Essentially: As underwhelming as expected.
Hugh Jackman did a fine job as host, though I could’ve lived without the cornball musical numbers. The disappointing results were a function of the disappointing nominees, and there were few major surprises. The mediocre Slumdog (undeservedly) swept most categories it was nominated in. I would’ve gone for The Wrestler, which of course was not nominated. Neither was my favorite film of 2008, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, nominated for Best Foreign Film. Like I said, disappointing nominees lead to a disappointing set of awards.
The biggest surprise of the night for most people was probably Sean Penn upsetting Mickey Rourke; honestly though I think they both deserved it and Penn gave a better acceptance speech than I would have anticipated. Aside from that my biggest shock was at The Dark Knight winning Sound Design over Wall·E. I tweeted last night that that was bigger BS than the Slumdog lovefest, but I’m not sure that’s true; it was just more of a shock than the predictable heaping of statuettes upon the Boyle flick. I’ll call it the biggest robbery of the night, how about that?
Here’s hoping for a better year of films in 2009.
UPDATE: It’s come to my attention that 4 Months… is technically a 2007 film, and ineligible this year, although it apparently was shut out of the Oscars last year anyway, so my disappointment at its snub still sort of holds.
