An assortment of Oscar thoughts, two mornings after:
- Although I haven’t seen any of the other four performances nominated for Best Actress, I was very pleased that Nat won for Black Swan. I finally got to see it Saturday night, and she was amazing – obsessive, vulnerable, violent, childlike, sexy, terrified, passionate, barely sane. You root for her, then yell at her, then pity her, then fear her. I haven’t liked all of her performances (don’t look so shocked!), but she was born to play this role. Her Oscar speech was very gracious and professional, as well. It’s cute to see her in love and pregnant.
- I really need to see The King’s Speech. Period dramas like this aren’t typically my favorite, but I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews, and now the film has a truckload of hardware to back them up.
- Inception won a few well-deserved technical awards, although Christopher Nolan was strangely left off the list of finalists for Best Director.
- As many other commentators have noted, I wasn’t a big fan of James Franco’s hosting duties. He seemed tired and apathetic. Anne Hathaway, on the other hand, lit up the night with her tremendous energy and enthusiasm. I’d like to see her host again with someone else (and some better material). Any ideas? How about her and Tina Fey? Or Billy Crystal?
- Trent Reznor won an Oscar? Seriously? Does that make him a sellout or simply a well-rounded badass? Will “Wish” still sound the same? What about “Closer”?
- How is it that Annette Bening has never won?
- Someday I want to do a Oscar marathon of all ten Best Picture nominees, either a two-day version or a full 24-hour one. This year I hadn’t seen most of them, just Inception and Black Swan.
- The Dude abides.