A Night at the Movies: Oscars 2013

The Oscars premiered Sunday revealing who the academy voted as the top in all things movies. Not only did  the Oscars announce the winners of the awards, they also featured glamorous award presenters, tributes, and song and dance numbers.

Seth Macfarlane, the comedian and creator of Family Guy and Ted is known for his crude and blunt jokes, took a swing at hosting the Oscars for the first time, but he toned down his personality. Despite not being a huge Seth Macfarlane fan, I enjoyed him as a host.

He began the show with a somewhat crude song titled ‘The Boob Song’,  he continued to sing classics bringing out guests like Daniel Radcliffe and Channing Tatum to perform classic songs and showy dance numbers which was entertaining;  as a first time host, he did well.

The night included tributes to 50 years of James Bond and musicals of the decade. The James Bond feature showed scenes of James Bond through the many decades of Bond films. The tribute was well done and showed off  an important American film icon of the last 50 years, but the more memorable spoof was of the musicals. Starting with a flashy song and dance number titled All That Jazz from Chicago the musical, the tribute continued to escalate when Jennifer Hudson came on stage to sing ‘And I’m Telling You’ from the movie Dreamgirls, her fantastic performance won her a stand ovation from the audience. The tribute contined when the cast from Les Miserables came on stage and sung a medley from the musical. Overall, the whole tribute was great and one of my favorite parts of the night.

The night continued to generate excitement as the audience was introduced to a few first of the Oscars. Starting with the adorable nine-year old  Quvenzhane Wallis became the youngest nominee, up for her role in Beasts of the Southern Wild. The night included another first, the first First Lady to present an award. Michelle Obama did a video presentation from the White House, in a beautiful ball gown that I would die to have.

Throughout the night actors, actresses, directors were put on the edge of their seats as the next presenters came out to announce the winner of an Oscar.

Some of the major categories results included:

Best Picture: Argo

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Daniel- Day Lewis ( Lincoln)

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Jennifer Lawrence( Silver Linings Play Book)

Best Director: Ang Lee ( Life of Pi)

Actress in a Supporting Role: Anne Hathaway  ( Les Miserables)

Actor in a Supporting Role: Christopher Waltz (Djengo Unchained)

I wasn’t too disappointed with the results, although I hoped the adorable Quvenzhane Wallis would win Best Actress, Jennifer Lawrence was deserving for her dramatic portrayal of a ‘crazy’ person in Silver Linings Play Book.

Overall the show went smoothly with a few exceptions, which is to be expected at an award show. The etiquette was in bad taste and near offensive, like the jaws music playing to cut off the Oscar recipients or the off color Lincoln jokes made by host Seth Macfarlene, and of course poor Jennifer Lawrence tripping up the stairs on the way to receive her award.

This year’s Oscars were amazing, not to mention this year in cinema. Between the glitzy song and dance numbers, the amazing people and movies nominated, and the surprisingly entertaining skits and tribute, the night was a success.