..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

Curtain Call

The Oscar telecast Sunday night was a tame and predictable one that was curiously low-key…until Jack Nicholson said the word Crash. Paul Haggis's film became the first Best Picture winner in 29 years to win less than four Oscars total, while Brokeback Mountain, Memoirs of a Geisha and King Kong each scored three as well, making for a decent spreading of the wealth overall.

2005 has been a curious year from the start. Politically and socially conscious filmmaking dominated the scene. It was the first topic I wrote about here at Movie City News back in September. The critical consensus bled into the Oscar nominations announcement in January, leaving a slate of Best Picture nominees that reflected the theme of the year, and now a seemingly sewn up race burst wide open the last month of competition, paving the way for a truly surprising turn of events that a few predicted, but most did not.

Let's talk highlights.

Jon Stewart was a wonderful choice to host given the film product this year, and he did a stand up job. A few of the jokes may have been a bit too "Daily Show" to go over well enough, though I was certainly rolling at those mock public service announcement things. He did a fine enough job to deserve another invite, I feel, and he did a great job of toning the scope of the thing down somewhat. While the ceremony still clocked in at longish, his work gave the illusion of a lean show. However, there were certainly too many clip montages, the majority of them unnecessary to say the least. Stewart's ad-libs were cute in this regard.

Three 6 Mafia's performance was my most anticipated moment, and while it was a little shaky, the excitement was high enough to keep your mind off the cracking of Taraji P. Henson's voice and the dreadful scene re-enactment going on in the background. Thankfully the boys won the Best Song award for "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp," probably the coolest award the Academy has given since Kevin Kline in 1987…for me, anyway.

Meryl Streep's and Lily Tomlin's in-character lead-in to the Robert Altman tribute was fantastic. Talk about two actresses showing you how it's done. I've already started my 2006 analysis, and I'd say both of those ladies, as well as Altman's film, A Prairie Home Companion, are aspects to watch for next year. This was a cute preview.

The funniest jokes of the night had to be Stewart's "Martin Scorsese 0; Three 6 Mafia 1" comment, his plea for more clips in the wake of numerous montages, and Owen Wilson's joshing about Bottle Rocket's box office take. Ben Stiller's green suit gag? Not so much.

And the most touching speech had to be that of Philip Seymour Hoffman, clearly humbled by the entire experience.

But what did we learn? Did we even learn anything? I still maintain that this awards season was one that demanded spectatorship more so than analysis. Any "rule" of Oscarwatching was tossed to the curb while precedents were ground up like hamburger. I don't want to say something like "it was a fluke," but I do believe 2005 will be a very unique year in the collecting history of Oscar, rather than a point marking any considerable changing of the tide.

The inclusion of mainstream media in awards coverage this year was interesting, if ultimately repetitive - painfully so. David Carr's musings at the New York Times were entertaining, but the fact that everyone shared the template of blogging, rather than stretching out creatively, was a bit of a bummer. It's true, only so much news comes along during the awards season, but a little diversity would have been welcome. Maybe next year.

Speaking of which, soon enough, a brand new season will be upon us and the whole game will start up once again. From this distance, Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd, Milos Forman's Goya's Ghosts, Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Anthony Minghella's Breaking and Entering look to be the top contenders. But anything resembling a player can turn out to be a dog at the drop of a hat. We all know that. Nothing seems to be shaping up thematically for the year, and in fact the whole slate looks to be refreshingly diverse. If I had to guess I'd say the pendulum will be swinging away from such "serious" subject matter in the 2006 awards season, but let's not get too deep into that conversation just yet.

I've had a blast here at Movie City News this year. Cranking out a weekly Oscar column is, I've discovered, much more difficult than you might expect, and so I commend those who commit to it each year. On that note, I'd like to thank David Poland for extending the invitation to contribute. It was a valuable learning experience to say the least and a privilege above all else.

Just don't be tempted to go with "53 Weeks to Oscar." You may collapse.

See you next year.

March 6, 2006

Previous Oscartown Columns
02.28.06 - The Close Races As The Race Closes
02.21.06 - Romance, Passion and a Murder Most Foul
02.15.06 - Endurance
02.07.06 - A Civil Year
01.31.06 - Veni, Vidi, Vhatever
01.24.06 - For Your Consideration
01.17.06 - Acquiescence
01.10.06 - What A Difference A Day Makes
01.03.06 - Head First
12.27.05 - Access
12.20.05 - Leaning
12.13.05 - Father Christmas
12.06.05 - National Boring Review
11.29.05 - Breakthrough Gents
11.22.05 - Money Talks
11.15.05 - Where Have All The Cowgirls Gone?
11.08.05 - Imitation of Life
11.01.05 - Suggestion Card
10.25.05 - Youthful Digression
10.18.05 - Nothing New, Nothing Old... A Whole Lot of Nothing
09.01.05 - A Brave New 'Wood?

E-mail Kris Tapley
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