Oscar 75: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
GOOD: The "truncated" red carpet did help keep the focus on the Oscars and the films, but programs and news outlets did still find ways to comment on the fashions and film the arrivals. About 99% of the journalists who interview people on the red carpet ask the most mundane questions, and some don't even know what they're talking about (I won't mention any names) ... I certainly didn't miss that. But for the 1% (like Roger Ebert) who actually ask thoughtful questions on Oscar Night, the arrivals sequences were missed.
THE BAD: The Academy's official pre-show was still a bomb. They've only really done one of these right, the year that they actually took cameras into the auditorium while stars arrived and showed us more backstage stuff. I hope they get this pre-show right one of these years.
THE GOOD: The bold and correct choices, especially giving the most deserving winner, Spirited Away, the Best Animated Feature Oscar. Also giving the Cinematography Oscar to Conrad L. Hall for his final work, Road to Perdition, which ended up giving us another touching moment when his son, Conrad W. Hall delivered a moving tribute to his recently deceased father. Another bold choice was giving Best Original Score to Frida, correctly awarding Chris Cooper for Supporting Actor, Talk to Her for Original Screenplay ... they really did it right this year.
THE BAD: On a personal note, I was disappointed to see the short film Johnny Flynton lose the Best Live Action Short Film race to This Charming Man.
THE GOOD: Steve Martin. He did as good as he could under the circumstances ... he had some hilarious jokes, including calling Mickey Rooney a heckler, doing a Brady Bunch routine of people he's slept with, and his most hilarious joke following Michael Moore's rant, that the Teamsters were backstage ready to shove him into the trunk of his limo. And he delivered a great tribute to all the troops in combat to close the show, dedicating the show to them.
THE BAD: Steve Martin. But he wasn't that funny, and often seemed mostly "unplugged", most likely because of the circumstances surrounding the show.
And that brings me to my final discussion ... besides Michael Moore's embarrassing incident, Hollywood managed to put on one classy show last Sunday, and almost everyone was clearly working hard to practice some restraint in their political beliefs and try to concentrate on entertaining and putting
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