Mike and I
made a nice homemade dinner and a “cruelty-free” peach oatmeal dessert, and
then sat through the three and a half hour long Oscars show. We spent a long time sitting on our couch
last night, but in the end it was well worth it. People on Facebook complained that the show was
running much too long, but I sided with the people that said that the song and
dance numbers were fabulous, making the length of the show bearable.
I remember
that one year they left out all song and dance numbers, and it was such a
boring show. Last night, we were treated
to Shirley Bassey singing a spectacular rendition of “Goldfinger,” Adele singing her Oscar winning song from “Skyfall,”
and a very touching moment by Barbra Streisand, singing “The Way We Were” for
the In Memoriam sequence. Mike and I saw
and heard a bubbly and funny Marvin
Hamlisch conduct music to the movies at Ravinia Festival last year just before
he passed away, so hearing Barbra sing his song at a rare Oscar appearance
brought tears to our eyes. We love
Marvin’s work on “A Chorus Line” making it an even more poignant moment.
Catherine
Zeta-Jones singing “All That Jazz” from “Chicago” was sexy, and sultry but was
it necessary?
The “Les
Miserables” cast performance was great, makes we want to buy the DVD someday! I’m
so glad that Anne Hathaway won for playing the saintly, and wretched Fantine in
“Les Miserables.” We need movies that
make us feel sympathy for the very poor of society, and the world, which is why
I liked “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”
Quvenzhane Wallis is such a sweet, smart, and thoughtful little girl,
and the youngest nominee in Oscar history so far.
In the end,
Life of Pi was the big winner, winning only four Oscars, making it a night
where Oscars were handed out to very many of the films nominated. It could be that the films this year are just
too excellent to not give an Oscar too, so no one movie walked away with
multiple Oscars. Lincoln disappointedly only
won two Oscars of the 12 nominations! Mike
and I wanted Lincoln to at least win for Best Score, because the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra recorded the music to “Lincoln,” as composed by John
Williams. We love the CSO!
“Argo” won
Best Picture, probably because of the notorious Ben Affleck snub for Best
Director. It’s a well written, highly
dramatized account of true story, where potty mouthed government agents come
off as great American heroes. I could do
without some of the Islamaphobia in that film, but, in the end, the film does
make an unpredictable movie industry seem capable of great diplomacy.
Jennifer
Lawrence winning Best Actress for “Silver Linings Playbook” is heartwarming,
but we loved how her character never gave up on her bi-polar friend, believing
he’s capable of great love. With a
support from family and friends, therapy, and a little medication, people
dealing with mental health issues can cope, heal, and lead fairly stable
lives. That movie left me with a great
message!
Daniel
Day-Lewis gave both funniest and well-spoken speech of the night, saying he
could’ve played Magaret Thatcher, and Meryl Streep could’ve played Lincoln. His graceful nod to the mind, body and spirit
of Abraham Lincoln was as dignified as the movie “Lincoln” is. It helps to know he is the son of poet named
Cecil Day-Lewis. We need more dignity in
American films!
Michelle
Obama’s surprise and dignified Oscar appearance via satellite was a pleasant surprise. I loved her Art Deco inspired lovely
dress. She is a woman of great class,
and taste. Her ideas of what movies do
to change us for the better was very well spoken and smart.
Someone who
missed being “well spoken” or “dignified” was the host Seth McFarlane, whose
partly sexist jokes like the “We saw your boobs” song, made many Actresses
cringe with discomfort. Some of his
jokes went stale fast, but Mike and I agreed that he was at least funnier than
James Franco. Yet, he was not as pretty
and as charming as Anne Hathaway. His
best moments were when he stayed serious like during the Charlize Theron-Channing
Tatum dance. Graceful and elegant
dancing too! Some people online were a
bit outraged by the celebrity roast jokes at seemed to spill out of Seth’s
mouth haphazardly. His saying Daniel
Day-Lewis got into Lincoln’s mind like John Wilkes Booth, made the audience boo
him! Not the worst host ever, as William
Shatner predicted, but not the nicest ever either.
Mike and I were
surprised that Quentin Tarantino won for Best Original Screenplay for “Django
Unchained.” Quentin was actually polite,
and charming in his speech, saying that this is the year for good writers! Quentin giving the peace fingers was nice
Another
surprise was Ang Lee winning Best Director for Life of Pi. He thanked people in Taiwan in his speech that helped
make the movie. Ang Lee is a great man,
who believes that any story is not impossible to film.
In the end,
we were only slightly disappointed that some of our picks did not win. We wanted “How To Survive a Plague” to win
best documentary, because it is about an issue important to us, the AIDS
crisis. Mike and I wanted Tommy Lee
Jones to win for Lincoln too. I still
think Tony Kushner’s script for “Lincoln” is pure genius, putting such poetic
words in the mouths of his characters. We
obviously wanted Lincoln to win more!
Amusingly,
we both said “Les Miserables” would win for Make Up and Hairstyling, even
though Mike said Hugh Jackman’s hair looked like a dog with mange in that
movie, at least at the beginning of the film.
We laughed, and said, “mange hair” wins Oscar!
I wasn’t
surprised that the Oscars strayed away from the “torture” controversy of “Zero
Dark Thirty,” only giving it an Oscar in Sound Editing.
We got
through the Oscars this year by drinking sugar free Rita Hayworth
margaritas. Why Rita Hayworth? Because she was really Spanish,
British-Irish, American, and her real name is Margarita. Someone told me that the drink was named
after her. So that makes sense.
Everyone
looked very tasteful and elegant this year.
Queen Latifah looked like a Greek Goddess!
It was a
good year for the Oscars, too bad we didn’t Outguess Ebert again, and win some
prizes. But there is always next
year. As Ebert signed in one of my
books, “See you at the movies!” Thanks.
