- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
I thought Jon Stewart was fine. Having a non-industry host is tricky but the show was largely cringe-free (in comparison with last year with Chris Rock which I found mostly unfunny, baffling and unwatchable -- I hate watching people bomb.)
This year again the feeling in the room was "off" which I again suspect is due to Disney Hall which is a gaping cold stationary titanic of an auditorium, regardless of its state-of-the-art everything. The room dwarfs everyone and everything that's not on-camera.
And, then there's the youthfulness factor ... the sea change as the remnants of the studio system and the auteur directors' staples age and pass into rare character roles. It's no one's fault, but there is a palpable change in the energy, the clubbishness and social hierarchy of the old Academy -- where Marlon Brando and the rest of the Actor's Studo were the new young-bucks challenging the "establishment." If something unifies today's stars, I think it may be only a network of social and agent ties. [Gosh, I think Jack Nicholson was actually sober! - sea change indeed]
Yes, Cintra, it's tragic when you're all dressed up with no place to go, particularly if it's the Oscars and you'd rather snark at personal foibles than artistic merit or lack there of.
Personally, I suspect that Crash's surprise win resulted more from a last-minute gulp of recognition that the problems of the Brokeback pair pale in comparison to the great big world out there, beyond the kleiglights (and not some last-minute chicken avoidance of endorsing "gay themes.")
Whatever ... there's always next year.
