Dear Jodie,
The 2015 Oscars have come and gone and have left me with a
number of impressions. First, Lady Gaga
can sing! Truly sing! She even impressed the great Julie Andrews.
And what about Julie Andrews? She still looks wonderful, and always full of
class and grace.
On the other hand, John Travolta seems to be returning to
his John Revolta phase of decades past. Has he stopped touching Idina Menzel's
(aka Adele Dazeem's) face yet? What
about blind-side smooching Scarlett Johansson? I'd be saying yuck, yuck, double
yuck.
Hell, I am saying it.
A great line from Neil Patrick Harris: "Benedict
Cumberbatch is what you get when you ask John Travolta to pronounce Ben
Affleck."
The winners won. The losers didn't. My predictions weren't even in the ballpark. But a couple of acceptance speeches stood
out.
I liked J. K. Simmons thanking his wife and kids and
encouraging folks to call their mom and dad.
I loved Common's and John Legend's acceptance speech for the
Best Song Oscar. Really moving!
I wasn't so thrilled with Patricia Arquette's acceptance speech.
I happen to agree with her, women still aren't compensated as well as men, but
feel that the Oscars … an award/entertainment show…isn't the right place to
make that point, or any other point not directly related to the movie she won
for. "Boyhood" was not about the inequality of the pay scale between
men and women.
There's an old saying that you catch flies with sugar, not
vinegar. I felt her rant sprayed too much vinegar over an unsuspecting
audience.
"Still Alice" on the other hand was about dealing
with Alzheimer's disease (please, my fellow Texans, can we not call it
"Oldtimer's disease" anymore), and I loved Julianne Moore's
acceptance speech.
She, very deftly and kindly, mentioned shining the light on
Alzheimer's disease. Completely appropriate.
She brilliantly laced her observation with sugar and a touch of
cinnamon.
I'm also glad that she won. Julianne Moore is hit or miss
with me, but she hit big in "Still Alice."
Oh, and Eddie Redmayne. I rooted for him, not because any of
the other nominees sucked, they didn't, but his, I felt, was the more difficult
role to play. Physically demanding, and limited in the scope of his expression,
Mr. Redmayne truly brought Stephen Hawking onto the screen.
This is just me, Jodie, but I only felt like three of the
performances were worthy of the Oscar.
Eddie Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Bradley Cooper. The other two were good performances, but not
particularly memorable to my mind.
Am I the only one who noticed that Joan Rivers was not in
the "In Memorium" presentation? Was this an oversight? Or was
Hollywood really sick of her acerbic jokes at their expense? Either way, the Academy should address the
omission, I think.
And then Sean Penn strikes again. While
presenting the Academy Award for Best Picture ("Birdman") to the
Mexican-born Alejandro González Iñárritu, Penn said, “Who gave this son of a
bitch his green card?”
Iñárritu
later graciously said, "I thought it was hilarious," but … it sure didn't
have the ring of hilarity. Between
really good friends in private, fine. But not in public. Not at the
Oscars. Not good, Sean!
Overall,
I thought Neil Patrick Harris did an excellent job of hosting the Oscars. Ah,
but Jodie, I have nothing to say about his appearing in his briefs onstage a la
"Birdman." It reminded me of an old Eddie Murphy routine, "If I
ain't got no bulge, I ain't modeling no underwear."
I
rooted for people to win who didn't, like Kiera Knightley for Best Female
Actress in a Supporting Role. Others I rooted for won, like Eddie Redmayne and
Julianne Moore. I didn't particularly like Birdman winning. The movie, it
seemed, was more about the camera technique than a story.
Oh,
well.
Overall,
I loved the 2015 Oscars, even with all of the hiccoughs. It is my Super Bowl every year. It is an
event.
I'm
already looking forward to next year.
I
can't wait to find out what you thought, Jodie!
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