catapult magazine

What did you think about it?

I guess my personal opinion is that it was okay, even though it’s alway pretty long. The one thing that I really noticed was that even though Chicago received a lot of awards, it didn’t seem like they dominated the show.

I haven’t seen a lot of the movies that received awards, but I heard a lot of good things about a majority of them.

I also found it very interesting that this was the worst year of viewing for the Oscars. I understand why, but it still amazes me that people just decide to turn everything off and watch the media’s slant on the war.

Though I appreciate the entertainment value of Michael Moore’s films (and now his acceptance speeches), he certainly didn’t come off looking so great Sunday night. Apparently, he urged reporters afterward to admit there were really only five people booing him. Roger Ebert was on Leno last night and called Moore’s claim an out and out lie. Ebert, who was in the audience that night, said Moore managed to turn a standing ovation into a boo-fest in no time flat. I’m not sure what Ebert thinks of Michael Moore, but I know that many critics in Chicago were upset that Moore’s documentary was being hailed as a great piece of “non-fiction” when many of his facts turned out to be inaccurate or slanted to fit his convictions (I hope no one would ever claim that documentaries deal only in reality, anyway; that’s such B.S).

Steve Martin, as usual, was better than Whoopie Goldberg. I wish I had written down a few of his jokes to admire at my leisure—they were so finely crafted!

And one more impression I had this year: why is it that the Oscars have so much more class (excepting Michael Moore, of course) than the Grammies? The Academy Awards feel more like a church where everyone gets together to honor the good work people have done and inspire people to make even greater works. Even though the films that are awarded are not always the best, I almost always come away feeling good about the good that film does or could do. But when I see the Grammies, I notice that many good musicians are embarrassed to be on stage or even pictured in the audience and want nothing to do with it. And I come away from the Grammies being much more frustrated.