…Well, kinda…

This will be a short post as I just finished watching the Oscars telecast on DVR and it is a quarter past 1 am. I gotta say I’m patting myself on the back for coming up 5 for 6 on my Oscars predictions. You could almost say I predicted Tilda Swinton would win too, so maybe that puts me at 6 for 7.

Whatever.

But what we’re really happy about is the fact that on some level the fantastic musical “Once” was rewarded with earning an Oscar for the beautiful song “Falling Slowly.” Not only did “Once” win, but the Oscars finally showed a bit of class when it came to shortening winners’ speeches. During the commercial after the orchestra tastelessly chimed into award co-winner Marketa Irglova’s acceptance speech I commented to my wife that some big Hollywood personality should have stepped in and allowed her to finish her speech. I mean, would they have cut off Jack Nicholson if he happened to speak over his what, one-minute time limit? Perhaps they should cut out a couple of those ridiculous “Hollywood loves itself” montages set to sweeping orchestral music if they’re looking to make the telecast shorter. Anyway, I was heartened to see Jon Stewart come back out after the commercial and give Ms. Irglova the opportunity to finish up her acceptance speech, which happened to be rather touching, inspirational, and tasteful.

This is a particularly exciting award for a film whose music was so intertwined with the acting, writing, and the overall feel of the film. When you consider the official name for the category: “Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original song), and understand that in many ways the songs in the movie constitute the script itself (my wife and watched it with subtitles so we could better appreciate the lyrics – and understand the thick Irish and eastern European accents), the Monkey and I are going to go ahead and consider this award to be one of the greatest honors one could bestow on a musical like this. I guess this was evidence of the Universe righting itself after ignoring this film in the best picture category.

And a word about my predictions. I’m disappointed in myself in going with my heart in making the predicting for the Best Original Screenplay category. I picked Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton, but should have remembered that often the best Original Screenplay award goes to that cute little independent film that was also up for Best Picture (or had won awards from other film organizations for the Best Picture equivalent), but that none of the Hollywood mainstream voters could seriously consider for the main prize of the night. Here’s a look at past best Original Screenplay winners:

• “Talk to Her” – by Pedro Almodóvar.
• “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” – by Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth.

• “Little Miss Sunshine” by Michael Arndt.

• “Lost in Translation” by Sofia Coppola.

There was no chance in heck that Juno was going to take home the prize for Best Picture, so as a consolation, the Academy gave Diablo Cody the nod for her script. I didn’t love this film, but I am happy that someone new had their dream come true in winning this award. I thought Michael Clayton had the better script, but who knows, in my last post, I talked about how difficult it was to even evaluate a script if you’re only watching the finished product on the screen, so how can I truly judge whether or not she was worthy of the prize? So maybe Juno was the best script. As much as my Monkey wants to me to rail against this win (and say a thing or two about her choice of dresses), we’re just going to keep our mouths shut and congratulate her on the award.

So it was poetic justice for me and the Monkey that at least “Once” received some form of recognition for its artistic brilliance, considering the film was totally snubbed in the category that counted. Really says something about where we are as a society, that a film about men killing each other over money won Best Picture over an inspirational film about love, loss, and music. Maybe next year they’ll get it right.