In an essay published by British newspaper The Guardian, Brokeback Mountain author, Annie Proulx describes voters as “out of touch” and “segregated” from current issues, and insists they were easily influenced by Crash’s production company Lions Gate Entertainment. She writes, “Roughly 6,000 film industry voters, most in the Los Angeles area, many living cloistered lives behind wrought-iron gates or in deluxe rest homes, out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment that is America these days, but also out of touch with their own segregated city, decide which films are good. And rumor has it that Lions Gate inundated the academy voters with DVD copies of ‘Trash’ - excuse me, Crash - a few weeks before the ballot deadline. Next year we can look to the awards for controversial themes on the punishment of adulterers with a branding iron in the shape of the letter A, runaway slaves, and the debate over free silver.”

Wow.

Sour grapes anyone?

Proulx isn’t the only one to complain about the loss. Whatever happened to Oscar non-winners being graceful about not being chosen? You don’t see Joaquin Phoenix out there complaining because Philip Seymour Hoffman won the Best Actor Oscar, do you? You know why? BECAUSE HE HAS CLASS.

I saw Brokeback Mountain and I saw Crash. I have to go with the Academy on this one. I thought that Crash was a far better movie as a whole. That’s not to take away from the acting put forth by Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, but I just found the story kind of blah. Not only that, but what is interesting about Proulx’s comments is that they claim that Crash didn’t really tackle tough issues. I guess racism isn’t a touchy subject.

Here’s a tip to Ms. Proulx and anyone else who thinks their movie or their actor got the shaft at the Oscars: Quit crying. Get over it. Go write something new.

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To me and Alli, the Academy Awards are like the Super Bowl. We count down the days and look forward to the awards show in anticipation. The day of, we are giddy with excitement and we start watching the pre-show as early as 1 or 2 in the afternoon for the show that starts at 7.

This year was no exception. Now, I’ll be one of the first people to say that this was a pretty down year for movies. I had a couple of favorites for the year…Crash, in my opinion, was the best movie out this year. It was an extremely powerful ensemble movie in which the script, the performances, and the directing all complemented each other perfectly. I was so glad that it won the award for Best Picture.
Rounding out my top five (in no particular order) for the year would be The Chronicles of Narnia, King Kong, Rent, and Wedding Crashers. I also thought that the performances in Walk the Line were incredible.

Overall, I was pretty happy with the awards last night. I was not a big fan of Brokeback Mountain and was actually pretty glad that Ang Lee won. I really didn’t want Spielberg to win because as much as I disliked Brokeback, I disliked Munich even more. I thought that if he won, it would only be because he was Steven Spielberg, not because of the movie.

I thought that Philip Seymour Hoffman should have won an award a long time ago, but I also thought Joaquin Phoenix was deserving of the award. (An impressive side note about Hoffman…I heard that he would stay in character and voice between takes as well as on screen at all times…that’s crazy…have you heard that voice?) Reece Witherspoon was great in Walk the Line and I thought her speech was one of the best of the night.

Jon Stewart did a great job as the host of the show. He wasn’t very offensive and he was still really funny. The whole opening with all the old hosts was hilarious. Ben Stiller’s presentation of the Visual Effects award was awesome too. So funny.

What bugged me the most was that when I checked CNN after the show was over, the headline read ‘Crash’ is upset Best Picture winner. What bothered me the most about that is that I don’t think that there should be front-runners and such for movies because all those front-runners are is the Hollywood hype machine doing its magic. I was glad that the Academy members managed to see through the hype machine and award the Best picture to a truly great film…one that I thought was extremely deserving of the award. Paul Haggis (who wrote and directed the movie) is an impressive filmmaker, following up his controversial Million Dollar Baby with Crash, a film about race relations, personal relationships, and stereotypes on a hot day in Los Angeles.

It was awesome to see this movie rewarded over a movie that was really nothing more than a depressing flick about gay cowboys. Don’t get me wrong, I thought the acting in Brokeback was really good, but as a whole, that movie couldn’t hold a candle to Crash.

This year, Alli and I hosted an Academy Awards party for the Young Adults at our church. We tend to get into stuff pretty heavily and we weren’t sure that people would be into it like we were, but I think that everyone ended up having a terrific time. We had about 20 people over and we all filled out ballots, had prizes (Alli won…I got 3rd), and had a TON of food. It was a great night and one that I am hoping will spur more and more interest in our Young Adult program at church. I’m hoping that we can make it an annual thing.

Now that awards season is over, I don’t know what I’m going to talk about…any suggestions?

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I finally got around to seeing Crash last night. My brother bought it and after So You Think You Can Dance, we watched Paul Haggis’s masterpiece film about a crazy night in Los Angeles. The film deals with relationships between black and white and latino and asian, between man and woman, between mother and son, between employer and employee, and between protector and protected.

What a powerful film.

Haggis, who was responsible for penning last year’s Best Picture winner, Million Dollar Baby, writes and directs this incredible movie which features one of the largest ensemble casts in recent history. Not only does he direct them with skill, he manages to get lifetime best performances out of actors and actresses who I wasn’t sure had much skill.

Don Cheadle (who is ALWAYS brilliant) provides a somewhat common thread through the movie as an LAPD detective. His quote at the beginning of the movie provides a strong statement and serves as the basis for the rest of the feature:

“It’s the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In LA, nobody touches you. We’re always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.”

The supporting cast is terrific and Terence Howard, who finally got a starring shot in this summer’s Hustle and Flow is powerful in his role as a television producer who struggles with his own rights and self-image as an African-American man. Sandra Bullock puts out her best performance of a lifetime (WAY better than her turn in 28 Days) and Ryan Phillippe and Matt Dillon are terrific as two sides to the Good Cop - Bad Cop.

What impressed me most was that with the multiple story lines that were going on during this movie, I never once got confused with what was going on. Haggis truly is a great screenwriter.

This movie really reminded me a lot of another movie last year that came out extremely early last year and was my clear choice for movie of the year last year, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. My fear is that because of its early release, Crash may suffer some of the same fate come Oscar time (Eternal Sunshine was largely ignored, despite being a brilliant, original, incredibly-acted film). And the question remains, who would you nominate. Almost all of the actors represent supporting roles (Cheadle really being the only one who could be justified as a lead actor), but I think that almost all of them should be nominated.

Truthfully, if Crash isn’t nominated come Oscar time in some way or another, I’ll be really surprised. I just hope that it doesn’t get punished for being released early in May.

My IMDb rating: 9 out of 10.

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