Bang bang, my baby shot me down

A crash has taken place. While I watched the Academy Awards with my friend, we were a bit annoyed at the predictability of the awards - all the awards were going according to the polls, in fact the only surprises were the awards Memories of a Geisha won - and then - boom. The last thing we expected after Ang Lee won for best director is Crash winning best picture. The American society prevailed, Crash was awarded best picture. I don't say crash is a bad movie - I liked it and enjoyed it, but I desperately feel that there were four better movies, three of them in a different class by far.

It's true that one of the things that make the Academy Awards special is the surprise factor - but it's still disappointing. I wish I would have been surprised to see George Clooney win best director (the most deserving award in my opinions), Amy Adams winning best supporting actress etc.

The show itself was very good. John Stewart was great as expected, everyone loved Meryl Streep and Lilly Tomlin presenting Robert Altman with a lifetime achievement award and everyone loved his speech and confession - but everything was topped by one person, the person of the night - George Clooney. Clooney's speech was the best acceptance speech I've ever heard, starting with his boldness of declaring that he now won't win best director, his suttle combination of the positives and negatives of Hollywood glamour, and his true, true, true admiration of the group he was nominated with, which I am sure he was referring both to his fellow supporting actors and his fellow nominated movies.

What more can I say... I now want to see Brokeback Mountain again even more, read "In Cold Blood", and do a thesis on Good Night, and Good Luck. I'll probably end up buying the DVDs of Brokeback Mountain, Capote and Good Night, and Good Luck. I can make a shelf for them with the title "the masterpieces of 2005". Whatever happens - Cinema, as it always is, for it can be in no other form - is at it's peak.

Questions from a daily quiz from IMDB:

Who was Tom Hanks cursing at as he walked onstage to present Best Director?
Who was Joaquin Phoenix talking to when the camera was on him during the Best Actor presentation?
Why was Keira Knightley seated next to Jack Nicholson?
Why did the Academy stage a musical zombie-burning car number during "In the Deep"?
What, exactly, makes it hard out there for a pimp?
Why is the music branch of the Academy the only one dedicated to awarding "edgy" winners?
Why does Ryan Phillippe always look like a sad little boy whose tricycle was just stolen?
Just exactly how small is Dolly Parton's waist?
What caused Jennifer Garner to slip and almost fall on her way out to present an Oscar?
Why was Philip Seymour Hoffman using the Best Actor envelope as a visor?
Who was Catherine Keener calling/texting within the first five minutes of the show?
What was that thing on Charlize Theron's shoulder?
Who was the tech person who misspelled Will Ferrell's name as "Farrell" on the big stage marquee?
Why can't Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep host next year's Oscars?
Where did the March of the Penguins guys keep their stuffed penguins during the show?
How much did George Clooney pay for all those Clooney-centric jokes?