Up in the Air Oscar Set Up

The Oscars are Sunday night and I can’t remember a time when I’ve ever cared less. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will get laughs as they bring this all down to a Saturday Night Live level. I’m jumping on a plane to Halifax to attend a taping Monday night of 22 Minutes–something I last did about 14 years ago, back when I was with TV Guide. So Oscars aren’t top of mind but here’s a half-assed who will win list.
BEST PICTURE
Should be: (500) Days of Summer. What a wonderful little film, rent it and thank me later. Stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel and is all about this dude sifting through the ashes of a failed relationship. Light, penetrating, sweet, heartbreaking, just plain old original. Shows a fresh side of L.A., too, more downtown. The two leads are as irresistible as those Canadian skate dancing kids.
Should win: Up in the Air. Another take on failed relationships and even more disturbingly modern. Told with zest and brio by director Jason Reitman, who will finally win the Oscar his dad should have won for Meatballs. Great mid-life turn by George Clooney, the kind of honest look in the mirror you never got from even Cary Grant.
Will Win: The Hurt Locker. Haven’t seem it. Have been in a Foot Locker. Saw Avatar and it was awesome, although, as my son Daniel pointed out, James Cameron pretty much took Dances with Wolves, painted everybody blue and sent them into outer space.
BEST DIRECTOR
Will win: Kathryn Bigelow. Haven’t seen The Hurt Locker but apparently she’s really tall and used to be married to Cameron so who doesn’t want to see her upstage Mr. King of the World.
BEST ACTOR
Will win: Jeff Bridges for playing a messed up drunk in Crazy Heart. Haven’t seen it, but Bridges has never turned in a bad performance and Oscar loves stars who play messed up drunks. I liked Clooney but who needs to hear another windy speech. Gordon-Levitt should get the Jeff Bridges Underappreciated Actor award.
BEST ACTRESS
Will win: Sandra Bullock for that football film. Anybody else missing the Olympics?
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Nazi Jew hunter dude from Inglorious Basterds. He is a lock apparently for being creepy good.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
No idea who’s nominated. If Vera Farmiga was nominated she was kinda hot in Up in the Air. Better yet, vote for Farmiga’s body double for that scene in the bedroom where you get to see her ass. (If that really was Farmiga give her the Oscar now.) Otherwise if Meryl Streep’s name is on the ballot pick her, she’s Oscar gold.
BEST SCREENPLAY
Hats off to the guys who penned (500) Days of Summer and Up in the Air. No Oscar for Cameron for re-typing Dances with Wolves. Hurt Locker will win because who ever thought to put those two words together before? Ingenious.