Oscar Night 2006: The Review

Thumb up, or thumb down? This reviewer liked the loose and slightly political approach that Jon Steward took, especially the fake 'negative ads', but shook his head at the idiotic knocks against watching films at home. "There's no place to see them but a big screen..." Poor Jake Gyllenhaal could barely say it with a straight face. Overall thumb slightly up, if just for the gay-cowboy montage. Those web mashups sure went mainstream in a hurry!

The Oscars got off to a great start from a TV point of view with George Clooney's Supporting Actor acceptance speech. He actually said something! And I agreed with his sentiments... Almost everyone else was a mumbling idiot, and rude as it was by the show producers, they generally deserved the abrupt microphone cut-offs. LeeAundra Temescu has the right idea: win or lose when you have a chance to directly address the world, say something worthwhile. Prepare a freakin' 45 second speech, not a laundry list of agents and producers! Everyone in the biz knows that stuff and the public just sees you kissing butt at the highest possible speed. Not flattering.

Not many surprises otherwise. Crash did better than expected, but they lobbied very hard. Brokeback Mountain did a bit worse. Apparently Reese Witherspoon worked the voters too (she did have a great performance in Walk the Line though). The Original Song win by Three 6 Mafia for their 'crunk' tune It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp was unexpected but I don't know what it means. The nominated songs were generally boring.

Listening to: A Love That Will Never Grow Old by EmmyLou Harris from the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack.