the farcicals. it's that time again, the annual oscar awards. i used to think that maybe i was missing something about these award shows. i have very defined (narrow) tastes in movies so i gave the benefit of the doubt to those people who are actually involved in the film industry. surely they had more insight into what a deserving film consists of. after all, aren't they doing instead of just viewing? however, now that i've read my latest issue of ew, i'm convinced i'm right and they're wrong.

one of the articles gives us the opinions of three actual voters (an actor, a screenwriter, and a producer). they uniformly lament the lack of nominations for forty year old virgin. now i'm not here to blast forty year old virgin but c'mon, it's not a great film. even in its genre it's not a great film. mildly entertaining, yes. mortifying to watch with parents, double yes. but oscar worthy? are you kidding me?

and look at this year's oscar nominations and some of the front runners for the awards. first off, heath ledger and michelle williams in brokeback? they didn't even do anything -- except fall in love on the set. i won't even bothering arguing that brokeback isn't the best film of the year, since there's no way to discern what was the best if munich and crash were both nominated in that category. and you know how i feel about crash. paul giamatti being snubbed two years straight and then finally getting a pity nomination for his work in cinderella man. the sins of the past cannot be rectified so neatly. and wait, william hurt got nominated for history of violence? are you crazy? was his ten minute screen presence that amazing? um, no. wait, why do i care about the academy awards? i just gave up award shows recently.

i'm really starting to re-think this "if you do it, you know more about it" default philosophy. do artists really know more about art than other people? are musicians more in tune with the work of fellow musicians? are athletes better at judging the skills of other athletes? i suspect that aside from advanced technical know how, none of these things are true.

what is true is that this is the best commercial ever. and the twenty minute aladdin and jasmine show at disneyland is wittier and more entertaining than ninety-percent of the movies i've seen this year.