Well, since my first Oscar Rant was delayed until the day before the show, my post-show response feels late, too. Thoughts:
PICTURE: Ryan. It will be the most-remembered film of this year. Saving Private Ryan is the first casualty of the excessive vote-lobbying that goes on in Hollywood. Once upon a time there used to be little articles in Entertainment Weekly telling the average film layman about the ads taken out in the trades to woo Academy voters to vote for certain films or certain actors and tech stuff. Now, it's giant articles reporting of huge, millions-dollar campaigns. Ugly. And Ryan would win if it were a strictly political contest! Best Picture because it's patriotic, epic, time period, etc. It just also happens to deserve it. Shakespeare in Love is a fine film, but I disagree that it's the year's best. It's an empty "victory" for Miramax.
ACTOR: Was Benigni a relief or what? Mini-rant: this year's Oscar telecast sucked. Whoopi was about as funny as dirt, it POKED along and the Debbie Allen nonsense was vacant and retarded and occasionally offensive to the fine musicians the dance was supposedly "supporting". For God's sake, gimme Seinfeld!!! What is he, busy?!? And all the songs were lame and were performed lamely. I certainly missed Springsteen, Neil Young and even well-written Disney tunes. That aside, Benigni provided a jolt of joy in the whole maudlin mess. And now that I've seen all the nominee's performances, what the hell, give it to him. I'm still a fan of Norton's, but he didn't have a chance. Nolte's good performance I thought was bogged in a strange script, McKellan shined in a story of underwhelming significance. Benigni did a good job in a good film, what the hell, give it to him.
ACTRESS: Blanchett, dammit!! The day of the Oscars I saw Elizabeth and was surprised how much I liked it. It's the old Hackman-Hoffman thing. Hoffman (in Rain Man) beat Hackman (in Mississippi Burning) in 1988. Rain Man was the more high-profile film, but Hackman did MORE in a film of less commercial success. Ditto Blanchett and Paltrow. Blanchett's character simply had more to deal with, and goes one step further to get my nod. But I still say I'm happy to have finally ENJOYED Paltrow in a film, way to finally live up to the hype.
By the way, did anyone else see The Matrix. I beat myself up when I bought a ticket: "Why am I seeing another film that looks promising, but will have Keanu Reeves ruin it simply by his mere presence (or non-presence as it usually seems)?" Judgement: he didn't ruin it. If you like to watch a VERY stylish flick where you get to see people kick ass, check it out. Granted Reeves doesn't have half the charisma of a Cruise or Gibson, but he looked great and didn't ruin it. I think "didn't ruin it" is about the best he's gonna get.
SUPP. ACTOR: Billy Bob got robbed. Point blank. Saw Affliction the day of the Oscars, James Coburn played a mean drunk. Not different from...well....actually no one in recent history has won for playing a mean drunk. It's pretty damn easy. Again, Coburn (Hoffman) - one note success. Thornton (Hackman) - multi-layered success, and hence, more impressive.
SUPP. ACTRESS: SPEAKING OF ROBBED!!!! There's a new category: Best Cameo. Now why wasn't Ted Danson nominated in Ryan, or Woody Harrelson in The Thin Red Line, or Marcel Marceau for Silent Movie? Gip, gip, gip!! Kathy Bates was as viciously robbed as Judi Dench was last year. Too little, too late, ya bastards.
ART DIRECTION: Upon a second viewing, I might disagree with the Academy, and change my vote to Pvt. Ryan. It looked great. They really were sticklers for place, it became a character even more than the England re-created for Shakespeare. Also, the characters of Ryan are so richly entrenched in that time, proper re-creation of war-torn battlefields is crucial. The players of Shakespeare are foolin' around with anachronisms so much that it takes away from what the Art directors have done.
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Right on.
COSTUME: I think we're all agreed that Elizabeth and Shakespeare had similar success and it was a toss-up. RANDOM THOUGHT: Geoffrey Rush deserved his nomination more for Elizabeth than Shakespeare in Love.
DIRECTING: Kudos, Steve, super achievement. I'm still a believer, however, in Rob Reiner's theory: lose the director's category and give an Oscar to the Producer and Director when a film wins Best Picture. Then again, in my world, Ryan would've won.
DOCUMENTARY CATEGORIES: Kudos, whatever won, super achievement.
EDITING: Right on. This man edited Raiders of the Lost Ark, for God's Sake!!!
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: Huzzah for Roberto! Life is Beautiful is so good, I think people are glad that it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film so they can write it off for Best Picture and not have to mull over whether it's better than Ryan or Shakespeare!! Decisions, decisions.
MAKEUP: I was just happy to see Elizabeth win something, 'cause it was good! I'm still pissed that Broadcast News was nominated for 7 Oscars and won NONE!
SCORE: Can't whistle dick from any of the nominees except Shakespeare's theme, I'm glad it won. Life is Beautiful was a dead-on choice. Well done.
SONG: Much like "Beauty and the Beast", "When You Believe" sounds 1 MILLION times better sung by the film's characters than by Mariah "will screw for fame" Carey and Whitney "too damn boring to come up with an interesting joke nickname" Houston. For the FILM version, it's a winner.
Joel Siegel said that they should show the Best Animated Short IN IT'S ENTIRETY instead of that Debbie Allen BS. I think we ALL were intrigued by "Bunny", right?
SOUND, SOUND EFFECTS, VISUAL EFFECTS: Right on.
ADAPTED SCRIPT: Saw Gods and Monsters last week. I didn't understand why the story was imortant enough to tell. I'd rather see a story of James Whale dealing with his homosexuality in a homophobic Hollywood while trying to direct horror films! A Simple Plan was the most twisty, jolt-filled, unpredictable flick of the year. My pick, denied.
ORIGNAL SCRIPT: Shakespeare was a shoo-in. It's all good and everything, but I had a soft spot for Bulworth.
Overall, mild, tepid and lame. And we've already gone 3 months this year with nothing Oscar-worthy (except The Matrix's effects). Let's hope we don't go another 9 with similar