Oscar Debriefing

Last night, as I've done for the past 12 years, I gathered at the home of a co-worker to watch the Oscars. Also in attendance were a school counselor, an accountant, and a couple other higher education professionals. This is always one of my favorite events of the year. This party is for the true movie-buff. In other words, there were actual discussions as to why Memories of a Geisha deserved it's award for best art direction over Good Night and Good Luck. Yes, we like our movies. I took my wife one year and she says she will never, ever go back. You gotta really, really like the movies to enjoy this. We all chip in $5.00 for the Oscar pool and make our picks prior to the show beginning. In 12 years, I've won the pool all of once. Last night I thought I had a pretty good chance. I tend to always go with a pick that no one else does. Sometimes this works, most often it doesn't. This time, I went with Amy Adams for best supporting actress in Junebug (a so-so movie but her performance was great). Denied. Also went with Murderball for best documentary. Denied again. Oh well, we'll try again next year. The individual that won did not see any of the best picture nominees. So while the rest of us are debating the merits of each and every movie, we lose out to someone who didn't see any of them.

As for Jon Stewart, I thought he did a pretty good job, although his sense of humor may not be suited for this kind of show. I'm one of the handful that thought Letterman did a great job. I imagine we'll be back to Steve Martin or Billy Crystal next year.

The major nominations were not a surprise. Phillip Seymour Hoffman certainly deserved his award, as did Reese Witherspoon and Rachel Weisz. I didn't see George Clooney in Syriana so I don't know about that. For Best Picture, I expected Brokeback Mountain to win, and was certainly surprised when Crash emerged victorious. I did not see Brokeback Mountain but I absolutely despised Crash. I thought it was a bunch of overwrought, pretentious, self-righteous crapola. I didn't believe anything for a second, was not moved by a single scene, and thought the dialogue was downright ludicrous (or shall I say, Ludicris). It was a movie that seemed to cry out, LOOK, WE'RE SAYING SOMETHING IMPORTANT! Y'ALL A BUNCH OF RACISTS, YOU JUST DON'T KNOW IT!! But at the end of the day, all was well. The rich white woman hugged her minority housekeeper and said she was her best friend. Uh, sorry, already had that scene in Driving Miss Daisy. Then, you have the racist cop who saves the black woman he groped earlier. Uh, okay. Then, in the single most ridiculous scene, the Arab storeowner's gun didn't go off when he tried to shoot the Mexican. Why didn't it go off? because (sob, sob), his daughter put a protective shield around him. This was the most manufactured non-emotional moment since Wilson the Volleyball drifted away from Tom Hanks.

Ah, but as the movie told us, there are still problems. Everything is simmering under the surface ready to EXPLODE. Why? Because we are all RACISTS, ready to explode at ANY MOMENT with a racial TIRADE. You know you're racist, YOU JUST WON'T ADMIT IT!!!! Is all this capitalization getting annoying? SO WAS THE MOVIE! I just didn't GET IT! By far the worst movie to win Best Picture since American Beauty.