Yes, this is quite the drastic change in blog post for me from sports 24/7 to Hollywood's biggest night. However, I connect emotionally through different films, and if I spent less time watching sports it would likely translate into an even larger movie addiction. I am not going to spend any time analyzing the different black tuxedos or the dresses that cost as much as my yearly salary, but I just wanted to recap the choices from last night's awards show.
Overall I thought this was one of the deepest movie seasons in recent memory. There were multiple films that could have won big in past years. While I have not seen all of the nominated movies, I have seen a few and was incredibly impressed with all that I was able to view. I still plan to complete the adventure to view each Best Picture nomination. I will leave out Amour, because while it is probably very good, I don't feel like reading subtitles or watching 2 hours of a silent picture.
The choice that I was the most surprised about was Ang Lee winning Best Director for Life of Pi. This is one of the movies that I have not yet had a chance to watch, so I will refrain from bashing the selection at this time. Instead I was hoping for David O. Russell to take home the prize for Silver Linings Playbook. The movie is incredibly emotional, vulnerable, and raw, and I thought the director did a great job of capturing the cast in the moment. However, he could have been down voted because of the talented cast in the film. Silver Linings Playbook was the only movie to have a nominee in each of the four major acting categories (Actor/Actress, Supporting Actor/Actress). I thought that some of the success would fall back on the director? Of course this category should have been won by Ben Affleck for Argo, but he wasn't even a nominee this year. Does Leo and Christopher Nolan have some company?
The acting categories were absolutely loaded this year. I felt that each nominee had an argument to win. It was going to be tough to beat Christoph Waltz in the Supporting Actor group since director Quentin Tarantino wrote the part with Waltz in mind. I don't think people would have been too upset if any of the other candidates (Allen Arkin, Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones, and Philip Seymour Hoffman) would have taken home the statue. The Supporting Actress seemed to be a foregone conclusion with Anne Hathaway taking home the award for her role as Fantine in Les Mis, but just like the previous category it was filled with past Oscar winners. Isn't weird to think that just a few years ago Hathaway was the rabbling, ditzy host and now she pulled off two completely different, but powerful, roles in one movie season with fierce Catwoman and broken Fantine. I think that is pretty incredible. Best Actress had a wide age range this year (9-86), and then 3 still up and coming actresses. I thought this race came down to Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook). I think I would have leaned towards giving the award to Chastain over Lawrence, but both were superb in their roles. The reason why I would have given the nod to Jessica Chastain was because she alone made Zero Dark Thirty a must-see, gripping, thrill ride. Like I mentioned earlier, Silver Linings Playbook was full of powerful performances. This award was like picking a 1A vs 1B, both actresses definitely deserved any award they received. Finally, the Best Actor might have been the deepest race in Oscar history. I could have realistically seen 4 of the 5 nominees taken the award home, and the one on the outside would have been one of the best current actors (Denzel Washington). Nobody would have done better in their roles than the 4 remaining men. While Anne Hathaway was great in Les Mis, she only had 20 minutes of movie time, but Hugh Jackman's strong performance gave the musical an outside chance at Best Picture. Bradley Cooper came out of nowhere to have his best performance of his acting career in Silver Linings Playbook. Then the remaining two, Daniel Day Lewis and Joaquin Phoenix, are two of the most selective and devoted actors in Hollywood right now. The difference is that Daniel Day Lewis is one of the best ever at becoming his characters. He tranformed Abraham Lincoln into a living president with his role and would not be denied his 3rd Best Actor Academy Award. Since I am also a huge fan of both Jackman and Cooper, I can just hope that they can make it back to the short list of nominees. If they do it will be a treat for me.
The last award of the night always goes to Best Picture, and this year there were 9 nominees. I assumed the early favorites were Les Miserables and Lincoln, but then Argo started winning at every award show. In past years, 6 of these films could have taken home this award. I think Zero Dark Thirty was easily won of the best movies of the year, but the controversial topic likely kept the Academy for choosing it. Silver Linings Playbook might have lacked substance compared to the other nominees, but clearly made up for it with the best overall acted movie of the 9. Argo was one of the most entertaining movies I have seen in theaters, and in the end it seemed like the snub of Affleck from the Best Director gave Argo some momentum in Best Picture. I don't know how you choose between Argo, Lincoln, Les Mis, Zero Dark Thirty, Silver Linings Playbook, and Django Unchained. If you have the time I suggest you at least check out these 6 movies, and I would bet you wouldn't be disappointed.
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