Well, I do not really understand the urging necessity of some human beings to keep a criticising attitude towards everything. I mean, I am critical as well, but with things as movies, I understand that the main purpose of a movie is to entertain. My prior statement goes along with the reactions shown about some of the movies that were nominated for the Academy Awards this time. We all know movie industry depends on a lot of things and interests far beyond the mere art of filming. We do know that for sure. Even so, we are
able to see them honouring most of the best movies done by the mainstream industry. So why the surprise?
Let's take for example "Les Misérables". I have read several comments against the movie, based on the average singing performance of the actors involved when compared with the stage representations. Well, I have news for you. Stage representations are done wherever else, from Broadway to Mexico City, from West End to Auckland. Even in the border town I grew up in is planning to do one soon. And obviously, you might find more gifted Fantines than Anne Hathaway or way more skilled performers than Russell Crowe. But let me tell you something. I would pay for watching a movie with recent Catwoman singing about her cruel and painful life, sacrificing her hair, or the only one Gladiator attempting to sing stage-like or hunk Wolverine showing why he is one of the most perfect men in this world. I would not care about the best singer of West End or Broadway, I'm not a musical comedy expert. And the ugly truth is that most of the moviegoers are not. If they were, we would have more stage than movie theatres. You have to make ends meet. It's a matter of business and money. And I really enjoyed seeing all the ensemble cast singing an arrangement of "One Day More" special for the night, since in the movie Fantine does not take part on it (she is supposed to be dead by then).
Let's talk about "Argo". I got into a silly discussion with a Twitter random guy (silly, since I just kept saying "Peace out") but the thing is that for every historic event, there will be three sides of the story: our side, their side and how it really happened. You should choose to see the content rather than the form. It would be sort of distracting the issue that political interests got involved (even more if the First Lady presented the award!) but what I find fascinating is how something as vain and superflous as movie industry can be deemed can serve a higher purpose: saving human lives. And at the end of the day, I reckon most of the nominated movies caused some stirs regarding their central topic: Lincoln about the abolition of slavery, Django about the Tarantino-violence and portrayal of slavery, Silver Linings Playbook about a unrealistic scheme about bipolar disorder (Note: only one reviewer said so, the one from The New Yorker), Zero Dark Thirty about supporting torture. Anyway, I enjoyed seeing Ben Affleck receiving his Best Picture award. He really made a great work. If you watch Argo and notice you feel like watching a 70s movie for the quality of the film, not only due to the way the people are dressed, it is because he cut in half the film and give it some special treatment to make it look like the material used back then. And even when you can google and find out about the storyline, and you might know in advance how it is going to end, the whole movie your attention is caught by the movie and you are at the edge of your seat.
Let's move into more mundane stuff since for the previous ones, everybody will have their piece of opinion. One interesting fact about the two actresses that got an Oscar home. It is not widely known that Anne Hathaway was originally cast for the role of Tiffany in "Silver Linings Playbook" (the one that gave Jennifer Lawrence her first Oscar for Actress in a Leading Role). However, scheduling issues with The Dark Knight Rises made her to decline the role, so David O. Russell looked for another actress. After taking several famous comedy actresses into consideration (even *ergh* Angelina Jolie) for auditioning, he reluctantly accepted to give Jennifer Lawrence an audition (he thought she was too young) but after an audition via Skype he found her perfect for the role. And now you see it paid back for both.
I liked the irreverent hosting by Seth MacFarlane. Several of his jokes caused more than one "gasp" by the audience, but other than that the guy was cool. Other notable performances were obviously the songs, where Adele had a lukewarm reception by the audience, opposite what they did with Jennifer Hudson (maybe the effect of being "close to home" aside her stunning performance were important here, but nevermind, Adele's got it all!).
Being more frivolous, I loved Jennifer Aniston's dress, and how Charlize Theron can rock a pixie haircut. And she surely can dance. It was a funny ceremony. Call me frivolous and vain, I don't care. Quoting Tarantino, "PEACE OUT!"
