After stalling, Stewart sailed on

BY JOSEPH PLANTA

Monday, 06 March 2006

VANCOUVER - The Oscars are over for another year. Enough about who wore what, and who won, the question is: How did Jon Stewart do?

He was good, but he didn't set the world on fire. He wasn't bold as he is on The Daily Show, and that's probably a good thing. The audiences are different, and the Oscar crowd wouldn't have sat for schtick that has college kids guffawing through their morning classes.

I couldn't help but think of Johnny Carson when I saw Stewart deliver his monologue. It was short and safe, and it was delivered as Carson did, from behind a podium. Carson knew that hosting the Oscars and delivering a monologue there was different than doing one on your own show.

I guess folks were expecting Stewart to go wild with the comedy and be irreverent and biting, and in particular, political. But he was measured and his material was pretty decent. It was mild and nothing more. He got off to a halting start, but he redeemed himself and he didn't do a terrible job. He hit his stride later on, but perhaps not soon enough for some.

Some of Stewart's film packages were humorous, but he was at his best in spontaneous moments. No better was he than after the best song winners collected their statuettes, or when he was fooling around with Bill Conti and the folks in the pit. The film packages that dealt with negative ads were perhaps too ripped off from his show for his own good. It made him out to be an outsider more than anything else, and sort of proved that all he's good at is political humour.

The bit where Lauren Bacall introduced a package of film noir clips was seemingly unnecessary. I'm always a fan of bringing out legends, however it was ill-fitting, and it didn't help that the Teleprompter conked out rendering Bacall a little like a deer caught in the headlights. Well, Jessica Alba had the same problem, so perhaps it was an equipment failure.

This year's show ended well before midnight on the east, which must have been a relief for network programmers and the sort. As for the winners, I can't wait to read the other headlines this morning about Crash upsetting Brokeback Mountain for a best picture. I don't think it was an upset as much as expected. I gather that Oprah Winfrey had a big launch for the DVD, so that perhaps pushed the profile of the film just a bit. Larry McMurtry, who won an Oscar for scripting Brokeback Mountain, said to the press backstage that he thought they lost best picture because it was a rural film and the Oscars were far from rural. He went further to say that Crash being a Los Angeles film, had a bit of an edge, being hometown and all. My rationale for predicting its win was that I had heard a far better judge of film say that between the two, Crash would be the movie people would be talking about ten years from now. The momentum was going that way, and guess what, as in any game where votes are the objective, Crash had it all the way.

As for me, I hate to gloat, but I can't help myself. I scored 21 out of 24 in the old Oscar pool. (You can read my predictions in the archive.) I didn't predict the Oscar winners in the Documentary Short, Short Film-Animated, and in the Sound Mixing category. Alas.

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I ought to mention the new audio interviews up here at THECOMMENTARY.CA. There are two new conversations worth listening to if you've got the chance.

First, I talk to Globe and Mail columnist Leah McLaren about her new novel, The Continuity Girl (HarperCollins, 2006). It's an interesting book where the main character seeks to have a kid before her eggs go south on her. I've always enjoyed reading McLaren's columns, and have admitted in this space before, a bit of a crush on her. Alas, during the interview she offers up that she's dating someone. I also ask her about the reviews that the book's had thus far. It seems that Ryan Bigge she doesn't dig, after his particularly savage review which appeared in a rival newspaper. Listen to Leah McLaren talk about sperm bandits and the sort here: http://www.thecommentary.ca/ontheline/20060306a.html.

Then, on a totally different subject, I talked with Heather Pringle, an author and journalist, whose new book embarks on an engrossing and fascinating subject. The book's title says it all: The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust (Viking, 2006). It's about the elite Nazi institute the Ahnenerbe and its mandate to rewrite history and manipulate science. You can listen to Pringle explain more here: http://www.thecommentary.ca/ontheline/20060306b.html

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Questions and comments may be sent to: editor@thecommentary.ca

An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE.