much fear and you watch her try to look away from everything she's doing. I was also happy for Diablo Cody; I think she's gotten a lot of flack lately from people who think she's nothing more than a brassy and ironic quote dispenser when, in fact, she provided Juno with superb dramatic structure and a slowly revealed heart. She just forgot that leopard--this is for you, Molly--is for strippers, not strippers-turned-scripters.

The one I really feel bad for is Roderick Jaynes; I bet he would have given a great speech.

In the final tallies, No Country for Old Men got 4, while The Bourne Ultimatum, a box office smash, came in with 3. (Remember when The Matrix won four back in 2000?). I wonder what the ratings would have been like if they had just given Bourne Best Picture...