Post-Oscar reflections.

Heartening to see Mr Penn pick up for 'Milk', rather than Rourke, though for me personally the film as a whole didn't quite take wing as I'd hoped it would - also the award for best original screenplay for the same film was fair enough. I suppose there will always be those who see these as 'politically correct' awards. (I never quite know what that term means, except sneeringly to put down others who don't share that person's own prejudices.) But giving one-in-the-eye to the neo-cons always seems worthwhile.
Sorry that the never-less-than-blisteringly-excellent Meryl lost out to Kate W. though I thought 'Revolutionary Road' was a far more convincing performance for the latter and a much better film than 'The Reader' to boot.
Not exactly displeased to see that 'Slumdog' practically cleaned up but for me it was one of those films, though admittedly pretty damn good, I found such an uncomfortable watch that I don't think I'll ever want to see again. (By the way, remember how 'The English Patient' overwhelmed the awards, what, 12 years ago? Who now thinks it was really deserving of all that praise - and who would consider it as even one of their all-time favourite films? Who even remembers it? It certainly wasn't a bad film (but, Christ, it was long!) - though I did like the book more, if one can compare two disparate art forms.)
Of the 100 or so films I've seen in the cinema over the last 12 months I gave my highest personal scores to 'The Kite Runner' (which I think actually featured in last year's nominations) and Mike Leigh's 'Happy-Go-Lucky' - but for sheer mad F-U-N surely 'Mamma Mia!' takes the prize hands down!