Congrats for Surviving "Oscar Apocalypse 2011"

Sunday night came and went, and the sun shined this morning (well, in some parts of the country, but not here). The King's Speech dominated the Oscars, and we're all still here. We survived what I liked to think many felt was the "Oscar Apocalypse". If you've been following this blog in the short time it's been live, you realize that I have a strong distaste for the sheer lack of appreciation towards The King's Speech and the pure hatred at its collection of accolades. It's a very nice film, and I was not surprised when Steven Spielberg called its name as Best Picture last night. I will say, however, the show itself was...odd, for lack of a better word. It had some terrific highlights, some head-scratching moments, and other times where things were just plain dull. I'm hoping to cover all of that in this post. On an interesting personal and side note, last night marked the third year in a row that my number one film did not win Best Picture. Since the year 2000 that has only happened once (2006's The Departed).

First, my predicitons: I chose correctly on 19 of 24 categories. With alternates I was correct on 21 of 24 categories; a pretty solid effort I'd say. My only wrong prediction in the major categories was David Fincher receiving Best Director over Tom Hooper, which I found to be very much an incorrect honor on the Academy's part. Where I have my issues with the backlash over The King's Speech as Best Picture, I strongly stand by the thought that Fincher deserved to be recognized for his work on The Social Network. Fincher is a terrific filmmaker, creating such previous works as Fight Club, Se7en, and Zodiac. His work has been a staple in Hollywood since the latter half of the 1990's, and The Social Network is arguably his best work behind the camera. Out of the five nominees, he should have been recognized. This is despite my thinking that Christopher Nolan gave the best directing performance of the year for Inception.

Other than that there weren't any sort of major upsets the entire night. When Alice in Wonderland won for Art Direction early on, it was clear to me that it would also win for Costume Design. However, it's hard for me to come to the realization that Alice in Wonderland is one of the five films with multiple Oscar wins from last night, and other, better films like 127 Hours, True Grit, and The Kids Are All Right walked away empty handed.

Something I thought was interesting was that the night mirrored the Oscar season almost to perfection. As the night rolled along The Social Network picked up three awards without breaking a sweat, Original Score, Editing, and Adapted Screenplay. In both Score and Editing, it beat out its major opponent, The King's Speech. At this point as well, King's Speech only had one Oscar, for Original Screenplay. It almost looked as if The Social Network would win Director and Picture, and would walk away the big winner of the night. But then Kathryn Bigelow sucked any life The Social Network had left when she called out Hooper's name for Best Director. At that point, everyone knew the race was over. It was very much like The Social Network's early dominance over the critics and the Golden Globes, and The King's Speech's late charge with DGA, PGA and SAG awards.

Inception was another big winner last night, getting four technical Oscars, two for Sound, one for Cinematography, and one for Visual Effects. It tied The King's Speech for the most Oscars, and in many ways to me, was the Academy's way of apologizing for the snub of Christopher Nolan's Best Director nomination. It could also be though, that Inception deserved those four Oscars, and was more of a stake as to how much Nolan's vision needed to be recognized.

We then arrive at The King's Speech. It won four Oscars, all in major categories: Best Picture, Director, Leading Actor, and Original Screenplay. Its wins for Picture and Director has sent many into a frenzy, calling it one of the worst choices ever, slandering the Academy, and Tom Hooper personally. To be blunt, this is uncalled for and ridiculous. The King's Speech is a good film; a crowd pleaser. In a year where the Academy members had to sit through countless difficult-to-watch and depressing films (Toy Story 3, Winter's Bone, Black Swan, Biutiful, 127 Hours, and Inside Job, just to name a few), it was probably very refreshing to finally see a movie that makes us feel good about life, and we don't have to look away while viewing it. Yes, the film is very formulaic, but it also is entertaining to watch. I'm not one to say that it is, or will ever be considered, the best film to be released in 2010, but I can understand why the Academy thought so highly of the film.

As for The Social Network, well, let's be straight. It's not the most amazing piece of film ever created. All this talk of it being a generation definer is just silly in my estimation. We can't know what will be the film that defines our generation the moment it is released. To be perfectly honest, if a film about a man who screws his best friend out of a company, and winds up alone for the rest of his life (or so is portrayed) defines our generation, then we're a pretty shitty group. Also, "generation definer" doesn't exactly translate to Oscar gold. The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off defined the eighties; how many Oscars did they win? None. In fact, neither had a single nomination. If it were up to me, I'd say Catfish does a better job of showing what it means to live in this era. Using social networks to connect with people, texting conversations, and using GPS machines to get to destinations, Catfish shows more of what it means to live in the 21st Century, and the consequences because of it.

Finally, we come to the ceremony itself, which I found a bit bland. Anne Hathaway had a tremendous spark as co-host, and is someone I would not mind seeing host again. However, as great of an actor I think he is, James Franco didn't do so well. Whether it be nerves, a lack of sleep (he's divided his time between getting two PhD's, preparing for the ceremonies, and promoting 127 Hours...seriously, when does this guy sleep?), or just that he was feeling "groovy", he didn't work. Also, the show seemed too timid to let Hathaway and Franco do anything drastic or out of the ordinary, aside from Franco's appearance in drag, which ended too quickly to really mean much of anything. I think that next year, if the Oscars want their younger demographic, they should stick with Hathaway, but let her do more. She's a talented singer, performer and actress, let her show off her skills. Also, subtract Franco and add......Justin Timberlake. He's got the charm, everyone in Hollywood loves him, he's always funny on Saturday Night Live, and the dude's a pretty good singer. I think Hathaway and Timberlake would draw in a huge young demographic, while being classy enough to keep older audiences tuned in.

I felt as if the entire show was very choppy. It did run on time, lasting just a shade over three hours, but too many of the bits seemed cut short to seem relevant. Billy Crystal's appearance to honor Bob Hope was a terrific idea, but it seemed so short to me that I questioned the point of it. I was happy that the show went back to clips for each actor nominated along with a few words from the presenter, however. It was a nice touch and I hope the show continues with that. I must say though, when the show presented all ten Best Picture nominees at the end of the night, and had them dubbed by the speech from the end of The King's Speech, I found it quite tacky. It was as if the show was saying "bow to the king". If the montage would have had audio clips from each film I would have been okay with it, but this just seemed distasteful, and a slap in the face with the other nine nominees.

The show could have used polish, but some parts of it stood out really well. The opening montage with Franco and Hathaway stands out, and there were several great speeches (Hooper's tribute to his mother was especially moving), and not so great ones (try not dropping F-bombs in the future Melissa Leo). But now, it's time to close the book on the 2010 Oscar season, and look forward to next years awards. This has been a memorable year in film, and here's to hoping next year is just as good.

I also want to take the chance to thank everyone who's been supporting the blog so far. In this short time it has been up I've recieved some great feedback from several of you, and it's nice to know you're out there reading. I hope that 2011 will give me more opportunites to provide insight into the awards season, and some great pieces to begin.