X1. Best Picture: Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
X2. Best Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman
X3. Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
✓4. Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
✓5. Best Supporting Actor: JK Simmons, Whiplash
✓6. Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
X7. Best Original Screenplay: Birdman
✓8. Best Adapted Screenplay: The Imitation Game
✓9. Best Animated Feature: Big Hero Six
✓10. Best Foreign Film: Ida
✓11. Best Cinematography: Birdman
✓12: Best Costume Design: Grand Budapest Hotel
✓13. Best Documentary Feature: CitizenFour
✓14. Best Documentary Short: Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
X15. Best Film Editing: Whiplash
✓16. Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Grand Budapest Hotel
X17. Best Musical Score: The Grand Budapest Hotel
✓18. Best Original Song: “Glory”, Selma
✓19. Best Production Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
X20. Best Animated Short: Feast
✓21: Best Live Action Short: The Phone Call
✓22: Best Sound Editing: American Sniper
X23: Best Sound Mixing: Whiplash
X24: Best Visual Effects: Interstellar
Why not write about the Oscar results 11 days after the fact?
In my defense, 15/24 (or .625) is a pretty decent batting average, although whiffing on 3 of the big 6 (Picture, Actor, Director) is damning with faint praise or some such axiom (I also got went 3 for 4 on the super obscures (Shorts and Documentaries) which means…something). Even worse, I laid out the exact reasons why Birdman would win Best Picture and Eddie Redmayne would win actor and I still talked myself out of it (don’t read Entertainment Weekly BEFORE you make your predictions). Redmayne is so obvious in particular – a handicapped, real-life British person who has the approval of the person he is playing! – it’s head-smacking that I believed Michael Keaton playing essentially himself could win.
Also of note, if I very nearly picked Interstellar for Best Visual Effects and talked myself out of that too after I kept reading that this was the year Andy Serkis and the tennis ball outfits finally got their due (they did not).
I covered the reasons why Birdman could win previously so I won’t belabor the point too much, but I think the key factors were Boyhood peaking too soon and the relatability of voters to the subject matter. It is fairly interesting that the more sentimental, traditional choices like Imitation Game did not win, nor did the financially successful American Sniper. Are the Oscars moving into appreciating ever more artful films? They certainly have not cared about commercial success for many years but few movies as really experimental as Birdman have ever won (Although 2011 winner The Artist had a similar gimmicky style and Hollywood relatability). During the ceremony, I really began to question my decision to go with Boyhood at about the moment Birdman won best Original Screenplay (or maybe when Boyhood lost Best Editing). At that point, the fix was clearly in and momentum was on Birdman’s side.
I really have no problem with Birdman winning and as my countdown shows, I would have voted for it before Boyhood. I do think Linklater was robbed from Best Director, in the sense he devoted 12 YEARS of his life to that movie, regardless of result. But Iñárritu did good work with Birdman.
Other Notes:
In the Best Score category, winner Alexandre Desplat pulled off the rare feat of being better than himself. Desplat was nominated twice, for Grand Budapest Hotel (for which he won) and also The Imitation Game. Everyone, including myself, assumed he’d split his own vote against himself, but that was a foolish prediction since clearly most voters look at the movie name when voting and not the name of the composer.
I have no trouble with “Glory” winning Best Song, but following its performance on the show, when everyone stood and applauded and Oprah Winfrey had to wipe away David Oyelowo’s tears, it would have been hilarious if “Everything is Awesome” then took the trophy.
Deep thinker’s moment: While John Legend gave a stirring speech about the continued fight for racial equality, I tried to determine how close he was to an EGOT.
As for the show itself, I felt much of it was kind of a letdown. Neil Patrick Harris, who I was very excited to see host, seemed to err too much on the side of caution instead of trying for riskier jokes like Seth MacFarlane’s unfortunate tryout a couple of years back. Ellen DeGeneres seemed to walk the line better last year. Harris’s magic trick climax was too high concept for the night and suffered from the punchline of the jokes on the card being mostly unfunny or too obtuse (although Travolta DID touch Menzel’s face quite a bit).
And that closes the envelope (see what I did there?) on the 2014 Oscar season. I’m planning to get back to the historical winners next weekend with 1961’s West Side Story. Only 50 movies to go!
Operation: Oscar 