So another year with no winnings to show for my efforts. Oh well. I think I had a down year, relative to years past. However, I couldn't be more pleased about getting Best Picture wrong. The Departed was the best movie I saw last year and it won. To my thinking then, they got it right. I just felt Babel had the edge for its "differentness."
I was also happy to see Germany's The Lives of Others get best foreign film. It's a great movie, better than Pan's Labyrinth. Another movie in that category, Water, was also quite good.
Happy Feet was one of my favorites last year. I found it thoroughly entertaining. I thought they'd give it to Cars because of its heavier-hitting producers, but the better movie won.
I guess I'm happy for Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine. I still think Mark Wahlberg's was the strongest supporting performance in that group.
I found the movie Dreamgirls to be uninspiring, with the exception of Jennifer Hudson. So it was nice to see her win. I also found the song Listen, at least in the movie, to be a highlight. Beyonce nailed it on the show the other night and I still say it's a good song. I had heard the Melissa Etheridge song only once, when I saw An Inconvenient Truth. Watching her perform it the other night I realized it's a good song too. So I wasn't disappointed.
I'm most happy that Martin Scorsese finally got recognized for his excellent work. I think he deserved to win his last two "attempts," for Gangs of New York and The Aviator. Not only should he have won for his direction, but the films should have won too.
So time to start lining them up for 2007. The race is on...
