The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences kept its finger firmly on the cutting edge after last night's Oscars broadcast, by giving a "surprise" Best Picture nod to the least controversial film in the running, Crash, a drama about race relations (or the lack thereof) that somehow managed to both uphold and attempt to overcome racial stereotypes at the same time. Either much maligned or much beloved by viewers (the latter of whom were blissfully unaware that racism existed before seeing it), Crash is about a handful of multi-ethnic Los Angeles residents who, after various unpleasant confrontations with each other, discover that they might actually be just a little racist themselves. Not exactly a revolutionary statement, as anybody who claims to be completely without some pre-conceived notions about people who are, let's say, different from them is either lying or under the delusion that they are in fact Jesus Christ, but hey, it's an important film, and this year's Oscars broadcast was all about the importance of film.
More of a full-on congratulatory circle jerk than the masturbating of a few individual egos, like Sean Penn's humorless, cringe-worthy attempt to defend Jude Law as "one of our greatest actors" after Chris Rock's mild jab at him during last year's presentation, the audience was frequently reminded that we have Hollywood to thank for bringing such issues as the Holocaust to our attention, and all but attacked for turning their backs on $12 theater ticket prices and remakes of The Shaggy Dog in favor of DVDs and illegal downloading. This was in direct (though probably unintentional) contrast to host Jon Stewart's cheeky swipes at Hollywood pretentiousness, such as, after the umpteenth montage celebrating other "important" films like Network and To Kill a Mockingbird, proclaiming deadpan that, after those films were made, none of those issues were ever problems again. Critics were divided over Stewart's first go as host, with Tom Shales finding him "grim and humorless," while Roger Ebert favorably compared him to longtime favorite Johnny Carson. Stewart's audience in the Kodak Theater seemed equally at odds, with such luminaries as Charlize Theron and Joaquin Phoenix looking alternately puzzled and annoyed, and others like Steven Spielberg and Jamie Foxx laughing uproariously at his quips, like referring to Walk the Line as "Ray with white people." As noted in the Andy Dehnart article posted previously, the biggest laughs from the audience were reserved for Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep's overlong, indulgent tribute to Robert Altman. Stewart went easy on the political humor, save for a pair of hilarious satires of campaign ads, one of which claimed Reese Witherspoon should win Best Actress simply because she has a nice, non-threatening sounding name, as opposed to her fellow nominees Felicity Huffman and Keira Knightley.
Ms. Witherspoon did win her category, as it turned out, as well as Philip Seymour Hoffman, who, after years of thanklessly toiling as film's ultimate That Guy, picked up an award for portraying one of the few open homosexuals Hollywood embraced unequivocally. But in the end, after much tooting of the golden horns over Hollywood's fearless struggle to bring important issues to the big screen, in easy to read type with no big words so that the little man can understand them, the biggest award of the night was still given to the least daring, most audience pandering nominee. I'm not sure why Crash winning Best Picture is now being treated as some sort of "upset," other than the fact that, out of all five films in the category it received the biggest audience and critical drubbing. The Academy has had a rich history of pretending it's making a few steps towards open-mindedness and innovation, then withdrawing at the last minute. This is most likely because a large portion of it consists not just of old guard players who were in the business when actors with Jewish last names were "encouraged" to Americanize them, and Rock Hudson was "encouraged" to marry a woman, but new guard players who are afraid to ruffle a few feathers, lest they offend a few folks in Middle America who are indeed still willing to pay $12 to see a remake of The Shaggy Dog in theaters. The "controversial" awards are usually reserved for acting and screenwriting, while Best Picture is reserved for the safe movies, the ones whose contents are the least likely to offend anyone. No one's going to argue the point that racism is bad, just like they weren't going to argue that the sinking of the Titanic was a tragedy, or that middle-aged men probably shouldn't try to fuck their daughters' friends. Now, McCarthyism, manipulating and lying to others for your art, rugged men finding love with each other on the lone prair-ree, that gets some blood boiling. Schizophrenic math professors, not so much. That's not to minimize the quality of any of the winning films (well, except for Titanic, which, upon second viewing, really does kind of eat it), but it does say something about the hypocrisy of last night's Oscars broadcast, the frequent, self-aggrandizing reminders of Hollywood's impact on society, and why much of Jon Stewart's audience didn't seem to appreciate his pointing out their own folly.
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