dude, if you are honestly saying that giving Crash best picture is anything like giving it to gladiator, then you are, indeed, as stupid as i had hoped you weren't.

No, you're right, Gladiator was far worse. Still, I thought Crash was the least good of the five movies nominated, so clearly I'm not thrilled to see it win. Plus, I'm slightly disappointed that neither Gyllenhal or Ledger took an acting statue home -- those were incredible performances. Most people tend to favor Ledger's performance over Gyllenhal's, but his portrayal of middle-aged Jack was incredible. Alas.

Phillip S. Hoffman was quite great as well. The amazing thing about Heath was he built his performance from scratch while PSH had a foundation to build upon. But still PSH won an Oscar. That is so cool.

As for Crash, I really liked it. In fact, I would put it way WAY above Good Night and Good Luck and Munich, both being slight films. Crash was good. It made me cry and it made me think. Was it subtle? Was it nuanced? Not really. But not all good things are. And that scene with the little hispanic girl and her father was amazing.

Gladiator was a giant piece of C movie crap. As was A Beautiful Mind, which I think is the worst choice for a best picture in 20 years. And Chicago was not all that good either. So let's be glad that a decent film won. Let's be glad that no really crappy films were even nominated.

yes, i think most people would agree that there were no bad films nominated this year, whether they were your favorites or not. of course, my favorites of the year were this squid and this whale and me and you and everyone we know, and of course oscar didn't get near them with a ten-foot-pole (well, maybe a nine-foot-pole, with a screenplay nom). i lost the pool -- key misfires in supporting actor and of course, best picture.

I only saw Capote in the best picture category, and was not impressed by it
too much... what struck me as most odd
about these years awards was the strange
music they played while people gave
their speeches... it really annoyed me and
seemed distracting for the people giving
the speeches.

I also think this was the most boring
Academy Awards show I've ever seen (maybe that's because I did not see many of the movies in the biggest category-- although I did see many of the other movies nominated though).

At least March of the Penguins won.

i agree the oscars were more boring than normal (though i think they were faster - did you notice how long they let the credits run, even ending with details about the voting? that's all buffer space for overruns, which didn't happen). I was annoyed by the interpretive dance done in front of "pimp" as well as "a whole lot of witches jumping ship". And although I love jon stewart, I don't think he was great here - Chris Rock was much better. He seemed nervous and relied too much on Bruce Vilanch-style jokes (probably written by Vilanch). Whether that was his choice or not it wasn't the best venue for him.

i'd like to take this opportunity to note that pictures of lorelei's and my trip to italy and then dublin can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonmay

it was tremendously faster. my theory: only 3 nominations for best song. that easily cuts out 10 minutes. and the opening monologue was probably 5-10 minutes shorter as well.

you're wrong about stewart. look, it's not the best venue for anybody except billy crystal -- it's the only thing he's good at. as for jon stewart, you didn't expect him to do a 3.5 hour version of the daily show, did you? the guy's been a comedian for 20 years -- only 5-6 of those have involved reshaping american political satire. mostly, he just tells jew jokes and dick jokes. and he did a fine job of balancing harmlessness with sardonic hollywood-jabbing. it's a paid gig, and i'm sure he'd like the money again sometime.

I liked this quote from Slate:

"Welcome to the best movie of the year for people who like to say, 'A lot of my best friends are black.' "

Jon, thanks for sharing your photos.
I'm glad to see that you got to go
to Edoardo and Corinna's wedding.

thanks. they inquired quite a lot about you and i told them what i knew. your newfound spanish skills would have come in handy over the weekend.