>3. Hollywood must be feeling more guilty than usual
>...according to my jaundiced view, when they give top awards to
>people of color, it's basically Hollywood that's getting the award.
That's a really unfortunate denigration of talent by Denzel Washington and Halle Barry. A bit of guilt may have forced the Academy members to actually look at performances by Washington in a slightly-shclocky film and Barry in a non-blockbuster film, but while I haven't see Monster's Ball, there was little question in my mind that Washington's performance in Training Day was one of his best. In recent years, Washington has tended to play a similar noble character, a few flaws thrown in for depth, but still too good to be true. This included his Malcolm X and Hurrcaine Carter profiles which had him playing mostl secular saints, despite the rather more complex personal histories of the people he was playing.
But Training Day was a departure with Washington playing a bad guy, but a bad guy of amazing charisma and self-justification, a real acting turn for Washington that made the film compelling even admidst its slightly schlocky extremes.
I give the Academy credit for not giving its award to its favorite category of "starring cripples overcoming adversity" (Sean Penn and more likely this year Russell Crowe).
While a number of films should have been nominated that didn't, I thought the Academy choices for each category were far more thoughtful and less bandwagon than normal.
That said, the actual awards show was pretty uninspiring and slow, but nothing terrible. And people like a fashion show. Hardly a crime.
-- Nathan Newman