Oscar Thoughts

I've come not to expect much from the Oscars and why should we?  It is one of the few events which should be for everyone and hence, somewhat tame and boring.  If it were up to me, I'd try to keep it classy (as opposed to "relevant") only because that's the myth we're trying to buy into with the Oscars - that there is such a thing as excellence and timelessness and those things ought to be celebrated.

For that reason, I will avoid whining about Argo and Life of Pi winning many awards because I did not love the movies.  That said, a few notes:

- Tony Kushner was robbed of best adapted screenplay.  The craft of the screenplay from all the source material and history is simply astounding.  I was happy for the young Argo writer because I'm sure it means something for his career, etc, but in terms of accomplishment, these scripts were in way different leagues.

-Michelle Obama was a real turn off moment for me.  I didn't understand it at all.

-Didn't like the John Wilkes Booth joke.  Ugly.

-Why were we watching musical numbers from Chicago and Dreamgirls?  This made no sense.  They aren't old enough to be classic and not from this year.  Very, very odd.

-I was bummed Buzkashi Boys did not win best short film only because I know Sam French from film school and would have enjoyed his speech.  In fairness, I have not seen any of the short films.

But hey, I hear the ratings are up and the Oscars lives to see another day.  The year was strong for movies and that is a good thing.  Nowadays I'll just happy if the movie biz can continue to truck along.