Tomfoolery

Tom Shales is the Washington Post's TV critic, which may explain why he doesn't know much about movies. This ignorance is in full display in his review of Sunday's Oscar telecast.

For instance, he writes "Marion Cotillard's victory as Best Actress for playing legendary singer Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose was an upset over newcomer Ellen Page as a pregnant teenager in Juno." It was an upset, but over favorite Julie Christie, not Ellen Page.

Odder still was this statement about the night's big winners: "The Coens generally make cynical, gloomy movies, with the exception of the breakneck comedy Raising Arizona." Cynical, maybe, but gloomy? Has he not seen The Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Lebowski, Intolerable Cruelty and O Brother Where Are Thou? Every other film the Coen Brothers make is a comedy.