The 2008 Oscars - Yay! Norbit didn't win!

Did anybody tell the stylists, PR agents and fashion experts that the writers strike was over and the Oscars were back on? Because apparently no one was doing their job.

Or they couldn't find a nice dress in 3 weeks? Because was it me or was there more hideous outfits than recent years, great for us armchair critics and Joan Rivers, bad for glamour and the designers.

Not one outfit wowed me, at best, they didn't make the actress look totally horrible or anything.

As for the winners, no huge surprises in the male categories or the main ones. Thank god Norbit did not win (for Makeup, La Vie En Rose took the honours).

I yelped a big yay when Tilda Swinton won (for best Supporting Actress for Michael Clayton), then yelped again with fright when I saw her dress (if that's what you can call it).

Even though I thought both Julie Christie (for Away From Her and Ellen Page (for Juno) both deserved to win, it was nice to see Marion Cotillard win in her star-in-the-making moment (and also rounds out all the acting categories to foreign winners. Did anybody notice that? The Americans were shut out in the acting awards). Still, it was a strong year for women in the acting categories because almost anyone could have won in the Best Supporting Actress or Best Actress category and I really wouldn't be able to object. (Considering my usual favorite Laura Linney (for The Savages seemed sidelined in the race shows what a great race this year was, and that's not even including everyone that had been shut out of the race, including Keri Russell for Waitress, Amy Adams for Enchanted, Jennifer Garner for Juno and I'm sure a few others that I just can't think of right now).

What did people think of Jon Stewart? I mean, I love the man and I love The Daily Show and he did a decent funny job but it wasn't grand or memorable (topical and self effacingly funny yes and some great deadpans but I long for those big sweeping comedic jokes of Billy Crystal years that no one of recent times have seemed to hit.

As for the predictable No Country For Old Men wins for many of the major categories, it made for an unexciting evening especially since it was more of a movie that I respected and thought was technically well made than a movie that I LOVED and I find myself moving away from my old arty ways and back into the populist sentiment so I had secretly hoped Juno or even Atonement would win. Thought No Country For Old Men was great but it wasn't my favourite movie of 2007 (that would have been Ratatouille actually. Which should have been nominated for Best Picture but was relegated to winning Best Animated Feature instead.

I finally saw 2 of the documentary features that were nominated and of course neither wins even though I felt both deserved to. (Taxi to the Dark Side won)

Neither Canadian Short Animated Movie won, even though I thought I Met The Walrus would probably win, and Madame Tutli-Putli should have won, but instead, Peter and the Wold won.

Except for the song from August Rush, I loved all the songs (all from movie musicals, 3 from Enchanted, 1 from Once) but it was still nice to see the Once people (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) win (for "Falling Slowly") and it was even better when Marketa Irglova got to finish her acceptance speech after being initially cut off. It was a good year for musicals and I hope they bring more out.

Anyways, another year, another Oscar telecast and while there were no tragedies like Crash winning, I think that year still left enough of a bitter taste that the subsequent years have been a lot less fun to watch, even though there have been less egregious picks (and in fact, are pretty damn good picks that seem to favour smaller quality films rather than the old big bloated Hollywood styled "Oscar" type films). It also didn't help that it was one of my worst years for catching up on as many Oscar nominated movies so I still haven't seen a lot of the picks so thus, can't actually judge for myself and get excited about any one in a category.

Oh well, I'll get excited again when I'm up for a nomination. Give me 10 years.

For my Best of Movies 2007 List which is always being updated as I see more films, check here.

Photo of No Country For Old Me win from Monica Almeida/New York Times

Photo of 4 Actor winners from Associated Press