Oscar Thoughts

Brief higgeldy-piggeldy notions:

• I have not seen La Vie en Rose, and yet was disappointed by Cotillard's win. Why? Because her songs were lip-synced. Presumably a fair share of the performance's impact was in how well she portrayed the singer while singing - the clip they used suggested as much. But that wasn't her singing. Shouldn't the singer get some of the credit too? I had the same problem with Jamie Foxx's win for Ray, in that he was lip-syncing to the real Ray Charles. It's also, in spirit, the reason why I don't think voice actors should be eligible to win - because in an an animated film, so much of the character comes from the animation, and not the actor.
• Very happy to see Diablo Cody win, as I thought Juno's script was smart and remarkably well-balanced. The film could very easily have been too jokey or too serious, or too melodramatic, but pitched the events at exactly the right level of real-world weight.
• Very happy to see Transformers not win for visual effects - I thought they took a lot of cheap shortcuts in the design and execution of the robots.
• After hearing the song from Once, I'm more curious than ever to see it. And the bifurcated duo gave the most genuine and sweet acceptance speeched of the night easily.
• Brad Bird's speech was on point and disarming, and it was great to see him win. I adored Ratatouille.
• Thought that Stewart did a great job of balancing his tone, not mocking the event while still hardly appearing in awe.
• The use of strike-prepared excessive montages was noticeable, but Stewart's bit about some of the ones they prepared and didn't use (bad dreams) was killer.
• I most missed the spotlights on the Best Film nominees. And I really, really wish they'd cut some of the montages and show scenes - not trailer-like montages - from the nominated films and performances.

Until Whenever