The 87th Academy Awards Sunday evening brought an end to a contentious and controversial awards season, though the telecast itself was a mixed bag.
“Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” was the big winner, with four awards: Best Picture, Directing, Cinematography and a surprise win for Original Screenplay.
Despite the surface-level advantage of being a movie about show business, “Birdman” is actually an unconventional Best Picture pick. Edgy and filled with surrealist elements and ambiguity, it is not the sort of consensus pick most would initially see as an “Oscar movie.” That said, it is refreshing to see an original, offbeat movie win against a crowd of more conventional prestige biopics.
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” also won four awards: Costume Design, Production Design, Makeup and Hairstyling and Original Score. “Whiplash” had a surprisingly strong showing, winning awards for Sound Mixing and Editing in addition to an expected Best Supporting Actor win for J.K. Simmons.
The rest of the night’s honors were spread out relatively evenly — the other Best Picture nominees each won one award. For critical favorite and presumed frontrunner “Boyhood,” this was a softer-than-expected showing, with Patricia Arquette winning Best Supporting Actress.
As for the telecast itself, Neil Patrick Harris put forth a valiant effort in spite of largely mediocre material. His peak came early with an opening song about his love of movies, which offered him the opportunity to demonstrate his showmanship. Cameos from Anna Kendrick and Jack Black made the piece all the more successful.
Given that the most memorable Oscar moments usually come from award upsets or presenter flubs (see last year’s “Adele Dazeem”), Oscar hosts generally don’t do much after the opening other than keep things moving. Harris was no exception. At one point he seemed to be imitating Ellen DeGeneres’s “walk through the crowd” style and a running gag about Oscar predictions in a locked suitcase turned into a mere recap of the night. Apart from those bits, Harris mostly supplied puns which often fell flat. As the opener demonstrated, he clearly has the potential to be a great Oscar host, so maybe in the next go around he will better play to his strengths.
Acceptance speeches were strong overall. Highlights included “Imitation Game” screenwriter Graham Moore’s touching and personal speech encouraging young people to “stay weird” and Best Original Song winners Common and John Legend’s advocacy for the continued pursuit of racial justice. Pawel Pawlikoswky, director of Best Foreign Language Film “Ida,” spoke over the play-off music, and Eddie Redmayne endearingly burst into pure giddiness while accepting Best Actor. Meanwhile J.K. Simmons instructed the audience to call their parents while accepting Best Supporting Actor.
While the ceremony was decent enough by recent years’ standards, the show as a whole didn’t fully deliver on paying tribute to the films that captured our imaginations last year. The Oscars are meant to honor the year in movies, so it may have been better to focus some attention away from musical performances and onto the films themselves. Perhaps the show could have taken a broader look at what 2014 actually meant for movies as a cultural and artistic force. Musical performances, such as “Glory” from the film “Selma,” were powerful and memorable highlights, but others didn’t rise to that level. Instead, they made the event feel bloated. While it may sound absurd to want something more out of a nearly four-hour show, a greater focus on the rich and wide range of movies that 2014 offered would have yielded the celebration of cinema the opening number promised.
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