QUICK OSCAR THOUGHTS & More

The 77th Annual Academy Awards Get Black

This blog about the Oscars won't bore you with what you already know. I didn't go there, so I don't have breathless analysis of the the dresses everyone wore or dishy backstage dirt about how much coke everyone was doing. If you'd like to see some pictures from the red carpet, click on the underlined words and it'll take you to a pretty good link for those things. I'm busy, so I'll try to keep it concise and to the point (for a change).

I liked the hosting job done by Chris Rock. He stuck to what he does best and he did it within the rules of acceptable family hour TV as it is defined in these backwards, right wing times. I could have seen more of him in fact, but then again the producers had a stated goal to "streamline" the Oscars and try to get them to end in about three hours, so gone were the egregious musical/dance numbers of past years as well as a lot of the canned in-between awards banter. However, this new lean, mean Oscar machine leads me to my number one complaint about this year's show which is...

...why did they have to be such bastards to all the "craft" and "technical" categories without stars? This is their one moment to shine for all the world to see, and yet the nominees are denied quality face time on TV, they're made to stand on stage awkwardly while their category is being read (or worse--made to sit in the audience like they're waiting on a dentist's appointment) and then they are rushed from view before they can even finish their 45 second acceptance speech! Never has the gap between the celebrity demigods and the actual working men and women WHO MAKE THE MOVIES been so readily, so nakedly exposed and exploited. It would be nice if they did away with that next year.

One more thing about Chris Rock: Ron Brewington, a spokesperson for a chain of Black radio stations, has been quoted as saying that Rock's bit where he went down to the hood and interviewed actual black filmgoers about what they liked at the movies "lowered the bar." I diagree. Paying $9.75 to see White Chicks or Soul Plane lowers the bar--if Brewington is worried that Rock made African-Americans look bad because we eschewed Million Dollar Baby for Alien vs. Predator--then the solution isn't to shoot the messenger, it's to find a way to get us as Black people to appreciate movies that don't have large black casts or rappers in them so that we can broaden our appreciation for one of the great American art forms. That starts with education folks, but that's a topic for a whole other blog (or book, really). Also, I've often felt that Sean Penn, our nation's most talented film actor, doesn't have much of a sense of humor and that was confirmed when he felt compelled to spring to the defense of Jude Law, an up-and-comer who hardly needed defending and may have been laughing himself at Rock's opening monlogue jibe at him. Oh well, it wouldn't be an Oscar ceremony without some moralizing from either Penn, or Michael Moore or Richard Gere or Tim Robbins...which I would normally welcome, but here I just thought Penn didn't get the joke.

As for the awards themselves, I picked six of the 8 major categories right (see previous blog), which is about on par with what I did for the night (17 for 24) and my track record for the last three Academy Awards (48 for 72, or a whopping .667 pct. which should win you a lot of Oscar pools). All that means is that there weren't a lot of surprises, which is great for us prognosticators, but kind of a snooze for everybody else. It was great to see Jamie Foxx win, Morgan Freeman finally get the award he should have won for Driving Miss Daisy (or Street Smart) and the Academy actually got one of the screenplay categories right by choosing Eternal Sunshine's original screenplay. My pick for the best dress goes to Hilary Swank, followed closely (but not as closely as in my dirty-minded dreams) by Kate Winslet's turquoise ensemble. No one looked wretched, although it would be nice of more men would shave and fewer women would wear those frills on their dresses. I also thought that Laura Linney's hairdo and harsh makeup made her look like a praying mantis about to attack, but I'm a fan of hers so that's all I'll say about that right now.

All in all, it was 3 hours and 15 minutes fairly well spent, even if there was no Michael Moore or Mel Gibson around to stir up controversy. The best thing about the Oscars? No more awards shows of note until the Emmy rear it's ugly head in September. Ahhhh....

Battle of the Glamor Cameos

I forgot to mention in my last blog that in the battle of rock star movie cameos, Gavin Rossdale of Bush and the movie Constantine totally kicks ass compared to Gwen Stefani in The Aviator. But I'd rather buy her albums any day...

Coming Attractions

I just forgot what I wanted to write about next. Who cares...just keep checking in anyway, okay? Peace...