MacFarlane Not Much of a Family-Guy Last Sunday

Last Sunday, the 85th Academy Awards were regarded as entertaining and satisfactory by some, and plain bad by others, mostly due to the performance as Seth MacFarlane as the host. However, there were big winners in the night, including “Life of Pi” winning four awards, the most for the evening, including Ang Lee for the Best Director category, and “Les Misérables” and “Argo” winning three awards, including “Argo” for best picture, a second win for Ben Affleck, director in this case, in the history of the Academy Awards. Additionally, in the acting categories, Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor for “Lincoln,” and Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress for “Silver Linings Playbook.” Source:

http://oscar.go.com/nominees

There were also many notable several first-time feats, including “Argo” becoming the first Best Picture winner in 23 years not to have a Best Director nomination, and Daniel Day-Lewis became the first actor in the history of the Academy Awards to win three Best Actor awards (1989, 2007, and 2012). Additionally, First Lady Michelle Obama presented the Best Picture award over telecast, drawing some appraisal by some, and criticism by others.

A hot topic following the Oscars pertained to Jennifer Lawrence and her like-ability and quirkiness in post-Oscar interviews, including:

Another was Seth MacFarlane and his hosting abilities and jokes. His job received criticism, including his jokes carried too much ideals of sexism, racism, antisemitism, and homophobia, with National Public Radio calling it “one of the worst hosting performances in Oscar history.” However, many liked his performance, with The Chicago Tribune saying “he kept a solid handle on the proceedings, and opened with a series of jokes that were bona fide winners, landing on just the right tone: confident but not cocksure.” Regardless, two days after his hosting, he said he will never host again, even though he had fun doing it.

I believe that each winner deserved their award, especially “Argo.” I thought Argo was undoubtedly the best movie I saw this year, and although I thought it would not win, I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed MacFarlane’s performance as well, as he has always been crossing the line, so it was to no surprise what his jokes entailed. I liked this year’s Oscars, and I hope to see who will be hosting next year’s Oscars and am excited to see some great movies this year.

Many Firsts for The 2013 Oscars

This Sunday (February 24th) the 85th Academy Awards will be hosted at the Dolby Theatre in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California. It will be hosted by “Family Guy” and “Ted” creator, Seth MacFarlane, with it being his first time ever.

There are nine pictures up for the Best Picture category, with five nominations in the Best Director category, including Steven Spielberg for “Lincoln,” with “Lincoln” also up for Best Picture.  The films receiving the most nominations was “Lincoln” with twelve, followed by “Life of Pi” with eleven.

There are also a number of special achievements in the 85th Academy Awards, such as “Amour” (French) becoming the first film in twelve years to be nominated for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film, with the last film doing so in 2000. Emmanuelle Riva, at 85, became the oldest nominee in the Best Actress category as well in the history of the awards. “Silver Linings Playbook” also became the first film in 31 years to receive nominations in all four acting categories, with the last film accomplishing this in 1981. Additionally, for the first time in the history of the awards, the Best Supporting Actor category consists only of previous winners, with Alan Arkin, Tommy Lee Jones, Christoph Waltz, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Robert De Niro being nominated in the category. (Now that is a star-studded [supporting] lineup.)

I have seen five of the nine nominated films for the Best Picture category, (“Argo,” “Django Unchained,” “Lincoln,” “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Zero Dark Thirty”,) and I thought all of them were equally great films in their own respective ways. Each film is completely different from the next, but whether it was comedy, drama, or action, the films were great examples of superior filmmaking, and I am excited to see which film comes out on top.

More Information:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/oscars/2013/

Silver Linings Playbook Lining up for Gold

‘Silver Linings Playbook’ First Film in 31 Years Nominated in All 4 Acting Categories for Oscars

The romantic comedy-drama film released in November 2012 accomplished a feat that has not been done in over 30 years. The film is competing in all possible acting categories for the Academy Awards, with Jennifer Lawrence in the Best Actress category, Robert De Niro for Best Supporting Actor, and Bradley Cooper up for Best Actor. Additionally, actress Jacki Weaver was nominated for Best Supporting Actress as De Niro’s forbearing wife. The last film to accomplish this was “Reds” (1981), and in fact, only 14 films in history have accomplished this feat. Directed by David O. Russell, if this film sweeps all the acting categories, it will be the first film to ever do so in the 85 year history of the Academy Awards. I saw this movie last December, and I truly believe the actors/actresses deserved their nomination. Each performance was almost flawless, and the movie was the epitome of what a romantic comedy/drama should be, where the characters cleverly develop throughout the movie, and the dramatic and comedic elements were cunningly put into the movie’s situations and dialogue, and balanced each other out very well. Out of the many movies I saw in 2012, “Silver Linings Playbook” was easily one of the best, if not the best.