What’s funny about a grown man playing with sock puppets, singing about female nudity in movies and joking about abusive relationships? Not much. Oscar host Seth MacFarlane did just that and much more during the 2013 Academy Awards. Although there were some humorous moments during the show, MacFarlane crossed the line too many times to allow the broadcast to be family-friendly. While I wouldn’t have expected anything less from the creator of the similarly crude Family Guy, the Oscars generally have a certain prestige and level of classiness that was shattered by the unnecessary “humor” of the sub-par host.
MacFarlane aside, the Oscars were fairly lively and especially musical this year. Several nice surprises in the beginning included an elegant waltz by Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron to the classic “The Way You Look Tonight” and a musical number by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and now-Broadway star Daniel Radcliffe. Tributes to modern musicals featured Catherine Zeta-Jones singing “All That Jazz” from Chicago, a stunning rendition of “And I Am Telling You” from Dreamgirls by Jennifer Hudson and the well-anticipated performance by the cast of Les Misérables. I was worried that this particular performance would be awkward, but stars Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman pulled the mostly talented cast together to come out with a pleasing, slightly altered version of “One Day More.”
As far as the broadcast went as a whole, it could have been a lot worse. Acceptance speeches were fairly concise and interesting to watch, with only a few winners forced off by the menacing Jaws music. Stand-outs included Daniel Day-Lewis accepting his very well-deserved Best Actor award with the right balance of humor and graciousness that many can’t seem to master and Jennifer Lawrence, who tripped on her way up to accept her award for Best Actress but managed to recover and make a breathless, charming speech. The presenters were generally entertaining as well and most had funny jokes, but I expected more from Paul Rudd and Melissa McCarthy, whose dry bit about voice-overs was less than humorous.
The winners this year were not entirely surprising. Life of Pie and Argo snagged the most wins, but not in acting categories. Day-Lewis and Lawrence were shoe-ins for Best Actor and Actress for their roles in Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook, as was Hathaway for Best Supporting Actress. The very competitive Best Supporting Actor award went surprisingly, but justly, to Christoph Waltz for his role in Django Unchained — his second award in that category in just three years. Argo’s Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture wins were fair, but very typical of the Academy. I would have liked to see Django Unchained or Silver Linings Playbook win Best Picture, just to shake things up, but the Academy thrives on predictability. The past 12 months were an exceptional year for movies, but a host that was trying too hard to be controversial and predictable winners made the biggest night for movies somewhat drab.
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