Now why am I not surprised that a movie set in Los Angeles won the Best Picture award? More evidence (if any were needed) that “Hollywood loves movies about Hollywood.”
I do get tired of the navel-gazing.
Several incidences over the last 10-15 years.
Did you even see Crash? It could’ve been set in any city in America. The location was completely irrelevant.
Dustin Hoffman wasn’t nominated for Best Actor… or did you mean Felicity Huffman for Best Actress playing a male to female transgendered person?
As for it being a weak year for films, I couldn’t disagree more. All the Best Picture noms were great, IMO, and Best Actor was a 5 way toss-up for me. I thought it was an outstanding year full of interesting and challenging films and performances. YMMV.
Philip Seymour Hoffman. The actor.
IMO, Stewart did start out uneven, but got better was the evening progressed. I’d love to see him back again. I am home sick with sinusitis, so I watched Oprah’s Oscar special this afternoon–Stewart was on. He was hysterical, as always. I think I like him so much because he is so genuine. He also said that he is MORE nervous in front of his own studio audience, because those people had to catch trains etc to see him, wait in line etc–but like he’s gonna see Jack Nicholson again! It was funny.
I think he should do it again, if he wants to. It seems to be a thankless job, frankly. Billy Crystal seemed to do it best.
OMG, I am a moron. Sorry. 
:o I. um, didn’t get enough sleep last night.
It’s the first Best Picture winner in the history of the Academy Awards to be set in Los Angeles.
- Not counting three scenes in Annie Hall.
And everyone who’s still pissed about Chinatown , raise a hand…
The presenters of the Lifetime Achievement Award (I think that was the award and I know that’s not how you spell it) Lilly Tomlin and Meryl Streep were a hoot.
Yes, I saw Crash, and I strongly disagree. It seemed to me specific to LA, particularly the whole racist cop schtick. Not that racist cops aren’t a problem in other communities, but it’s hardly a universal. Heck, most of the cops around here are black.
(Moreover, the film seemed to me like racism as it is imagined by a white guy from LA who has a lot of money and feels a bit guilty about it. But that’s beside the point.)
I get really tired of Hollywood’s self-obsession at Oscar time, which tends to come in two flavors:
a) Movies set in LA and environs
b) Movies about the acting profession (either directly or indirectly)
Not that there aren’t some wonderful movies in both of those categories; it’s just that I believe such movies get a little extra consideration from Academy voters.
Interestingly, the last guy to win best animated short thanked his boyfriend too. The Australian Harvey Krumpet dude. What’s his name.
And I think Jake just permanently looks like that.
I couldn’t give you a name, but I’m positive I’ve seen it a few times in the last couple of years. Admitting you’re gay at the Oscars doesn’t seem to be a big deal at all.
Last year’s winner, “Million Dollar Baby,” was set in Los Angeles.
Out of over 125 features nominated for Oscars in the last five years, I found only seven that were set in Los Angeles area:
Crash (2004)
The Aviator (2004)
House of Sand and Fog (2003)
Adaptation (2002)
I Am Sam (2001)
Muholland Drive (2001)
Memento (2001)
Only “Crash” won a major Oscar. Doesn’t look like much of an obsession to me.
You’re right. Add Million Dollar Baby (2004).
Anyone found a compilation of all Jon Stewart’s bits from the Oscars yet?
I’m not the only one who completely missed that, am I? Maybe there was an opening title that I missed, but for most of the movie I had no idea where the thing was set.
How about best screenplay? Off the top of my head: The Player, Chinatown, L.A. Confidential
And let’s talk about best picture nominees from just the past ten years either set in LA (at least in part) or about show business (at least in part):
Crash; L.A. Confidential; Finding Neverland (in praise of show business); Shakespeare in Love (ditto); The Hours (partially set in LA) Gosford Park (subplot about American movie producer) ; The Aviator; Sideways (one of the main characters is an LA actor); Ray (partially set in LA); Chicago (show business); Moulin Rouge (show business); Traffic (partially set in LA); Seabiscuit (ditto)
So more than one-fourth of the movies nominated over the past ten years are either about LA (at least in part) or about show business. Seems like navel-gazing to me.
And most of the winners of the Best Actress awards have been female. That’s sexist.