Random Oscar Observations

The Red Carpet

Diane Kruger looked absolutely stunning last night. I could see how her dress might divide some people, but I thought it was one of the few bold, memorable dresses on the red carpet. The only other ladies who I thought really hit the mark were Anna Kendrick, Meryl Streep, and Rachel McAdams.

I still can’t decide if I like Vera Farmiga’s anemone dress or not. And Demi Moore looked nice in a scary, skinny, never-aging kind of way.

The honour of worst dressed goes to the top half of Miley Cyrus (weird fit in the bodice, and for God’s sake, stand up straight!), the bottom half of Zoe Saldana, and J-Lo for her crazy quilt blob of a dress.

• All of the guys start to look the same in a sea of tuxes, but some of the especially dashing men of the night included Ryan Reynolds, Colin Firth, Jeremy Renner, and Tom Ford.

 

The Show

• Why hasn’t Ben Stiller hosted yet? Between last year’s hilarious (though slightly tasteless) Joaquin Phoenix impression and last night’s Avatar spoof, I think he’s provided the top two moments of the past two Oscars. Stiller ’11!

• I was expecting rimshots to accompany half of Baldwin and Martin’s jokes. They were passable (especially Martin), but not a single joke in their entire monologue felt fresh. Though I did like the Paranormal Activity spoof, and the shot of the two of them backstage in a Snuggie built for two.
• I loved the John Hughes tribute until they marched out a bunch of where-are-they-now Hughes alums to awkwardly talk about their experiences working with him. That part of the tribute was more notable for making me ask “Is that Anthony Michael Hall?” and “What happened to Judd Nelson?” than anything else.
• Since when is Twilight a horror movie?
• James Cameron was clearly trying very hard to not look like a douchebag, and only marginally succeeding. Elizabeth Banks better watch her back after that Cameron crack.
• Boredom set in around the two-hour mark, and that didn’t change until the major awards started getting handed out. And I was already getting sick of the Best Picture presentations by the time the second one came along.
• I loved the way that they handed out the Best Actor and Best Actress awards. Having people that the actors actually KNOW was so much better than randomly assigning awkward past winners, like they did last year. I loved seeing Michael Sheen and Peter Sarsgaard up on the Oscar stage (now they need to finally get some recognition for their own acting!) Stanley Tucci’s presentation to Meryl Streep was hilarious, as was Colin Farrell’s typically wily Jeremy Renner tribute. I also thought that Julianne Moore gave a lovely speech to Colin Firth, which only cements his status as the one of the most likeable guys in Hollywood (in my eyes, at least)
• Though their wins were anticlimactic, Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges both gave great speeches. The each had the perfect mix of sincerity, humour, self-deprecation, and humbleness.
• The three Hurt Locker guys (Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty) were too cute excitedly swaying on the platform behind Kathryn Bigelow and The Hurt Locker producers on stage after the film won Best Picture.

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