The Oscars!!!

It's 2:44 in the morning right now. I had to work tonight and did my best to avoid all Oscar spoilers while passing pills. I was only partially successful as several residents were watching the Academy Awards and I couldn't very well tell them to turn it off just so I wouldn't learn the terribly exciting identity of the Sound Editing winners. I had the very bad luck of always walking into a room at the exact moment someone won - never during a musical performance or staged bit. But I remained ignorant of all the big winners until I got home, slogged through 3 hours of red carpet coverage on E! (I'm so sick of watching the hosts kiss each other's asses - just show the dresses, please!) and have finally concluded the Academy Awards. I even took notes! (For a complete list of winners go here.)



The Fashion:

There was a lot of black (or dark green, gray and navy) on the red carpet tonight. Most of it was lovely, but rather uninspiring. If you have ever taken a look at my closet, or my bedroom, you know I live for color. But there was no yellow, no orange, very little red, very little light blue, no purple. I'm kind of disappointed. The other "trend" this year seems to be metallic dresses. I love this in theory, but I don't think it works well in such great quantity. The awesome thing about Taylor Swift's Grammy dress was that it was a metallic chain material that stood out compared with others. When half the red carpet is wearing a similar material, it kind of loses it's unique appeal. That said, here are my picks for best and worst of the night:

BEST: Obvious and played out, but Angelina Jolie. Yes, I just complained about the metallics trend, but damn does it work for her.  

Runner-Up: Lupita Nyong'o. Also the obvious choice, but the color is divine with her skin. Not really a big fan of the headband though.

Also loved Jared Leto's hair, classic white jacket and crimson bowtie.

WORST:  Pharrell Williams. I have accepted his obsession with the Dudley Do-Right hat, but formal tuxedo shorts are just a huge no-no.

Best Moment: Lupita Nyong'o wins Best Supporting Actress. Yes, she was pretty much the favorite. But she must have been braced for a Jennifer Lawrence upset because she just very honestly fell apart the moment they said her name. And I love that she hugged so many people before she made it to the stage; people usually feel so overwhelmed and rushed that they head straight up. I like that she took her time. And I love all the emotionally feels. Also, everyone seriously loves that girl. Possibly more than they ever loved Jennifer Lawrence. Lupita got a standing ovation!

Runner-Up: Pharrell turns the Oscar stage into the Grammys with his performance of "Happy," and gets Lupita Nyong'o, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams to shimmy with him.

Best Speech: Surprisingly, Matthew McConaughey. Sure, Wooderson reference, possibly incredibly rehearsed, but felt off the cuff and intelligent and that was the first speech I've seen from him where he got really emotional talking about his family. (And props to Jared Leto for coming off far less douchey than in previous speeches. He was the only person to specifically mention the rioting in Ukraine and Venezuela right now either. Not sure if that makes him more of less of a douche. Playing to the crowd to garner adoration or honestly trouble by world events? You decide.)


Craziest Bit: Ellen ordering pizza. Initially kinda stupid, but amusing as Ellen asks lots of famous people if they're in for pizza. But then there actually is pizza and the sight of Brad Pitt handing out paper plates to Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts was hilarious. Also, Ellen collecting a couple hundred from Harvey Weinstein and stealing Lupita Nyong'o's lip gloss.


Worst Moment: Kim Novak presenting animated short and feature. Was she supposed to sound so crazy? Was that part of the script? Or can she not read a telepromter or a room? Extra props to Matthew McConaughey, her co-presenter, for handling that so well. I felt like I was at work and watching him suavely handle a senile resident.


Celeb MVP: Kevin Spacey. Jumped on to every random Ellen bit, which could be rather try-hard, but seemed really casual and cool doing it. Also, came out to present talking in his "House of Cards" character's accent. Double cool points. He was just so comfortable everywhere he went and with everything he said. And awesome suit. (Actually, there were a lot of cool, different suits on the red carpet - the men were more interesting than the women, in my opinion.)

Biggest Shock: There were no shocks. No shocks. Everything went straight down the line from acting awards, to Gravity cleaning up the technical awards, to 12 Years a Slave taking Best Picture (Brad Pitt finally has an Oscar!). Maybe that Dallas Buyers Club makeup beat Bad Grandpa? But ever since that article where the makeup people talked about their literal $20 budget for makeup on Dallas Buyers Club, their chances seemed dramatically improved.



Overall:  Alfonso Cuaron sure seems like a swell guy, only a couple crazy presenters, at least the random montages had a theme ("Heroes") even if they were totally unnecessary. As usual, too long given that the speeches were short, and so many presenters flubbed words from the teleprompter (John Travolta the prime example, introducing singer Idina Menzel as "Adele Dazeem" which is now trending on Twitter). And big props to the graphics designers for the Oscars; really cool, inventive graphics for all the categories and nominees, especially the Best Picture titles.