February 27, 2012

The 2012 Oscars (part two)

Aah, the glorious march of predictability.

The Artist took out its big three: Best Picture, Best Director for Michel Hazanivicius (bless you!), and Best Actor for (the villainously versatile) Jean Dujardin. It also added Score (despite ripping off the score from Vertigo) and Costume Design, which had it tie with Hugo on five statuettes apiece.

My call on Hugo kicking technical arse was vindicated in a big way. Cinematography, Art Direction, Visual Effects (the dudes from Rise of the Planet of the Apes were robbed), and the two sound categories which nobody really cares about made up its five.

In the screenplay categories, my Hopes were dashed by my Predictions: neither Midnight in Paris or The Descendants was well-structured enough for me to be overjoyed by their wins. Lovely, both of them, but not much more than that.

Meryl Streep overcame her 29 year long case of the yips to win, and you could tell she'd been planning that speech a while, it was self-effacing, funny and gracious. Everybody should have a dozen near-misses to let them prepare.

And on the topic of long waits, Christopher Plummer was just as charming picking up his gong for the severely underrated Beginners. I'm glad he took the trouble to give such an extended shout-out to Ewan McGregor, who was wrongfully ignored for his half of their scenes.

While I could understand Plummer's standing ovation (he's eighty-two, the oldest actor ever to win), less understandable was the ovation doled out to Octavia Spencer when she won for The Help. Okay, call me a cynical bastard, but were they standing up just because she's African-American? Or is there a behind the scenes story that I'm not aware of?

Australia's own Kirk Baxter winning for Editing for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was about as surprising as the show got, and also led to the night's best line from his editing partner Angus Wall. Having been genuinely shocked, they'd run out of things to say, but the 'bugger off' music hadn't even started. Just when things were getting a mite awkward, Ward said simply: 'We're editors. Thank you.' And they scampered off. Gold.

Funniest line? Yes. The night's funniest moment, though, came from Jim Rash, one of the winners for adapted screenplay. After Angelina Jolie came out and shamelessly flaunted her knockout pins by taking an unusual stance that made use of her high-slit gown but looked frankly bizarre, Rash upstaged Alexander Payne's speech by copying her in the background. Gold times ten.

Oh, and a member of Flight of the Conchords has now won an Oscar. Gold times a hundred.

Anyway, that's that for another year. Of course I loved every second of it. Before I go I'd like to thank blogspot, God, my parents, and James Earl Jones. Thank you so much.

Cheers, JC.


currently reading: The Untouchable by John Banville
books to go: 91

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