If only Jared Leto had leaned a little more in.
1) Let’s start with the ceremony itself. It ran way too long, it was full of slow spots, and it was almost painfully safe. And yet, it was also fun to watch. As opposed to Seth McFarlane, Ellen DeGeneres went out of her way to keep things positive and uncontroversial. There’s a lot of political and social turmoil in the world right now but you wouldn’t know that from listening to any of Ellen’s jokes.
But you know what? That’s okay. Last night’s Oscar ceremony was 3 and a half hours of positive energy in an increasingly negative world and how can you complain about that?
2) This may be the first Oscar telecast that I can remember where there really weren’t any bad acceptance speeches. (I could have done without the woman singing after Twenty Feet From Stardom won for Best Documentary but that’s mostly because I find gospel music to be tedious and everyone knows Stories We Tell should have been nominated and should have won.) So, who gave the best acceptance speech? I think it’s a 7-way tie between Jared Leto, Lupita Nyong’o, Matthew McConaughey, the two songwriters who won for Best Original Song, Spike Jonze, and Steve McQueen.
3) How adorable was Jared Leto last night? Not only did he give a great acceptance speech but he also brought him mom to the ceremony to him! How sweet! I think I may have a new celebrity crush to go along with the Franco brothers, Michael Fassbender, Bradley Cooper, Ryan Gosling, and Idris Elba.
4) I enjoyed Pharrell’s performance, largely because it provided proof positive that I’m a better dancer than Meryl Streep.
5) I haven’t seen August: Osage County but, just judging from the clips they showed of Meryl and Julia Roberts in the film, I’m not regretting that decision. It’s hard to judge a performance on the basis of a few seconds but both Meryl and Julia came across, in what I did see, as being painfully shrill.
6) I’m not a religious person but I did enjoy watching all the hipster douchebags having an online meltdown after McConaughey thanked God. I haven’t seen them that scandalized since Clint Eastwood endorsed Mitt Romney.
7) A lot of people made some unkind comments about Kim Novak and the way she looked (and acted) during last night’s broadcast. Well, you know what? Kim Novak is 81 years old and she was directed by Alfred Hitchcock so, as far as I’m concerned, she can do whatever the Hell she wants.
8) I loved Penelope Cruz’s dress! Penelope Cruz always reminds me a lot of my mom so I’m always happy to see her.
9) “Jim Carey” was briefly a trending topic on twitter, largely because everyone was misspelling Carrey. That’s probably a bad sign, for an actor, when people can’t spell your name correctly.
10) For the second time in Academy history, Tyler Perry was a presenter. That’s probably the closest Perry will ever get to winning an Oscar.
11) As far as my predictions went, I got 18 out of 24 correct. My mistake is that I assumed there would be more upsets than there actually were. As a matter of fact, there really wasn’t a single upset this year.
12) I recently rewatched Blue Jasmine and I have to admit that I was a lot less impressed by Cate Blanchett’s performance the second time. If anything, Sally Hawkins is really the one who held the film together.
13) A film directed by Woody Allen won an Oscar last night. Has Ronan Farrow responded yet?
14) As far as the winners go, I can’t complain. My favorite of the nominees was American Hustle but 12 Years A Slave is a great film as well. I did get a little bored with Gravity winning every single technical award but then again, Gravity deserved its victories.
15) Of all the nominated performances, I think that Barkhad Abdi’s was the most underrated. I think a lot of people are assuming that Abdi was simply playing himself. Hopefully, he’ll get a chance to show more of what he, as an actor, is capable of doing.
16) I loved American Hustle but a lot of my fellow film blogger did not. What I find interesting is that people go so overboard with the American Hustle hate, as if the film’s existence is a personal insult or something. Seriously, let’s all grow up, okay?
17) My BFF Evelyn’s review of the show is that U2’s performance of Ordinary Love put her to sleep and she never really woke back up.
18) As is tradition, I live-tweeted the Oscars and it was a lot of fun, even if my tweets weren’t quite as good this year as last year. When I was asked who I was wearing for the Oscars, I replied, quite truthfully, “Victoria’s Secret” and gained a dozen new followers.
19) One very odd thing of note: essentially, a few hundred of the most outspokenly liberal people in America were all gathered in an auditorium together and yet, somehow, it was a very apolitical evening. Jared Leto mentioned the people of Venezuela and Ukraine in his acceptance speech and Steve McQueen spoke out against slavery but otherwise, politics did not come up.
20) Now that this Oscar season is over, is it too early to start speculating about next year’s Oscar winners? Of course not! A lot of people seem to be excited about Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. Myself, I’m curious to see what David Fincher will do with Gone Girl and whether or not the people at AwardsDaily will declare it to be the greatest film ever made without having seen it (which is typically their response to any movie directed by David Fincher). And let’s not forget that Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel is opening in just a few more days.
