FrancisPage: Oscar's Aftermath

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Oscar's Aftermath

My thoughts on this year's Oscarcast:

* I'm perfectly willing to accept that the Academy Awards are not a family show anymore, but it is too much to ask for a program that's rated below TV-14 DSV? One that doesn't include snippets of a graphic scene from "A Serious Man?" or jokes about "clothes whores?" The Academy used to have a rule forbidding ads for embarrassing hygiene products during the show, but I guess that rule's gone after seeing a commercial for Yaz. And still, we see Hershey's and American Express running commercials touting their public service. At least they had a shred of class.

* With a couple of exceptions, most winners sounded like they had a match to their feet. Moose and Rocco backstage must have been threatening bodily injury if the speeches went long.

* Whose idea was it to label actresses "actor" during the In Memorial segment?

* Mo'nique's acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress -- "showing that it can be about the performance and not about the politics" -- was a refreshing reminder for everybody to get a grip on themselves.

* Memo to the Academy: mashing up interpretive dance with the nominated scores just doesn't work, especially when nobody danced to that music in the original films... and especially when such dances bear no resemblance to the films. At least Up won the category with its emotional score.

* Another memo: let's lose those gushy tributes to the best actor/actress nominees. You may think they're heartfelt, but to me, they have this creepy eulogistic feel.

* Kathryn Bigelow wins Best Director and The Hurt Locker wins Best Picture. Perhaps the Academy voters felt James Cameron already had his pile of money from Avatar and trophies from Titanic. Of course, we'll still probably hear he was robbed somehow.

* For all the build-up, the Best Picture award was amazingly anti-climatic. Tom Hanks comes out and reads the winner with no recap of the ten films nominated. And with the show running long, as it always does, Hanks did us all a favor. Thanks for coming, folks; please drive safely.

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