Oscars

So, the Oscars have been and gone for another year. This blog is really to share my thoughts on the happenings at he 81st Academy Awards. I’ll start with two of the only three categories I really cared about this year. Best Actor in a leading role, somewhat predictably has gone to Sean Penn. Now, I don’t massively have anything against Sean Penn, except his self righteous nature, and a propensity to ham it up. I don’t think he deserved and Oscar for Mystic River, and I will own up to having a soft spot for Mickey Rourke winning this year. Yes, I am a wrestling fan and therefore maybe am a little predisposed toward Aronofsky’s film, however I honestly believe Mickey Rourke gave a career redefining performance as Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson. Mickey Rourke may have scuppered his own chances by agreeing to be involved in Wrestlemania, but he also isn’t one of the favourites of the Academy. Rourke, by his own admission, has fucked his life up something rotten, and I just think it would have been the right thing to do to reward such a brave choice, pulled off with such aplomb.
Never mind. I, and many others, appreciate you Mickey Rourke!
The second category I cared about was Best Supporting Actor. In this category, the Academy at least got it right. Many thousands of words have been written to praise Ledger’s performance, and I don’t want to dwell. In a film filled with stars, and giant explosions, and in a genre very rarely recognised, Heath Ledger pulled off one of the great performances of our times. His Joker was unnerving, vulnerable, memorable and a true sociopath. It is hard to create a character who is so overtly close to the edge, without actually going over it. It is a fitting tribute to a cracking actor.
The final category I cared about is the one I always care about, Best original Screenplay. I do feel in this category that the best script doesn’t always win. For my money ‘In Bruges’ was the best script I have heard in a long time, Foul, funny, and full of heart. It was a script I would love to have written, full of memorable characters, great lines and a genuinely moving ending. It was a very un-Hollywood film. Where else but a Colin Farrell film could you hear lines such as ‘Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf’? For that line alone it should have won. But still, it got my vote!
These are the regular injustices that happen at the Oscars. But yet every year I get my hopes up that they will pick the right films, performances and scripts. At least this year they got one of them right. Roll on next years award season.

For Mickey Rourke, Heath Ledger and ‘In Bruges’, I offer a new feature of the blog…the Shooter Salute.