Oscars Round-Up

The 82^nd Academy Awards ceremony took place yesterday (7^th US time) and first off Trespass has to congratulate the winners of our Oscars Competition, who correctly predicted that The Hurt Locker would win the Best Picture Oscar.

Well Done:

JESS LOMAS from VIC

ANTHONY ROBERTS from VIC

MATT RAVIER from NSW

You lucky people have a fantastic pack of Madman DVDs winging their way to you.

NOW to some post-Oscars analysis – What did Trespass’ filmy types make of the results for the four big gongs?

Best Picture- The Hurt Locker

Best Director- Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)

Best Actor- Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)

Best Actress- Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)

Beth Wilson

The Academy Awards didn’t really give us too many surprises this year, except that Steve Martin is still funny. The four big awards were dished out pretty much as I, and everyone else, expected. I thought that the Best Picture and Best Director might get split between Cameron and Bigelow, but am happy it didn’t. Avatar is a terribly boring film after the first 20 minutes of visual wizardry. Whilst it is fascinating that the end race became a sort of Goliath and David battle between a film that has broken box office records (Avatar), and one that has now become the lowest grossing film ever to win an Oscar (Hurt Locker), I can’t help thinking that there were better films within the category that were more deserving of the Best Film Oscar.

I always love Jeff Bridges’ performances, the man commits to every role, though after seeing his acceptance speech, I’m not sure how much of ‘The Dude’ was acting. I would have loved Colin Firth, who was stellar in A Single Man, to have won the Oscar, but despite what I think of Crazy Heart, I can’t fault Bridges as Bad Blake.

I’ve been rather restrained (up until this point) about expressing my disgust for The Blind Side on Trespass. I found it to be a truly hideous film, full of paternalism and quasi-racial stereotypes and was horrified by its nomination for Best Film and Best Actress. I hated Sandra Bullock’s performance in The Blind Side; her character completely hijacked the story. I feel like a meanie because Bullock gave such a lovely acceptance speech and seems like a genuinely nice, funny person, but I would have preferred any one of the other nominees to have won instead.

Sean Rom

Despite cheapening its name with the inclusion of extra undeserving films in the Best Picture category, The Oscars came good with its choice of winners. Kathryn Bigelow became the first female director to win best director and best film for The Hurt Locker - on International Women’s Day no less! Similarly, Jeff Bridges deservedly took the best actor gong for his terrific work in Crazy Heart. Even though The Blind Side looks racist, patronizing and unbearably saccharine, I don’t mind Sandra Bullock’s win. She has always been a pretty good actress in pretty bad films. Besides, Speed 2 was amazing!

Alice Tynan

Well it was Kathryn Bigelow’s night as most of us predicted. Bless the Americans and their inability to embrace subtlety. Yes it was International Women’s Day and so obvious it was too good a Kodak moment to pass up. That’s not to say it wasn’t well deserving of course, but there’s something about The Hurt Locker cleaning up in all the other categories that just feels so…blatant. Like Slumdog Millionaire’s haul last year, it appears the Academy are content to pile up on one production, rather than spreading the love. Yes, how’s the subtly!

With The Hurt Locker on its winning streak, all the other categories seemed similarly predictable. Jeff Bridges was always going to win (and gave a lovely, heartfelt speech), as was Sandra Bullock, whose performance a friend perfectly described as ‘Erin Brockovich,’ i.e., America’s sweetheart takes on a more steely character to steal the Oscar. That said, I loved her speech and she gets extra cred for fronting up at the Razzies.

And just quickly, I don’t know why Vera Farmiga is getting dissed for her dress. I thought she was the stand out of the night! Less successful was this maligned producer’s ‘Kanye moment,’ but at least she provided one surprise for the evening.

Glenn Dunks

BEST PICTURE:

It never really looked as if The Hurt Locker was going to lose and by the time Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq war drama started winning all the awards that James Cameron’s sci-fi action flick Avatar was “supposed” to win, the writing was on the wall. Whilst not my favourite of the nominees, its win cannot be denied as anything but a win for quality. The Academy didn’t need to give their award to a movie that would hold the title for lowest grossing Best Picture winner of all time, but they did and that’s to be applauded. Now go out and actually SEE the movie!

BEST DIRECTOR:

I would like to remind everyone that amidst all the “first female director ever!” hoopla – as necessary and important as that is – that Geoffrey Fletcher became the first African American to win a screenwriting Oscar for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, which is history making news all on its own. As for Bigelow? Richly deserved and, yes, it is about time.

BEST ACTOR:

No one can deny that Jeff Bridges deserves an Oscar on his mantle, but should it be for Crazy Heart? I haven’t seen it so I can’t say, but Bridges is one of the best actors of his generation and if it means Colin Firth or Jeremy Renner have to wait for their own then so be it. He’s a class act.

BEST ACTRESS:

For a while there it looked like an upset was in the works for Gabourey Sidibe, but Sandra Bullock prevailed for her role as a rich, white, suburbanite who adopts a big black man who then goes on to play gridiron. It’s hard to dislike Bullock, especially after her wonderfully touching and comedic speech, although many have found it easy to dislike her performance. For me it’s generally a bit of a so-so win, it’s just baffling that anybody could watch Sidibe’s performance and not find it superior.

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