Speaking of which, what the hell happened to the best visual effects category? Or the Oscars in general? Last year, the award went to The Golden Compass, which a.) no one saw, and b.) was vastly inferior to the effects in Transformers. This year, CG Brad Pitt beat out Iron Man. In 2005, Star Wars: Episode III wasn't even nominated. A lot of these smaller categories are the ones I care about most, and they continuously seem to go to THE WRONG MOVIES.
Let's look at another joke category, this time it is best original song. Now, in the past, the Academy has been pretty bold with its choices here, giving the award to Eminem in 2002 and Three 6 Mafia in 2005. This year, there were some terrific nominees. Peter Gabriel's fantastic "Down to Earth" from Wall-E was nominated, as was the equally amazing "O... Saya" from Slumdog Millionaire. Did the combined amazingness of these two songs split the voters, leaving the door open for the other song from Slumdog Millionaire that no one cares about?
I mean, last year, that category was full of amazing nominees, with three songs from Enchanted and "Falling Slowly", the best part of the overrated Once. Given the choice between that song and the three from Enchanted, I'd probably go with "Falling Slowly" too, just because I can't pick between those three songs.
But they've made some bonehead decisions in the past, such as not nominated songs from movies that are ABOUT MUSIC. In 2003, no song from School of Rock got a nomination. Sure, they're not the best song, but at least they're featured in the movie, and not played over the credits like the winner, Return of the King's "Into the West."
After Sunday night's show, I could ramble on about what is wrong with the Oscars for hours, but I won't do that. I will say this one thing. This year, the Academy Awards had a movie handed to them on a silver platter that could have given them a bit of much-needed street cred, while still pleasing critics. That movie is The Dark Knight. I know the movie got a lot of nominations, and won two awards, but if they had merely given the movie a best picture, best director, and best adapted screenplay nomination, they would have acknowledged not only the overwhelming success of the film, but the fact that it is one of, if not the best film of 2008. Honestly, who has seen or even heard of Milk, or The Reader? There were films nominated for big-time awards (Frozen River, Happy Go Lucky, The Visitor) that I, a MOVIE PERSON, did not even know existed until the nominations came out.
The Grammys wised up and threw some nominations towards some not only popular, but genuinely cool music. While they still chickened out and gave album of the year to Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, the fact that Lil' Wayne and Radiohead were in the same category instilled some kind of confidence in those awards. Maybe next year the Academy Awards will do the same, and throw some deserved attention to the movies that people actually care about.
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