alright, i'm tired and am writing during repeated fire alarm testing, so this oscar wrap-up is going to be pretty basic. i won't comment on who won, as i thought they did well with that, for once. nor will i mention gossip. although...jennifer aniston really did seem nervous, who cares that anne hathaway can sing, ben stiller's hilarious take on joaquin phoenix was kinda hit and miss all at the same time, and what was up with anthony hopkins being so jumpy? um. i'm done with that now.
show overall. it was...ok. the fact that i pvr'd the whole thing, started watching an hour in, fast forwarded through all the commercials and boring bits, and caught up in time only to have it run a half hour longer than it should have, says a lot. i only watched one part of the show without touching my remote: the very end when they presented the awards people cared about most, back to back. which is how they cash in, of course, because they've made their money on ads that we 'watched' for the three hours prior. annoying. but that's the oscars for you. to its credit, however, it did much better at limiting overtime this year than in the past- so that's a good thing.
hugh jackman. oh, hugh. lovable, talented and probably better appreciated when hosting the tonys. because honestly, i don't need to watch that many musical numbers. after a while, the guy wasn't much beyond a man in a tux who came onstage, almost said something, then walked off when he realised he wasn't needed (which actually happened at one point). kinda indicated he wasn't really needed past the opening number. well, not true. he did keep the theatre audience entertained during the commercial breaks by handing out cookies to famished guests. oh wait, your mother could have done that.
multiple oscar presenters. in the words of show producers bill condon and laurence mark, they were 'tossing aside tradition in favour of surprise' this year. and so they did. i liked the multiple presenters in the acting categories because you had the joy of each nominee being celebrated, which as my best friend d. put it, 'made everyone a winner.' what i didn't like was when presenters like alan arkin fucked up their speeches by saying names wrong, or reading the text incorrectly and generally not paying homage so much as making it an exercise to get through what they had to say. such a shame when other presenters were utterly genuine. also of note: the multiple presenter approach forfeited the usual opposite gender presentation from the previous year's winner as well as showing clips of the nominees' performances. i used to love that part of the show. i would suggest doing some combo of clips and speeches, but god knows there's no time to spare.
(or is there? maybe by cutting out all the entertaining numbers? or even the vids of the year in film? i mean, all the fun is in seeing the audience, the presenters and the best speeches of the night. i'd be all for a show that was just about the awards, and less razzle dazzle in between- especially if that meant cutting down the total length. but that will never happen, so forget i mentioned it.)
the direction. definitely a different approach this year. and not one i loved. not because of the sweeping camera angles or the myriad of other changes in style. there was an awkwardness to the directing that shouldn't have shown, but did. quick and poor cuts to the audience so as to avoid our seeing mistakes onstage- yet, we noticed the mistakes as well as the shite new shots. shots from behind presenters, with full sight of their lav mike packs tucked into their dresses- what sad spoiling of oscar magic. overdoing it with gratuitous shots of brangelina when jennifer aniston was onstage- one shot would have sufficed, thank you very much. i realise it's tough balancing the demands of such a complicated event without losing the elegance it carries. but in such moments, it was lost completely.
seeing as i'm being such a negative nancy, i will leave you on a positive note with my most favourite thing about last night: not once did someone's speech get cut short with music swelling up over them. i even read that a few winners didn't have a countdown clock at all. what a relief. there's nothing worse than being so happy someone won, but wincing as they edge closer to being booted in the midst of their heartfelt speech. i was glad to see that was done away with, making for a much more civilised and respectful approach to celebrating winners.
i think that about wraps it up. well, minus the curtain malfunction. which kinda made me laugh. ah, the oscars. such time wasting fun.
