Oscar Night is Over....

I went into last night with aspirations of setting an all-time high of twenty correct guesses (breaking my record of nineteen from '08 and '09) and I ended the night matching my career low of sixteen.  I suppose this means it was a bit less predictable this year, although still pretty much so, considering my (somewhat) pipe dream pick of David Fincher finally taking home an Oscar was dashed by the mediocre direction of Tom Hooper in the movie that would also take Best Picture.  After a few years run of more cutting edge winners (The Departed, No Country for Old Men, Slumdog Millionaire, The Hurt Locker) it was kind of sad (though very predictable) to see th Academy go back to the boring old middlebrow ways with The King's Speech (though I am happy with Mr. Firth winning).  Anyway, enough rambling.  The Oscars are over and we finally finished cleaning the cinema after the party.  Time to move on and get back to the business of devouring some cinema - both old and new. New reviews are coming for The Housemaid, Poetry, Uncle Boonmee, Certified Copy and some mainstream dreck like Drive Angry and Red Riding Hood (at least they look dreckish).  Also my quest to watch the 1000 Greatest Films is going strong (currently at #589 and counting) and reviews of recent additions such as The Lusty Men, Some Came Running, Laura, Red Desert and Guru Dutt's Pyaasa are just around the corner.  So good night and good luck - and all that jazz (how's that for back-to-back movie title references?).

I will leave you with one of those fictional Oscar stories (The Bad and the Beautiful in this case) and the man who was (in my not-so-humble opinion) the most enjoyable thing about last night's Oscar broadcast.

And in case you can't get enough of the Oscars, I will be making my (way in) Advance Oscar Predictions come April 1st (no it is not a joke).  These will invariably include such possibles (for better or for worse) as Spielberg's War Horse, Polanski's Carnage, Fincher's Dragon Tattoo, Crowe's We Built a Zoo, Reitman's Young Adult, Eastwood's J. Edgar, Malick's long-anticipated Tree of Life and Meryl Streep possibly winning her third Oscar (and first since 1983!?) for playing Maggs Thatcher in The Iron Lady and George Clooney possibly receiving nominations for Director, Actor AND Supporting Actor.  That will come in one month and one day, so don't start holding your breath for at least three and a half weeks.