There was a time
when I watched the Academy Awards to see how my favourite movies fared. These
days, I watch them to see what’s worth seeing after the fact. And to see who’s
wearing what, of course, and if the host can do better than Bob Hope, Billy
Crystal, or Steve Martin did in their time. Awards as rule mean little to me,
but the Oscars are an event. Even
when they suck, they’re still the Oscars.
Ellen DeGeneres
made them more fun, this year. Movies are magic and she has the right blend of humour
and wide-eyed wonder to let the starts shine in their designer best. Her face
in the “selfie that crashed Twitter” says it all: “Look, Ma! An ordinary kid in
the midst of a constellation!” Honestly, I loved it enough to post it and
copyright be hanged. I’d happily have Ellen host into the next millennium.
Alas, there were
no real surprises among the winners except for the original song. I was stunned
when Let it Go from “Frozen” beat out
U2 and Pharrell Williams. I was dancing to Happy
and bobbing to Ordinary Love, so was
floored when neither of them scored the little golden guy. I thought for sure
the political nod would go to U2 for their song (featured in “Mandela”), but “Frozen”,
I am told, is also political. It’s the first Disney animated pic where the
heroine is rescued not by the traditionally strong and handsome prince, but by
another girl (her sister)! Oops. Well, having being enlightened, the song still
left me cold.
Same for the
naysayers who question that the selfie and pizza segments were staged. Um,
these people are actors, folks.
Staged or not, their job is to make us believe it’s for real. So buy in and
enjoy, for Pete’s sake. Besides, if it was a staged promo, it failed because
I’m not running out to buy a Samsung iPhone. As a spontaneous show of fun,
however, they knocked it out of the park.
I love the
movies. I don’t go to them as much anymore—too many explosions and too little
story—but the cinema had a powerful influence on my budding creativity (not to
mention my hormones) when I was a teen. It can still inspire me to rend my
garments and wail, “I wish I’d written that!”
Hey, I’m only
52. I may yet write that Oscar-winning screenplay, perhaps adapted from my own
original work.
“I’d like to
thank God, my family, and the Academy …”
