Oscar Reactions

In no particular order:

• It wouldn't be the Oscars if there wasn't one moment of shockingly bad taste and the interpretive dance numbers to the Best Score nominees certainly delivered. There was extended popping and locking to The Hurt Locker score, giant Dali-esque structures used as slides, and a dance sequence that suggested the choreographer was under the impression Up was about a robot that comes to life. God awful in that way only the Oscars can deliver. At least the right person won - Michael Giacchino for Up.
• Jeff Bridges, Mo'Nique and Christoph Waltz were all totally worthy winners. Kudos to the Academy there. Having not seen The Blind Side I will refrain from criticism over Sandra Bullock's win, except to say that I would be stunned if I found her performance to be within a country mile of Carey Mulligan or Gabourey Sidibe. Nice speech from Sandra, though.
• Waltz was the first actor to win for a Tarantino film. He was also the third villain in a row to win Supporting Actor after Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight and Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men.
• Adjusted for inflation The Hurt Locker is probably the lowest grosser ever to win, topping off under 13 million over the Summer. That's roughly one 48th of what Avatar made.
• WTF was Sean Penn talking about? Anybody?
• If I may speak for all the heterosexual men watching I would just like to state that Kathryn Bigelow is damn foxy for an older lady.
• The Hurt Locker was also the first war film to win Best Picture since Platoon in 1986. (I don't count wars that include orcs)
• God, Barbara Streisand was unbearable. First she manages to make the Best Director prize all about herself, fawning over the potential first female winner - the unspoken implication being, "Thank God, Babs was there to pave the way." Then she goes on about the possibility of the first black winner, what was Tarantino supposed to do if he won? Spend his whole speech apologizing for being a white guy?
• The orchestra didn't do Bigelow any favors either, playing her out to "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar." Yeesh. Memo to everybody: Bigelow didn't win as some kind of gender affirmative action. She won for directing the living hell out of The Hurt Locker.
• As long as I'm firing off the missives - Memo to the Academy: If your going to be so utterly classless as to deny the Lifetime Achievement winner a chance to speak, then you don't get to turn around and waste seven minutes on a random tribute to horror films that looks lifted from the Spike TV awards. "Sorry Lauren Bacall. Sit down and shut up. We've got clips of Leprechaun to get through." My friend also pointed out you would surely save a few minutes by not having musical numbers to introduce hosts to introduce presenters to introduce clip packages.
• On the other hand I agree with the cutting of the Best Song performances. A ten second clip of each is plenty to get the flavor of each, and we are gratefully spared eight minutes of Princess and the Frog production numbers.
• Robert Downey Jr. and Tina Fey were by far the most intentionally entertaining thing of the night. Tim Robbin's Shawshank humor wasn't too shabby either.
• I haven't yet read why those two winners were wrestling each other for the microphone, suffice to say, in a show light on laughs it was welcome entertainment
• Unlike a lot of the reviews, I don't think Martin and Baldwin bombed . Adequate is the word I would use. I chuckled here and there. Although, the "movie charades" commercial for Modern Family was funnier than anything the hosts came up with.
• Costume winner Sandy Powell quickly endeared herself to me by using her speech time to point out to the Academy they don't automatically have to give the costume award to whichever film is about royalty from centuries past. Amen.
• I'm gratified Avatar was limited to three technical wins, but I would begrudge it even those wins. I was constantly aware I was looking at CGI during Avatar. Do you know how many times I thought of special effects during District 9? Zero.
• Up in the Air went from being the frontrunner to getting shut out completely, including an upset loss to Precious in the Adapted Screenplay category. Lots of Monday morning quarterbacking about how the Up in the Air boys screwed the pooch on this one. My analysis: The Academy just really liked Precious.
• Once again the Academy failed to get together on respectfully holding applause until the end and turned the in memoriam tribute into a ghoulish, post-mortem popularity contest complete with the rising and falling applause.
• I can't be the only one Tom Hanks caught off guard when he just whipped that envelope open, no drumroll or anything.
• Personal highlight: ten second clip from In the Loop. God I love that movie.
• Nitpicking aside, I think this roster of winners is one the Academy is going to be able to look back on with pride in years to come. Picking The Hurt Locker over Avatar showed particularly good taste on their part, favoring quality over popularity. Oscar voters have now redeemed themselves for choosing Titanic over LA Confidential.