Oscar Review

So I See You Got Jokes

“Boom, roasted!” That’s what every dis Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin delivered about various Oscar nominated actors & actresses should have ended with at the 82^nd annual Oscar Awards. The night began with a little bit of a show tune type opening performed by Neal Patrick Harris, which may have jogged memories of Hugh Jackman performing various numbers at last year’s Oscars. Following Harris’ Broadway-esc number, making references to various nominated movies, the dynamic comedian duo hosts, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, descended from the ceiling hand-in-hand ready to start the hosting shenanigans.

Baldwin and Martin began the night with roasting many different actors and actresses, making many jokes about their recent co-star and Oscar nominee Meryl Streep and jokes that only actors/actresses truly understood, not having home viewers in mind. And there seemed to be some inside joking of a stair down going on between the two playful hosts and George Clooney. At one point in their monologue they ragged on James Cameron and pulled out their 3-D glasses swatting away at the floating, white seeds of the linking tree, as seen on ‘Avatar’. A visual effect that could be seen on the TV screen, keeping home viewers in mind but perhaps not the audience in the Kodak Theatre.

After the hosts were done burning people, the ceremony really commenced with the only award that ‘Inglorious Bastards’ walked away with for Actor in a supporting role played and received by Christoph Waltz beating out actors such as Matt Damon up for his role in ‘Invictus’ and Christopher Plummer for ‘The Last Station’. Opposite of ‘Inglorious Bastards’, ‘Hurt Locker’ went away with the most awards, six to be exact. ‘Hurt Locker’ took home big categories such as Best Original Screenplay, Sound editing and mixing, film editing and two really big ones: Best Directed Film awarded to Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to receive that award, and Best Picture. It was evident during Bigelow’s acceptance speech she was grateful and honored but scared shitless to talk in front of that crowd as her body shook and tensed up in anxiety.

‘Avatar’ went home with three awards: Best visual effects, cinematography and art direction. Although James Cameron’s hard directing work was beat out by Bigelow, at least it was recognized in some way. Comedian/Talk-show host/sitcom actress Mo’Nique can finally call herself a serious, academy award winning actress as she went home with the award of Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her acting in ‘Precious’, being one of the two awards ‘Precious’ received. The night may have begun with playful banter but it continued on with words of praise being thrown from every angle. A beautiful memoriam clip was shown to remember actors and actresses that had past this past year and a montage of numerous films honoring the late director of many great films of the 80s, John Hughes, followed by words of appreciation by members of the Brat Pack and other actors.

All the individual nominees for Actor and Actress in a Leading role were admired by other actors who had had the privilege to work with the nominees at some point in their lives. Jeff Bridges took home Best Actor in a leading role in ‘Crazy Heart’, thanking his parents for turning him onto such a “groovy profession”. Sandra Bullock took home Best Actress in a leading role for her job in ‘The Blind Side’, admiring moms all over the world, her family and praising all of her fellow nominees and being another source of comedy relief in ending her speech with “I thank you so much for this opportunity that I share with these extraordinary women and my lover Meryl Streep”, Streep being who Bullock called a “good kisser” referring back to when Bullock planted a big one on Streep at the Critic’s Choice Awards.

Although the 82^nd Annual Oscar Awards started out with some burns here and there, the overall mood of the ceremony was honor and admiration. Actors and actresses, young and old, experienced and inexperienced came together for one night to acknowledge the hard work their fellow thespians put forth to entertain people and keep them coming back for more.