The Obligatory Post-Oscars Recap

Business this morning caused me to be late with my entry, but since every other blogger seems to have posted their impressions of Sunday night’s Academy Awards telecast, I figured I might as well do so too.

In a year where I actually saw many of the nominated films and performances, I found myself watching with special interest. Awards shows by their very nature are exercises in self-indulgence, so while on the whole I thought it was a good show, it still suffered from excessive length and too many boring video tributes.

It actually opened with one. The Errol Morris montage of this year’s nominees talking about what the moment meant to them or any other innocuous thought that came to mind, needed to be a lot shorter. Do we really need to see sound mixers or cinematographers trying to be funny? The sad reality is the viewing public only cares about the actors and possibly a few better-known directors. The otherwise unknown yet very essential technical people are not why we watch. But it was nice to open the show with everyone being acknowledged.

I thought Ellen Degeneres was good both in her opening monologue and throughout. She was just doing her daytime show and standup act on a larger stage. If you’ve seen her before then you recognize her comedic sensibility. The host’s job is to keep it moving and stay out of the way of the real stars, and she did that. Her bits in the audience were funny, I thought. Giving a script to Martin Scorcese and getting Steven Spielberg to take a picture of her and Clint Eastwood for her MySpace page were both amusing.

I also thought the musical number with Will Farrell, Jack Black and John C. Reilly, “A Comedian at the Oscars” was funny and ironically prophetic considering Eddie Murphy’s fate.

The honorary award to composer Ennio Morricone dragged on way too long. Ok, who the hell is he and why should we care? And then his acceptance speech droned on forever…IN ITALIAN!!! Mama mia! Good thing Eastwood did all those spaghetti westerns back in the day and learned to parli italiano or we never would have known what he was saying, not that we cared.

We got an equally meaningless video feature before the editing award was given out, as well as a kind of cute stunt with that sound effects “chorus.” But if they hadn’t done it, I wouldn’t have missed it.

I was genuinely sad that Eddie Murphy didn’t get Best Supporting Actor, although if anyone else was going to get it, I’m glad it was Alan Arkin. I’ve been a fan of his for many years. (By the way, did you know Arkin co-wrote, “The Banana Boat Song” that Harry Belafonte made famous in 1956? “Day-yo!”)

Eddie’s not winning, probably means we’ll see more Norbits. If you watched his interview on the Baba Wawa pre-Oscar special, he said he considered “Coming to America” and “Dr. Dolittle” some of his best work. He also pointed out all the money he’s made from his pictures as a way of dispelling notions his career has been in a slump. I think Eddie sees himself first and foremost as a comedian, an actor second. Not having gotten the ultimate prize for his lone dramatic role, I fear he may never venture into the deep end of the pool again.

I was excited to see Jennifer Hudson get her Best Supporting Actress award. As we all know, the pressure is now on her to pick that next role very carefully. Anybody seen Halle Berry lately? J-Hud gave a belated tip of the cap to Jennifer Holliday on the acceptance stage, but in the interview room she thanked Holliday and the entire cast of the Broadway play for paving the way.

That was a nice touch, but I also have to tell you I’m growing tired of La Holliday and her demi-diva posturing. Miss Thing, your day was 25 years ago. Get over it. Or better yet, get a career of your own. Oh, I forgot. You’re the real Effie.

Speaking of divas, how about the Jennifer vs Beyonce death match? They weren’t singing together. Them girls were battling! This was Beyonce’s only stage since the movie wrapped and daddy told her to go for broke. Sorry, but I think she came in third, behind Jennifer and Anika Noni Rose.

Martin Scorcese finally got his due both as Best Director and with the film winning Best Picture. I saw The Departed when it opened and thought it was Oscar worthy then. I’m glad the Academy agreed. Some of us on this coast have speculated if there wasn’t a West Coast bias against him.

While their wins didn’t surprise anyone, I just admire the class with which Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker carried themselves. Conversely, did Eddie Murphy duck out once his category was awarded? We never saw him again.

You had to love the award for Best Documentary (Feature) given to An Inconvenient Truth, the Al Gore picture about global warming. As I IMed to a friend, that was a big ole “fuck you” from Hollywood to the Bush Administration. Their way of saying, not only should Al Gore have been our president, but even if you right wingnuts don’t understand the dangerous effects of climate change and aren’t doing anything about it, that doesn’t mean that the rest of the country isn’t behind it. And when Melissa Etheridge accepted for Best Original Song for the same picture—an out lesbian—it was a second middle finger thrust in Bush’s face.

Unofficially, I think Etheridge’s acknowledgment of her “wife” Tammy may have been the first such by a lesbian or gay artist at an Oscar ceremony. Such open displays of equality are common at the far more gay-friendly Tony Awards, but Hollywood has always been a big closet where gay stars usually bring opposite sex dates.

The show clocked in at almost four hours and 87 million viewers watched at least one minute of the telecast. As someone who has only ever watched the show end after midnight from the East Coast, a friend in LA reminded me that’s only 9:00 pm out there, early enough to go to lots of parties and still get home at a decent hour.