The Oscars

Last night I did something I had never done before. I watched the entire Oscars, cover to cover. Man, what a boring show. Although I have little use for MTV, their movie awards show is so much better. If the Oscars are the person you've known your entire life, the MTV movie awards are that person's much more fun younger sibling that you'd really much rather hang out with.

The thing is, the Oscars are Hollywood's "big night". So as a result, they're handled and taken with a sense of austerity and self-importance that is so stifling, that not even the usually aces and diamonds John Stewart could penetrate it. Not for a lack of trying. It's telling that the most exuberant winners were those for best original song: The 3-6 Mafia for "Hard Out Here For A Pimp." There was actual excitment in their garbled, eubonic acceptance speech.

George Clooney, in an early acceptance speech, started out witty and charming, and I found myself thinking, "This guy would probably be great to have a drink with." But then he took a sharp 180 degree turn when he started with the subtly sarcastic remarks about Hollywood being perceived as out of touch, and how he agreed that they made broached "out of touch" ideas in their films such as racism, politics, and other hot topic issues, long before the rest of the world acknowledges them. Or something to that effect; I'm paraphrasing. Not that there's not at least some validity to what he's saying, sometimes, but way to pat yourself on the back.

But maybe the Acadmey believes this self-congratulatory tripe, since they gave the Best Picture award to Crash. What in the fucking holy hell? In a recent blog I already mentioned my disdain for this heavey handed examination of racism, adapted from Racism Is Bad For Dummies. But I never figured this film had any chance of winning. Aside from Crash, Munich was my least favorite of the Best Picture nominees, but even that was head and shoulders better than Crash. Basically, Crash being nominated, never mind winning, is like pitting Beefaroni against filet mignon and having Chef Boyardee walk away with the trophy.

Disgraceful, really.

At least my night wasn't a total waste though. One of the cameraman must have known about my love for Catherine Keener, as she got an inordinate amount of screen time for someone who didn't win or present anything. So I guess that's something.