 In
a year when awards shows appeared to be losing their lustre, the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was determined to
make this year's Oscar ceremony more relevant. Newer, fresher,
faster. They even snagged Chris Rock to host and then indulged
in a lot of stage-managed hand-wringing about what the notoriously
freewheeling comic might do.
But
it was all to no avail. The 77th Academy Awards, like the 76 that
preceded it, was all about old Hollywood. The old Hollywood of
"The Aviator" and the old Hollywood of stalwarts like
Clint Eastwood.
Still,
you've got to give them credit for trying. Trying, however, is
exactly what Chris Rock's performance as host turned out to be.
The comedian seemed like a fish out of water, not because he had
to rein in his famously raunchy act, but because he didn't seem
to know anything about the movies that were up for the awards.
His barbs at the business were the kind of thing you could hear
in any mall, or at any bus stop: their was little evidence of
wit and plenty of evidence of someone who couldn't really be bothered.
Of course, Rock has an eye on a movie career of his own, so it
was pretty much a given that he wasn't going to offend anybody
(although his repeated barbs at Jude Law apparently did piss a
few people off, including presenter Sean Penn). The best part
of Rock's presentation was a filmed bit where he interviewed patrons
at LA's Magic Johnson Theatres and discovered that the favorite
movies of the year were "The Chronicles of Riddick"
and "White Chicks".
The
Kodak audience laughed, but there was an undertone of self-congratulation.
They, after all, voted for the best of the year not the most successful.
Uh, right.
 Anyway,
on to the awards. The first half of the show looked like it was
going to be "The Aviator" all the way, then Morgan Freeman
took Best Supporting Actor for "Million Dollar Baby"
and it soon became clear that this was really Eastwood's night.
"Aviator" ended up taking home five awards, the most
of any film, but the big ones went to "Baby": Best Actress
(Hillary Swank), Best Director (Eastwood) and Best Picture.
It
wasn't all about two films, however; Oscar spread the kudos around,
giving the Best Adapted Screenplay nod to Alexander Payne's "Sideways"
and Best Original Screenplay to "Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind". As expected, Jamie Foxx took home the gold
guy for Best Actor for his performance in "Ray" (which
also won in the Best Sound Mixing category), and Cate Blanchett
snagged the Best Supporting Actress gong for her role as Katharine
Hepburn in "The Aviator".
"Finding
Neverland" scored in only one category, taking home the award
for Best Score, and for the first time in Oscar history the Best
Song award went to a ditty in a foreign language, "Al Otro
Lado Del Rio" from "The Motorcycle Diaries".
Kudocast
producer Gil Cates tried a few new twists this year, in another
effort to speed up the proceedings. These included having all
the nominees in some categories standing onstage like "American
Idol" finalists while the envelope was opened. It might have
seemed like a good idea on paper, but in practice it resulted
in a row of very uncomfortable-looking people who were clearly
getting the economy class treatment (they only did this for the
lowly "technical" categories). Even worse, some awards
were handed out in the aisles like door prizes at daytime talk
shows.
The
aisle award-giving did lead to one of the few moments of genuine
wit, however. As Jeremy Irons was standing going through his spiel
for the Best Live Action Short there was a loud bang from one
side of the theatre. He finished his sentence, paused for a moment
and then said in that dry way that only the British can: "I
hope they missed."
And
that's it. The 110th year of motion pictures ends much as the
previous 109 did: with memories of sitting in the dark while stories
told with light and shadow flicker past our faces. For all its
laudable attempts at preservation there is something ephemeral
about film, and in a world where so much weight is put on the
concrete and tangible it really is worth celebrating our collective
imaginations if only once a year.
For
the complete list of 77th Academy Award winners click here.
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