Highlights of this year’s Academy Award telecast:
* Host Jon Stewart bringing Best Original Song co-winner Marketa Irglova (for Once’s “Falling Slowly”) back to the stage to give her acceptance speech after being cut off by the orchestra.
* Cate Blanchett as the pit bull in No Country for Old Men.
* Marion Cotillard’s giddy, impassioned acceptance speech for winning Best Actress for La Vie En Rose.
* Javier Bardem’s equally emotional acceptance speech for winning Best Supporting Actor for No Country for Old Men.
* Presenter Jennifer Garner looking awesome as always.
The low points:
* The often shoddy CGI work in The Golden Compass winning Best Visual Effects over the far more spectacular FX in Transformers.
* The wax museum piece Elizabeth: The Golden Age winning Best Costume Design over Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (and, even though it didn’t have a chance, Across the Universe).
* Seven-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins losing two more times (for both No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford).
* Having to see that damn Jerry Seinfeld bee from Bee Movie once again.
* Learning that director Michael Bay (Bad Boys II, Pearl Harbor) is a member of the Academy. WTF?
This article appears in Feb 27 – Mar 4, 2008.
