Post Academy Awards Analysis

And onto the next awards season.

I watched the Academy Awards last night, and while I always felt that the magnitude of the event was compelling, it was far from a perfect presentation. For one, the decision to have dual hosts in Steven Martin and Alec Baldwin did not bear the fruit we all hoped it would. There performance together seemed lacking in relevant content and disastrously ill-planned (where was Alec Baldwin's occasional British accent coming from). Also, how did two people as brilliantly funny as Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin settle on that opening monologue (I know there are two of them, but I'm calling it a monologue). There were actually some incredibly funny moments in there--Steve Martin's two favorite things: rugby and tension between blacks and whites; Meryl Streep's Hitler memorabilia; the wonderfully timed moments with George Clooney. But couldn't the comedy writers at the Academy Awards come up with anything more intelligently structured than, "Hey, it's (fill in with name of any celebrity).

In an attempt to broaden its popularity, the Academy made a few changes this year. For one, the nominated songs were not performed. Many were upset with this, but I still contend that this is the correct move. Sure, every now and then the musical performances contain something truly surprising and memorable (Falling Slowly, anyone?), but for every Falling Slowly there are ten overly bubbly songs from musicals or animated films that just drag the night down. Also, the showrunners were clearly making an effort to appeal to a younger, more genre-centric demographic, hence the Twilight Presenters and the oddly conceived tribute to horror films, which included such classics from the genre as Edward Scissorhands. I respect the Academy's attempt to showcase their appreciation for film history, but these montages are rarely as interesting they need to be warrant the time they take. Finally, did anyone really think the modern dance sequence set to the best score nominees was a good idea? The dancers looked like characters out of Step Up 2: The Streets, only they were performing to the cringingly out-of-place music from Up, The Hurt Locker, Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, and the Fantastic Mr. Fox.

A final note on the ceremony: Can we please dispense with the peer tutorials before the Best Actor and Actress awards. Tim Robbins did his best to liven them up, but other than him they were largely bloated, decorous statements lacking any real insight.

Now, let's talk about the Awards. Firstly, I'm very happy that Avatar had as poor of a night as it did, although I still think it shouldn't have won Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, or Best Visual Effects. Yeah, I said it. But the awards generally went according to script. The one significant upset came in the Best Adapted Screenplay category, in which Precious surprisingly beat the favored Up in the Air. I was VERY PLEASED with this result. With all due respect to Up in the Air, it simply didnt have the emotional complexity or strengh of craft that Precious did. After this award, I thought Precious might have a chance to win big in other categories, like Best Actress, but obviously that didn't happen. I also want to say that I found Mo'Nique's acceptance to be very poignant, and I wonder if her words were also meant to indict Academy Awards voters for completely disregarding the soul-bearing intensity of Gabby Sidibe in Precious in favor of Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock's coyer performances.

By the way, what was Christoph Waltz talking about in his acceptance speech? Quentin Tarantino was to his left and they wanted to discover a new continent, but they decided to move to their right and found anothe continent?