Commentary by Alex Farba Deleon For <filmfestivals.com>
Watching the Oscar results on television at the Grand Budapest Hotel Marriott the best coverage was offered not by CNN or BBC but by alternate channel SkyNews.
The hot film news from Hollywood was up against other heavy stories, the crisis in Ukraine and another Oscar -- Pretorius the legless olympic athlete on trial for spousecide in South Africa. All of which made it seem somewhat less important in the overall scheme of things than it seemed to be back in Lotusland.
The serious themes this year were Slavery (12 years a .... ) and living with the social disgrace of HIV in Redneck Texas -- the picture with the slightly enigmatic title, "Dallas Buyers Club" which might lead some to believe it was about NFL football. Which it was, of course, not.
For the latter, Matthew McConaughey, 44, picked up a hard earned Best Actor award playing against his usual cool romantic leading man image, and the best supporting actor oscar went to lesser known Jared Leto in Jesus hairdo over white dinner jacket, giving this serious themed picture a surprising one-two punch -- especially considering that it was not a heavy favorite going in. Matthew, a Texan himself, knows which side his bread is buttered on and made sure to thank God as well as others in his acceptance speech.
Gravity, the extravagant 3D space odyssey starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, a favorite from the word go, picked up a grand total of seven statuettes, mostly in technical categories, but also in the top-line Best Director and Cinematography sections. Mexican Alfonso Cuarón who directed this basically British product, became the first "latino" to be so rewarded.
While "Gravity" is not about a contemporary social issue, it does concern the future of mankind in general, which, like it or not, does have a certain serious dimension, especially in considertion of the rate at which mankind is collectively destroying its own nest, the biosphere. Moreover, the word "gravity" itself means Heaviness -- in any case this is not a lightweight film and Messieurs Bullock and Clooney, although they spend most of the movie in a weightless state, are by no means lightweight Hollywood personalities.
The Big Winners, Slave and Gravity, were both produced in England making this a good year for Great Britain, and further blurring the cinematic line between London and Hollywood as the two English speaking industries bleed more and more into one another.
Afro-English director Steve McQueen (no relation to the identically named all-white action star of yesteryear) became the first black man to earn a best Picture Oscar -- the most coveted prize of all. Actress Lupita Nyong'o, 31, who is ethnically of the Kenyan Luo tribe and holds both Kenyan and Mexican citizenship, but was educated in the USA -- a recent Yale Drama school graduate -- took home the Best supporting actress prize. With Afro-American writer John Ridley, 48, chipping in with the award for best adapted screenplay (from a novel), "12 Years a Slave" came up with double-triple ~ three Oscars and three distinctions for persons of African origin! -- definitely a first in Oscar history.
A slightly sour note in this harmonic triad was the unsightly sparring between McQueen and writer Ridley over the question of shared screen-writing credit. Ridley refused to share his credit with the director who was involved in the writing, a repeat of his tiff with Director David O. Russell in 1999 over the co-screenwriting of "Three Kings". Ridley lost that one when Russell took full credit and deleted him from any on screen recognition.
Back to Nyong'o, the ebony beauty landed this breakout feature role upon graduation from Yale with an MFA in 2012 and received rave reviews all over the map. Before her current Oscar Lupita was nominated at the Golden Globes and won the Screen Actors Guild best supporting actress prize for her performance in Slave. With multiple passports she is now the first African actress to win the Oscar award, the first Mexican actress to win the award, and the first Kenyan to win an Oscar. Miss Nong'o can also be seen currently in the new Liam Neeson airline hijack drama "Non-stop" in which she is an airline stewardess in a skyhigh thriller
In the Trash Department, thankfully, the miserable excuse for a movie entitled "American Slime -er -Hustle" which was an early favorite up for multiple awards, was thoroughly overlooked much to the credit of Academy discernement which has had a nasty habit in the past of awarding even trashier pictures. The same for another overinflated big name picture, Martin Scorcese's "The Wolf of Walĺ Street".
(Scorcese and DiCaprio ride again -- if you have the patience ... )
The only slightly saving grace of Hustle was another terrific turn by Jennifer Lawrence, overshadowed by the general darkness of this O. Russell abortion. Jennifer was nevertheless a hot contender for best supporting actress going head to head with Lupita, but took her loss in stride with her usual grain of salt. Whutta gal!
Finally, Cate Blanchett's best actress, was basically a condolation prize for a waste of talent in a crummy picture, "Blue Jasmine", arguably the worst film Woody Allen has ever made. Woody obviously has a lot of friends in Wobblywood and this booby prize may have been motivated by the largesse of broader minds wishing to maintain a degree of distance between sexual aberration allegations and artistic assessment. The main problem. here is that there was no art worth assessing. Watching it I felt sorry for Cate Blanchett working so hard in such a waste of a movie and she herself came across as slightly apologetic accepting this second Oscar of her illustrious career.
All in all the awards this year reflected respectability, a certain thoughtfulness, and a welcome absence of the cheap shots and bad taste that has marred the event in past editions.