Monday, February 23, 2009

Class comes back to the Oscars

Dave and I watched the Oscars last night with Faron, and we thought it was one of the classiest Oscar awards shows that we've seen in years.

What a difference it makes when they don't play music to shut up the award recipients after 30 seconds. Also, what a difference it makes that the host has a script, unlike last year's disaster. We also really liked the format for the best actor / actress awards, which were presented by past recipients. Each nominee was really showcased, and it definitely helped those who hadn't seen the movies.

Moreover, I think it was apparent that we had a really good crop of movies this year. I want to see almost all of them, though I only managed to see "Milk" and "Wall-E." (I personally thought "Wall-E" belonged in the "Best Picture" category, but that's just me.)

Finally, I really appreciated the open and accepting comments made by the award recipients for "Milk," including Sean Penn for best actor and Dustin Lance Black for best screenplay. While awards shows have certainly played host to political commentary in the last few years, this movie really showed the need to stop the hate and discrimination that gay Americans faced in Harvey Milk's time, as well as that which they continue to face today.

So kudos to the Oscars - can't wait to see who'll be up next year.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree, particularly about Wall-E; the animated movies still don't get any respect within the Academy.

At least the show was entertaining this year. I think the producers would have done anything to avoid last year's debacle of "we have nothing to say!"

Morgan said...

I really enjoyed the Oscars this year too, especially how they used five previous winners to introduce the nominees for best actor, etc.

Valerie said...

Yeah, it really showcased each nominee, which I needed this year because I didn't get to see a lot of the movies.