Here's a recap:
J. K. Simmons won Best Supporting Actor for Whiplash; Patricia Arquette Best Supporting Actress for Boyhood, probably the night's most deserved win in my opinion.
The tiny jazz drama Whiplash impressed by also taking Best Editing and Sound Mixing Oscars.
Film Excess favorite American Sniper underwhelmed by only getting the Sound Editing Oscar: The film was snubbed, regrettably, in what looks like an overly liberal Academy's trying to hit the politically correct marks instead of honoring a truly great American movie.
Another Film Excess favorite, The Grand Budapest Hotel, took 4 'technical' Oscars: Production Design, Make-up and Hair, Costumes and Score (2 time nominee Alexandre Desplat (also nominated this year for The Imitation Game.)
Julianne Moore won Best Actress, as expected, for her role as a woman struggling with Alzheimer's Disease in Still Alice. British Eddie Redmayne surprised by getting Best Actor for his turn as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.
Common and John Legend won Best Song for their Glory from Selma and delivered one of the evening's political acceptance speeches, basically stating that America is still a racist country against African-Americans ... Interstellar won Best Visual Effects; Disney's Big Hero 6 Best Animation; Citizenfour Best Documentary; British Graham Moore Best Adapted Screenplay for his conventional Imitation Game script, and Polish nun-drama Ida won for Best Foreign Film.
As the above indicates, the Oscars were scattered over a number of films this year, but the evening's biggest winner was without doubt the bemusing Birdman: Though it won 4 statuettes like Grand Budapest Hotel, Birdman's were by far the more prestigious: Best Film, Original Screenplay, Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki won for the second year in a row (after last year's Gravity, he was again honored for his acrobatically impressive 'show' photography in Birdman's one-shot illusion concept)) and Best Director: Mexican Alejandro González Iñárritu, who was snubbed for his masterpiece Babel (2006), which only won for Best Score.
The short winners were Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 (Documentary Short), Feast (Animated Short) and Phone Call (Live Action Short).
Did the right movies win? - (Mostly) No.
The suspiciously hip, slick satire Birdman was the choice of cool admiration, while American Sniper and especially Boyhood was slighted; both should definitely have won more. The people behind 5-time nominee Foxcatcher, who all went home empty-handed, must also feel somewhat overlooked.
The host of the year, Neil Patrick Harris, was a definite flop. After an opening song that was forgotten before it was over, Harris wise-cracked his way through the ceremony with glib, forgettable jokes. He tried to stand out by poking fun at Birdman by doing Michael Keaton's 'underpants run', but succeeded only in getting some generous laughs and applause from the schmoozing audience. His 'big' joke was to get Octavia Spencer to watch over a box containing his Oscar predictions for the entire show ... They turned out to be very accurate, 'proving' either that the show is depressingly predictable, or that Harris is a host with extremely insufficient powers as an entertaining ditto. His scatter-shot, lackluster approach seemed lazy and uninspired. - He should not get a second chance.
But he wasn't the show's only problem: Most of the presenters were attractive but really dull stars, obviously primarily focused on blowing up their chests and looking pretty. - Where were the comedians? - The singing? (Besides Lady Gaga's Sound of Music tribute and the Best Song nominees.) - The surprises? - Memorable moments?
Unfortunately, the Oscars 2015 was a snoozer, if ever there was one.
