...(updating and ) totally not bragging about his Oscar picks. Not one little bit.

So I only missed out on one of the categories I picked earlier this week. Pretty good considering I was going mostly on gut and hadn't seen a lot of the movies. Mind you, for most them I WAS picking the favourite, so there's no real science there. I do like to think that picking Milk to win best original screenplay was a bit of stretch considering this is a category where often anything can happen, which bode well for picking Wall-E and In Bruges.

However, further down the ticket was one that I thought was such a lock that I didn't even bother to discuss it: Best Foreign Language Film was won by Departures over the favourite Waltz with Bashir. Now, FLF is one category where they are often HUGE upsets (Amelie lost to No Man's Land, Pan's Labyrinth lost to The Lives of Others, all great films but still considered upsets) but this one did surprise me. I wonder if the recent situation in Israel made some of the "soft" supporters of the film vote for something else. We'll never know.

Here's what I loved and didn't love about the show:

Loved

Hugh Jackman I was a little surprised when he was named host, since I know him more as a song and dance man despite his action movie creds. But this worked out since they made a lot of the set reminiscent of the early days of cinema. Then again, I also loved Steve Martin as host.

I do have one question though: Why do the Oscars even NEED a host? The Grammys did well without one, and the Golden Globes do fairly well without a host. You don't really need someone to move it along anymore like you used to. You could trim about 10 minutes from the show right there.

Actually entertaining speeches The winner for Animated Short actually tossing in "Domo Arigato, Mr Roboto" as if to say "Yes, I know you all want that", the corny but still fun one for speech for Man on Wire, and Sean Penn's self depreciation was very well received. (By the way, the shortest speech in Oscar history: Joe Pesci for Goodfellas "It's my privilege. Thank you". Also, in my opinion the best was Steven Soderberg for Traffic, which is a template I wish more people used: "I'm going to thank everyone I need to thank individually and in person later.")

Did not love:

Multiple presenters for the acting awards While I normally like nods to history, this lengthened the show, and felt like a Catholic Mass, especially the Prayers for the Faithful: "And for Penelope Cruz, who shows us that you can recover after dating batshit crazy, we pray." This also cost me my second favourite part of the ceremony: Oscar clips! If they took this out and went the traditional route (last year's opposite sex winner presenting), they would have come in on time.

People with no Academy Cred wasting my oxygen I get it, everyone loves Beyonce. Her robotic efficiency is second only to that of David Fincher. However, I don't really think her connection to the film industry or the Academy Awards is strong enough to mean that she gets a place of honour on the stage that night. Nor does Jennifer Aniston, Sandra Bullock, and even my beloved Tina Fey. I know they need to pull a rating, but at the same time you don't see Brad Pitt singing Proud Mary at the Grammys.

Edited to add: Someone asked what I thought of Jack Black's Pixar vs Dreamworks comment. These things are so tightly scripted that I don't think his comment was unexpected, or even unplanned. It's stating a truth: Pixar tends to win the award a lot. It's not much different than people joking about Streep, or even when they used to openly pick on the Weinsteins. I LIKE to think that it's a nice shot at how useless the animated feature category has become: three nominees, and at least two of them are poorly chosen. I think it's time to retire this category for good.

The In Memoriam section Another one of my faves, but they way they shot it I had to squint a lot of the time to see who they were actually honouring. Not all of us have HDTV.

Edited to add: The clothing

I normally don't pay a lot of attention to this, but having said that this year there wasn't too much to complain about really (having said that, I didn't look at any best/worst list). I think Tilda Swinton had the worst outfit, BUT she's Tilda Swinton so she gets a pass. It's like complaining about early Bowie: they are their own person and live in their own worlds. Same as Rourke. 

Miley Cyrus also looked like someone her age: not able to really tell what actually works, same with Vanessa Hudgens. 

I have no idea what Bill Maher was wearing, and will always insist it was a leather tux!

And some general notes

Cattiest moment at home:

"Whatever Seth Rogan is on to loose weight, order two for Phillip Seymour Hoffman".

How you know you've married the right person, movie nerd edition:

Me: I love Frank Langella's voice. That was the best thing about The Ninth GatI.

Her: And he was great in The American President.

Me: Mm hm....wait, you mean Dave?

Her: Yes, yes I do.

Me: God, I loved both.

Her: Me too.

The greatest moment of the Oscars was actually only seen in Canada:

On the red carpet, Ben Mulroney was interviewing Melissa Leo about Frozen River. After first trying to get her to admit a Canadian connection that she either was unaware of or that he was completely wrong about (he actually seemed to be talking about a part of the filming that did not involve her), he then mentioned how she was the only professional actor in the film. Cue about 30 seconds of righteous indignation as she corrected him, pointing out the fact that all the actors in it were professional, had done a lot of great work before and basically saying to him "Do your homework before you spout off, Chin Boy, and remember that just because they're not on the cover of Ass Kiss Weekly does not mean they are not professional." Then her publicist leaned in and told her to wrap it up. So yummy!