Monday, March 06, 2006

And the Oscar Goes To . . .

Even though I do complain about how lame it is, I watch the Oscars almost every year. I do this even though It has been several years since what I thought was the best film of the year was even nominated. Please, tell me what film was better than Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind last year, and don't you dare say Million Dollar Baby. So, without further ado, here is a quick hit list of things that I liked about this year's Oscarcast.
  • Dick Cheney accidentally shooting Bjork.
  • Jon Stewart's man-crush on George Clooney. Which was immediately backed up by . . .
  • George Clooney's acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor. Easily the second best speech of the night.
  • Negative campaigning for Best Actress . Steven Colbert is a genius.
  • Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep presenting Robert Altman with the lifetime achievement award. I could have watched them carry on like that for an hour.
  • Jon Stewart making fun of the president of the Academy.
  • The Three 6 Mafia winning Best Original Song. They showed more excitement over winning than all the other winners put together.
  • "Martin Scorsese - Zero Oscars, Three 6 Mafia - One Oscar" Best line of the night.
But, not everybody's cheeks were flaked with God-dust. Here's what I wasn't a fan of.
  • The crowd during Stewart's opening monologue. Come on, the guy was funny. He deserves more than polite laughter and applause.
  • Film clip choice during some of the montages. The Day After Tomorrow crammed in between All the President's Men and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner during the "Relevant Socio-political Films" montage? Give me a break.
  • No Don Knotts during the Memorial segment. I know he's more well known as a TV actor, but he did make movies and is one of the most beloved figures in Hollywood.
  • The constant pro-theater promotion. Yes, I enjoy watching movies on the big screen. But until you install cell-phone jammers and nix all the commercials, my 33 inch wide screen television and surround sound audio system are more than adequate.
  • No Joaquin Phoenix for Best Actor. I know this was probably the deepest competition of the night. And I love Philip Seymour Hoffman, and am sure he was spectacular in Capote, which I really want to see. But I happened to come across a real live Johnny Cash concert on CMT this weekend and was reminded again just how well Phoenix nailed him.
And now for a moment on Best Picture. Crash is the only one of the five that I've actually seen so far, and of course it won. And my main reaction was "eh". Don't get me wrong, I really liked Crash. But I just find it hard to believe that it was the best of the five. It seems to me that Capote and Good Night and Good Luck are more likely to be remembered as "Great" ten years from now.

I'm not ready yet to say what I thought the best film of 2005 was. I'm pretty sure I haven't seen it yet. Hustle and Flow, Match Point, Jarhead, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, all the non-winning nominees, and a dozen more movies will have to work their way through my Netflix queue. And of course, the movies that I really loved like Sin City and Batman Begins never even had a chance. But on the whole, I enjoyed the show, and still think that any movie or actor even nominated is worth watching.

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