While we might have expected a Seth MacFarlane-hosted Oscars to be a little more shocking (and perhaps, from the presenter’s point of view, better written), the hefty 2013 ceremony did produce a few moments that may end up seared into the watching audience’s collective consciousness. Here are our picks…
He’s a renowned grump, but reached new heights of meme-creating snark with his stone-faced reaction to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s Golden Globes material. So naturally, Seth MacFarlane was going to be gunning for a grin. Or at least a gurn that didn’t make it look like Jones had just been told his budgie had died. And, as if by magic, simply by mentioning the fact, he cracked it! Jones smiled. He wasn’t seen much after that (aside from losing Best Supporting Actor), but we assume he went back to his dark cloud. Still, at least he tried.
Yeah, Seth MacFarlane loves Star Trek in all its forms. And you had to expect that he’d go for the sort of cut-away joke he so loves to dish out in his animated shows. But at least he roped in William Shatner to help in a bit that, while overlong, provided a few good chuckles, particularly at MacFarlane’s expense. It was strange to see The Shat back on a (mocked-up and not quite canon cough nerd alert cough starship bridge), but we did enjoy his delivery. Not so sure about the boob song, though.
The material might not have been top notch (bet they wished Joss Whedon had been around to punch it up) but the natural chemistry between Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson was enough to overcome the less-than-satisfying script. We’d have been happy with them just riffing. No Chris Hemsworth, though – was he stuck in Asgard dealing with yet another Loki scheme? We notice Tom Hiddleston was quiet on Twitter for much of the ceremony…
Instead of a standard piece of music to play off those who dared take a little longer on their speech – correction, those who were not big names – the producers of this year’s show thought it might be fun to use John Williams’ Jaws theme. Funny idea in principle, but it turned sour when Life Of Pi visual effects winners Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott tried to give some support to the artists struggling at bankrupt FX house Rhythm & Hues and were not only Jaws’d, but had their microphone silenced. Not cool, Academy, especially when Quentin Tarantino got to survive a musical mauling.
Clearly, men’s shampoo companies missed a trick not buying more sponsorship on the awards, because there was a lot of big hair on display tonight. Leading the charge was the superb locks of Life Of Pi cinematographer Claudio Miranda, followed by Vigo (that’s “Scourge of Carpathia”) look-alike Zero Dark Thirty sound editor Paul NJ Ottosson and then Skyfall’s sound editor Per Halberg, who both took home a trophy (see below). Trivia note: If you cut off the hair of all the winners and tied it into a rope, it would stretch three times around the world. Or did we just make that up? The answer is more complicated than you might think.
Mark Wahlberg and his furry Ted co-star (created in a partially pre-recorded bit due to Ted’s CGI needs) were tasked with giving out the sound awards. When it came to sound editing, there was a surprise – Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall tied for the trophy, meaning that both Thirty’s Paul NJ Ottosson and Skyfall’s Per Halberg got to take the stage one at a time. Team Sony must be delighted that their two big movies got to share the spotlight. We’re almost surprised DVD ads for both films didn’t pop up behind the winners.
It seemed at times as though MacFarlane and producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron had turned the show into the Tony Awards to highlight their love of musicals, with more tributes to song and dance than usual. But one little quick bit worked well. Just before Christopher Plummer came out as a presenter, MacFarlane announced that the Von Trapp family (as seen in The Sound Of Music) would be singing. Cut to a set of double doors. Nothing. MacFarlane tried again. Same result. Then in bursts someone dressed in a Nazi uniform to announce, “They’ve gone!” Cheesy, easy, but it made us laugh.
It’s surely not a live ceremony if someone doesn’t have a mishap, and you’ve got to feel for Jennifer Lawrence when she tripped up the stairs to the stage (Hugh Jackman darted out to help her, but she recovered on her own). Still, that’s balanced by, A) the fact that she was on her way to collect the Best Actress Oscar, and, B) she owned the moment. “You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell,” she laughed as she began a heartfelt acceptance speech.
The Best Picture gong is traditionally given out by A Big Name. This year we got Jack Nicholson alone... Or so it seemed. That was until he threw it to a feed of First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House, seemingly in the middle of some sort of Oscar party that involved military types standing about. Their banter might not have been West Wing-worthy, but it was still a good get for the ceremony. It was up to Mrs Obama to announce the winner, as Argo became the night’s champ. Talking of...
There were a few great speeches during the evening, at least the ones that didn’t end up swallowed by the orchestra. Adele was typically sweet and down to Earth as she picked up the award for Skyfall. Daniel Day-Lewis cracked that Lincoln was part of a job swap and that he was originally supposed to play Margaret Thatcher (with presenter Meryl Streep chuckling behind him) and Ang Lee was an effusive Best Director winner. But after waiting while producer Grant Heslov thanked him, Ben Affleck delivered a typically rapid-fire speech that touched on his collaborators, Canada, Iran and how marriage to wife Jennifer Garner was “work. But the best kind of work.” Someone’s sleeping with their Oscar on the couch tonight...