A Glass of Chianti

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Thankfully, that's over

I think most of my discomfort in watching the Oscars this year is that I'm (as I am continually reminded) the only person under 30 who doesn't find Jon Stewart* that funny. I am also (as I am also continually reminded - even by Jon Stewart himself) among a very, very select group that found Death to Smoochy quite amusing.

I didn't see a great deal of the nominated movies this year (I know, I know, I squandered my Christmas holiday viewing time!) and the movies I did see and liked weren't nominated, or were nominated for fairly insubstantial awards**. What's worse is that I don't really have a list of movies that I want to see, even after I've seen peeks of them tonight and heard the lauding. I had little desire to see Crash (here and... er... I could have sworn I read something The Yankee had written on the subject) and I have even less after the gushing about how it raises "important" and "relevant" issues. I'm sure things are different out in L.A. but here in my part of Texas at least, racism doesn't sound like what the people touting that movie say it does. Racism don't sound like this. You know what real racism sounds like? It sounds like a certain type of people voting for "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp".

In any case, my love for A History of Violence and Junebug will continue, as will the mystery of why I put myself through viewing this each year. I had an excuse when Steve Martin was hosting, but now... Guh. Perhaps it's just the hope that this year, things will be better.

*Maybe it's a Family Guy thing... I'm pretty alone in my agegroup in that distaste too.
** Grizzly Man and *ahem* The New World. The opening sequence with Wagner's French horns and all of that water is the most magical piece of film I have ever, ever seen. At least since (and this is soooooo obvious) Badlands.