Oscar Night in Review

Highlights:

• Scott Rubin thanking his boyfriend in his Best Picture acceptance speech
  
• That gorgeous royal-blue stage floor
• The Kodak Theatre itself, so grand and glorious
• Jon Stewart giving Marketa Irglova a chance to speak

Most-deserving winners:

• Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
  
• Art Direction: Sweeney Todd
• Film Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum
• Original Song: "Falling Slowly," Once (free download here)
  
• Makeup: La Vie en Rose
  

Best performances on the E! network's red carpet telecast:

• Julie Christie, calling for the closure of Guantanamo
• Laura Linney, rescuing poor Jennifer Garner from Garey Busey

Best-dressed:

• Marion Cotillard (yes, I'm obsessed with her)
• Cate Blanchett (stunning! I loved the color combination)
• Katherine Heigl (I admit this one grudgingly, since she's so obnoxious)
• Javier Bardem and his mom

Honorable mention:

• Anne Hathaway (great color choice)
• Ruby Dee (lovely)
• Jason Bateman (so handsome!)
  
• Ellen Page (appropriately youthful and Goth-tinged)
• Helen Mirren (didn't love it on the red carpet, but it looked amazing on stage)
• Jon McLaughlin, the cutie who sang "So Close" (subtle polka-dot on the jacket was a fun surprise; wish I could find a photo)
  

Worst-dressed:

• Kelly Preston (dressed as a summer squash)
• Jennifer Hudson (white is NOT her color)
• Keri Russell (couldn't fill her boob cups)
• George Clooney's girlfriend (shower curtain)
• Cameron Diaz (bridesmaid at a summer wedding out in the backyard)
• Rebecca Miller (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiaiaiai kill me now!)
  

Oscar Nominees: Live-Action Short Films

Last night I watched all five of the live-action (as opposed to animated) short films that are nominated for the Oscar this year. These are fictional stories; there is a separate category for documentary shorts.

I'll list the five films in order of how much I liked them, from least to most:

* Il Supplente (The Substitute) - Bizarre Italian creation in which teenagers are encouraged to torment each other and pretend to be rabid goats. A head-scratcher.

* Tanghi Argentini - Light-as-a-feather story starring Wallace Shawn's tubby, sagging brother as a Belgian accountant-ish person who sets himself up with an internet blind date, then must furiously study the tango.

* Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets) - Two bumbling petty thieves adopt a deaf-mute 8-year-old who enjoys slithering across the greasy, sticky floors of theaters to raid the purses of unsuspecting moviegoers. A tired premise, perhaps, but all three actors impress with an abundance of charm.

* The Tonto Woman - Scripted by Elmore Leonard. The storyline is predictable and a bit dull, but British actress Charlotte Asprey is unforgettable as an Old West woman dealing with physical and emotional scars.

* Om Natten (At Night) - The longest and most serious of the nominated films, this portrait of three college-aged women with terminal cancer kept me on the verge of tears for most of its 39-minute running time. Danish writer-director Christian E. Christiansen creates an intimate setting in which to explore the terror of facing premature death. The eerie, bluish-white hospital lighting intensifies both the inevitability and the utter wrongness of what is happening to these beautiful, young people.

My prediction for Oscar night: Les Mozart des Pickpockets will steal the prize.