I'd just like to talk for a couple minutes about this years Academy Awards - both the suprises and the parts that weren't quite as surprising. I'll start with a quick rundown of the major winners (so that it's less necessary to scroll.)
Best Actress: Nicole Kidman for The Hours
Best Actor: Adrien Brody for The Pianist
Best Supporting Actress: Catherine Zeta-Jones for Chicago
Best Supporting Actor: Chris Cooper for Adaptation
Best Director: Roman Polanski for The Pianist
Best Documentary: Bowling For Columbine
Best Picture: Chicago
big winners
Chicago - Supporting Actress, Art Direction, Costume Design, Film Editing, Sound, and Picture. Ahh, what can I say? I admit it. I'm a sucker for musicals. Great cast, great costumes, great dancing, great singing, excellent choreography, and it was surprisingly true to the stage show; it recognized where it came from in a way that few movie musicals have since West Side Story. No, it wasn't the best picture of the year, or even the second best, but I'm not complaining.
The Pianist - Actor, Director, and Adapted Screenplay. This one deserved it too. I cried harder at this than I did at Schindler's List; Adrien Brody was magnificent and the music was great too. It's hard to talk about a film driven so much by one actor, but Mr. Brody carried an immense burden in being the sole protagonist of a heavy work, and he got what was coming to him.
big losers
Gangs of New York - zip. Favored to win Best Director and Best Actor, this bloated, boring, misdirected 'epic' took home exactly what it deserved. Perhaps Daniel Day-Lewis deserved recognition for redeeming what might have been an unwatchable movie, but I can't say I'm disappointed that this picture did the way it did. Martin Scorcese is one of the greatest directors America has, but twenty years was too long to let this idea stew, and neither Leonardo DiCaprio (who surprised and impressed me just prior in Catch Me If You Can) nor Cameron Diaz (who has yet to impress me with anything except her utterly unparalleled ability to seem like she has no clue where she is) had the stamina or ability to handle as much as they were given.
The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers - also not a surprise. I don't think the Academy is going to expand their preferences into the realm of epic fantasy anytime soon. Honoring musicals was a big step for them; we'll have to give them time before they'll accept hobbits and walking trees. This film has the especially unenviable position of being the second of a trilogy: the excitement and novelty got used up on the first one, and it won't be until The Return Of The King that the Academy will be able to stop saying "Maybe next year."
Adaptation - ok, it really didn't lose much, since it hardly got recognized at nomination time. Well, it really deserved Best Adapted Screenplay; hell, Nicholas Cage could've got Best Actor and it would have been no injustice. And it's hard to sell me on Nicholas Cage. The whole movie was smart, funny, ironic, offbeat - everything the Academy doesn't look for in a winner.
the highlights of the evening
Chris Cooper's well-deserved win for Adaptation was not one that most people were predicting - although it rewarded a flawless performance in a clearly difficult role. This category was a tough pick, though: Adaptation and The Hours were great films that were not Academy favorites. Road To Perdition simply happened too long ago to stick in the minds of the Academy's oft-feebleminded members, and while John C. Riley's performance in Chicago was up to his usual standard of excellence, he is the sort of actor who has an amazing capacity to be ignored. (What an irony that this is the subject of his only big number in Chicago.)
Michael Moore's acceptance speech was not shocking coming from him, but very enjoyable nonetheless. Towards the beginning, he proclaimed that "we've got a fictitious president who was elected for fictitious reasons and now is conducting a fictitious war." Perhaps that was where he lost the crowd. Personally, whether or not I agree with his views, it's pretty impressive to me that someone would speak out publicly with a view that's not quite popular, and (despite the boos from the audience), at a time when it's most vital to speak out.
Adrien Brody started out by taking advantage of his win - giving Halle Berry a big ol' smooch on the lips. His acceptance speech was long. He didn't have a speech prepared. He cried onstage. He thanked everyone he knew. He ignored the signs telling him to get off the stage, and he told the orchestra to shut up when they tried to drown him out. They did. His award was a surprise; the clear favorite to win amongst the critics was Daniel Day-Lewis for Gangs Of New York. This was an excellent choice on the part of the Academy; it was a very good performance in a difficult role.
Roman Polanski's win for The Pianist was perhaps the biggest upset of the night in my mind (as well as many other people's). But he deserved it; it was an excellent movie, and even if I didn't expect an unpopular man to win in a contest against an immensely popular one, he somehow managed to impress the Academy. Martin Scorcese was the obvious favorite to win; I don't think any prediction I saw had Roman Polanski taking it home. (Well, receiving it at home via FedEx). But the Oscar is supposed to be given on the basis of a single movie; Martin Scorcese hasn't won an Oscar even for some of the century's great movies - that doesn't mean he deserves one for something that will end up a footnote in his biography.