SF State of Mind..

The 81st Academy Awards

A day has passed and the 81st Academy Awards is in the books. This year's Oscars had a revamped look to them, featuring a new format, a theater-inspired set design, a new award presentation style and a shift away from the traditional comedian-as-host. These changes were made primarily as an effort to make the show more viewer friendly - in response to plummeting viewership ratings the last couple of years - and an attempt to tone down the excess in response to the country's grim economic state (however possible that is at a Hollywood-centered event). Some of the changes worked nicely, others were puzzling and pointless.

Here are my thoughts on last night's proceedings:

New Format/Design changes:

I enjoyed the theater-inspired stage design. It gave the Oscars a much more intimate feel to them as host Hugh Jackman was much closer to the audience and was able to walk freely into the crowd. The stage sets themselves looked cool and gave the show some flair.

Smaller awards were grouped into categories (i.e. "sound mixing" and "sound editing") with the same actor/group of actors presenting. This minimized the transitions between awards and hastened the pace of the show, which has been the primary complaint about the Oscars.

Former award winning actors commenting on each nominee. This was my least favorite change to the Oscars. I thought this was overly self-indulgent (even more so than is customary for Oscar night) with past award winners fawning over the new nominees. These testimonials were supposed to be personal statements but 1. I don't need to hear overblown rhetoric about a performance or movie and 2. I didn't even know if they were personally written or done with the assistance of some professional writer. In order to make these testimonials possible, the short clips that are played for each nominee were cut. The clips have always been one of my favorite parts, especially if I haven't seen a movie I can get a sense of the performance. I'd rather see a clip of someone's work rather than hear celebrities hype it up annoyingly.

Hugh Jackman was the first non-comedian host in a long time. I was highly skeptical about Jackman's ability to be a legitimate Oscar host, having grown up watching Billy Crystal, Chris Rock and even Whoopi Goldberg. But after seeing how sparingly Jackman was used, I realize he was chosen as host for what he "didn’t do: deride Hollywood. [Jackman] was high-spirited, not mean-spirited" (Stanley, NY Times). In this roll he performed admirably, making an occasional corny joke and lending his vocal talents to a couple song and dance numbers. No harm done.

The Awards:

This was the year of the favorites. Unlike in years past the 2009 Oscars saw no upsets (Crash), no head-scratchers (Shakespeare In Love) and no obviously political choices (Halle Berry). Most of the predicted choices won in all the major categories.

This year I was really slippin' on my movie game despite an abnormally strong crop of movies in the latter half of the year. I saw the two front-runners for "Best Picture" (Milk and Slumdog), but I missed out on Frost/Nixon, Benjamin Button, The Wrestler, Gran Torino, Revolutionary Road (the last 3 all being snubbed on Oscar night despite stellar critical reviews).

Yes, pathetic, I know.

In case you missed the Oscars last night here are last night's winners, with my own brief comments.

Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)

Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

Actress: Kate Winslet (The Reader)

No surprises in any of the above 3 awards. All of the winners were the favorites and from what I have read and heard from a variety of critics, both Winslet and Cruz shined in their roles. Ledger was never really in doubt as the choice for supporting actor, given his twisted and psychotic performance as The Joker, and the hype surrounding his untimely death before the movie's release. The only bit of drama was the fact that Winslet was nominated for her role in The Reader when many critics said her tour de force was in Revolutionary Road.

Actor: Sean Penn (Milk)

I have a hard time disagreeing with this choice, although I would have liked to see Mickey Rourke win. I know the award is supposed to be given to the (obviously) best performance of the year. And Penn delivered a truly masterful performance, transforming himself physically and emotionally into late-San Francisco Supervisor and gay rights activist, Harvey Milk. However, I can't help but pull for Rourke. I saw part of The Wrestler online and the line between Rourke's performance as a broken-down wrestler and Rourke himself faded away. I acknowledge that "the academy has [recently] leaned toward chameleonic performances" (LaSalle, SF Chronicle), but I think Penn is such an extraordinary and versatile actor that he will get nominated again, whereas I think this was Rourke's last real shot at glory. I was hoping for the underdog.

Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

So, Rourke didn't win but at least I got Slumdog. This fairy-tale story set in the slums of Mumbai had just an irresistable charm to it, even in the face of arguably the superior film, Milk. I was pulling for Slumdog for its against-all-odds tale of love and redemption even in the most brutal conditions. By no means is Slumdog a bad movie. It's visually stunning, bringing urban and rural India to life unlike any movie I've seen, except the 1956 epic Aparijito. The fact that the movie was filmed on location in Mumbai and starred kids from the slums there only solidified my support (Slumdog filmmakers also made arrangements to bring the principle child-actors in the movie to the event all the way from India). And I'll be honest, the fact that Slumdog features my future wifey and one of the most beautiful women in the world (Freida Pinto) did not hurt.

Highlights:

When Milk won the Academy Award for "Writing (Original Screenplay)", the award was accepted by Dustin Lance Black. At the podium Black delivered an impassioned acceptance speech in which he connected the power of Milk's story with his personal story growing up in a conservative Mormon community and his struggle with being gay. He spoke directly to young gay boys and girls struggling with their identity. A very heartfelt and bold moment at the Awards ceremony.

James Franco, Seth Rogan doing a skit involving their characters from Pineapple Express watching all of the Oscar-nominated movies. Genuinely funny.

Ben Stiller's hilarious impression of Joaquin Phoenix's bizarre interview on the Late Show last week. I still don't know what to make of Phoenix's performance, but I do know that Stiller has re-established himself as one of the best comedic actors in the game right now.

[For the Ben Stiller clip from last night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pflgMxxBPuY&feature=related]