Oscars 2013

A week ago we held our umpteenth Oscar Party; as ludicrous a prospect as it is to gather two dozen people together for the express purpose of watching largely unscripted television, there are near to a billion of us who do it, so we might as well do it in a sociable fashion, right?

It seems like everyone had a good time, and we spent more time being amused than being offended by rookie host Seth MacFarlane.  Rev. James, still the only man I know with a namesake beer, won the Oscar contest again with 18 out of a possible 22!  Bruce, Earl and Sylvia took honorable mentions, with the happy couple securing domestic happiness with a tie.  I did modestly well with 15 right, but was so busy marking ballots I didn't get to socialize very much, so that might need to get outsourced next year.

In terms of the telecast and the awards themselves, I have a few thoughts a week later.
Seth MacFarlane did a much better job as host than I thought he would, peppering his standard pop-culture referential schtick with some delightful song and dance numbers (not including the divisive ""We Saw Your Boobs", which I found pretty funny misogynistic complicated).  Yes, there was some edgy material in there, but if it's actually funny, I tend not to mind so much.  If the feelings of Hollywood's brightest get a little bruised in the process (I'm looking at you Chris Brown), I'm astonished at how easy I find that to live with.

Argo was a decent choice for Best Picture, and the first time since Driving Miss Daisy that a film has won that award without also being nominated for Best Director.  I was also relieved to see Ben Affleck throw a shout out to Canada in general as well as John Sheardown in particular.

Daniel Day Lewis' speech for Best Actor was tremendously funny and irreverent; more actors should follow this lead.  Speeches in general this year seemed to be a bit less of the laundry list of thank yous variety, and I was saddened when the recipients who were trying to draw attention to the financial plight of the visual effects industry got played off.

Shriley Bassey's perfomance of Goldfinger started out a little shaky, but ended up being one of the night's biggest highlights for me.  It was cool enough when she sang "History Repeating"  for the Propellorheads back in 1997, but hitting the stage in front of a billion people at age 76? LEGENDARY.

There is no empirical way to state that Christoph Walz's performance in Django Unchained was the year's best, but it was certainly a great one, and definitely my favourite even amongst strong showings I enjoyed by both Alan Arkin and Tommy Lee Jones.  The real winners this year were the audiences.