Thoughts on the Academy Awards 2010

As entertainment, I thought that the show was surprisingly good. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were funny in an “old Hollywood” kind of way. I liked how it felt kind of like a roast, with praise among veiled insults. Apart from the last 30 agonizing minutes, where everything is mutual, over-indulgent ass-sucking of everyone involved, I felt that things moved along fairly well.

I didn’t see several of the big Oscar-buzz movies this year, but I saw the big three: Inglorious Basterds, Avatar, and The Hurt Locker, which, though there were 10 nominees, were the only ones with a shot to win big. …and even then, it only felt like a 2 horse race. I also saw Up in the Air, Up, and District 9, which were in the conversation.

I’m pretty easy going with these awards shows, and am OK with the fact that my favorite movie isn’t going to win best picture. However, for some reason, I was bent this year at the amount of praise that The Hurt Locker was getting, and more so, the kind of praise. Though I didn’t review it on the site, I enjoyed The Hurt Locker. It’s strange for me to get fired up over a film winning awards that I liked, and didn’t even have problems with, other than a few nitpicks. However, a lot of the awards won by The Hurt Locker just didn’t sit right with me.

The most glaring of these examples is Best Original Screenplay. I can’t think of a single scene in that movie that is made special by the dialogue. When I think back on what makes that film stand out, I remember tense moments of silence and fantastic editing, sound design, and pacing to create great tension. Whereas, in a film like Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, you had that same tension, but that which came from the screenplay…the words on the page. I just don’t understand this.

To a lesser degree, I feel the same way about the Best Director and Best Picture choices, as well. I believe that Bigelow did a fine job directing, but that the movie didn’t stand out for that particular aspect. I see a film like Avatar, which certainly has flaws, but is made what it is because of a visionary director. …the same for Inglorious Basterds. In terms of sheer perfection of directing, I would have chosen Jason Reitman for Up in the Air. It’s pretty much a perfect film, but not bold enough to win the big two awards. Hell, I even think that JJ Abrams should’ve gotten consideration for Star Trek over Bigelow. I think that a gritty war movie directed by a woman is a big story, though, and rightfully so, which probably helped it get a push.

For Best Picture, I think that The Hurt Locker won because it’s generally seen as a competent film by all who watched it, though I don’t know anyone who was completely blown away by it, no pun intended. Avatar had its fair share of detractors and I think that on some level, people pull for the fall of popularity. And while not a perfect film by any stretch, people will still be talking about and watching Avatar in ten years. I feel like it matters. I don’t think the same is true of The Hurt Locker.

Back to the show as a whole – it still needs to be shorter, and they need to focus on interesting things. I found the bit about sound design, while they played clips of The Dark Knight with and without editing, to be immensely more compelling than hearing ten actors fellate their co-stars about how wonderful they are. I enjoyed the John Hughes montage, too. I prefer when they show clips of the performances, and not people talking about how brave these actors are. Give me a break – you get paid millions of dollars to play pretend – not exactly worthy of a purple heart. It's a gag-inducing waste of time that brings the show to a halt at the end, when we're out of energy anyway.

That said, this was a much improved show and I think that the Oscars are going in the right direction. The speeches were tolerable, and without feeling like there was some agenda (remember a few years ago, where every speech was about the importance of seeing movies in the theater?). I also like the attempt to reach out to a broader audience. Purists probably hate the pop-n-lock and silly segments of Stiller dressed up like a Navi, but a new generation demands that it be done, and I’m on board.