Monday, 3 March 2014

Who is Adelle Nazeem & other post-Oscar thoughts


    

The Oscars have left us for another year. Last night was extremely predictable, but lots of fun and I had a great time staying up for it even though it did mean going to bed at 5am.

- I predicted 18 of the 24 winners correctly, and of the six I got wrong four were my alternate choices for the winner so I think I did pretty well. The predictability of it all worked in my favour.
- Gravity rightly swept up all of the technical awards, and it was great to see Alfonso Cuar ón get Best Director.
- Steve McQueen's excitement and jumping around was adorable, it's great to see the winners show genuine surprise//appreciation when they get acknowledged.
- Lupita winning was the best, I'm so happy for her and she was as wonderfully gracious and beautiful as expected. Her dress was also gorgeous.
- Right up until the last moment I was terrified it was going to be Jennifer Lawrence's, so I let out a pretty big squeal when Lupita's name got called.

- Ellen was hilarious. She maybe wasn't as great as I was hoping for but she was still excellent and provided so many great moments. The way she got everyone in the audience involved and her banter with so many of the stars was tons of fun.
- Getting pizza for everybody and that instantly infamous selfie were huge highlights. Apparently she broke twitter with that, but mine carried on fine. What a way for Meryl Streep to lose her twitter virginity.

- The man candy collection was incredible, with presenters including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Chris Hemsworth, Zac Efron, Channing Tatum and Chris Evans.
- I was surprised at how many of the presenters stuffed up their lines actually, and only Charlize Theron managed to work the falter very well, she was cute as hell.
- I'm also not sure why exactly Will Smith, who was in one of the worst films of 2013, got to announce the film that won Best Film. I think it'd be nice if they did something similar to the acting presenters in having the previous years winner hand over the award.
- And then this happened….

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- SERIOUSLY!? This man just needs to stop. How can you stuff up the one tiny job that you have to do. It's not even like Idina Menzel is that hard to say, but if you know you have to introduce somebody you'd practice even if their name was John Smith.
- It did lead to a great slurry of tweets from celebrities though trying to decode what the hell Travolta actually said, I think the general consensus landed on Adelle Nazeem. 

- Thankfully Menzel killed it singing Let It Go. 
- Seeing all of the Best Original Song nominees performing made the snub of Lana Del Rey hurt all the more. I still stand firm that that award was hers. 
- P!nk also amazed me performing Somewhere Over The Rainbow. She was an unusual choice for sure but she was great. 

- My biggest surprise of the night was Spike Jonze getting the award for Original Screenplay. The only other awards show I managed to watch this season was the Bafta's so I was all prepared for the insufferable David O. Russel getting the statue.
- Her was my favourite nominee so it was great to see it getting some love. I didn't think it had a chance of getting anything so I was very pleasantly surprised. 

I'd like to finish off this post by addressing the greatest, most perfect-wonderful-magnificent  achievement of the night. The Academy didn't give a single fucking thing to American Hustle, and I love love love them for it. Suck it O. Russell!

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7 comments :

  1. Travolta's mistake was so funny - apparently he is dyslexic but who cares, the man should have rehearsed announcing someone during the Oscars, it's unacceptable he saw her name for the first time when announcing it

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    1. I did hear about the lack of rehearsals and if he is dyslexic that would make sense, but surely he knew who he was introducing beforehand even if he didn't know how the intro would be phrased.

      It did make for some really funny twitter/tumblr posts so it had some benefit I guess. I doubt he'll be back to present anything anytime soon though.

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  2. Fun post. I was glad Gravity cleaned up although I really wanted it to be top prize. Definitely an unsurprising night.

    Completely agree with you about Lana Del Rey...that song added so much to Gatsby.

    Also was a bit surprised by Will Smith presenting, but oh well.

    Why do you hate O. Russell so much? Just curious

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    1. Thanks! I think it was a nice compromise for Gravity to get Director and 12YaS to get Picture, seems like the best way for both to get equal honours.

      Lana's snub really got to me, I'm glad you agree too!

      The O. Russell hate is a disliking that got blown out of proportion during this awards season. I just find him really smug and self-important, particularly when he's receiving praise. I think he's someone who really buys into all of the hype surrounding himself, when he's really not impressed me all that much personally.
      American Hustle as a whole left me disappointed and I feel it's completely undeserving of all the awards and praise it gets. For me it brought out the popularity contest aspect of the awards more than any other film and I enjoyed seeing more deserving films get awarded instead.

      Rant over! aha, I guess it's one of those personal qualms with a person that is hard to eloquently express without just spewing hate. Does that make sense?

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    2. Yeah totally. I have a few in Hollywood like that. There is just something about them that just drives you mad.

      Great read though!

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  3. I really really liked American Hustle. But I have no idea why it was nominated for anything. (Except Amy Adams who is always perfect). It was not an award worthy film and I don't understand why it was nominated for so much at both the Oscars and the BAFTAs. I know I am in the minority here as everyone else thought it was way too long and trying to be too cool but I laughed from start to finish and found it really involving all the way through. Yet, it has been wrongly put up there with the likes of Her, 12 Years, Gravity and Philomena. It seems to be getting more hate because it's been nominated for so much (wrongly) so I feel slight bad for it. If you know what I meean....I don't know...I'm confusing myself now. Ellen was a bit disappointing for me. It felt more like the globes. A very predictable ceremony that was enhanced by hilarious mishaps like Travolta's! Great piece!

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    1. I do understand what you mean, totally! I think my disliking of it was definitely heightened by all of these wrongful nominations. It just had no place amongst all of those other great nominees. I'm so glad Her beat it for original screenplay though cos I really did think it would get that one. It was definitely the most divisive nominee as far as I'm aware.

      That's sad that you found Ellen disappointing, I know she could have been a lot better but I still really enjoyed her and the running skits that she had. I hope they try and bring in the celebrity audience as much in future shows because it's nice to see all of these stars goofing around and having fun.

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