Awards Season: Oscars debrief

Senior Screen Reporter Emily Leahy offers her perspective on the curtain closer to the cinematic awards season, the Oscars…

Image Credit: LA Times

The 85th Academy awards was a musical spectacular; reflected in both the award winners and the night’s entertainment. Peppered with dramatic accidents onstage (Jennifer Lawrence’s fall) and outrageous gags from the host Seth Macfarlane, clearly the highlight of the night was the show’s musical theme and its show stopping performances.

 

The biggest winners of the night included Daniel Day-Lewis for his leading male role in Lincoln, Jennifer Lawrence for her leading female performance in Silver Linings Playbook, Christoph Waltz for his supporting role in Django Unchained and not forgetting Anne Hathaway’s win for her supporting female role in Les Miserables. None of these were particularly surprising wins, however; it was always apparent that the academy would choose to favour Lawrence over Jessica Chastain’s fierce character pursuing Bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty.

 

More unexpected was the Best Motion Picture award going to Ben Affleck’s Argo, both because the director was so clearly snubbed in the Best Director category of the awards and because fellow pro-American film Lincoln was firm favourite early on. Ang Lee won the title in the end, which wasn’t undeserved. Life of Pi was in fact the overwhelming winner of the night, taking home four awards for Cinematography, Music: Original Score, Visual Effects and Best Director. Lincoln, the initial favourite ahead of the ceremonies, actually performed fairly averagely, winning only two of the twelve gongs it was nominated for. It was a welcome change for the academy to acknowledge the achievements of films outside the traditional ‘Hollywood’ choice, even if Argo is a film about Hollywood saving the day.

 

This year the awards uniquely carried a theme, celebrating the musical film genre. There was an abundance of musical talent on display, most notably the medley performed by the Les Miserables cast. Additionally, Jennifer Hudson gave a breathtaking performance of ‘And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going’ from the film she won her Oscar for, Dreamgirls. In contrast, it has been disputed whether Catherine Zeta Jones’ performance was live during her rendition of ‘All That Jazz’ from , nonetheless, she successfully resurrected the character for which she won her Oscar in 2002. In addition Barbara Streisand also took to the stage, performing ‘The Way We Were’ from the Oscar winning film of the same title during the ‘In Memoriam’ section of the ceremony.

 

In extension of this, the British institution of James Bond films was celebrated through its musical contributions. Dame Shirley Bassey performed, in her usual fashion, the classic ‘Goldfinger’, whilst Adele represented the modern Bond with an outstanding performance of ‘Skyfall’. She more than justified her later triumph in winning the award for the Best Original Song, and her pure shock ensured her acceptance speech carried her spontaneous London charm.

 

Conversely, Seth Macfarlane was an underwhelming host, with a mix of average to frankly offensive jokes rather than boundary-breaking humour. Stand out moments included likening the violent Django Unchained to Rihanna and Chris Brown’s relationship and referring to the unoriginal topic of Mel Gibson’s apparent racism. Perhaps his most original moments came in the form of the pre-recorded segments: such as the brief appearance of Captain Kirk pointing out the lack of success in his hosting skills and the subsequent ‘Boob Song’ which documented all the occasions various female celebrities had shown their breasts on screen (or not, in the case of Jennifer Lawrence).

 

Overall, the awards were successful but more due to the musical interludes than the host himself. This was probably for the best, as it focused the attention on the talented nominees rather than the funny man role which has overshadowed the real talent at so many ceremonies before. The most successful films of the year were recognised and although it was disappointing Affleck didn’t even receive a nomination for the Best Director award, for the most part the winners were deserving and gracious.

 

Emily Leahy, Senior Screen Reporter

Awards Season Review: Argo

If Argo wins Best Film on Sunday night at the Oscars it will be the first film since 1989 to win the award but not to be recognised for Best Director, reflecting further the strangeness of this year for the Academy, with it being one of the most open races for Best Film in decades.

Image Credit: BBC

Upon accepting the Bafta award for Best Director Ben Affleck (The Town) described Argo as his ‘Second Act’; his third stint behind the camera is proving to be a hugely successful one, with Argo favourite to win Best Film at the Oscars in a few days.

 

Affleck both directs and stars as the main character, the daring CIA agent Tony Mendez. The film follows the imaginative agent as he constructs the bogus sci-fi film ‘Argo’, to be filmed on location in Iran in order to extract six American diplomats hiding in the Canadian embassy in revolutionary Tehran. Adapted from a true story, Chris Terrio’s head spinning script entertainingly mixes the glam of Hollywood with the unstable Middle East, and showbusiness with government bureaucracy.

 

Billed as a comedy, the film’s selling point is CIA agent Jack O’Donnell (Bryan Cranston) sarcastically describing it as “the best bad idea” they had. However, the gripping suspense and paranoia is also its founding appeal. As the film flits between three settings of crowded and volatile Tehran, the claustrophobic offices of the CIA and sunny L.A, you are left biting your nails as Mendez and the six diplomats attempt to literally scramble out of Iran. Performances by the always captivating Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) and Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), who is really growing into serious roles, added real class to the cast of the film.

 

Through Affleck’s directing, Argo refreshingly combines a big issue with beautiful cinematography. Each location has its own cinematic feel in order to assist the audience through the fast narrative. For example, all the footage in Tehran is on handheld cameras, reminiscent of news footage or a documentary.

 

Where Argo falters however, is the failure to create any great measure of audience empathy for the diplomats in Tehran. Despite being hooked into the suspense of the six diplomats hiding in the embassy, there is no real feel of personal attachment to them, despite the inclusion of the home footage monologues for each character. The spectacle and the entertainment of the film aren’t in any doubt but there isn’t real substance to the horrific situation of the six individuals, nor that of Iran itself.

 

At the core, although it brings the shocking realities of Iran to the attention of Hollywood (both in the film and today) it fails to get its hands dirty. You feel there could be more done with this goldmine of a story by getting under the skin of the audience about an event that still scars the country. The film is also strictly from an American perspective, the Iranian people are portrayed as merely religious and violent, whilst the role of the CIA is glorified and the impact of the Canadian Embassy is downplayed.

 

Film critic Peter Bradshaw perfectly described it as ‘semi quirk’. It is as if Affleck grapples with what kind of film he wants Argo to be, which is endearing, but ultimately harming. This is reflected through the last ten minutes, where Affleck’s work of laying down the foundations of a ‘quirky’ film is lost through a Spielberg-esque cheesy hugs and tears montage of celebrations, which is fitting for the American patriot theme of these awards. However, the film’s ending, with the US flag waving outside a picture book American house, is just a little too much American nationalism to be swallowed comfortably.

 

Argo is a safe option for the Academy, appealing, entertaining and fun, but it will show a reluctance to again reward a certain Quentin Tarintino for Django Unchained and a foreign speaking production in the French film Amour.

 

My Rating: 3 Stars.

 

Flora Cresswell