Where the Road to the Oscars Ends

The time has come and gone, another awards season has come to an end.  This always feels like Christmas Day to me, you lead up to it and almost immediately it’s over before you had a chance to really enjoy it (yes I know I place the Oscars up there with Christmas).  In that time I’ve watched all nine nominees and documented them for you (and most people have agreed on the how heinous Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was).  In the end, what everyone expected to win did….The Artist!

In looking back, The Artist was one of the best movies I saw in the nine nominees and it’s made my list of best movies of 2011.  With that though it was slightly above the other contenders, but below movies that didn’t even get a nomination (remember Drive was my best movie of 2011).  The Artist deserved the win if only to make people remember why we love movies in the first place; a theme that was focused on throughout the ceremony as celebrities were asked why they loved the movies.  The Artist shows that we can focus on story and not flashy CGI or sequels, that a movie can rely solely on its performances and comedy.

With that, there were other movies I enjoyed including Midnight in Paris (which won Best Original Screenplay), War Horse (one of the surprises of the last of the nominees).  The Descendants was fantastic, Hugo and Moneyball were good.  It’s just sad that some other movies weren’t recognized including the aforementioned Drive and Shame.  The fine group at 3Guys1Movie.com posted a comment citing similar sentiments and thanks to them for recommending Take Shelter, another movie I need to see ASAP.

The only two movies I hated were Tree of Life and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and I’ve said enough on them.  I hope to forget them between here and next award season.

The ceremony itself was a bit bland and Billy Crystal only solidified how out of date he was.  I mean they had to cut a blackface joke he did on the West Coast.   Where the hell did he think that was in good taste?  We can’t show nipples on-screen (although J. Lo did let one slip) but Billy Crystal can do blackface?  And that’s on top of a joke he made about Christopher Plummer having Alzheimer’s!  I mean seriously.  For the most part the awards were cut and dry, no true surprises or shocking upsets.  The awards were so standard the In Memoriam only showed still photos in about 5 second increments!  The Cirque de Soleil was cool, but again signs from an outdated producer of what was cool!

I don’t know what can be improved upon but the awards were just “here they are, have fun.”  I’m glad The Artist won and here’s to Awards Season 2011, it’s been fun!

With that, we kick off 15 days of Jean Harlow starting March 1st!  If you have any suggestions please contact me.  Also, if you still want to be added to my Blogroll let me know!  Also, my latest episode of The Midnight Matinee Podcast is available on my official website via the BlogRoll