Mon, February 26, 2007
Huh?—11:12 AM
After an Oscar night full of mind-boggling surprises, we've crowned a winner in the fifth annual onebee Oscar pool – for the first time, the winner is not a founding member of the pool (another mind-boggling surprise). It's Charli Schuler (a gal from Andy's work) with a very respectable 148 points. That's easily in the top ten high scores all-time, in a year in which many categories took some seriously unexpected turns.
At least, they were unexpected if you spent far too much time researching your picks. Those of us who agonized over whether to split our Best Picture votes between The Departed and Babel did not fare as well as those who thought, "I just liked Alan Arkin's performance more than Eddie Murphy's." Lesson learned.
Also learned: Best Foreign Language Film is like the shorts categories – you have to attend a screening of all the nominees before your vote counts. So, while Pan's Labyrinth ran away with the Typical Idiot Oscar Voter vote in many categories, the heralded The Lives of Others took the Thoughtful Foreign Film Viewer vote in the Best Foreign Language Film category, where Pan's Labyrinth was thought to be a lock. And, I was dead right about Dreamgirls and best song. Don't put points on Hairspray next year, kiddies!
In other shocking awards news, the Movie Tournament (of Movies) came down to the charming and acerbic Stranger Than Fiction and the charming and meandering Cars. With the voting tied at press time, I was called upon to cast a tie-breaker vote, and since Cars wasn't even good enough to win Best Animated Feature away from fucking Happy Feet of all things, I went with Stranger Than Fiction. It's certainly a worthy movie – funny, offbeat, and intriguing, it landed in my top five movies of last year. Will Ferrell is enjoyable without overreaching; Maggie Gyllenhaal is gorgeous (yep!) warm, and vulnerable; and Dustin Hoffman is a delight. In a rare sullen and cynical turn, Emma Thompson is very fun to watch. I don't know if it should have won the Original Screenplay award, but it surely should have been nominated.
Thanks to all who voted! It's been a fun, if bamboozling, Oscar season.
