2014 Oscars Recap

THE INCREDIBLE, I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S TRUE

The searing, hard-to-watch, but important, 12 Years a Slave actually wins.

Jared Leto’s acceptance speech mentions not only important acting things, but also Venezuela and Ukraine, the most political speech of the night. BRAVO!

All the tech awards that Gravity scooped up were because it truly went somewhere no other film had gone. Incredible stuff.

Lupita Nyong’o, dancing in the aisles with Pharell Williams. She was “Happy.”

THE FANTASTIC

Gravity walks away with the most awards, including Best Director

Her wins Best Original Screenplay for Spike Jonze

All the usual suspects don’t win Best Score this year

Idina Menzel still did an amazing job singing the winning Best Song, “Let It Go”

U2 on the Oscar stage. Wow.

Jared Leto. Wow. A brave, amazing performance as Rayon.

Matthew McConnaughy, who truly took all the Matthew McConnaughy-isms out of this performance.

Yale Drama School grad Lupita Nyong’o won’t be a name we soon forget

Catherine Martin winning both Production Design and Costume Design for the wondrous Great Gatsby

Fitz & the Tantrums’ “The Walker” becomes the hot Oscar song

THE GREAT

The Oscar selfie

Cate Blanchett, smoothly skirting all the Woody Allen hooha, thanks him and moves on

Sarah Jones, who died on set, was remembered with a title card

The set was luminous and ever-changing. Droplets of crystal to backgrounds of roses. Beautiful.

THE EXPECTED

Frozen wins Best Animated Feature

Ellen overall did a serviceable job of bringing the Oscars into the 21st Century. Not my fav, but no Letterman or McFarlane.

WTF???

John Travolta? WTF? Oh, sorry, I mean Jabel Testerle.

What was that thing with Ellen sitting side stage strumming a guitar? A nod to Inside Llewyn Davis?

Pizza? Um, seriously?

Kim Novak. Yes, love her, but WHAT?

LIZA MINELLI. I would’ve bet money when she walked onto the red carpet that it was a female impersonator. What’s up, Liza?

No reference anywhere to Alain Resnais, who died earlier in the day. A true film pioneer.

Also, it didn’t happen during the broadcast, but earlier in the pre-show, when Jimmy Kimmel is talking to Lara Spencer, and then jumps into some audience members’ living room (supposedly) to berate them for nasty Tweets. Very inappropriate and ill-advised. Those who Tweet are the lifeblood of TV’s dying corpse. And speaking of corpse, the two folks in the sketch are over 60. Most likely those Tweeting nasty stuff are much younger. Just a thought.