I can't say I'm thrilled to see Crash win Best Picture -- it was my fourth pick of the nominees -- but Brokeback Mountain was my fifth, so I take some schadenfreude-ish pleasure in the fact that it didn't win.
Jon Stewart seemed a bit flat tonight, though he did get off two terrific lines, the one about Bjork having been shot by Cheney, and "Martin Scorsese: Zero Oscars; the Three Six Mafia: One."
Other moments that stand out:
The gay-cowboy montage, the only one of the night's montages that was even remotely interesting. (And did anyone else find themselves laughing at the sight of The Day After Tomorrow in the "important social issues" montage?)
Colleen Atwood accepting the Costume Design award, having apparently gone back to the late 60s to borrow Barbra Streisand's hair.
Steve Carell and Will Ferrell presenting the Makeup award.
Was Lauren Bacall just having teleprompter problems? She seemed a bit out of it to me, and I wondered if she might be ill.
The weird production number for "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," and the surprise win for the song. (Well, it surprised me, anyway.)The giant bow ties on Nick Park and Steve Box.
Reese Witherspoon's charming acceptance speech, and all the other awful ones; no matter how hard the Academy tries to get people to stop reciting lists of names, everyone goes right ahead and does it.
The bad luck of having three significant deaths -- Don Knotts, Darren McGavin, Dennis Weaver -- too close to the ceremony to get them into the "In Memoriam" reel. I wish the audience would not applaud during that segment of the show; what should be a solemn remembrance turns into a tacky Applause Meter o' Death.
Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, whose introduction of Robert Altman was the funniest thing on the show, and has me really looking forward to seeing them in A Prairie Home Companion, despite my visceral loathing of Garrison Keillor.
Poor Ziyi Zhang, struggling to be understood as she introduced the editing nominees; you'd think if the Academy wanted to use her as a presenter, they could at least have been kind enough to give her a category with only three nominees.
The awfulness of the Brokeback Mountain theme, which is rather pretty in the movie's spare instrumentation, when blown up for full orchestra.
The frequent repetition of the "movies are better in a theater" idea; sounds like the Academy's getting really worried about the shrinking/disappearance of the DVD window.
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