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Jon Stewart knew from the outset that the Oscars was not where he belonged, but he did a fantastic job melding his kind of irreverent humor into a milieu where politeness reigns, irreverence is rarely tolerated and everything is too golden and precious to be made fun of. The guy not only knows how to highlight absurdity, but he also knows when to cut back, and his performance did well to show this.
It looks bad when the camera cuts to Joaquin Phoenix being too smug and self-righteous to crack a smile at a joke about himself. I guarantee you more people were laughing in their living rooms.
If you want to talk about what’s wrong with the Oscars, then ask how “Crash,” a film with all the subtlety of a cannonball falling through a windshield, could possibly take Best Picture. There’s your major disappointment for the evening.
