by Abel Horwitz
Daily Lobo
Ah, the Oscars. Where else can you see host Jon Stewart admitting his gay crush on George Clooney to a worldwide audience, a bunch of crazy French filmmakers carrying penguin dolls and a rap group named Three 6 Mafia now being able to go by the title of "The Academy Award-winning rap group Three 6 Mafia"?
This year's Academy Awards certainly had its moments. Seeing Ben Stiller in a lime-green unitard explaining the mysteries of visual effects was clever, and Will Ferrell and Steve Carell's makeup jobs - Ferrell looking like a burn victim and Carell looking like a painted-up hooker - was enough to prompt laughter from me.
There was no film this year that I was vehemently against winning. I remember watching the Oscars the year in which "Titanic" won best picture and being so disgusted by James Cameron's behavior that I wanted anyone else but him to win.
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This year, even though all signs pointed to "Brokeback Mountain" winning the Oscar for best picture, the win for "Crash" certainly wasn't a disappointment - "Crash" was an amazing film, as were the other nominees, "Good Night and Good Luck," "Munich" and "Capote."
I think the only big controversy of the night was in the bedroom of Tim Burton and his fiancÇe Helena Bonham Carter. In the Best Animated Feature category, Carter had speaking parts in two of the nominated films, "The Corpse Bride," which was directed by Burton, and "Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit." Burton didn't win, but "Wallace & Gromit" did. Hopefully, behind all of that crazy hair, Burton is gracious enough to be happy for his fiancÇe.
At points during the broadcast, an actor would stand onstage and present a genre of film, then a montage of clips would follow. They'd call these protest films or biographies or epics, but the categories they chose were unclear as rapid clips of films like "Do The Right Thing" and "Schindler's List" would pass by. Stewart made the most of this.
"I can't wait until they play the Oscar tribute to montages," he joked. It took Stewart a little while to get comfortable as the host of the show. In his opening monologue it looked as if you could see the sweat roll off of his face. About 30 seconds into it, he had a look in his eyes as if he was realizing that this isn't his average "Daily Show" crowd. However, once Three 6 Mafia won, it was as if the Stewart we know and love returned.
"Martin Scorsese," he joked, "zero Oscars. Three 6 Mafia? One." Finally Stewart understood the strangeness that is the Academy Awards.
This year, good films were nominated, Hollywood's elite looked their best, and in the end, when all the awards were handed out, Stewart got to keep his dignity. 2005 produced a lot of good films in Hollywood. Here's hoping this trend continues in 2006.
