Oscar Aftermath

I never predicted winners for the Academy Awards. I never do, because it's not really about the best performance of the year, it's a popularity contest. I picked the people I thought should win, based on that standard that the Academy claims to use: Excellence. I thought Terrence Howard by far had the best performance of the nominated men, but I'm not terribly upset that Philip Seymour Hoffman won. He is talented and was very good in Capote (2005). Clooney's win was clearly not for his performance in Syriana (2005) but for his work on Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), which they decided not to honor unfortunately. Matt Dillon or Paul Giamatti probably should have won, but my own favorite William Hurt was phenomenal for the ten minutes he was on screen.

With regard to actresses, Reese Witherspoon won and I'm happy that it happened, I on a coin flip picked Keira Knightley but after much thought think, Reese Witherspoon had the better performance. It was not, however, better than Felicity Huffman's role in Transamerica (2005). I didn't see all of the female supporting acting noms, so I'll just hope that the Academy was right to give it to Rachel Weisz, but she must have been something to beat out Amy Adams who was the one great thing about Junebug (2005). I'll conclude with the belief that Crash (2005) won more out of white liberal guilt than any actual quality.