Oscars 2010: High Points, Low Points
It wasn’t a horrible broadcast: any year in which get a glimpse of Bette Davis as Baby Jane (in the horror-movie segment) isn’t all bad. Still, this year’s Academy Awards broadcast continued the tendency toward predictability. By the time of the big night, almost all the big winners are known in advance. Last night, ditto: Jeff Bridges and Sandy Bullock and Mo’Nique and Herr Waltz and Ms. Bigelow and “The Hurt Locker”: could anyone say they were surprised when these names were called? The only major-award winner who beat the oddsmakers was Geoffrey Fletcher, the screen writer of “Precious,” and he gave one of the evening’s most emotional speeches, thanking his brothers especially. (His win ensured a shut-out for “Up in the Air,” this year’s “Frost/Nixon.”)
What were your favorite moments? Aside from Fletcher, I enjoyed the opening song-and-dance number, which bore the distinct, hilarious stamp of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who wrote “Hairspray.” Neil Patrick Harris warbled a little flat, and the tits-and-ass dancers were troppo Vegas, but the segment promised that this year’s Oscar producers, Adam Shenkman and Bill Mechanic, wouldn’t be a’feerd of tackiness. (The rest of the show, unfortunately, was a little tame.)
I was struck by the lack of politics this year; it was as if putting the big spotlight on a film about the Iraq War was sufficiently current-events-aware to spare us the sermonizing. Still, a note or two crept in: Mo’Nique beginning her speech thus: “First, I would like to thank the Academy, for showing it could be about the performance, and not the politics.” Mo’s heartfelt shout-out to Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an acting Oscar, in 1940, was also socially aware in a tasteful way.
(Didn’t you just love the twisted look Sam Jackson gave after Mo’s speech?)
If I didn’t miss overt politicking, I did miss old Hollywood glamour. We got a glimpse of Miss Lauren Bacall, who received a standing ovation when the award she received from the Academy last fall was mentioned, but it wasn’t the same as in years past, when honorary Oscars to people like Deborah Kerr or Charlie Chaplin allowed us a final glimpse of gods and goddesses before they ascended once and for all to Mount Olympus. (Speaking of the dead, why were Farrah Fawcett and Bea Arthur left out of the In Memoriam tribute? Each of them were in a hell of a lot more movies than Michael Jackson, who was included.)
As usual, there were omissions in the acceptance speeches. Mo’Nique didn’t thank by name the director Lee Daniels, who cast her big black ass in “Precious.” Sandra Bullock, whom I really really didn’t want to win, didn’t mention by name her badass husband, Jesse James, though she did give perhaps the classiest acceptance speech of the night. Sandy’s prime contender, Meryl Streep, once again was attired pretty atrociously, in Chris March. (She should wear Donna Karan, always and forever.) If Meryl’s ever nommed again, she should stay home: how much of a masochist should she be? (Stanley Tucci’s tribute to her was witty, suggesting that the Academy cap the number of nominations offered to any performer, at 16; Meryl already has that many.)
If Sandy was classy, a few of the younger presenters were tacky: Memo to “Avatar” star Sam Worthington: chewing gum while wearing a tux isn’t cool; it’s stupid. And Kristen Stewart looked a bit deer-in-headlights up on that stage. Also unclassy: the dance number staged to the nominations for Best Score. The opening production number had a bit of vulgarity; the score routine had some impressively aerobic dancing but little else.
As for who looked good: I’ll go with Jennifer Lopez. As for who looked scary, I’ll go with Demi Moore, who like her good buddy Madonna needs to learn that too-toned skin and bones as you approach 50 is not sexy or even very impressive but rather obsessive and crocodiley.
As for the history books, it’s too soon to say how the night’s big winner, “The Hurt Locker,” will look 20 or 30 years from now. That film’s helmer, Kathryn Bigelow, who looks real great at 58, provided the evening’s most emotional moment, becoming the first woman in Oscar history to win Best Director. Hooray!
