Oscar Night Special
March 2006 Movie News
Quite a surprise. It appeared that Brokeback Mountain had this wrapped up for the Best Picture Academy Award, but apparently the bulk of the members of the Academy wanted to be hip and controversial. But not *that* controversial. At least not yet. So they went for the drama on race relations called Crash over the two gay cowboys. Politics also took a front seat with the choice of Jon Stewart as host. I doubt that he'll be invited back, though, because some of his jokes hit too close to home for comfort. I enjoyed the jokes, though, especially some of the "info commercials" that aped real life commercials that politicians aim at each other during their campaigns. Funny stuff.
Perhaps as an apology to Brokeback (or its supporters) the Best Male Actor award went to Phillip Seymour Hoffman for his role as the effeminate Truman Capote in Capote. Or am I reading too much cynical politics into this award? You be the judge.
A traditional award went out to Reese Witherspoon as Best Female Actor for her role as June Carter in Walk the Line. She was tearful yet made a graceful nod to her fellow actor Joaquin Phoenix who played Johnny Cash in the film. Rachel Weisz pulled in the Best Supporting Female Actor award for her skill in The Constant Gardener.
George Clooney didn't get any nods for his directing of Good Night, and Good Luck but did win as Best Supporting Male Actor in Syriana. Rather, Ang Lee received the Best Director award for Brokeback Mountain, giving the Academy a chance to have their cake and eat it too: award the man who directed the film they probably wanted to award but couldn't. Or maybe I'm just being cynical. You be the judge.
A few other random thoughts: the MPAA chairman came out and gave a long speech that, while hitting all the right notes (PC in mentioning New Orleans and all that) simply added to the length of the show and could have been cut. I liked the mix of songs they played, covering pretty much all tastes. they didn't have to play off anyone for a length of speech but they did cut away a few times before someone else could grab the mike (in a group of people). and while Robert Altman did go on and on, I suppose he knew that this was his chance and he wasn't going to give it up.
Overall, long long long. But not too bad, and some of the jokes were sharp and probably never going to happen again. Or at least Jon Stewart won't be back.
