The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Did you notice when talking to your friends or with co-workers over the past week, no one really brought up the subject of who won best picture at the Oscars on Sunday? I mean, even for me, this was likely one of the least talked about Academy Awards for a long time. Usually I could recite every nominee but this year I had a hard time trying to remember all five (Atonement was the one that I kept forgetting).

The writer's strike threatened to pull the plug on the Academy Awards altogether, and if the award winners were announced in an AP release not too many people would have complained. It's too bad, because after 80 years, it's a film tradition that should be highly anticipated. But maybe this past year's crop of films wasn't the kind that took filmgoers' hearts. I think maybe the fact that there wasn't a mainstream film up for best picture may have turned people off. I thought The Bourne Ultimatum might have had a good shot for consideration, but more and more academy members have lately been opting for independent fare.

No Country for Old Men surprised me that it won not because it's a bad film, because it's excellent, but the fact that it's dark and moody and regardless of what you thought of the ending (I will not spoil it, and I've talked about the ending with others because I totally admit I didn't get it) most didn't like the ending because it offered no closure. Some call it art, some call it a rip-off. I thought Juno would have won, mainly because it's more "accessible", it's well-paced, funny, had likeable characters we can sometimes relate to and it has an indie flavour that many voters look for. But they opted for dark and artsy.

What am I trying to say? Not sure. But most don't care about this subject anyway. I'll end by saying I was very happy Daniel Day-Lewis won for There Will be Blood, and we won't drink milkshakes quite the same again.