A Few Thoughts About the Oscars. . .

Well, it's over now. So just a few thoughts about the winners.

"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" copped a costume Oscar, even though I preferred the dark and colorful costumes of "Sweeney Todd." I was happy that it did win an award for Art Direction.

"Ratatouille" won the animated feature Oscar, which I agreed with. A better film than the wonderful 'Persepolis."

The visual effects of "The Golden Compass" was at times too fake for my taste, and although a bad film "Transformers" did have some terrific effects.

"La Vie en Rose" copped the makeup Oscar-it was the best of the three, but I was secretly hoping I could say the words "The Oscar Winner Film Norbit."

I think a big surprise to us technical geeks were the three wins for "The Bourne Ultimatum," which won for Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Editing. I did think these three techniques were put to great use in the film, but films like "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" had some fantastic use of sound, and it was no question that "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" should have won Best Editing, at least in my eyes.

My two short film picks-"Peter and the Wolf" and "The Mozart of Pickpockets" ended up taking the gold, and I was happy.

While I did like "Once"-not love to the extent that I have seen-I really didn't like "Falling Slowly," and have heard it several times at the Angelika where it played on the music before the movie started.

I only saw "Sicko" out of the documentaries, and wanted it to win because 1) I liked it very much and 2) I wanted to see what Michael Moore would say. He was booed off the stage in 2002 when he started going anti-war, Anti-Bush, but if he said it now he'd probably be cheered. Ironic, eh?  Instead we got Alex Gibney with "Taxi to the Dark Side" which I did not see in NYC last month when it was playing. I am just getting a little tired of these Iraq War docs, and would have preferred to see one of the best films of last year-"The King of Kong"-on the ballot. I did like Gibney's last doc "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," and was rooting for him that year.

I did not see any of the five Foreign Language films (the Academy REALLY screwed those up this year) but I wanted to see "The Counterfeiters" and this just means it'll be out for a longer time in the city, upping my chances to see it.

"Atonement" had good music, but I was more a fan of the music in "Michael Clayton," which was simple but very haunting. I cleaned this theatre at work often to just hear it.

The cinematography award could have went to any of the five and I would have been happy. My personal vote would have been for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," but the images in "There Will Be Blood" were so jaw-droppingly beautiful, and the derrick explosion scene in the middle is still in my head. Roger Deakins did a great job with his two films-"No Country" and "Jesse James," and "Atonement" had a nice looking scene in the dunkirk. But I'm content.

The Coens naturally won Best Screenplay for "No Country for Old Men," but other picks like "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and "There Will Be Blood" would have been fine with me too. After all, I can't stop saying 'I Drink Your Milkshake."

Diablo Cody's win for "Juno" was one of the biggest "eh's." It was expected, for sure, but I personally felt that "Juno" was more of an actor's piece than a writer's piece. If I read "Juno" as a script before I even saw the movie or its trailers, it would have left a rather sour taste in my mouth-as if it was written by a sixth grader. But the actors made this rather sloppy writing strong, and I can't give much credit to its script, which is quite flawed. I was rooting for Tony Gilroy's "Michael Clayton" which is a great film-both in writing and acting. The opening monologue alone is worth more than the entire screenplay of "Juno."

Best Supporting Actor was clearly going to be Javiar Bardem, although my personal pick was for Tom Wilkinson. But any of the five could have won and I would have been pleased. Wilkinson with his paranoia, Bardem with his evilness, Hal Halbrook with his tender "Into the Wild" performance, Philip Seymour Hoffman with his anger in "Charlie Wilson's War," and Casey Affleck with his haunting work in 'Jesse James." It was a strong category, for sure.

Although my pick was Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone," I was very pleasantly surprised with Tilda Swinton's win for "Michael Clayton." The whole category was very up in the air, and I'm glad the Academy didn't succomb to Ruby Dee.

Best Actress was Marion Coltillard for "La Vie en Rose," a film I thought was long, dull, generic, and had a leading performance that really did nothing for me. I was rooting for the underdog-in this case Laura Linney-but would have been content with Julie Christie as well.

Best Actor was Mr. Daniel Day Lewis, who did win as he should have. 

Best Director was the Coens, who had nothing to say from the last time they were up, although I was personally rooting for my favorite film of the year, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." Paul Thomas as my second, and Tony Gilroy as fourth. Jason Reitman didn't have a chance among these ambitious and masterful directors.

And of course, Best Picture of the year was "No Country for Old Men." While my first choice was "There Will Be Blood," and the third "Michael Clayton," any of those three could have win and I would have walked away content, although I do feel "Blood" will sustain more energy over the next few decades, and will soon be declared a "classic." "No Country for Old Men" is terrific, though, and I'm glad we didn't get an upset with "Juno" or "Atonement" written on the envelope. 

And so thats it. We start from scratch again. We begin once more. Sundance was last month, and perhaps this year's Oscar contenders have been born there. We shall see.