the morning after.

My Super Bowl of the year, the Oscars, is over, and it was a pretty standard affair, really long and a bit predictable. All the actors who were expected to to take home the coveted prize won, except for the surprise win of Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine. Well deserved, but I felt bad for Eddie Murphy, who was the frontrunner the entire awards season. It must be tough to have so many people tell you you're going to win and then not, as opposed to being the underdog that ends up winning. Anyways. Didn't think Little Miss Sunshine was going to win Best Picture, but didn't expect the Departed to win either. My guess is that the polarizing Babel and the sunny Little Miss Sunshine split the Academy voters, leaving the Departed wide open to take the big prize. Oh well.


I love fashion, and there's no greater night for fashion than the Oscars. Here are some of my picks for favorite dresses. I'm not going to waste my time on what I thought were 'eh' or downright awful.


Nicole Kidman in a beautiful red Balenciaga column dress. LOVE it! She was so pretty and spot-on with the whole package-red lips, straight blonde hair. I don't think just anyone could have pulled off this look, especially with the big bow on the side that could have looked ridiculous if not done well. Remember the disaster that was Charlize Theron's dress last year? Bows work sometimes, especially when pulled off in a classy way (are you listening, Anne Hathaway??).


I think J.Lo is the best dressed woman in Hollywood, hands down. Everyone has misses along with hits, but I think her track record shows more hits than not. This lavender Marchesa gown was very diva, very Grecian, but with a pretty feminine twist. I think her short curly bob goes really well with the dress, and I like the fact that she didn't wear much other jewelry, to draw attention to all the bling on her chest and back.

Can you say Team Reese?? She looks SO good! Take that, cheating Ryan Phillippe. I love her bangs, and I LOVE this purple dress! I like how this Nina Ricci dress is plain and simple enough at the top, then opens to a full on tiered, frilly, multi-layered gown. I don't normally love purple, but the shade(s) of this dress would make any Wellesley '06er proud.



Rachel Weisz is always really pretty, but I loved her in this metallic Vera Wang gown with the built in jewels in the bust and the train. I think she could've done without the necklace, as it takes away from the jewels by her chest, but overall, it's a beautiful gown. She looks like the perfect companion to Mr. Gold himself, the Oscar.



I didn't like the dress Beyonce wore to the Oscars itself, but this red number she had on during her Dreamgirls performance was really pretty. I couldn't find a better picture and I don't know who designed it, but I remember really liking it the entire time she was on stage. I love sashes and frilliness. Beyonce is SO over-the-top with her red carpet frocks most of the time, but I really liked this dress.

And finally, because I can:

I love Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna separately, but together?? Le sigh.

Little Best Picture.

This morning, the 79th Academy Awards nominations were announced, and I have to say, at the risk of sounding like the biggest geek ever, I just live for this stuff. I love good films (though my taste in movies have been questioned) and great performances and all that jazz, so I really love awards season. It starts with all the Critics Awards in late December, then we have the Golden Globes (as fun as they can be, I have no respect for them or the 90-so members that make up the Hollywood Foreign Press), the Producers Guild Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, then of course, the Oscars. I love making predictions and analyzing who got nominated/won and who didn't and why.

Of course, it wouldn't be the Oscars without a few surprises. The biggest one was the Best Picture snub of Dreamgirls, even though it garnered 8 noms in total. Instead of the movie some people considered a lock-in for the coveted Best Picture nom, my favorite movie of 2006, and quite possibly ever, made the cut.

So, may I introduce, the Little Picture That Could, Little Miss Sunshine. The love that I have for this film knows no bounds, and I have the battle scars to prove it. I seriously tried to watch this film 4 times before I actually ended up seeing it. The first three were free screenings that the studio was doing in the weeks before the release (one in Boston, two in NYC), and the fourth was the misfortune of arriving late to a just-sold-out show on the night of its wide release. Not to mention the many many people I dragged along on any one of those screening attempts. But I finally watched it in the theater with a packed audience in a row filled with just my friends, and I can honestly say it was the best movie going experience I ever had. I was kind of nervous that most of my friends were there, just because I had talked up the movie SO much, but they ended up loving it as much as I did. The laughs were plenty (howling over the SuperFreak scene with everyone else was ah-mazing) and it was $10 and two hours very well spent.

And that is why I'm so so happy that the Academy recognized this gem of a film. Quite frankly, this isn't a typical Academy Award movie, but then again, this isn't a typical indie movie by any means. It was the biggest sell at Sundance Film Festivals ever, being bought by Fox Searchlight for $10.5 million. It went on to make $86 million worldwide. A small number perhaps, compared to $200 plus grossing blockbusters, but seriously, this was a small movie made on a small budget in a small amount of time. The screenplay is near flawless (the first 10 minutes or so is a perfect example of a perfect introduction of all the characters, wrapped up in a neat montage), the acting is perfect (I love all of the performances in this film, especially Steve Carell's gay, suicidal, Proust-scholar Frank), and the whole product is a seamless blend of comedy and drama and tragedy. I could go on and on. But I won't. So, yay, Little Best Picture!*


*There's actually no way Little Miss Sunshine is actually going to win Best Picture, but the nom itself is pretty darn sweet.