Oscars 2009

The Oscars are finally over. Not many surprises in most of the major acting categories.

I am extremely glad that I managed to catch Slumdog Millionaire last Saturday, just before the Oscars. I could definitely see why it is hugely popular. It is edgy, vibrant and essentially a message of hope.

But it did tug at my heartstrings that Mumbai kids are living in poverty and violence. They are begging and scrimping on food. Preying amongst themselves just to get by. It seems quite impossible for them to escape from poverty and violence in a city of 14 million people.

I had expected Slumdog to win Best Movie, as opposed to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The latter is quite good as well, taking an interesting concept and making it into an engaging story. Brad Pitt was candy to the eyes as he became more yummilicious as he aged.

However, it did feel a little draggy at times. It also had a lot of similarity with Forrest Gump, which is not surprising since both the screenplays were written by the same person.

And Cate Blanchett wasn't even nominated for Best Actress! She was absolutely brilliant and completely outshone Brad Pitt. But Brad Pitt was the one who got nominated for Best Actor pulak.

Of course, Sean Penn fully deserves his second Oscar. Kudos to Dustin Lance Black too for his original screenplay award.

Kate Winslet performance was good in The Reader, but it wasn't that great to win an Oscar. Apparently, she was much better in Revolutionary Road which she wasn't nominated for.

All in all, I am extremely pleased to have watched most of the Oscar-nominated movies. The only two that I have yet to watch is Frost/Nixon and Departures. The latter is the winner for Best Foreign Film and it will be shown next week! Yay!