Subtextual Oscar Highlights

The Oscars are over, and we can all go back to brooding. The big moments last night were the smallest, most notably the MILK money shots inserted so casually into the big "romantic moments of Oscar" montage; no trumpets or banners celebrating Oscar's boldness for this move, and that's just the point. Subliminal steps have the biggest eventual effect and this one should prove a serious crack in the iceberg.

And having been married to an Argentine and seen the Oscars down in Buenos Aires once, I can vouch for how happy Cruz's winning and subsequent speaking in Spanish will make much of the "rest" of the world; again, it's the little details that matter.

Other big highlights: Penn's hitting the church ladies where it hurts, right in their grandchildren! Winslet calling out for her dad, and that great shot of him hiding way in the back, slumped underneath his hat with an impish grin looking just like Jack Nicholson! So that's where she gets it.

Bad points: Bollywood merging with neo-American Idol-style r&b in that big "Jai Ho" number. I'm already cringing at the thought of Bollywood's colorful otherness and joyful music being co-opted, mulched down and Super-Sized in the American media machinery. Garth Brooks sings R.D. Burman? You know it's coming.