9 Days of Oscar: Wrap Up and Look Ahead

Some random thoughts on Sunday’s ceremony:

* Enough with clip packages. I love film noir but I’m not sure why it needed a tribute this year.

* How did The Day After Tomorrow work its way into a clip package dedicated to “classics” about social issues? If that’s a classic, then Police Academy should have been in the noir package.
Please keep America’s treasure Lauren Bacall away from the cocktails before she presents. The woman had all the balance of Jennifer Garner.

* The interpretive dance performance during “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp” did more to objectify women then the movie itself.

* Loved the campaign ads. Even the actors seemed to have a good sense of humor about them. (Except for Sean Penn Jr. aka Joaquin Phoenix.)

* My blog picks were almost spot on except for cinematography and song, too bad I didn’t stick with them in my Oscar pool.
I don’t have the best fashion taste but for the most part the beautiful people looked great with exceptions going to Michele Williams and her “this is my Sun god dress from my grade school play”, and Charlize Theron’s “bow so big it’s got it own area code.”

* Where were the accountants?

* The low ratings will be unfairly blamed on Jon Stewart and the small box office nominees, but I think the real problem with the show was the lack of any real races. Except for Crash winning Best Picture and me losing my Oscar pool, there were no real upsets or tension.

* Jon Stewart did a very good job but I think we’ll be “treated” to a retread Whoopi or Steve next year.

So now that we’re done with Oscar 2006, what about Oscar 2007? Obviously there was a backlash against the lack of commercially successful films being nominated this year. The question is whether the voters will actually pay that any heed next year or whether it will simply be a media created non-story. Films that might have critical and commercial success next year include Oliver Stone’s 9/11 project and Clint Eastwood’s Iwo Jima film. Personally I’ll be happy if we have another year where the 5 best picture nominees all made my personal top 20 and let the box office stats fall where they may.