Oscars 2013- A Review

The red carpet is rolled up and stored away again and so another Oscar’s ceremony has come and gone. The famous, beautiful and fluffy (Ted) gathered in the Kodak theatre to hear the fate of the cinematic nominees. And though there were some guaranteed winners (Hathaway, Day-Lewis), it was a genuinely exciting race to the gongs, with the speculation of the winner of Best Picture in fluctuation throughout the evening. Here is my round up of the night

The Good

Christophe Waltz- Charming Basterd

Walking away with his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Django Unchained, Waltz is always a pleasure to watch on the big screen and at awards ceremonies. Classy, gracious and always sincerely taken aback at winning, Tarantino summed the great man up in his own acceptance speech by declaring that Waltz makes his words sound like poetry. In a category of great performances, no one would resent his win, which was truly deserved being the best thing about Django Unchained.

The boys got the moves

Though Seth MacFarlane’s opening performance wasn’t entirely successful (more on that later) the dancing sequences provided old school glamour and the chance to see Channing Tatum (with Amazonian partner Charlize Theron) looking like a chunky necked Fred Astaire. Also pulling out the moves was the ever charming Joseph Gordon Levitt and even caterpillar eyebrows Daniel Radcliffe busted out the steps in retro fashion. Some of the female audience may have grumbled that Tatum didn’t strip during his dance routine but he proved he could be just as charismatic dancing in a suit and tails as he is in a Mac and umbrella.


Ang Lee- Life of Smile

He may not have won the Best Picture for Life of Pi but Ang Lee did receive the Best Director Oscar and a standing ovation in the process. Steering the seemingly impossible ship of filming Yann Martel’s novel, Lee created a visual masterpiece that saw him win his second Oscar following Brokeback Mountain. But the real visual highlight is the man himself, with the most infectious smile in the business, Ang Lee is unable to hide his zest for life and that’s why we love and root for him.

Gentle Ben- Affleck comes full circle

Winning the big award of the night and providing the best speech of the evening, Ben Affleck came of age with his win for Best Picture for Argo. Touching on his topsy turvy career from his early success to his popularity dive, Affleck highlighted the fickle nature of Hollywood but also the optimism that with hard work and creative passion, anything is possible with one of the most unexpected career resurrections of recent times. A truly worthy winner Affleck summed up the Hollywood machine and life itself ‘You can't hold grudges. It's hard but you can't hold grudges. And it doesn't matter how you get knocked down in life because that's going to happen. All that matters is you gotta get up’.

Special Mention to

Quvenzhané Wallis- the youngest Best Actress nominee in history at the age of 9, who rocked a fluffy dog bag on the red carpet. Styled with a ball-gown, it was cute, age appropriate and fun.

Jennifer Lawrence- not for the Oscar win but for her spectacular trip on her way to the podium. Showing why Oscar dresses are impractical if you actually want to walk anywhere, Lawrence’s gaff also showed that these Hollywood stars are human after all, which is reassuring when you are sat at home in your scruffs, eating Haribo while watching the Oscars on TV.
The old school singing- Shirley Bassey belting out Goldfinger and Barbara Streisand wearing a 90s choker while singing Memories, it was all fabulously kitsch and all the better for it.






The Bad

No thanks for the music-als

Even though I do have a soft spot for Chicago, its inclusion in the triple musical performances only served to highlight the fact that Catherine Zeta Jones hasn’t had a decent role since the 2002 Oscar winning film. Following All That Jazz was Jennifer Hudson singing her big Dreamgirls number, which was impressive but the vocal gymnastics would have been more at home at the Grammys. The worst part though was to come with the cast of Les Miserables who shouted/sung over each other in a cringe inducing medley (though Crowe’s rock style singing still amuses). The fact that they were set against a backdrop of the film but still dressed in their full regale was jarring, Anne Hathaway singing I dreamed a dream while wearing a sumptuous ball-gown.

 
We’re gonna need a shorter speech

There was some cheeky fun to be had at the decision to play the theme from Jaws to round up the award winners over running speeches, an impending doom to strike fear into the speaker’s hearts. After all who wants to hear someone rabbit on and thank everyone under the sun, from their publicist to their manicurist? But while the A listers were indulged, the seemingly lesser mortals- the sound mixers, the costume designs, the special effects teams- were not afforded this luxury and their time of the podium appeared to get shorter and shorter. These people who work for months and months on their craft, rarely seeing the light of day (or in a lot of cases, their hairdressers) until their effort is done, surely deserve their time to bask in their glory, even if they are not as recognisable as the celebs.

Obamarama

Awards presenters don’t come more random than Michelle Obama who appeared by video link to assist Jack Nicholson in reading the nominees for Best Picture. Whilst a fan of the first lady, the best arms in the business, her inclusion in the Oscars felt unnatural and a little embarrassing, her recital of the nominees was full of cliché. It took the showbiz element of the White House a step too far. The fun of the awards presenters is not knowing if they may slip up or say something off cue and not to have a stiff scripted insertion with an ill placed political edge.


The weird

Beam me up Oscar

Seth MacFarlane’s Oscar gig was by all accounts a big misfire, but the weirdest moment came when William Shatner appeared from the ‘future’ via a giant screen to tell MacFarlane that his hosting was a disaster and how to try and stop that from happening. An ironic self sabotage or an inevitable sign of things to come? Can you try and be kooky and off the wall and still attain the aesthetics of old school Hollywood. I personally didn’t think his hosting was a total calamity but he did not seem to have the audience on his side and that is crucial to the night’s success. As MacFarlane said himself ‘Next year Tina and Amy will be hosting it’. Fingers crossed they bag Fey and Poehler for 2014.

Les Miserables (directed by Tom Hooper)

Tom Hooper’s adaptation of Victor Hugo’s epic musical dramarama is a marmite movie, it is a story which commands a long running time to encompass its multi strand narrative, however with the sole emphasis on singing spectacular and no dialogue, the film would test the patience of the non converted. There is much to admire, from the use of live on set performance (though this is not the first time this has been done, despite misconception) with all the actors giving full blown commitment to their potentially po-faced roles. Hugh Jackman provides the film’s backbone as Jean Valjean, the doomed man who tries to permanently outrun his ill fated past, however his nemesis, Russell Crowe’s Javart falls flat and induced unintentional laughs with his wobbly rock vocal tendencies. Anne Hathaway shakes and breaks as the fatal Fantine but her vocal prowess is no surprise to those who know she likes to hog the microphone at any opportunity. The real revelation here is newcomer Samantha Barks as Eponine, who despite being saddled in between the limp love triangle with Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) and Marius (Eddie Redmayne) manages to take her moment to shine and provide sincere heartbreak. The film continues to be at odds with itself, at times it looks pokey and staged but then becomes vast, flying from one crescendo to the next. It is a movie on the edge, the edge of high drama, each song becomes more turbulent, when you felt this was no longer possible. Les Miserables will delight many, who will relive and rejoice in the beloved musical being brought to the silver screen, a legion of readymade fans waiting to lap it up. It did not convert me however, I somehow was immune to succumbing to the elevated tragic spectacle, and a feeling of exhaustion came over me by the time the end credits rolled. The question is simply, for Les Marmite, which side of the barricades do you stand on?

Django Unchained (directed by Quentin Tarantino)

Tarantino is not a director who does things by halves, and in a week of long running times, tests the patience of his audience with his overlong, overindulgent but entertaining new offering Django Unchained. Tarantino’s Southern Western has all the hallmarks of his classic films- sharp dialogue, devilish characters, an eclectic storming soundtrack and (literal) lashings of violence. However in previous films, Tarantino has managed to balance the absurd with the sadistic, in Django the films serious subject matter sits ill with the droll creations perpetuating the scenes. The film never knows what it wants to be, one minute we have comedic Klu Klux Klan moments, the next we witness the brutal fate of a slave ripped apart by dogs, and so becomes Tarantino’s most problematic film to date. There are performances to saviour through the midst of the moral mind field. Leonardo Di Caprio relishes the chance to be the malicious Calvin Candie, the plantation owner and evil boy emperor. Samuel L Jackson is his conniving loyal house slave Stephen who plays it like an evil version of Uncle Ben. But the film’s true ace though is the never bad Christophe Waltz as bounty hunter Dr King Schultz, a charming, ruthless character who elevates every scene he is in. Waltz can go to each end of the persona spectrum but never loses any inch of charisma. The question is with Django whether you can look beyond the idea that slavery has been (pulp) fictionalised and purely accept it for cinematic purposes. And if you can you will be entertained, take a trip to Candie land and leave your conscious compass at home.