The 89th Annual Academy Awards

The 89th Annual Academy Awards

The 89^th Annual Academy Awards

Lisa’s Oscar Commentary

La La Landslide?  Oops.  Nope.  In case you fell asleep early expecting La La Land to continue racking up awards and win the final award of the night, Best Picture, you would have been right….at least for a couple of minutes.  And then, you would have been, um, mistaken.  In a historic Oscar moment, a blunder happened at the end of the show that would leave the live audience and viewing audience completely stunned.  You may have thought Warren Beatty is getting old and acting a little odd, but his odd behavior was for good reason.  As he explained, when he opened the envelope for Best Picture, he had the card for Best Actress that said “Emma Stone, La La Land.”  He didn’t know what to do and showed the card to Faye Dunaway who only glanced at the card and saw “La La Land” so that’s what she announced.  After several acceptance speeches by the producers of La La Land, the real envelope was delivered and the winner was not “La La Land,” but the surprise winner “Moonlight.”  Everyone seemed to handle it graciously.  Host Jimmy Kimmel blamed himself, and Steve Harvey, but the producers of “Moonlight” got to enjoy their moment even more stunned than if they had been announced as the winner in a normal fashion.  A lot of people seemed thrilled.  Although there were a lot of great achievements in La La Land, many believed it was not the best picture of 2016.  The year was one of the best years in film the industry has seen in several years.  Several films could have taken home the Oscar and all would have seemed worthy.  Hidden Figures, Lion, Manchester by the Sea all had outstanding performances, writing and direction…all contenders.  But “Moonlight,” a poignant story from boyhood to manhood that insightfully touches on race, culture, sexual identity, and criminal justice.  The film is a powerful portrayal of issues that resonate strongly in the current social and political climate.  Hopefully, more people will see “Moonlight” as a result.

With the exception of the Best Picture award, no other award was a surprise for anyone following the award season.  Viola Davis gave a more impassioned version of the acceptance speech she’s been giving all season, as did Emma Stone.  Casey Affleck seemed genuinely surprised to win the Best Actor award even though Denzel Washington seemed confident that Casey would win.  Mahershala Ali was a favorite all awards season for Best Supporting Actor, and like many previous supporting actress winners seems to be the darling of the awards season – we’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the next few years.

JustinTimberlake opened the show with a fabulous song and dance of his nominated song “Can’t Stop the Feeling” from “Trolls” – such a perfect way to start the show, why haven’t they done that before?  The host doesn’t need to sing and dance.  The host doesn’t even need to open the show.  The host just has to be funny, stay engaging, and poke fun at himself, Hollywood, and the easiest target of all, our country’s 45^th president.  And that’s exactly what Jimmy Kimmel did.  As he said, he received a “sitting ovation” and the audience laughed and kept on laughing.  He hit some easy targets – like the president’s insane twitter rants, particularly about the legendary “undeserving and overrated” Meryl Streep.  Jimmy also took a play right out of Ellen Degeneres’ playbook – get down off the stage and interact with the audience.  Where Ellen’s ordering pizza and taking a group selfie broke the Internet, Jimmy dropped candy and donuts from the rafters (the most some of those actresses have eaten in a month) and brought in a tour bus of unsuspecting tourists who may have thought they were at Madame Tussauds.

Highlights of the show included the musical performances of Sting, John Legend and the 16 year old actress from Moana, Auli’I Cravalho, the mean tweets about the nominees, and 8 year old Sunny Pawar, the star of Lion who should have won Best Actor.

Oddly, this year, people seemed to be looking forward to the In Memoriam portion of the show.  So many exceptional artists died in 2016 that people wanted to make sure they were not forgotten at this year’s awards.  Mary Tyler Moor, Gene Wilder, Patty Duke, Michael Cimino, Ken Howard, John Hurt, Garry Marshall, Prince, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Nancy Reagan, and more.  A rough year.

The red carpet was somewhat less surprising than the Best Picture, but more captivating than many of the speeches.  The trends on the carpet were velvet, long sleeves, asymmetrical and shorter lengths, sheer fabrics, beads and appliques, and tousled bobs. 

Ruth Negga, Isabelle Hubert, Chrissy Tiegen, Jessica Biel, Dakota Johnson, Amy Adams, and Meryl Streep all wore long sleeves.  For most, the look worked.  Isabelle, Amy and Chrissy all looked draped in flowing silk shimmering in delicate beading from head to toe.  Jessica Biel chose a body hugging gold Kaufmanfranco long dress with a train and a gold-feathered statement necklace from Tiffany.  Jessica’s body could rock any dress, but with long sleeves and high neck, the necklace and train were overkill.  Ruth Negga also missed the target in a long Valentino lace gown with sheer accents, high neck and Victorian sleeves.  Though the dress was a great color and captured a lot of the fashion trends, the overall look was too costumey and overpowering on her slight frame.  But she was not the worst….

Felicity Jones wore a chiffon and tulle ballerina dress that was on trend in the shorter length, the lack of color completely washed her out.  Kirsten Dunst looked stunning in a black, asymmetrical length dress, shorter in the front that beautifully accentuated her tiny waist and ample bosom.  Alicia Vikander was also a vision in romantic black lace with an asymmetrical hemline – the dress was just a tad too short in the front and tapered into a long train in the back.  Her criss-cross strappy shoes pulled the whole look together perfectly.  Naomi Harris, on the other hand, didn’t quite get it right.  Her white sequined dress appeared sporty from a distance with a swimsuit styled bodice and the short, mid-calf length in the front. 

Hayley Steinfeld and Scarlett Johansson embraced the sheer trend.  Hayley’s was romantic and tasteful with appliques in sufficient places, while ScarJo looked more like Rainbow Bright.  The dress was just too much – too many colors, too sheer, the sides seemed to not connect and revealed a short slip under a long dress that always looks strange.  Her funky short hair looked chic and her makeup was beautiful but she would have looked better in a tuxedo like Evan Rachel Wood wore all award season.

Taraji P. Henson rocked an Alberta Ferretti black velvet off the shoulder gown with a high slit.  This dress might appear simple, but when Taraji wears it to perfection, and it’s styled with a diamond statement necklace, emerald cocktail ring, and tousled bobbed hair, she’s tough to beat.  Her look will probably produce the most knock-off dresses of the night.  Other Best Dressed nominees were Michelle Williams in Louis Vuitton – the plunge halter in black with the eggshell beaded long skirt suited her pixie hair to perfection.  This dress will also be one we will see on the knock-off racks (in fact, Emma Roberts wore something similar, but not quite as on trend).  Nicole Kidman rarely disappoints; this year was no exception.  She wore Armani Prive nude, Indian inspired sheath with beaded appliques, styled to perfection with drop earrings and red lipstick.

Two other red carpet stunners who never disappoint – Charlize Theron and Halle Berry.  Charlize slayed in a pewter Dior gown with a plunge neckline and full skirt while Halle stunned in a body hugging one-shoulder Versace.  But no fashion commentary would be complete without a comment about Halle’s hair.  We are all used to seeing her in short haircuts (like ScarJo and Charlize) so the departure itself was shocking.  Halle could look amazing in curls and big hair but this hair looked like a wig she picked it up in the Halloween store.  It sat so high on her head, it looked like you could pull it off her head with two fingers.  The color was terribly unnatural and wrong for her gorgeous skin tone.  It’s hard for anyone as beautiful as Halle to look bad, so I can’t say she looked bad because the dress was stunning and her skin glowed…but there are a thousand hairstyles that would all look better on her than that one.

Viola Davis stunned in a shocking red gown and stylish bob, and Emma Stone followed the golden rule – if you want to win an Oscar, dress like one.  Emma stole the show in a Givenchy Haute Couture beaded, fringed, gown that captured old Hollywood and current fashion.  Emma not only took home the Oscar, she was the best dressed of the night – head to toe.

So, who was the worst dressed?  Even though Scarlett Johanssen missed the boat, as did Ruth Negga, they were not Worst Dressed.  Janelle Monae was a contender.  She is so adorable it’s upsetting to see her in dresses that are trying too hard.  Points for not playing it safe, but she’s like the little girl playing dress up that puts on all of the costumes in her closet at once.  Too much.  And yet, she was not the worst.  The great honor of Worst Dressed goes to Dakota Johnson.  She tried to be on trend in long sleeves, but the dress looked old fashioned and not retro chic.  One might think she found her grandmother’s dress in the attic, but her grandmother was Tippy Hedron, and she would never have worn that dowdy dress.  Sometimes really stunning young women can wear dowdy dresses or stringy hair and still look beautiful but Dakota is not one of those girls.  That Marcia Brady hairstyle is for weekends at Starbucks only, and that dress needs to be returned to the Salvation Army.  Miss Fifty Shades of Grey was more like Fifty Shades of Beige.  Blah.

The men really stepped it up this year.  Blue tuxedos still trending this year, and white dinner jackets, but the newest trend for the men was blue velvet.  Samuel Jackson, Dwayne ”The Rock” Johnson, and even Michael Strahan rocked the blue velvet tuxedos.  But the Best Dressed of all the men was the one who took the risk that paid – Ryan Gossling.  His blue shawl collared tuxedo fit him perfectly with a tapered leg and slim fit, but he kicked it all up a notch with the blue tipped ruffled shirt.  It could have been 1970’s prom tux awful, but it wasn’t.  Just enough ruffle and just enough blue.  Elegant and cool, just like him.  Ryan may not have beaten Casey Affleck for the Oscar, but he sure out-dressed him.

The red carpet commentary this year would not be complete without a nod to the all the stunning couples who walked together – Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel, John Legend and Chrissy Tiegen, Lin Manuel Miranda and his Mom, Emma Stone and her brother, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Denzel and Pauletta, Michelle Williams and her “bestie” Busy Phillips, Mel Gibson and his Babysitter, um, wife?.

Jimmy Kimmel said this is the last (and first) year he’s hosting the Oscars, but let’s hope not.  We need more laughs.  We need to feed those starving actresses more junior mints.  And we need more big blunders. 

The 88th Annual Academy Awards

The 88^th Annual Academy Awards

Lisa’s Oscar Commentary

“Welcome to the White People’s Choice Awards.”  These were the opening comments of host, Chris Rock.  For the second consecutive year, all the nominees for the major awards were white.  Leading up to the Oscars, there was a lot of commentary and conversation about #OscarsSoWhite.  The conversation has been about inclusion, not just diversity….inclusion of all genders and people of color in the filmmaking process, creating real roles portraying real people – people of all ages, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicities and color – film and filmmaker should reflect the world.  Though some people chose to boycott the Oscars, others chose to be part of the conversation.  Chris hit the subject hard and kept hitting it.  There were uncomfortable moments, humorous moments, and not so humorous ones.  Though it was important to address the elephant in the room, and it was necessary to make people uncomfortable, he never successfully moved to the stage where people could relax and enjoy the show.  Unfortunately, it all became very one note and began to lose the impact of the first five minutes.  In an election year where the slate of nominees offers enough fodder for comedians to deliver hours of material, not one joke was fired over that bow.  The one time where Chris strayed from the #OscarsSoWhite mission, was when he sold girl scout cookies to the audience on behalf of his daughters.  The girl scout cookie sale, Ryan Gossling, and Louis C.K. were the funniest moments of the show.  People who were expecting a funny show because Chris Rock was hosting were surely disappointed.

While the show was all about black and white, the red carpet was full of color.  Though some dazzled in black – Jennifer Garner, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Lawrence, and Julianne Moore – and some dazzled in white – Olivia Wilde, Lady Gaga, and Rooney Mara – color ruled the day.  Winners Alicia Vikander in yellow Louis Vuitton and Brie Larson in blue Gucci both looked like a breath of fresh air – their vibrant enthusiasm shined through their ease and natural grace.  Metallic sequin dresses were a trend that shimmered in emerald green sequins on Saoirse Ronan (in custom Calvin Klein), and blue/purple on Naomi Watts (in Armani Prive), and in gold on Margot Robbie (in Tom Ford).  Ruling the red carpet in red were Charlize Theron (in Dior) who can do no wrong, and the surprise red carpet success, Olivia Munn in a one-shoulder Stella McCartney, and the best dressed pregnant woman, Chrissy Teigen in Marchesa.  Though Charlize, Naomi, Saoirse, and Margot will all make best-dressed lists, there is one goddess of the red carpet who once again was breath-taking and stood out among all the others.  The best dressed of the night was Cate Blanchett in seafoam Armani silk chiffon with floral appliques…..the color, the shape, the way she just seemed to float through the crowd, she truly is the Queen. 

Though so many women were dressed beautifully, there were some that stood out and some that disappointed.  Tilda Swinton is a fashion icon and stands in a class by herself even though she looked like she was doing a tribute to David Bowie.  Jennifer Jason Leigh wore a dusty pink Marchese dress that looked like an arts and crafts project – the color was all wrong, she looked uncomfortable and possibly drunk.  The worst dressed of the night had to be Heidi Klum, in a lavender Marchese gown that looked like a 1970’s negligée or a Project Runway challenge loser.

The men mostly looked fabulous.  Lots of navy tuxedos, black velvet, tight pants, and shrunken styles – shorter pants, shorter jackets, and shorter sleeves.  Eddie Redmayne and Henry Cavill stood out in black velvet while Common stood out in white.  Bryan Cranston, Liev Schrieber, and Leonardo DiCaprio all looked elegant in classic well-tailored tuxes.  But the best dressed of the night was in a class by himself…no one could compete with Jacob Tremblay.  When an adorable, smart, poised nine year old walks the red carpet in a perfectly fitted Armani tuxedo, with his hands in his pockets and grinning ear to ear, everyone else might has well have worn a rental from Men’s Wearhouse.  So glad he was allowed to stay up past his 8 o’clock bedtime.

Fortunately, Jacob Tremblay was not the only highlight of the show.  Lady Gaga delivered a moving performance of her nominated song “Til it Happens to You.”  She was introduced by Vice President Joe Biden, joined on stage by a group of women survivors of sexual assaults, and received a standing ovation.  Another highlight, in case you missed it, Brie Larson hugged each and every woman as they exited the stage.  She may have just surpassed Jennifer Lawrence for “Oscar Winning Actress You Want to Hang Out With.”  The audience also gave standing ovations for Joe Biden, Ennio Morriconne (Best Musical Score for the Hateful Eight), and for Leo.  After five nominations and twenty-three years since What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Leo finally won an Oscar and gave the best speech of the night.  This year, the Academy had the brilliant idea to run the list of names that people wanted to thank on the scroll at the bottom of the screen so that recipients could use their speaking time to say something more profound.  Few people grasped that concept.  Fortunately Leo was one of them.

The other highlights of the night were the big surprises.  There were three big ones.  First, after a performance that brought people to their feet, Lady Gaga did not win.  Second, the sentimental and Vegas favorite, Sylvester Stallone did not win.  After 40 years since Rocky won best picture and Stallone didn’t win an Oscar, it would have been great to see him win for playing Rocky Balboa one last time.  The final shock of the night was the Best Picture winner.  Spotlight won the first award of the night for Best Original Screenplay, and stood aside all night to watch The Revenant and Mad Maxx sweep the bulk of the awards until the final award of the night – and the Best Picture is Spotlight! 

Three hours and thirty-six minutes of boring thank yous with very little comic relief.  At least Leo won.   Maybe next year will be #OscarsLessWhite and #OscarsMoreFunny.

The 87th Annual Academy Awards

Lisa’s Oscar Commentary

The 87^th Annual Academy Awards

 

The Academy may have snubbed Joan Rivers, but I won’t.  So what if she wrote,directed and starred in one movie – “Rabbit Test” – a critically un-acclaimed flop.  She was later redeemed as the subject of the award-winning documentary “A Piece of Work.”  She also had small roles in several motion pictures, mostly cameos and voice work (“Muppets Take Manhattan”, “The Smurfs,” “Shrek 2,” etc.).  But mostly, the words “Academy Awards” and “Joan Rivers” are almost inseparable.  With four simple words, “Who are you wearing?” Joan created the Red Carpet Industry.  Every designer fighting to have Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Emma Stone, and Lupita Nyong’O wear their dresses and jewels have Joan Rivers to thank.  And if the Academy thinks that the hours of coverage of the quarter-mile of Red Carpet outside their doors is not “part of the show,” they are sadly mistaken.  Just ask the producers at ABC who extend the length of the “pre-show” year-after-year (remember when it was five minutes at the beginning of the show – now it’s 90 minutes, while E! offers 3 hours.  Suffice it to say Joan Rivers is a legend, a trailblazer, and a voice of four generations.  Personally, I miss her immensely.  I have my little piece of Joan’s red carpet outside my front door welcoming me home every night.  In my home, and I’m sure in many others, Joan lives on….

Neil Patrick Harris, or NPH to his fans, showed up strong.  Unfortunately, there just weren’t enough moments to keep the largely dull middle of the show moving.  He opened strong with a creative musical number as expected.  And he incorporated his love and talent of magic….loved his Oscar prediction box.  Octavia Spencer owes Neil a huge Thank You basket for all the camera time.  Time is always an issue – it’s a long show and it’s hard to keep the pace moving.  Sometimes the musical numbers help, but there needs to be a few moments where the host jumps in with their own memorable moments – like Ellen did last year with the Selfie and the Pizza delivery.  Neil saved his big reveal for the end of the show when he needed a little magic in the middle. 

But we’ll get back to the show.  Let’s talk about the important stuff for a bit – the fashion! 

This year we saw some trends in color – the color is one that has difficulty being described – I will call it pearl, as in all the various shades of pearlescence.  And heavily beaded and embellished dresses – all kinds of beads, pearls, sequins, and everything sparkly…Heavy being the operative word.  This year’s dresses weighed more than most of the women in them.

The women who wore the trend well: Naomi Watts in Armani, light grey pearl and black beaded sheath that hung over what looked like a black beaded tube top – this shape is something you will see in inspired dresses in all fabrics and prices on the racks this Spring.  Lupito Nyong’O once again will be one of the most photographed women at the Oscars – draped head-to-toe in pearls by Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein, that dress definitely weighed more than she does.  Nicole Kidman added a red patent belt to her white pearl beaded sheath, Jennifer Anniston in a body hugging beaded sheath in yet another shade of indescribably pearlescence, and Laura Dern in black pearlescence.  And my most favorite and a tie for the Best Dressed went to the big winner of the night, Julianne Moore wearing a Chanel white pearl beaded sheath with a strapless inverted scoop-neck. Her “Still Alice” character might forget last night, but Julianne won’t, and we won’t forget that she finally won her Oscar and she looked amazing!

Other women who looked great but pushed different trends like new necklines – off the shoulder, one shoulder, racer-back fronts, and that beautiful strapless inverted scoop-neck (like Julianne’s).  Felicity Jones stood out in the Alexander McQueen grey ball gown – loved the racer-back front, but the bottom was a bit too full – but very bold, Alexander McQueen style drama.  Dakota Johnson wore a one-shoulder silver rope – perhaps she got used to being tied up – this dress will surely be knocked off by next week at BCBG.  Patricia Arquette wore a one shoulder white and black gown – simple but totally suited her style.  Gwyneth Paltrow was stunning in a one shoulder/one sleeve/one big rose, pale pink sheath – loved it.  Emma Stone wore a high neck and long sleeves, all gold – she tried to dress like an Oscar, unfortunately it didn’t help her win one. Sienna Miller was stunning in a black Oscar de la Renta apron neckline with a sheer bottom – I would guess that in person, she was probably the most stunning, but the black fabric detail gets a little lost on camera. Reese Witherspoon stole the show in that white dress with the off the shoulder black band coupled with her perfect hair and make-up – she truly glowed.  But the co-winner for Best Dressed of the night looked like a bookend for Julianne Moore’s Best Dressed gown – Rosamund Pike. She looked like a beautiful single red rose among the sea of pearls.  Her dress had the same beautiful strapless inverted scoop-neckline as Julianne’s dress, but the red lace brought a beautiful scalloped edge that framed her elegant décolletage and beautiful face.  She looked perfect.  I only hope she and Julianne Moore took a photo together – if so, please send it to me.

And now for the disappointing:  The other strong trend of the night was statement necklaces.  Cate Blanchett, the Goddess of the Red Carpet wore it well – a very simple black sheath sleeveless dress with a huge turquoise and diamond necklace.  She looked beautiful, but it was a little underwhelming – but she was only a presenter, so a good time for her to take it down a notch.  Margo Robbie also attempted the statement necklace look but unsuccessfully.  She’s a beautiful sexy girl and it was great to see her hair blonde again, but her body was lost in that long sleeve loose black chiffon dress, and the Titanic necklace filling the space in her plunging neckline looked like she stole it off of Kate Winslet. And speaking of stolen, it looked like Rita Ora stole Naomi Watts snake necklace that she wore a few weeks ago at the Globes.  Two words: Too Soon! Scarlett Johansson also attempted the statement necklace – a simple green deep v-neck body-hugging dress with an overly huge green monster necklace.  Two words: Too Much.  Zoe Saldano – usually cutting edge, and sometimes disappointing – was that dress made of jersey? Jennifer Lopez looked beautiful and stunning, as she always does, but how many times have we seen J-Lo in a nude colored beaded sheer dress with a deep plunging neckline?  Time to put the Golden Globes away and give us an Oscar dress.  Marion Cottillard’s couture Dior looked like a white table cloth, not bad in the front, but that huge black bustling buckle in the back – unsightly. But winning the Worst Dressed Award: Lady Gaga wore the most anticipated dress of the night – an Azzedine Alaia couture gown that took two months to make  - it looked a little like an oversized paper cut-out gown (with the tabs that fold back over the paper doll) which wasn’t a bad dress at all, but Gaga drowned the dress in those red rubber gloves.  Did Amal Clooney not teach her anything about bad gloves? (Btw, where were George and Amal?  Off fighting somewhere? Hmmm….). 

The Men mostly looked elegant and classic and thin!  Lots of skinny legged boys in tuxes – Jared Leto, Eddie Redmayne, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Keaton, John Legend, Adam Levine, and a lot of young actors whose names I can’t remember.  The trend was blue tuxedos with black lapels: Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, and even The Rock.  I liked the classics like Bradley Cooper and Michael Keaton, and the white dinner jackets on Eddie Murphy and Benjamin Cumberbatch. NPH switched it up a few times – rocking it every time – Best Dressed of the night, particularly in his tighty whities  - and who would have guessed that the most nipple action of the night would have come from the host? 

The worst dressed of the night was not hard to find.  Even though Matthew McConoughy is really starting to bore with the ungroomed hair and the groggy voice, the stand out of the night was the talented actor in the burgundy Ringmaster costume – David Oyelewo.  Yipes.  I guess because he wasn’t nominated, he wanted to be memorable.  It worked.  But Joe Pesci wore it better in “My Cousin Vinny” –so he didn’t even win for that bad tux.

Fortunately, the show had a few great moments.  Great performances from John Legend and Common performing “Glory” from Selma, Lady Gaga’s tribute to The Sound of Music and Julie Andrews (both brought standing ovations and tears from the audience), countered by some mediocre performances from Adam Levine and those Lego Movie “singers.”  A comedic redemption between John Travolta and Idina Menzel (who will be back next year as Neil predicted to apologize for all the face touching). And there were some inspirational speeches.  Patricia Arquettte kicked it off with a Girl Power moment that got a “Woot Woot” from Meryl Streep and J-Lo in the front row leading the pack.  Pawel Pawlikowski, director of Ida (Polish Foreign Film winner), Graham Moore, the young screenwriter of the Imitation Game, Common and John Legend (wow – compact and impactful) and Alejandro Inarritu.  Martin Luther King Jr. would have been proud.  Everyone representing – can we get an “Amen.”

This Awards commentary would not be complete without recognizing the achievements in filmmaking – what it’s all really about.  There were a lot of great performances and singular achievements and though it’s difficult to compare apples and oranges, Birdman was neither.  Birdman – including the brilliant performances of Michael Keaton (the classiest guy there, even though he chewed gum all night), Ed Norton, and Emma Stone – none of them who won – and including the brilliant cinematography, screenwriting, and directing – all who did win – this film will be studied by future filmmakers for years to come.  Birdman is a filmmaker’s film, a truly brilliant study in the art of film.  Standing ovation to the Academy for getting it right.

See you next year, where NPH will show more than his nipples…