I look ridiculous in hindsight, having proposed that a film about a strong male hero (Captain Phillips) was something for a 2014 Academy. - Apparently not at all, (the film went home empty-handed, although it was nominated for 6 awards.) Instead the movies that won were about sick men dying of AIDS (Dallas Buyers Club), a woman drunk (Blue Jasmine), a strong woman in space (Gravity, which also won its director Alfonso Cuarón the Best Director Oscar) and evil slavery (12 Years a Slave, which won Best Film).
I had hoped for something for Alexander Payne's Nebraska, one of my biggest favorites of the year, but that film also went home empty-handed.
Well, it was a wonderful Oscar night anyhow.
Second time host Ellen DeGeneres started out in style with an opening monologue that included minor roasts of Liza Minnelli (for looking like a male impersonator!), 84 year-old nominee June Squibb (for being old and deaf) and Jonah Hill for flashing his (presumably fake) penis in The Wolf of Wall Street. DeGeneres later laid down Tweeter with a photo she took of her and a bunch of stars during the telecast, and later again had pizza delivered to the starving celebs. She took some air out of the pompous occasion and made almost everyone comfortable and laugh at one point or other (and myself at several occasions.) None of the irreverent bad boy stabs of earlier years from hosts like David Letterman, Chris Rock or vulgar Seth McFarlane. But also none of the Oscar class of Steve Martin/Alec Baldwin or Billy Crystal.
The show also shone from fun presentations from the likes of Jim Carrey and Jamie Foxx especially, wonderful musical performances from Pharrell Williams, Pink and an impressive Frozen-singer, whom John Travolta introduced very terribly by giving her a different name, and whom I therefore will never (probably) know the name of now.
Both host, presenters and winners stumbled in their speeches repeatedly, which almost came to seem sloppy, being that they are all performers who should be able to think of something else besides being in millions of living-rooms across the globe live. It was a joy to have Christoph Waltz (who is Austrian and was erroneously introduced as Christopher) come out and introduce nominees with clear intonation.
Liza Minnelli was in the audience and looked bizarre, (prompting DeGeneres' harsh joke on her behalf), and later on, Vertigo-legend Kim Novak presented with Matthew McConaughey and looked equally inhuman. They are both obviously victims of too much vanity, culture-craze and endless botox and other cosmetic surgeries.
Sidney Poitier, the aging screen legend, on the other hand came out fine in his presentation, in which he enlivened some after otherwise looking pretty off in his seat in several shots.
The Wizard of Oz was praised on its 75th anniversary, as was movie heroes, although not very memorably, and the in memoriam section was altered some this year, with no applauses and instead a tasteful, beautiful graphic of names and faces in clouds. We lost many greats this year, like Peter O'Toole, Philip Seymour Hoffman, James Gandolfini, Harold Ramis and many others. Bette Midler sang beautifully at the end of the section.
There were several Oscar-moments, as in moments that makes you weep; Lupita Nyong'o's speech, Matthew McConaughey's speech was first rate, and Jared Leto's if you can stomach him (I personally can't, and found his sudden throw-in of Venezuela and Ukraine in his political-personal speech borderline comical), and one of the winners from the documentary winner 20 Feet From Stardom breaking out in wild singing was also something.
Steve McQueen winning for Best Picture for 12 Years a Slave was so emotional it was almost impossible to understand what he said.
On another note, this being a Danish-rooted blog, Denmark was nominated for Best Foreign Film (The Hunt), Best Documentary (The Act of Killing) and Best Short Film (Helium), and won the latter, for Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson. Big congratulations to them.
In the Best Foreign Film category, it was instead Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty that won.
Best Animated Film became Disney's Frozen, and the screen-writing Oscars went to Spike Jonze for Her (Best Original Screenplay) and John Ridley for 12 Years a Slave (Best Adapted Screenplay.)
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