Now we all
know that Birdman raced ahead of Boyhood and took home Best Picture, and
The Grand Budapest Hotel made quite the sweep, let’s take a look back at Oscar
night and at what made everything awesome about it...
Photos courtesy: AMPAS
THE HOST
Neil Patrick Harris finds the best and
funniest way to round up the evening even before it ended, after he stripped
down to his underwear on stage and made clever references…
The whole
protected Oscar predictions routine that began with Neil Patrick Harris claiming
how good he is at predicting the winners kept us chuckling throughout, every time
he checked with Octavia Spencer who was to guard the locked box on one corner
of the stage. It seemed like just a continuing shtick, but just before the end
of the evening, he opened the box and revealed what was in it. The predictions were
not of the results but of the show itself. Highlighting the moments that made
us raise our eyebrows, like John Travolta touching Idina Menzel’s face, and
other funny bits, he kind of summed up the evening in the most original and
entertaining way possible.
Most people
did have a good feeling about Neil Patrick Harris hosting this year, and the promos
for the Oscars showed a lot of promise. But he actually exceeded expectations,
setting the tone and quality with his outstanding opening number, with the
shadow magic tricks, which he had given hints about. Harris was a good choice,
and I suspect they’ll bring him on to host again in a few years.
ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES
Eddie Redmayne, JK Simmons, Alejandro
G. Iñárritu and Graham Moore gave the best ones
Eddie
Redmayne winning best actor was one outcome of Oscar Night that everyone saw
coming. Yet, when the moment arrived, the bounce in his step and the excitement
on his face was unparalleled. The Oscar winner dedicated his win to “all of
those people around the world battling ALS,” and to the “one exceptional
family: Stephen, Jane, Jonathan and the Hawking children.” He went on to say
that he would be the statuette’s custodian, promising that he would “look after
[it]. I will polish him. I will answer his beck and call. I will wait on him
hand and foot,” he said, perhaps referring to the film itself.
Alejandro G
Iñárritu made an interesting point while accepting the Oscar for Best Picture
for Birdman, talking about immigrants
in the US, reminding everyone that America is in fact a country built by
immigrants. He said, “I want to dedicate this award for my fellow Mexicans. The
ones who live in Mexico, I pray that we can find and build the government that
we deserve,” and added, “And the ones that live in this country who are part of
the latest generation of immigrants in this country, I just pray that they can
be treated with the same dignity and respect of the ones who came before and
build this incredible immigrant nation.”
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| Alejandro G Iñárritu and the cast and crew of Birdman accept the Oscar for Best Picture |
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| Lady Gaga pays tribute to Julie Andrews and The Sound Of Music |
THE TRIBUTES
Lady Gaga goes sober and pays tribute
to Julie Andrews, and Jennifer Hudson belts out a beautiful number for the 'in memoriam' section
We’ve seen
Lady Gaga dressed in the most ridiculous things, including meat. Even on the
red carpet on Oscar Night, she was wearing what looked like red cleaning
gloves. But with Gaga, such outrageous accessories are not out of the ordinary
and now only make us smile. What was shocking was the simplicity of her
on-stage avatar when performing a tribute to the beloved musical The Sound Of Music, which released 50
years ago, and went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Singing some of the
best-known songs from the timeless film, she proved yet again that she’s as
much about the talent as she is about her theatrics. But the highlight of it
all was when the legend, Julie Andrews, herself came on stage at the end of the
performance and thanked Gaga for the wonderful tribute, as she reminisced about
making the film. The other exceptional tribute was Jennifer Hudson’s following
the ‘in memoriam’ slideshow. The talented Oscar winner performed a song from
the TV show SMASH.
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| Jennifer Hudson performing |
THE WINNERS
Most deserving wins in a long time
After a long
time, I felt that the most deserving candidates won in almost all categories at
the Oscars. I had identified my picks earlier, and most of them were the actual results as well. Birdman was a
superior movie and deserved its win for Best Picture and directing. Without a
doubt Eddie Redmayne and Julianne Moore deserved their best actor and actress
statuettes. JK Simmons had no competition in his category, and Patricia
Arquette, who was the best thing about Boyhood
rightfully turned out to be the one person from the film to have been awarded.
From the music, production design, costumes and make-up and hairstyling of The Grand Budapest Hotel to the film editing and sound mixing of Whiplash; from the sound editing in American Sniper to the visual effects in Interstellar—all got their due credit. I’m glad that The Imitation Game and The Theory Of Everything won at least one Oscar each in main categories. The only real upset was that How To Train Your Dragon 2 didn’t make best animated feature.
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| (Left to right) Oscars winners Patricia Arquette, Eddie Redmayne, Julianne Moore and JK Simmons |
From the music, production design, costumes and make-up and hairstyling of The Grand Budapest Hotel to the film editing and sound mixing of Whiplash; from the sound editing in American Sniper to the visual effects in Interstellar—all got their due credit. I’m glad that The Imitation Game and The Theory Of Everything won at least one Oscar each in main categories. The only real upset was that How To Train Your Dragon 2 didn’t make best animated feature.
I clearly thought it was a good show.
What did you think? Would you like to see Neil Patrick Harris back to host the
Oscars sometime soon?
