Monday Post-Oscar Thoughts

Was this the dullest Oscars ever? Quite possibly. The only real drama was whether Cablevision and ABC would come to terms in time; they did, but we Cablevision subscribers missed the opening schtick. What I saw of Baldwin & Martin left me profoundly unimpressed; Martin was much funnier when he had the gig solo. Plus, most of the presenter humor was worse than in the past, and that's going a ways.

There were no surprises among the winners. Of the four acting awards, 3 were a sure thing and one almost as sure, and none surprised. Congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow for being the first woman to win Best Director. Not that the glass ceiling is all shattered or anything.
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Cutting out the song performances is overall a good idea, although I'd have loved to see Jeff Bridges or Colin Farrell perform Weary Kind. That Adam Shankman, producer of the show, choreographer, and So You Think You Can Dance judge, decided to present the best soundtrack nominees with an interpretive dance is not surprising, nor is it surprising that he used League of Extraordinary Dancers. What was surprising was how lame the dance was; these are terrific dancers and it could have been, well, dance.

Thank Gods for the absence of absolutely meaningless montages this year: Times People Have Sneezed On Film will not be missed. But dude, the cinematography nominees really require clips; that was a bad thing to remove.

On the fashion front, there wasn't much that was actually hideous. The trends are metallics, pale blush/rose/champagne shades, shredded gown bottoms, and weird things attached to hips. My favorite may well be Zoe Saldana; her colors and shapes were a little unusual, a little daring, and really gorgeous. Rachel McAdams also made a different choice that really worked, going for a multi-colored print that made me go oooh.

Barbra Streisand appeared to be wearing the same dress she wore last time she was at the Oscars. Charlize Theron looked like there was someone standing behind her feeling her up. J-Lo looked great, but she could have been hiding the twins in that weird hip-train. Other than that, it was just a lot of pretty, shiny people.

I saw some movies, but not a lot, and the only winner I saw was Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. I'll try to get that review up this week.

(Crazy Cross-post)