Post Oscar Follow Up : I Did Ok, How Did You Do ?

Ok, so here I am again gloating. I got 6 of the 8 categories correct, not as good as last years 7 of 8 but not too bad. I thought I was in some deep shit when Waltz won Supporting Actor because no one, I mean no one, picked him to win. It was suppose to be between DeNiro and Tommy Lee Jones. So that little surprise set me up early for some shockers that, to be honest, never materialized. Looking back, I think Tarantino winning for Original Screenplay was something I had overlooked. I didn't take into account how much the Academy feared a win for Mark Boal. For his acceptance speech could have been a real lollapalooza about political suppression and smear campaigns that Oscar didn't want to deal with. Has Hollywood and more specifically the Academy of Arts & Sciences gotten that gutless? Remember these moments :

 And poignant moments like this :

 The only Oscar Cary Grant, above, would ever get, four years after he made his last film

Charlie Chaplin, above, receives a Lifetime Achievement  Oscar twenty years after being exiled from America for being an "undesirable" Communist sympathizer. This closed the Oscar show in 1972.

 Stanley Donen, above, giving one of the best acceptance speeches ever for his Lifetime award.

I remember when I saw these events as they happened and every year I tune in to the Oscars hoping there will be a memorable moment like these. But I gotta tell you, the last ten years or so have been pretty bland. And the fact that the Academy has regulated the special Lifetime Achievement, Jean Hersholt Humanitarian and Irving Thalberg Award to a separate time and place and then show just bits from that ceremony, robs the Oscars of it's heart, it's history and, yes, it's sentimentality. My first thought when Jennifer Lawrence got stuck on her dress and fell was " OMG poor thing ".  I also immediately after that said to myself, "yes!  Awesome". Because something unscripted happened and it was something memorable, however humiliating for her { I'm sure she is over it by now }. 

JLaw's "oh shit!" moment.

As for the show and it's entertainment value, I kind of liked it. Yes it ran too long, the musical tributes were bogus {if one is going to honor musicals in movies why limit it to the past ten years? And who gives a shit about a Chicago cast reunion, like it's some kind of West Side Story or Sound of Music reunion?} But I liked Seth MacFarlane, thought his jokes were generally funny and in bad taste {if you're funny, taste goes out the window} and after the first fifteen minutes or so, it's all awards and little humor anyway. 

I'd like nominate, on second thought declare, Quentin Tarantino the winner as "Worst Dressed Male", the dude may be able to write some snappy dialogue but he needs a fashion guru. But I didn't watch the red carpet nonsense cuz I don't care who anyone is wearing. I'm over with all the ladies dressing up like it's prom night at the local high school. It's plain boring and no one really cares if you wear Valentino or Versace or whoever. The "interviews" are lame as well. I say, do away with the red carpet altogether.

So, as far as Oscar is concerned, that's all from Tinseltown this year. Only the Tinsel is wearing a bit thin. Maybe next year will give us all some real surprises.