Oscar Night 2013

Dan Walker on Film

 

 

 

I enjoy the Oscars when I watch them but, for those times I don’t catch them, I don’t feel like I missed out on anything as long as I see the results. This year I was motivated to tune in.

 

I watch the Oscars for the opposite reason that I watch the Grammies.  I watch the Grammies because I enjoy seeing artists at the top of their field and from various genres performing in front their peers.  The world’s greatest concert once a year.  The awards themselves mean nothing to me.

 

I watch the Oscars to see who wins. If I enjoy any other part of the show it’s a bonus. I originally wasn’t going to comment on the show’s non-award moments, but I really enjoyed watching all the actors who sang, especially the entire cast of “Les Miserables” singing the ending to the stage production’s second act.

 

A buddy complained that Channing Tatum couldn’t dance and I told him that was beside the point.  Tatum’s an actor (I guess), not a dancer (although he used to be a Chippendale-like dancer before he started acting.)  The Tatum/Theron “The Way You Look Tonight” was unexpected and enjoyable in a way nothing else was that night.  OK, he is not another Fred Astaire, but who cares?  Is there anything Charlize Theron doesn’t look good doing? For that moment we were taken away somewhere special.

 

This same buddy also complained that people are annoying when they thank their lawyers and agents. He thinks they should be more entertaining in their acceptance speeches.  I had to explain that they WANT to thank those people, many who really did help them. And may continue to help them.  (And let’s be honest; those people really WANT to be thanked.)  Not everyone can be a Daniel Day-Lewis.

 

Seth McFarlane did a great job of delivering the lines he was given and moving the show along.  Anyone who’s watched “Family Guy” knows he has to shock and push boundaries to make you laugh, so any irreverence was planned and part of the package. (Yes, the William Shatner opening went on too long.)

 

The main problem with McFarlane’s hosting is that he hasn’t been around long enough to gain the ‘chops’ of Hope, Carson and Crystal.  He was a smart choice for the task because his show features big musical numbers with a full orchestra and they’re good to great every time.  Besides, he writes, he has a sense of what is funny to audiences in 2013 and surprise, surprise, he has a good speaking and singing voice (he won an Emmy for exactly that) and can dance without falling over his feet.

I’m putting a link to the AMPAS Oscar website at the bottom of this write-up as a reference.  If I put it up here you might not read the rest of my write-up.  There were a few categories where I had no special knowledge or opinion and left them completely alone.

 

Best Picture

Argo

If any of the five real contenders (Argo, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook) won, it would have been well-deserved.  Being objective, “Life of Pi”, my favorite, was the weakest of the five.  I like that the wealth was shared this year with no one dominant feature.

 

Actor in a Leading Role

Lincoln – Daniel Day-Lewis

Never any doubt.  Other than Adele, the only sure win at this year’s Oscars.  Now that he has his third Oscar in hand, we can say it:  His performance was so good it was traumatizing.  His comment about swapping Thatcher and Lincoln roles with Streep was the night’s highlight for me. I compared the two actors in my “Lincoln” write-up.

It’s hard to imagine Cooper and Jackman getting roles as good as they had this year. Any other year they might have won. I’d hate to think this was their only shot.

 

Actress in a Leading Role

Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook

I like Jessica Chastain a lot (“The Help”, “Take Shelter”, “The Tree of Life”) but my strong aversion to Kathryn Bigelow and the subject matter kept me from “Zero Dark Thirty.”  I couldn’t find “Amour” when it was out and I completely missed “The Impossible.”  Wallis certainly has time on her side in terms of getting more interesting roles and Oscar nominations.

Since I only saw two of the contenders, it’s hard for me to speak with any authority, but Jennifer Lawrence certainly gave a performance worthy of an Oscar.  As Sir Ian McKellen, clearly taking a swipe at Sir Anthony Hopkins, said, “Oscars go to roles, not performances.”  Lawrence took a really great, well-written role and fleshed it out beautifully.  In her interviews she comes across as very sincere, grounded and humble. Look at her response to her stair stumble.  This can’t be the only time she’ll be at the podium, although I hope it’s the only time she trips on the way up.  We’ve all been waiting for someone to do it for decades.

 

Actor in a Supporting Role

Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained

Christoph Waltz is this year’s Judy Holliday.  Judy Holliday is the lucky recipient of the 1950 Oscar for Best Actress because the votes were split between two of the most legendary performances ever put to celluloid; Bette Davis in “All About Eve” and Gloria Swanson in “Sunset Blvd.”

I’ve always felt the Oscar voting is flawed for just this reason.  Rather than just picking a winner, voters should rank the nominees within each category.  A weighted vote would be the most accurate and fair.  Too late for Davis, Swanson and the guys that didn’t win in this category this year.  I liked Waltz and the movie but he was, to me, the weakest of this group.  Hoffman’s performance was better than the role and the movie.  I think in terms of potency, Jones was best — his performance framed by the most grand backdrop of the group. I also liked Arkin and De Niro (welcome back to the Oscars) and their performances too much to not think they might also have won.  Doesn’t matter, Waltz is now a two-time Oscar winner, both times playing similarly intense, focused German characters with crocodile smiles who killed for a living.

 

Actress in a Supporting Role

Anne Hathaway – Les Misérables

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought Hathaway milked her role for all it was worth.  Having all those evil ladies to play off and that massive production behind her didn’t hurt. I’m a huge fan of Adams but disliked “The Master” and couldn’t see past that.  I really thought Field would win, partially on the basis of merit — which was really more about just seeing her in such a big movie than the performance itself — and partially because of a sympathetic vote.  Her last nomination was her “You like me, you really like me” win in 1984 for “Places in the Heart”.  Not being a Helen Hunt fan — she’s only as good as what’s going on around her — I didn’t see “The Sessions.”  Weaver’s nomination still baffles me.  That one should have gone to Samantha Barks.

 

Animated Feature Film

Brave

I was glad when they came up with this category, which seems to have been created for Pixar. I always felt “Beauty and the Beast” had as strong a shot at Best Picture as anything else that (“The Silence of the Lambs”) year.  The two music Oscars it won weren’t enough.  When I heard about the Disney acquisition of Pixar, I was concerned the product would become Disney-ized and it has.

 

Pixar never had a female lead (a Disney trademark) before and this movie played out like a really good Disney movie, but only an adequate Pixar one, and a two-hour merchandising advertisement.  With its super-slick video-game style and bright colors, “Wreck-It Ralph” was the most visually interesting and had the most creative story.  Its main drawback was that it was doused in neon pink most of the time.  “Paranorman” and “Frankenweenie” will be great Halloween-season movies in the coming years.  All that aside, this year could have done without this category.

 

Cinematography

Claudio Miranda – Life of Pi

Whatever the non-Guild voters use as criteria for the technical awards is over my head because, more and more, movies seem to be getting technically better in general.  Most of them look and sound good.

 

Having stated that “Life of Pi” was my favorite film this year, I’m happy it won four Oscars.  I didn’t know this cinematographer by name but he did a great job on “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” a movie where everything went right but the absurd storyline.  I like fantasy, but you have to draw the line somewhere and “Button” was it.  I’m a big fan of Richardson, Kaminksi and Deakins.  I know this seems conflicting but I’m sorry any of the three lost.  Not the first time I had that thought about an Oscar win.

 

Costume Design

Jacqueline Durran – Anna Karenina (or is it the other way around?)

I didn’t see “Anna Karenina” (or any version of it), “Mirror Mirror” or “Snow White and the Huntsman”.  The costume design for both “Lincoln” and “Les Misérables”  looked great to me.  For those fleeting moments I actually noticed what people were wearing, anyway.

 

Directing

Ang Lee

This is the one Oscar win I wanted most (read the write-up I did on this movie for background).  Simply put, Lee did a magnificent job of filming an unfilmable book.  The press has repeatedly commented on how Affleck was “snubbed” by the Academy.  The Academy isn’t like The Borg*; the entire Academy doesn’t have one mind.  Five other directors got more votes. Period.

 

Besides, the guy got more than his vindication in the end.  I was much more surprised Hooper didn’t get a nomination.  “Amour” must be one really great movie.  I’m waiting for a DVD release date for that one.

 

Documentary Feature

Searching for Sugar Man

As with all great documentaries, “Searching for Sugar Man” was enlightening, informative and entertaining.  It makes you appreciate that someone made the movie and makes you feel better for watching it.  Having been a big music fan in the early 70’s — and an avid reader of Rolling Stone magazine — I was surprised I hadn’t heard of Rodriguez, the subject of the movie whose humility and simple priorities were refreshing, especially now since neither has any value for most people.  The guy didn’t even accept his invitation to the Oscars. Even if you’re not a big music person, this is a great, moving documentary.  Wait a minute, I’m not doing a review; I’m supposed to write about the Oscar ceremony.

 

Film Editing

William Goldenberg – Argo

I’d have to see each movie again to opine about how deserving this Oscar is.  The first time I see a movie, I’m too focused on the story to notice the technicals, unless they’re so great you’re forced to notice (like Pietro Scalia’s work in editing “JFK”).  “Argo”‘s editing must have resonated with me on a subconscious level; when I think of the movie, all that comes to mind are the quick-cut crowd scenes.  All four nominees I saw were very tight and, despite my aversion to her, Bigelow always makes her movies technically sharp.

 

Foreign Language Film

Amour

With the major nominations this movie got this year, this category was a no-brainer.  I didn’t see any of the nominees.  I’ll work on that for the next year.

 

 

 

Original Score

Life of Pi – Mychael Danna

Again, unless a score jumps out at me as unique and appealing and effective, I don’t notice it.  Another confirmation that the chance Ang Lee took in making this movie was worth it.

 

Original Song

Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth

The moment it was announced Adele was doing the song for “Skyfall”, this Oscar was won. I don’t remember any time an artist had one album top the charts two years in a row.  The clip for the haunting song for “Chasing Ice” was interesting enough that I’ll watch it on DVD.  As with animation, this category should only be active when there are several really great contenders.

 

Production Design

Rick Carter (production design)/Jim Erickson (set decoration) – Lincoln

Looked great and authentic to me.  I’m glad they got this Oscar.  For such a great movie to win only for DDL’s performance would have been a shame.

 

Visual Effects

Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliot) – Life of Pi

The best movie in the category won.  I’d rather have that happen than a bad movie winning.  Anymore, great visual effects aren’t enough.  The effects I was bombarded with by the “Total Recall” remake were overwhelming and looked good, but in the service of an otherwise  terrible movie.

 

 

 

 

Writing –  Adapted Screenplay

Argo – Chris Terrio

This was the tougher writing category and I’m sorry anyone lost.  “Beasts of the Southern Wild” was the weakest but, along with “Life of Pi”, and maybe more so, it was so unique its nomination was well-deserved (it didn’t look scripted, which might be the highest praise for a screenplay).  I guess Kushner’s scrupulous “Lincoln” dialogue wasn’t enough.

 

Writing – Original Screenplay

Quentin Tarantino – Django Unchained

Tarantino was absolutely correct in saying this was the year of the writer when he accepted his Oscar. I’ve always loved his writing, but I cringe when he repeats himself, which he did from time to time with this movie.  I only saw “Flight” and “Moonrise Kingdom” of the other nominees and “Django” was easily the best of the three.

 

Here’s the list of each category’s nominees from the AMPAS website: http://oscar.go.com/nominees

 

We only have nine more months until the next Oscar season. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler must already be working on rounding up their writing staff for next year.

 

 

Dan

 

*I never even really watched Star Trek after the first series but I like using The Borg for conspiracy analogies.