Anyway, onto the show. I thought Set Macfarlane was an
average Oscar house – he didn’t embarrass himself, he didn’t do enough to get
him invited back for another year. I’m starting to believe that being
Oscar host is a nearly impossible job – you cannot make everyone happy, and yet
time and time, that is precisely what the Academy tries to do – both appeal to
younger viewers, who currently are not watching the show AND be traditional,
and the result is always unsatisfying to all. Still, Macfarlane had his
moments. As juvenile as it was, I have to admit I laughed at the “We Saw Your
Boobs” musical number – especially the finale that reminded us all just how
often we’ve seen Kate Winslet’s boobs. William Shatner was unnecessary, but I
guess okay. The Flight reenactment with puppets was, also to me, absurdly hilarious
– especially the moment of showing socks in the dryer when the plane rolled. I
liked his joke about Daniel Day-Lewis staying in character and trying to “free
Don Cheadle”. His bit with Sally Field was amusing, if far too long. And
Macfarlane gamely tried to sing and dance – both of which he’s pretty good at –
but in a show filled with far too many musical numbers, it felt like overkill. But
respect to Channing Tatum, Charlize Theron, Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph
Gordon-Levitt for gamely dancing alongside Macfarlane, knowing full well that
it could have gone disastrously wrong and they would be mocked endlessly.
Macfarlane had a few nice moments sprinkled in among the rest of the show as
well (I particularly liked his Rex Reed/Adele joke, which I assume many had to
have explained to them). In total, I think Macfarlane probably did as good of a
job as is possible as an Oscar host – which is only pretty good.
As for the musical numbers, sweet fancy Moses, were there a
lot of them. I understand that this is the 10th Anniversary of
Chicago winning Best Picture – and that the Oscar show producers were both
executive producers of that film – but did anyone find it odd that the show
seemed to celebrate Chicago far more than any of the nominees for 2012? Did we
really need Catherine Zeta-Jones hoofing it like mad (although obviously, and
awkwardly lip synching) her way through All That Jazz? Jennifer Hudson did
herself proud singing “You’re Gonna Love Me”, because she was obviously
singing, and obviously brilliant, but this felt unnecessary as well. I liked
the Les Miserables melody a little better – although adding in the mediocre new
song Suddenly just because it was nominated for an Oscar, although expected,
was unnecessary. But props to the whole cast who sounded good –especially for
Russell Crowe, who knows everyone said he couldn’t sing, and still came out and
belted it out anyway. I’m not sure we needed Shirley Bassey belting out
Goldfinger – she can still sing, if not quite as good as she did 50 years ago –
especially since the much hyped “James Bond tribute” it led into was a colossal
bust. Seriously, they couldn’t get ANY of the Bond’s to show up? I may not be a
big fan of Barbara Streisand, but she can sing smaltz like The Way We Were
theme better than anyone, although turning the In Memoriam segment into an
extended tribute to one person (this year composer Marvin Hamlisch) always rubs
me the wrong way. Adele can obviously sing about as good as anyone in the world
right now, but they needed to turn down the orchestra a little, as it
threatened to overpower Adele – and with her pipes, that’s saying something.
Not sure we needed Norah Jones singing her song from Ted, and to be honest, she
kind of phoned it in. Macfarlane and Kristen Chenoweth’s closing ode to the
losers was amusing, and you cannot complain that it made the show run long,
since normally we just gets shots of everyone leaving the theater during the
end credits. The biggest problem I had with the musical numbers was simply that
they all went on WAY too long, and made the show run even longer, and feel even
slower, than normal.
Okay, onto the presenters. I don’t know why people agree to
be Oscar presenters, because most of the time, you end looking awful. When you
can turn a comic duo of Paul Rudd and Melissa McCarthy (who had probably the
best scene together in This is 40) into a laugh less void, you’re in trouble.
At least they tried. The much hyped “Avengers reunion” was a complete bust,
with Robert Downey Jr. seeming arrogant, Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner seeming
like they didn’t want to be there, Samuel L. Jackson, in a bizarre velour (?)
smoking jacket seemingly clueless and Chris Evans, wait Chris Evans was up
there too? Who knew? Mark Wahlberg gamely tried to interact with his animated
co-star from Ted, but it wasn’t really all that funny – although, it was
funnier than most of the presenters, so give it that. Last year’s returning
acting winners were also a mixed bag – Christopher Plummer was the best,
completely charming, Meryl Streep was a close second because she’s always a
class act, Jean Dujardin seemed to ramble on too much and Octavia Spencer
seemed confused, or was given nothing interesting to say. All in all, the
Presenter who made the best impression was Michelle Obama, mainly because they didn’t
try and make her funny, and her plea for arts education seemed genuine. I
honestly cannot remember too much about any of the other presenters (except
that Charlize Theron towered over Dustin Hoffman, and Kristen Stewart didn’t seem
to give a shit – which I kind of like), so
they must not have said anything too memorable.
Okay, acceptance speeches. It was a classless move by the
Academy to play people who spoke too long off with the Jaws theme. Yes, we all
agree, some speeches go on too long, but gently remind them, don’t drown them
out with loud music and then cut their mic – like the poor Visual Effects
winners for Life of Pi, who were talking about a failing business when they
were cut off, and an awkward Nicole Kidman had to pretend (poorly it turned
out) that they weren’t just rudely cut off.
Anyway, onto the actual speeches. As expected, most of the
below the line “tech” categories didn’t offer much in the way of memorable
moments. These artists deserve their moment in the sun when they win an Oscar –
the only time they really see their work, that is hugely important to movies,
but not often commented on, get the attention they deserve. But, there is a
reason why they work behind the scenes. The most memorable moment was, of
course, the tie in Sound Editing – but I cannot tell you much of what either
person said, because I was too distracted by the fact that both Sound Editors
looked like Roy for Shipping Wars (anyway else addicted to that, admittedly
silly, “reality show”?). I was also liked to see Canadian Mychael Danna win the
Score Oscar – he has worked for a long time in Canada with directors like Atom
Egoyan, Deepa Mehta, alongside his Hollywood work, and it’s nice to see someone
from my home country win an Oscar.
The speeches we will remember, not all fondly, are the ones
by stars – or at least in the bigger categories. Even though everyone in the
world knew she would win, Adele still seemed genuinely surprised and grateful
when she won the Best Original Song Oscar. You cannot fake that kind of genuine
emotion – and if Adele can, someone cast her in a movie ASAP. Many people have
criticized Anne Hathaway’s speech this morning – saying it felt too rehearsed
and that Hathaway acted as if she “deserved” the award (the horror!), but aside
from her moment where she looked at the Oscar and said “It came true”, I didn’t
get that impression from her. Besides, everyone has told her since the trailer
for Les Miserables hit last summer that she had this Oscar in the bag. It’s
hard to be THAT surprised when you win when the host is making jokes in the
monologue about what a shoo-in you are. Supporting Actor winner Christoph Waltz
truly did looked stunned when he won for Django Unchained, and his speech was
truly one of the most humble of the night. The same cannot be said for his
writer/director Quentin Tarantino, who came on stage looking like a drunken
hobo, and then proceeded to celebrate his own greatness for the entire speech
(I truly think Tarantino was TRYING to be humble, but he’s Tarantino, and
probably incapable of that, which is part of his brilliance). I know it rubbed
some people the wrong way, but personally, I liked Jennifer Lawrence’s flippant
attitude about the whole awards thing. She seems completely relaxed and at
ease, and gave the impression she would have been fine even if they gave it to
someone else (although I will say, she didn’t need to wish Emmanuelle Riva a
happy birthday, which for some reason felt forced to me). Daniel Day-Lewis inarguably
had the best speech of the night – probably because he already has two Oscars
at home and will continue to work only when he wants to. For a guy with such a
serious reputation, his was the funniest speech of the night – outdoing most of
Macfarlane’s jokes with cracks about how he and Streep had flipped roles – he was
supposed to play Margaret Thatcher, she Lincoln – and how he had to talk
Spielberg out of making Lincoln a musical.
I also liked Ang Lee’s speech. He always seems like a such a
nice, genuine person, and his speech was appropriately humble – a funny after
he thanked his agents and added “I have to say that”. Ben Affleck’s acceptance
speech on behalf of Best Picture winner Argo was a mixed bag for me. Thanking
Spielberg after what was a particularly nasty campaign didn’t seem genuine to
me, but his rambling in the middle of speech did, even if it bordered on incoherence
at times (saying being married to Jennifer Garner was work, than trying to
backtrack, etc), but the part that most people seemed to like – where Affleck
talked about his struggles since he was last up their 15 years ago, rang hollow
to me. But then, I am a hopeless cynic in many ways.
So that’s basically how I saw the Oscar telecast itself. I
really don’t know what people expect from this show. It will always be too
long. There will always be too many awards that most people don’t care about
(although they should). It was always be labored, and the host will almost
always be merely adequate. The Oscars are what they are, and asking for
anything different is a fool’s errand. I’ll be back with a brief wrap-up of
what I think of the winners – you know, based on their merit – and the Oscar
season as whole later.
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