Monday Morning Quarterback

My only real opportunity to be a Monday Morning Quarterback comes but once a year, and while it is now Monday evening, I'll take advantage of the opportunity anyway.

I'm not sure why, but I was upset to have missed actually watching the Oscars. Our antennae simply refused to pick up ABC. I refreshed Oscar.com and a couple of blogs incessantly to try to keep up, but that only lasted until 10:30, when I decided sleep was more valuable.

So here we go...my thoughts on the categories I care about...

I haven't see Bourne Ultimatum, but it must have some pretty dang good sound.

I would have liked to see Ratatouille pick up a few more awards than just best animated feature (Best Score, perhaps?). But at least it sealed that one.

As fun as Enchanted was, and as much as I loved--yes, loved--"Happy Working Song," I'm glad Once picked up Best Song. Now I just need to get on YouTube and watch that performance.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly NEEDED to be recognized in some way. I don't care which award, but it should have received SOMETHING. Does anyone know why it wasn't up for Best Foreign Language film?

Speaking of Best Foreign Language film, I heard a lot of people complaining that 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days was not nominated. Maybe it would have been less of a travesty if the nominees were movies we'd actually heard of. Seriously...where did these come from?? I know I sound like an ignorant American saying that, but I try to stay on top of my foreign films, and I don't think I've heard of any of them.

Best Original Screenplay was a loaded category where anyone could have won and I would have been happy (with the exception of Michael Clayton, which I have yet to see). The Savages was perfectly written, Lars and the Real Girl was absurdly creative, and Ratatouille was perfect, too. But if Juno deserved an award on Oscar night, it was probably this one, so I'm content with that.

It bothers me that, 9 times out of 10, documentaries only get recognized if they're political. Where was the King of Kong on this list? It deserved a nomination, at least.

While it would have been fun to see Ellen Page or Laura Linney win best actress, I'm sure Ms. Cotillard was just as deserving. Javier and Daniel were deserving, and don't think I saw any of the support actresses. So, no complaints in the acting categories.

As for the rest, No Country For Old Men really cleaned up, eh? It's a deserving film and all, but I think I just get upset when the academy doesn't share the love. I like all of these great movies to get at least a little bit of recognition. I definitely don't like when a film wins the Directing award and Best Picture. Share the love! Give No Country best picture and the Direction award to Anderson or Schnabel!

This is how it should have been split up to recognize everyone properly:
Best Original Screenplay- Juno
Best Adapted Screenplay- Diving Bell
Best Director- PT Anderson
Best Picture- No Country for Old Men

So there's my unasked-for 2 cents. I'm off to YouTube to catch the exciting parts I missed.