Rating the 2010 Academy Awards

More on the Academy Awards, at Los Angeles Times, "The Oscar Telecast: Worse Than Ever?":

The direction of the show was especially awful. It felt like whenever there was a potentially dramatic moment happening on stage, Hamish Hamilton, the show's director, managed to miss it, starting with seeing Jim Cameron's reaction to Kathryn Bigelow winning best director. Hamilton did an especially inept job of shooting the John Hughes tribute, which felt surprisingly flat and unemotional, in large part because it was staged so awkwardly, with Hughes' old actors (now actually starting to get old) lined up on stage like beauty contestants. And when Mo'Nique finished her full-throated supporting actress acceptance speech, Hamilton cuts away to -- ouch! -- Samuel L. Jackson, who had nothing to do with the movie and presumably was picked for a cutaway after someone in the booth yelled, "Find me a black person for a reaction shot!"

And the Times links to Ken Levine:

The Oscars were very elegant this year all the way up to the opening number. Then Neil Patrick Harris sang about sodomy, masturbation, and prison and Hollywood’s classiest night was underway! But the hosts were good, there was some genuine suspense for a change, and if you could make it all the way till the end, a very satisfying ending.

The Oscars are always kinda uncomfortable to watch. It's mostly leftists at the events, for one thing. Besides that, the shows seem to draw on an entertainment style that's fifty years out of vogue. I love big magical dance numbers, etc., but even this year seemed a little more strained than usual. Neil Patrick Harris? I like him, but sheesh! And what's up with George Clooney? His scowls were scripted, of course. But that didn't make them any easier to watch. And watch we do, can you believe it?