Kudos to Hollywood for making films that matter, and honoring them and those that made them:
Best director (Ang Lee) and best adapted screenplay: Brokeback Mountain
Two guys in love in a world that won't let them be what comes naturally
Best picture and best original screenplay: Crash
How fucked up racism is, and how people periodically manage to transcend it
UPDATE: some concerns about Crash's presentation of the reality of racism are here. Thanks to reader Amir for the link.
Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote
Another gay guy rocks the house
Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line
Reese as smartass June Carter, soul mate of the pill-poppin, prisoner-appreciating Johnny Cash
Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney in Syriana
Can we say enough about this awesome guy? Director and actor in arguably the two most righteous mainstream films of 2005: Syriana (how oil, money, and power poison even the best intentions) and Good Night and Good Luck (journalist Ed Murrow fights to take down the grotesque Joe McCarthy).
Of Murrow, it is said: "He set standards of excellence that remain unsurpassed".
Good on Hollywood, and especially Clooney, for raising the standards of mainstream movies to deal with reality rather than hype. And they say Hollywood is the land of dreams!
UPDATE: some concerns about Crash's presentation of the reality of racism are here. Thanks to reader Amir for the link.
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