Where the Academy Oscarred

Kay, so the Oscars were last night. Let's see where Jam thinks they went wrong:

"Winner" is who actually won, "Best" is who should have won.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Winner: Philip Seymour Hoffman -- Capote
Best: Heath Ledger -- Brokeback Mountain
This one should be a no-brainer. Although I have yet to see Capote ('cause boy, does that ever look riveting), it cannot be as powerful and moving as Ledger's performance as Innis. Case and point.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Winner: George Clooney -- Syriana
Perfect.

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Winner: Reese Witherspoon -- Walk the Line
Best: Felicity Huffman -- Transamerica
I suppose this was okay, but Felicity Huffman played a transexual! That should have been pretty hard to beat.

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Winner: Rachel Weisz -- The Constant Gardener
Sure, why not.

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Winner: Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Tough call as I have not seen any of them. I like Gromit.

ART DIRECTION
Winner: Memoirs of a Geisha

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Winner: Memoirs of a Geisha

COSTUME DESIGN
Winner: Memoirs of a Geisha

DIRECTING
Winner: Brokeback Mountain -- Ang Lee
Well deserved.

DOCUMENTARY (Feature)
Winner: March of the Penguins
Best: Anything else.
Okay, BIG strike #1. MOTP was a horrible excuse for a documentary! Sure, it took time and money to film, but does that constitute an Oscar-worthy film these days? It was boring, dull, and pointless. Hated it.

DOCUMENTARY (Short Subject)
Winner: A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin

FILM EDITING
Winner: Crash

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Winner: Tsotsi -- South Africa

MAKEUP
Winner: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

MUSIC (Original Score)
Winner: Brokeback Mountain
Best: Memoires of a Geisha
Brokeback had a great soundtrack, but Memoires was made by its music and definitely deserved this one. Boo-urns!

MUSIC (Original Song)
Winner: "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from Hustle & Flow
Best: Either of the other nominees.
BIG strike #2. Are you kidding me? This song was terrible! Dolly Parton was nominated for the second time in her career without a win, and the Crash song by Bird York was phenomenal, but no, we'll pick a song that is an awful example of hip-hop music to "seem" like we, as an academy, know what we're doing. GAH!

BEST PICTURE
Winner: Crash
Best: Brokeback Mountain
Not a big miss, because Crash was amaaaazing, but here's my beef. While Crash was ultimately more powerful, Brokeback really displayed greater emotion. It's a tough call whether shock comes above emotion, so I'd imagine it was a very close vote.

SHORT FILM (Animated)
Winner: The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation

SHORT FILM (Live Action)
Winner: Six Shooter

SOUND EDITING
Winner: King Kong
Best: War of the Worlds

SOUND MIXING
Winner: King Kong
Best: War of the Worlds

VISUAL EFFECTS
Winner: King Kong
Best: War of the Worlds
Three strikes, you're out. The past three categories should have all been taken by WOTW. I saw both films and the sound and effects in the sci-fi epic were far greater and more powerful than King Kong. King Krap.

WRITING (Adapted Screenplay)
Winner: Brokeback Mountain

WRITING (Original Screenplay)
Winner: Crash

Where I'm most upset is in two missed nominations. One is the fact that Zhang Ziyi was not nominated for Best Actress (she should have won, also), and that Memoirs of a Geisha wasn't nominated for Best Picture. It was really overlooked and now that I look at it, I may almost think it should have won Best Picture. A sad miss on the part of the Academy.

Every year the Oscars make me mad, but I still love 'em lol.. ah well. Real post soon, I promise.

--Oscar Jam