A 23.3 rating this year, compared to last year’s record low of 21.9. The headlines read, “Oscar Ratings on the Rise.” If George W. Bush ran the Academy they would read, “Oscar Viewership Barely Keeps Up With Annual Increase in U.S. Population.”
First the highlights:
1. Will Smith’s star power.
2. The eloquence of simplicity from Jerry Lewis.
3. “Slumdog,” the best film nominated, won.
4. Ben Stiller’s “salute” to Joaquin Phoenix.
5. Anti-Israeli “Waltz With Bashir” loses in the foreign film category.
Lowlights:
1. Every year during the video tribute to the departed the appalling practice of a popularity applause-o-meter continues. How would you like to be the loved one of someone who gets that awkward-who-is-this-person applause? This isn’t about politics, it’s about class. Had Charlton Heston gotten the wild applause and Paul Newman not, the moment would have been just as crass. Instead of honoring the deceased with silence, it’s like some morbid high school variety show in there. Who raised these people?
2. Watching previous Oscar winners, one by one, step forward to gush over this year’s performance nominees took Hollywood self-aggrandizement to a whole new level, which is saying a lot. You can’t really understand this industry’s lack of self-awareness until you watch how they present themselves. This wasn’t Sean Penn shooting off at the mouth – the Academy can’t control what he says and I won’t argue he didn’t deserve the award – No, this slobbering was meticulously planned with no one in charge to say during rehearsal, “Hey, this is kinda making my stomach hurt.”
3. The last refuge of Hollywood apologists is that old canard, “Movies are money-driven.” Hopefully trotting Bill Maher out as a presenter helps put another stake in that lie. The producers knew that on the industry’s most high profile night Maher would say something to offend most of the customers, which is exactly why they chose him and exactly what he did.
If the 81st Annual Toilet Paper Awards had Mr. Whipple take the national stage to bad mouth motherhood would we still argue the tissue industry is one driven by profit?
4. Let’s just say that last night Hugh Jackman did for Wolverine what Hayden Christensen did for Darth Vader.
5. Seeing Christopher Nolan as just another member of the audience. Nolan’s “Dark Knight” was more than the best film of 2008, it’s one that will speak to audiences decades from now and long after this year’s nominees have been forgotten. Last night, if you watched the crowd shots closely, you could see Nolan mouthing something to get a subliminal message across. It was either: Jan’s cue ran through cat pants or Damn you, Andrew Klavan.
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