25 Astonishingly Dumb 21st Century Film Oscar Wins

Beat: Borat, Children of Men, Little Children and Notes from a Scandal.

Should've Won: Children of Men.

The Departed is far from Scorsese's best film, but it's a very entertaining crime thriller nonetheless and in an uneven Best Picture field (in which United 93 and Children of Men should've been included), it was a more-than-acceptable winner. It completely deserved Best Director and Best Editing too but as for Best Adapted Screenplay? Not so much.

The film's screenplay is good, without question, and it has some cracking dialogue but it's hardly an Oscar-worthy piece of writing. It doesn't do anything especially creative with the undercover cop trope and aside from a couple of throwaway lines, it's almost entirely devoid of the emotional depth and thematic maturity that defines Scorsese's best films.

What makes this win more jarring still is that it was considerably less deserving than at least three of its fellow nominees. Borat, Notes on a Scandal and especially Children of Men were all far more powerful and creative bits of writing, after all, and this award really should've gone to Children of Men.

It would've been so great to see one of the year's best films win this award, especially considering it was snubbed for Best Picture. Alternately, the brilliantly written Notes on a Scandal would've been an entirely deserving winner as well.