Tonight was a great night!

(This is going to be the most jumbled post ever, but oh well.)

Here's how I reacted as the night progressed:

Pan's Labyrinth wins the first two Oscars: "Oh my God, tonight's going to be a great night."

Alan Arkin upsets Eddie Murphy: "Ugh, this isn't a good sign."

Lots of the upsets and second-placers get the Oscar (elaborated later): "God damnit."

Babel wins score, Little Miss Sunshine wins Screenplay: "This has got to be a joke."

Thelma Schoonmaker wins editing for The Departed: "Yes! YES! All the previous wrongs are gone, The Departed has it!"

Then when Scorsese won, and The Departed won, all was right in the world, and now I can be happy for another year. Thank Christ.

Who Deserved the Wins

Scorsese and The Departed obviously deserved their wins. Thank God Scorsese is finally awarded.

Forest Whitaker managed a not totally mumbled speech, and Helen Mirren was as elegant and articulate as usual. Gotta love her.

Thelma Schoonmaker for Editing. This woman is a legend, and she pulled this win while still winning only two years ago. I think I was happier at this award than anything else up to that point.

The Departed for adapted screenplay was well deserved.

The Surprises

I would've bet lots of money on The Queen taking original screenplay, despite most people saying Little Miss Sunshine was the frontrunner. Oh well, it could've been worse, and gone to Babel. *shudders*

Costume design for Marie Antoinette. This was my first guess but I changed it due to a lack of other major nominations. Guess next year I'll go with my gut.

Alan Arkin best supporting actor... Sigh. This is pretty much a huge upset, since Eddie Murphy won everything beforehand. Everything. I guess Norbit, plus his various antic, plus Arkin's seniority pulled him through. Too bad the same couldn't be said for Peter O'toole. I really suck at picking supporting actor.

Pan's Labyrinth for cinematography... I said a month or so ago that it was a toss up (for me) between this and Children of Men. I'm surprised Pan's Labyrinth won, and wish Children of Men did, but we all know how I love that fantasy movie, so it's sort of like a pleasant surprise...

The Complete Jokes

Melissa Etheridge winning original song? Are you kidding me? Obviously as a result of split votes between the Dreamgirls songs. Sigh.

Babel for original score? All of the other nominees produced better work this year. God damn that movie.

Foreign Language Film is what makes me the most mad. How does a film come in with SIX nominations, five outside of this catagory, WIN THREE of them, but still lose it's main Oscar? Granted, The Lives of Others was the 'dark horse' (I hate that term), but seriously... This irritates me.

Happy Feet over Cars? Even over Monster House... I didn't think Cars was anything amazing, but at least it had, how do you say it... 'quality?' Yeah, that's it.

Conclusion

So I predicted 12/22, which is a pretty crappy percentage. I still stick by what I said as the 'best' in their catagories, so whatever. I don't even care, because The Departed/Scorsese won, and that makes up for the crappiness of last year. All is well in the world, and now I'm going to go watch The Departed and fall asleep.

PS. The worst part of the night was Meryl Streep not presenting anything.

PPS. How scary is Jack Nicholson with no hair?