Well, it was quite a night, wasn't it? I'm a little rusty on my Oscar history, but I can't ever remember seeing the top six awards go to six different films. That's pretty cool. And I'm almost positive a song about a pimp never won an Oscar before, but I could be wrong about that. It was also interesting watching Jon Stewart's reactions to his own jokes – he looked like he was either waiting to be fired, gonged, kicked in the teeth, or all three. Other than a Jewish joke that I thought was in pretty bad taste, I guess he did okay.
No surprises with the Best Actor award. The Academy could have just handed it to Hoffman months ago and saved everyone a lot of time. I haven't seen Capote, but am eager to check it out.
I did finally see Walk the Line (the day before the Oscars, at a $3.00 a ticket second-run theatre) and enjoyed it. I thought Joaquin Phoenix did a good job and I don't mean to take anything away from that, but I always felt like I was watching Joaquin Phoenix. I didn't get that feeling watching Reese Witherspoon, at least not the whole time. I thought she pulled off a great portrayal of June Carter and probably deserved the award. But she also had a pretty easy time of it. Not that the other actresses aren't talented, but most of the other performances in that category came from films that either didn't get a wide distribution or a wide audience. Huffman was her only real competition.
I was surprised at Crash winning Best Picture. It wasn't shocking (like it was when Chariots of Fire beat out Reds and On Golden Pond for the 1981 [presented in 1982] Best Picture), but still a surprise. Did it deserve the award? Don't know. It was the only nominated film I saw! I thought some of it was over the top, but that never stopped Ben-Hur/Forrest Gump/Titanic/Gladiator/(pick your own movie) from winning.
I was embarrassed for Lauren Bacall. I couldn't tell if she just couldn't read the script or if she was ill or what, but her presentation was one of those things you wished you hadn't witnessed.
I hated, absolutely hated having music, even soft music, playing while the winners gave their acceptance speeches. What were the producers thinking? Were they trying to make their "Time to wrap it up, buddy" music less abrupt? Sorry, didn't work. I hope they scrap that policy for next year.
Nice to see Robert Altman get some highly deserved recognition.
Hey, maybe the costume people from Memoirs of a Geisha and the special effects people from King Kong can get together and come up with a movie about an ape in a kimono. Okay, maybe not.
Now Playing = The Way Up - Pat Metheny
Now Reading = Air - Geoff Ryman
Now Listening to in the Car = The Bottoms - Joe Lansdale
2 comments:
Of the 3.5 (or more) hours of the show, I usually enjoy about a half hour of it - mainly the Lifetime Achievement Award and the montage showing the people in the industry who are no longer with us. Sometimes the speeches are memorable. Not this year.
Capote is haunting. I highly recommend it, but there's no getting around the fact that it's a square kick in the gut. You're right about Reese Witherspoon's performance and, having seen Walk the Line, I'm satisfied with her winning the Oscar — but I sure would have loved to see Felicity Huffman win it. (Transamerica was otherwise an OK movie, somewhat thin on story and character development. But Huffman was flatly amazing.)
Post a Comment