The Oscars in Review

(originally published in The California Aggie at UC Davis, 2/26/09)


Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Sharing the screen with such attention-grabbing actors and Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johansson can’t be easy, but it was Cruz as the garrulous and passionate artist that stole the show.

The other nominees held little hope of winning. Little-known Viola Davis’s role in Doubt received critical praise but lacked commercial success and audience receptivity, and Amy Adams in the same film fell by the wayside. Marisa Tomei, though an underrated Oscar darling, played the overdone role of “hooker with a heart of gold” in The Wrestler. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’s Taraji P. Henson, a newcomer onto the scene, hasn’t yet paid her dues as an actress.


Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

In the year since Ledger’s death, the entertainment industry has been abuzz with awe of his final farewell to acting. His untimely passing surely didn’t hurt his chances at winning, but few would contest that Ledger’s nuanced, harrowing interpretation of the psychotic comic book villain truly stood out from the pack.

Though Ledger delivered hands-down superior performance, it is unfortunate that The Dark Knight was released in a year with so many worthy supporting actors. Josh Brolin as Milk’s city supervisor, murderer and (in some ways) catalyst very nearly stole the show from Best Actor winner Sean Penn. In Revolutionary Road, Michael Shannon displayed another type of psychosis that acted as more of a catharsis for the stifled audience. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robert Downey, Jr. (in Doubt and Tropic Thunder respectively) are both talented actors who will no doubt get their day at the Oscars, but this was not the year for them.


Best Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader

Before Sunday night, Winslet had been nominated five times without winning, all before the age of 32. This is a severe lack of appreciation for the rare and gifted actress she’s touted to be. The Academy chose to honor her body of work, whether or not the mediocre role of Hanna Schmitz was the worthiest portrayal.

Midyear Anne Hathaway seemed a shoe-in for the award with her moving portrayal of a rehabilitated drug addict in the family drama Rachel Getting Married, shocking those who had her pigeon-holed. A win for her would have been well deserved. Angelina Jolie, stony-faced off-screen but heart-wrenchingly expressive in Changeling, would have also been a welcome alternative.

Sadly, Meryl Streep’s record fifteen nominations has resulted in her competing against all her previous stellar roles instead of the other women in the category; this year her role in Doubt was not up to her own set par. And poor Melissa Leo’s film Frozen River was simply too obscure even for Oscar voters.


Best Actor: Sean Penn, Milk

Sean Penn has the uncanny ability to bypass amateurish impressions and completely inhabit his character. Especially in comparison to historical footage of Harvey Milk, Penn’s portrayal is a real tribute to the man himself. His meticulous acting is enough to dispel (or at least make negligible) any allegations of a liberal Hollywood merely rewarding a politically leftist movie.

Penn probably was the most deserving lead actor this year. Penn’s main competition was Mickey Rourke’s celebrated return to form in The Wrestler. The least deserving nominee was arguably Brad Pitt, whose performance in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button amounted to little more than excellent make-up and special effects.


Best Directing: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle tends to create a world of intrigue and optimism in his movies, whether that world exists on a spaceship in the future, in post-Apocalyptic zombie-ridden London, in the drug dens and sketchy nightclub haunts of addicts, or most recently in the slums of Mumbai.

Danny Boyle had this category all locked up. All four of the other directors possess some of the most impressive resumes in the industry, but none can match Boyle’s films’ effortless charm.


Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

There’s something about this movie that people love, and even movie executives can’t seem to put their finger on what it is; the film almost went straight to DVD. The film is highly courageous and rarely condescending. The movie holds up both to scrutiny of formal aspects as well as to the critical eye of general public, which is quite the impressive feat.

Slumdog Millionaire, for the above-mentioned reasons, blew the competition out of the water.