Oscars

A pretty good show tonight, with a couple of minor surprises, but nothing shocking. The major winners were all pretty much as expected: Departed for Best Picture may have been a little bit of a surprise, but it was one of the two or three top picks, Helen Mirren (a goddess amongst mortals) and Forrest Whitaker were the pre-show faves, Martin Scorsese was both the favorite and the crowd choice for Director, Jennifer Hudson was the probably the only 'lock' going in (and having seen, finally, the clip of 'I'm Not Going and You're Gonna Love Me" on the Baba Wawa special, they'd have needed security if she'd lost), with Alan Arkin being a bit of a surprise, but certainly no disappointment, as Best Supporting Actor. The only real disappointment for me was Pan's Labyrinth (three words: GO SEE IT) not winning Best Foreign Pic, but Lives of Others is certainly deserving. Pan's won most of the awards it was up for, so it was definitely well rewarded for its brilliance.

All in all, another long show, but well paced, never really dragged, and the Pilobus crew doing the dance routines were unbelievable. Now, just another year till the insanity starts again.

Oh, yeah. Some guy won in the documentary category for a film on incontinence, or something.