For someone who watches as many movies as I do, I have a rather perilous confession to produce: I often zone out in the middle of the Oscars.

I can’t be the only person who usually watches the first hour or so, next turns it off for the middle third and thereupon comes back for the big guns. Last night, however, it managed to hook me from start to finish.

I’m certain there’s gonna be some carping from public (only the stars, really, I’d assume) that there weren’t any bloated-beyond-belief acceptance speeches, but I thought it was a very brisk, mostly very enjoyable affair. And Jon Stewart deserves a lot of credit for that, even though he couldn’t wait for more than about 10 minutes to tell the four public in America who might not have known already that Diablo Cody was once a stripper. (Yes, whether I can digress for a moment, I did say stripper. Having worked briefly as a blackjack dealer in the back of a strip club [hey, a man’s gotta eat] I can tell you there’s nothing terribly “exotic” about any dancing that goes on there. So let’s just retire that term, OK.)

OK, I’m back. It was a deservedly big night for the Coens (giving the Hollywood Reporter the chance to roll out that groaner of a headline: “No Country: Four Gold Men.”) Some other thoughts that ran through my skittish mind were: I guess it’s nice that the technicians behind “The Bourne Ultimatum” won at least three awards for giving me a throbbing headache, and wow, I guess they really didn’t have to put much makeup at all on Tilda Swinton to construct her so pale as the White Witch (beautiful woman, to be certain, but is she some kind of albino or what?)

But anyone who’s been here before knows that, even more than seeing Helen Mirren break into a devilish grin when she says the word “cojones,” one thing I truly love

is the film “Once.” Easily the most charming movie of 2007, it additionally provided the most charming moment of last night’s Oscars ceremony.

After watching the three extremely elaborate set pieces for the songs from “Enchanted” (and man, can that Kristen Chenoweth belt out a tune), I was certain that one of them was going to prevail. But next, near the end of the night, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, armed only with their instruments, performed their beautiful nominated song “Falling Slowly,” and as everyone probably knows by now, came out as the big winners.

And the biggest victim of the rather brisk pace at first seemed to be the lovely Ms. Irglova, who, just as she opened her mouth, heard the music start to play and was ushered offstage. They probably could have let it at go at that and humans would have just dismissed it and moved on, but after the commercial break, Stewart was nice suitable to bring her back and give her 30 seconds to say something about the importance of indie artists (amen, sister!)

Perhaps I’m exaggerating the significance of that, but I nearly never stay up until 11:45 on a Sunday night, so that’s what’s stuck in my mind at that early hour.

And yes, in case anyone’s wondering, there is news out there today, and some pretty big stuff: Evidently set on giving me another massive migraine, Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon have both agreed to come back for a fourth “Bourne” flick. Bully to that, I suppose.

But I’ll leave you today with just a bit more about “Once”: The actual performance of “Falling Slowly” by Mr. Hansard and Ms. Irglova at last night’s show. Once you get past the rather terrible French voiceover of Colin Farrell’s introduction (do they actually watch the whole show like that? what a nightmare!), the audio is great and the song is even better. Peace out.

Original post by Reel Fanatic