Oscar, 85, gets old

As the sun sets on a surprisingly windy February evening, the epic, seemingly endless night in which all the film lovers watch with loving, sparkly eyes, one rich Hollywood person awards another rich Hollywood person.

And we love it.

This year, we were treated with an exceptionally funny opening act, in which Seth MacFarlane does what he has absolutely has perfected in his over-decade long career, make himself look like a complete idiot.  We laugh time and time again, but the true irony is his commentary, even an extremely successful comedian like Seth has to put on the Ritz for the most looked upon award ceremony in the world.  Along with his off-color jokes, he invited some celebrities to sing and dance with him to pop standards in his show-opening, highlighting the theme of the evening, music in film.

In the midst of the giggle-filled night, we actually had some true surprises in some of the most important categories.  The first of which was in the Best Supporting Actor category.  Whilst many were expecting SAG winner Tommy Lee Jones to take home his second Oscar award, the night began with a wide-eyed WAOWW when Christoph Waltz went to pick up his second award.  The center of Mr. Waltz speech was the most deserved Quentin Tarantino, who had directed him to both of his Oscar wins.

But the surprises didn’t wait long to keep coming.  Animated Feature, went to Brave, as many were expecting Wreck-It Ralph or Frankenweenie.  Similarly, Ang Lee collected his second award for Best Director for Life of Pi, over slight favorite Steven Spielberg (Lincoln), and Hollywood veteran David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook).

However, the true surprise came in the multitude of technical awards, where, in fact, we had a TIE!!!  In Best Sound Editing, the winners were Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall.  The was, in fact the first tie since Barabra Streisand and Katherine Hepburn tied for Best Actress in 1969.

Now, I’m sure when the writers were drawing this up, they expected the pacing of this show to be much more timed for the hustle and bustle environment of primetime television.  Then the ideas started to come and wouldn’t stop.  So we viewers ended up with a tiring series of music in the movies tributes, including a stunning performance by Shirley Bassey in an impressive James Bond tribute, a baffling extended-extended play of previous Oscar-winning musicals, and the most random moment in Oscar history, when Seth MacFarlane reenacted twenty seconds from The Sound of Music.  Ok, maybe the streaker was the most random moment.  But, certainly, the theme of music in movies didn’t really draw in a new crowd of viewers to the awards.  In the end, the show still ran a whopping three and a half hours!

After the expected wins of Anne Hathaway for Best Supporting Actress, Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress and Daniel Day Lewis for Best Actor, we had a final shock while speculating and betting on who was the presenter of the top award.  Now it’s time to collect your payout, those of you who punched in first lady Michelle Obama, who had the ballot flown in so she could read it live from the White House.  Certainly an epic win for Argo!

And with that, the 85^th Academy Awards danced into the books with a silly song from MacFarlane and Kristen Chenoweth, celebrating all the losers.  It reality, there were few losers, all of the Best Picture nominees (save Beasts of the Southern Wild) won at least one award, continuing the trend of the Academy spreading the love around to several films, rather than having a single film sweep.  Life of Pi walked away with the most wins (4), but missed out on the top prize.  Lincoln received the most nominations, but managed to win only two, and Argo and Les Miserables nabbed three.

I’ve heard Ang Lee is already the front runner for next year’s Best Director with an upcoming adaptation of Fifty Shades of Gray (only joking).  Whatever happens, the race for Oscars 86 begins NOW!