Oscar alternatives

There were two other award shows this weekend...

The Independent Spirit Awards officially crowned Sideways the best indie movie of the millennium, which might be counted as some kind of backlash to the backlash. It's interesting that the Spirits do include a lot of minor films (many that only play festivals) in their nominations but the winners are always the mainstream indies.

It's hard to argue with Oscar nominations, especially when your ceremony is the day before the Oscars. Thus, Sideways, Alexander Payne, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen all won Spirit awards. So did this year's poster child for Oscar shut outs, Paul Giamatti.

I really can't say if this is a good or bad thing because even I haven't seen movies like Down to the Bone, Robbing Peter and On the Outs (there is actually not a single category that contains five nominees I've seen, but that will change when I finally watch Baadasssss!). But it's impossible to complain with trophies for Sideways and Maria Full of Grace, unless you just like to complain.

Then there were the Razzies.

Much like the Spirits, the Razzies were all about two films: the what-were-they-thinking? "filmmaking" of Catwoman and the make-you-laugh/make-you-cringe "performances" in Fahrenheit 9/11. The Oscars may have skirted politics this year but the Razzies took them head on, justly combining them with another major issue facing our country: comicbook adaptations. And God bless Halle Berry, who showed up to claim her award.

Alexander managed to get away scott free but I have to say, Napoleon Dynamite was robbed.