It was a very split-up year for the Academy Awards which had looked like they might be something of a sweep for Brokeback Mountain. Was there a Brokeback backlash? It certainly feels that way to this fan. Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director isn't bad, but still, Crash for Best Picture was a surprise, and goes against popular polls, which favored Brokeback for Best Picture by 13 pomts, and even Jake Gyllenhaal was a small five points over Clooney in the polls for Best Supporting Actor. I guess Crash's winning for Best Original Screenplay was a harbinger of doom in beating out stuff as good, smart, topical, entertaining, and heartfult as Good Night, and Good Luck; Match Point; The Squid and the Whale; and Syriana. Go figure. Well, if that's the way they feel. . . I guess as Manohla Dargis said in her feisty pre-Oscars Q & A,, Crash gave the Academy's mainly white L.A. resident members the satisfaction of believing in certain fantasies and false platitudes:
Manohla Dargis:
There are a few obvious reasons why Crash connected with the Academy. First, Los Angeles, where most of Academy members live, is a profoundly segregated city, so any movie that makes it seem like its white, black, Asian and Latino inhabitants are constantly tripping over one another has appeal. If nothing else it makes Los Angeles seem as cosmopolitan as, well, New York or at least the Upper West Side. Second, no matter how many times the camera picks out Oprah Winfrey on Oscar night, the Academy is super white. Third, the Academy is, at least in general terms, socially liberal. You see where I’m going, right? What could better soothe the troubled brow of the Academy’s collective white conscious than a movie that says sometimes black men really are muggers (so don’t worry if you engage in racial profiling); your Latina maid really, really loves you (so don’t worry about paying her less than minimum wage); even white racists (even white racist cops) can love their black brothers or at least their hot black sisters; and all answers are basically simple, so don’t even think about politics, policy, the lingering effects of Proposition 13 and Governor Arnold. This is a consummate Hollywood fantasy, no matter how nominally independent the financing and release. I also think it helped the film’s cause that its distributor sent out more than 130,000 DVD's to the industry, insuring easy viewing.
No hard feelings about Supporting Actors Oscars, though. Clooney gave his all, and Rachel Weisz was the most dynamic and glittering of the candidates in her category. For Capote, Hoffman was a logical prediction for Best Actor, the Academy typically favoring Phillip's brilliant schtick over the heartfelt feeling of Joaquin Phoenix's and Heath Ledger's performances. In terms of general feeling, Ang Lee's choice was the right one and he gave an acceptance speech that was a model of dignity and warmth. Reese Witherspoon feels right as a choice too for Best Actress.. I can't say how many will follow in the groove of why Crash was chosen, or how many will see and ultimately how many will finally live to remember that film. Tsotsi is a surprise for Best Foreign Film, another one that was behind two others in the polls I have seen. I'm glad the mellow, musical Hustle and Flow beat out Crash and Transamerica for Best Original Song. March of the Penguins and Wallace and Gromit made sense as choices for doc and animation; no surprises there. For big King Kong fans, it at least scored big in the effects. Everything nominated for Best Original score was heavy and schmaltzy, so who cares that Gustavo Santaolalla's for Brokeback won out over John Williams, John Williams (yes, he scored both geishas and Israaeli hit men this year), or Alberto Iglesias or Dario Marianelli. Since I've given Manohla an inordinate amount of space, I might as well give her the last word:
while the Oscars are reliably irritating and often just plain stupid – and boring and silly and wrong – sometimes they draw attention to worthy films and give a boost to equally worthy filmmakers.
Yeah, sometimes. But not enough.