Academy Awards 2009

I've never really been big on sports. The closest I get to being excited over a league is the NBA. That's the only league that I actually have a team I cheer for, but even with that I don't really keep up with the games the way that I used to. I'm not even sure I'm going to really pay attention to the finals this year unless the Sixers miraculously make it, which I highly doubt. Football I watch even less. I don't watch it at all during the year, and although I do watch the Superbowl, it's more for the glamor of it all, and I could usually care less which teams wins.

What I am big on and what I do follow and love is cinema. I love it so much that I used to aspire to be a film director. My following of cinema has died down a little this last year and I haven't watched the amount of films this year that I normally do, but I still love cinema just as much. That said, the Academy Awards is my "Superbowl", so sure enough last week I made sure I tuned in. Being the film nut that I am I did watch the entire thing from beginning to end and what follows are my thoughts on what happened:

The Dark Knight should've been nominated for best picture. Before I saw The Dark Knight, I had placed Spiderman 2 as the best superhero film of all time. After seeing The Dark Knight, Spiderman 2 was quickly dethroned, and The Dark Knight took it's place as not only the best comic book movie ever, but one of the best films of the year. Comic book movies never get recognition in these types of shows, but I really thought that Batman would be the exception to that rule. I could probably post a whole blog on how awesome The Dark Knight was, but I won't. What I will say is this; it not being nominated was a crime.

Penelope Cruz Winning an Oscar. Penelope Cruz is a great actress, and I was glad to see her win her first Oscar.

Hugh Jackman didn't suck. When I heard that Hugh Jackman was hosting the show, like many people I thought to myself; why? I was sure that he would do terrible, but not because he's a terrible actor, but because it was such an odd choice. The ratings for the Oscars have gone down a little over the years, and I thought that this choice was the Academy's attempt at making an outlandish choice just for the sake of ratings.

Turns out I was wrong. Not only did Jackman deliver, but he had one of the best Oscar intros I've seen in very a long time.

Ben Stiller as Joaquin Phoenix. This was by far the funniest thing that happened the entire night. For those that saw this bit, but had no idea what he was parodying. Click here to see Joaquin in an interview with David Letterman, then click here to see the Stiller parody.

Dustin Lance Black's Winning Speech. After Black won his award for writing the film Milk, which is about the first gay politician to run for office, he said the following:

"gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, or by the government, or by their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value, and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you"

I hate it when a recipient tries to incorporate their political ideas into their speeches. Nobody is tuning in for that, and in spite of what these actors/writers think, nobody cares about what they have to say. We all have our own opinions, and nobody's mind is swayed or turned when a writer or director go up to the stage and talk about Bush, homosexuality, or whatever.

What exactly is Lance trying to say anyway? "God loves me so it's okay for me to do what I am doing?" If so, it is weak reasoning. Of course God loves homosexual people because God loves everyone. God loves me too, that doesn't make every lifestyle decision that I make right.

Summary:
There is a lot more that I could say about the Oscars this year, but I'll stop there. All I have to do now is watch Slumdog millionare. It won a crazy amount of awards and I've heard nothing but good things about it from those who've seen it.