If you, like millions of people across the world, tuned into the Oscars on Sunday night, you experienced one of the most varied Academy Awards telecasts in the history of the show, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Here’s a breakdown of this year’s biggest evening for the motion picture industry.
The Host: After the atrocious fiasco that was Anne Hathaway and James Franco’s dual hosting two years back, the Academy has desperately been trying to revitalize its reputation by selecting an individual who brings justice to the name Oscar. This time around they selected Seth MacFarlane, whose hilarious film “Ted” cleaned up at the box office comedy race this past summer. But their choice was a risky one. MacFarlane’s humor is fairly well known for its racy pushing of boundaries; as a result, many criticized the host months in advance of his actual performance.
In my opinion, MacFarlane’s wit and tact proved to be one of the best servings of comedy at the Oscars in recent years. However, that isn’t to say I found him a particularly good host overall. Sexist jokes and racy punch lines aside, MacFarlane’s humor worked in a much different way than I think many people expected. He fought back against his naysayers early on with his strange bit with William Shatner (he’s still doing things?), and he even participated in a slew of musical numbers. Who knew he could sing? Russell Crowe, take notes.
Yet MacFarlane suffered greatly from a lack of appropriate pacing and timing. And who is really surprised there? He’s a writer and animator, not a performer. Ultimately, this miscast is actually the Academy’s fault for selecting an inexperienced host, which is why I give credit to MacFarlane for his valiant effort and better-than-usual jokes. He awkwardly stumbled over himself many times, which, along with incredibly stagnant musical numbers riddled throughout, immensely slowed the show down. But what he lacked in grace, he made up for in the second half of the broadcast with fluid humor once he found his niche. For that, he deserves some recognition. Older members of the Academy were likely not fond of his egregious, biting jokes at times, but that was bound to happen no matter what he said.
The Montages and Musical Numbers: So what the hell was going on with the production aspect this year? First, we get a dance between Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron. Why? Then Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Daniel Radcliffe. Why? And then a tribute to the history of movie musicals that focused on “Dreamgirls,” “Chicago,” and “Les Misérables,” which were all made extremely recently. The performance by Catherine Zeta-Jones was a wonderful moment to relive on television, while Jennifer Hudson was static on stage. The entire “Les Misérables” cast’s performance only confirmed just how poorly the film was acted. I, for one, am thankful that the Oscars are over so we can finally stop hearing all this acclaim for a movie that utterly butchered the original stage production. Meanwhile, songs performed by Norah Jones, Adele, and Barbra Streisand proved to be the real highlights of the night. “Skyfall” expectedly won Best Original Song, and rightly so. The Bond theme is the best since “Live and Let Die” and has set the bar high for future songs in the series. Yet the actual tribute to 50 years of Bond, for which Shirley Bassey performed the original “Goldfinger” theme, was a bit clunky despite its admirability. Streisand’s rendition of “The Way We Were” elevated the In Memoriam segment more so than in previous years, making the somber reflection over those we had lost in 2012 even more special and heartfelt.
The (Obvious) Winners: “Argo” took Best Picture, to the surprise and shock of absolutely no one. A very well-made film but certainly not the “best” of the year, Affleck’s thriller proved by taking the top award that the Academy unjustly robbed him of a directing nomination, something they’ve been doing too much in the recent past (“The Dark Knight” for picture and Fassbender’s performance in “Shame,” to name a few). Although, it was great to hear Affleck rush through the names of every single person he wanted to thank while still finding the time to squeeze in a few tears and making very clear that, through all the criticism and ridicule he received over his career, he kept telling himself, “You gotta get back up.”
Hathaway took Supporting Actress for her incredible work in “Les Misérables,” an Oscar that was cemented from the film’s first trailer. Speaking of early indicators, by far the most obvious winner of the evening was Daniel Day-Lewis, as he became the first actor in film history to win three Best Actor Oscars. His speech was just as memorable, filled with his usual humility as well as a few wisecracks about originally signing on to play Margaret Thatcher, only to switch with Meryl Streep at the last second. There is no greater actor in Hollywood today and no gentleman in the world more humble.
The (Surprise) Winners: For me, the biggest shock of the night was Ang Lee taking the Best Director win instead of Spielberg. The reason being is not that Lee was undeserving of the award. “Life of Pi” was a technical triumph and much stronger than its 3D predecessor “Avatar” in terms of narrative. However, this marks the second time Lee has won an award without his film taking Best Picture, the first being “Brokeback Mountain,” which was robbed by the dreadful “Crash” back in 2006.
The fact that both Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow weren’t nominated for their respective films led me to suspect that Spielberg would win the high honor for “Lincoln” as a substitute for its inevitable loss to “Argo” for Best Picture. Not the case. In all seriousness, Lee should be commended for his work, and I congratulate him. His use of visual effects along with unknown actor Suraj Sharma brought the film to a new level of organic poetry that revealed how brilliant a storyteller he is. That and the fact that “Lincoln” didn’t really give us the prime Spielberg we all know and love made the upset a bit more understandable.
Meanwhile, many critics thought that Christoph Waltz and Tommy Lee Jones would split the vote for Supporting Actor and that the award would actually go to Robert De Niro for his seminal performance in “Silver Linings Playbook.” And while I would have been perfectly content with this outcome, a more logical one would be for Tommy Lee Jones to take the cake straight up. Instead, Waltz won his second Oscar in four years for a performance that didn’t stand out as particularly amazing to me. Don’t get me wrong, he’s certainly a quality actor, but it seems snobbish to give the award to an individual who so recently won for a much better role when an actor of De Niro’s caliber hasn’t been nominated since 1991 and whose career has been in limbo since. But maybe that’s just me.