Splitting the Director and Picture Oscars is very rare on Oscar night, but I got the sense that the Academy wanted to spread the wealth this time around. Both pictures won screenplay awards (“Crash” for original and “Brokeback” for adapted) and one other award (Best Score for “Brokeback” and Best Editing for “Crash”), but two other films also won 3 each: “King Kong” and “Memoirs of a Geisha”.
The acting awards went as expected, the only possible doubt having been for Supporting Actor, which went to triple threat George Clooney, who gave the most impassioned acceptance speech. Host Jon Stewart was poised, affable, and consistently funny, both with his scripted material and with his off the cuff remarks. My favorite: “Some of these actresses can't even afford enough dress to cover their breasts.”
Speaking of which, even though Best Actress Reese Witherspoon portrayed a largely un-sexy role in “Walk The Line,” (she has a bed scene, but no nudity), the Academy did keep up its grand tradition by awarding Supporting Actress Rachel Weisz a statuette for taking off her clothes on screen. (Anybody remember Halle Barry?) Don't get me wrong - I loved Weisz in “The Constant Gardener,” but I knew her nude bath scene would clinch the Oscar.
All involved seemed to just have a grand old time with the winning song “It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp,” especially Stewart, presenter Queen Latifah, and the barely intelligible members of performers Three 6 Mafia. Stewart, seeming to take a page from Chris Rock's style of calling attention to his race for humorous effect, got off a good half dozen Jew jokes, while George Clooney was mentioned by at least five different people, sometimes in homage, sometimes in humor. Question: who was least interested in being a presenter - Jennifer Anniston or the team of Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves?
The opening clip of former hosts (Billy Crystal, Chris Rock, Steve Martin, Whoopie Goldberg, David Letterman) saying they were unavailable broke the ice terrifically, especially with Stewart apparently just as happy to have awoken in bed with Clooney as with Barry (you'd have to see it to appreciate it.) Also highly entertaining were the other Daily Show inspired short films, satirizing political ads with the Best Actress nominees and the Art Direction noms, and especially the one focusing comically on gay imagery in classic westerns (“Can I see your Winchester?”).
I've heard a number of observations that the Oscars are becoming a showcase for independent filmmaking over studio driven box office blockbusters, and if that's the case, so be it. Considering all the acting awards went to performers never even nominated before, we may be seeing a passing of the torch.
