2013 Oscars Recap: Best and Worst Dressed, Seth MacFarlane’s take, and more!
Overall, I was pretty pleased with last night’s telecast. I thought MacFarlane did relatively well, surprising me immensely, as I really figured he would flat out bomb the whole thing. Was he fantastic? No, of course not. Was he a bit racist and maybe even a bit sexist? Sure. But I try to ignore those in the sake of an ignorance-is-bliss mindset, so let’s just move on.
Nevertheless, I have outlined my stray observations from the show last night below. Feel free to disagree.
1) So many musical numbers!! The opening stuff was actually pretty entertaining. (Yes, even the ‘We Saw Your Boobs’ song. The Kate Winslet part was HILARIOUS.)
2) When Harry Potter and Joseph Gordon-Levitt came out and danced together, I really thought they were trying to break my brain. TOO MUCH CUTE.
3) ADELE.
4) Like I said, I thought the show went relatively smoothly for presenters and Seth Macfarlane alike. The only bit that was a total disaster was when the cast of The Avengers tried to be funny. I mean, what was that? Also, did anyone else notice Samuel L. Jackson call Jeremy Renner ‘Roberts?’ TWICE?
5) Okay, you may disagree, but I thought the Sound of Music call out to introduce Christopher Plummer was hysterical. Racy, sure, but hilarious nonetheless.
6) I DIE: Melissa McCarthy and Paul Rudd’s riotous presentation. That’s how it’s supposed to be done, everyone.
7) The first time it showed Jack Nicholson, it looked like he was asleep and had just woken up and gone, “WHERE AM I?” (Not that I care because he can do no wrong, but still.)
8) ARGO!! Thought it seemed like he was on crack, I was so glad that Ben Affleck got to accept the award for Best Picture after being unfairly shut out of the Best Director category.
9) There sure seemed to be a lot of Chicago love last night, right?
10) Ang Lee? Really?
11) Also, surely you guys noticed that there were several long, white-haired men winning awards. It was like a Gandalf look-alike convention had stormed the ceremony. That, or they’re all vampires.
12) I hate that they paired Daniel Radcliffe with Kristen Stewart, but I was beyond ecstatic that they chose to score their entrance to the Harry Potter music. BOOM.
13) Speaking of Kristen Stewart, what the fuck? Every time she reappeared she looked more and more disheveled. I mean, we all know she probably just came off some really important BJs backstage, trying to lock down her next role, but STILL. Get it together, bitch.
14) The music!! Film scores are one of my absolute favorite things in the entire world, so I was delighted that last night’s ceremony was rife with beautiful musical interludes. What I thought was really awful, though, was that the Jaws music was used to play some people off. NO. The only person that would have been acceptable for was that wretch Anne Hathaway. What a missed opportunity.
15) A celebration of 50 years of Bond = snooooooooooooooooooze.
16) When Jack Nicholson was introducing the nominees for Best Picture and he accidentally said “Sorry” after Life of Pi…”Life of Pi, sorry” is now on a constant loop in my head when I need a good giggle.
17) Quentin Tarantino was fucking COKED OUT. His acceptance speech was totally typical Tarantino, yes, but also so totally bizarre. And WHAT was that leather tie? No.
18) Has Catherine Zeta-Jones aged at all? She rocked that Chicago number as if it were 2002, bitches!
19) THIS: 
20) I’m sorry, but Jennifer Lawrence just needs to win all the things from now on. She is just the fucking BEST. BEST. (I mean, just watch her totally call out all the stupid questions the press asked her after she won.)
And now on to what you all really came here for: Best and Worst Dressed! To be quite honest, everyone really stepped it up last night. My Worst list is awfully short. Good job, everyone!
Behold my fashion opinions:
BEST
Jennifer Garner
Sandra Bullock
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Halle Berry
Charlize Theron
Amanda Seyfried
Reese WItherspoon
Eddie Redmayne
Jessica Chastain
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Naomi Watts
WORST
Anne Hathaway
Jennifer Lawrence, Christoph Waltz, Amy Adams stop by Between Two Ferns: Oscar Edition
Jennifer Lawrence’s charm isn’t enough to save a mediocre SNL
I love Jennifer Lawrence. I really do. Even despite my hatred for all things Hunger Games, I love this chick. She’s charming, intelligent, normal, humble, down to earth, and funny as hell. So I was delighted when I first heard she would be making her SNL debut this month. And while one could hope that JLaw’s fierce charm would be enough to salvage a less-than-awesome Saturday Night Live, this simply wasn’t the case last night.
Don’t get me wrong, the episode definitely had some laugh out loud moments for me. But overall, it was pretty sloppy. Bad jokes, lazy sketch concepts, underutilization of a great host—you know, the usual stuff.
The night started off with a good Piers Morgan opening sketch that gave us some material on Lance Armstrong and Manti T’eo. Taran Killam’s Piers Morgan is always really top notch, and aside from a bumpy start, the majority of the sketch’s jokes landed pretty well.
Departing from the predictable musical monologues that SNL is so very fond of, last night’s monologue featured Lawrence ripping apart her fellow Oscar nominees while trying to make a grumpy Bill Hader as Tommy Lee Jones try to laugh. It was…weird, to say the least. Not that I think anyone took her “insults” seriously, but I still felt like the nature of the monologue was in really poor taste. Not to mention, her “insults” weren’t even funny. If you’re going to do a mock-vicious monologue, at least do it right. This just came off as lame and mean, two things Jennifer Lawrence most definitely is not.
One of the first sketches of the night was the return of a sketch that I thought was truly funny the first time around, Girlfriend Talk Show. It wasn’t nearly as funny this time, but just like the first installment, the MVP of this sketch was Aidy Bryant, just straight up killing it.
There was a quick fauxmercial for the Starbucks Verismo machine. And aside from it maybe reading a little bit racist, it was pretty hysterical. Simple enough premise, but it worked well enough.
There was another fauxmercial, this one advertising the next 18 installments of The Hobbit. Again, pretty simple (if not lazy) premise for a sketch, but this one was kind of a dud. The only part I laughed at was when they started listing off all of the janky sequels, like Look Who’s Hobbit Now and The Hobbit: Back in the Hood.
I really REALLY wanted to get out of this episode without a Hunger Games sketch. It’s so OBVIOUS. But alas, this was not meant to be. Of course there was a Hunger Games sketch, and as I could have predicted, it wasn’t very funny. The biggest laugh came from the very last seconds in which the butt of the joke was Peeta’s height. (Had they focused the whole bit around Peeta’s height, it could have been a bit more original and funny, in my opinion.)
The B-108 morning show sketch wasn’t bad. This was pretty much the only time throughout the whole night in which Jennifer Lawrence anchored the funniest parts of the sketch.
One of the only other sketches in which Lawrence had the most punchlines was one set in a 50’s diner in which the experience involved the waitstaff being “mean” to their customers (think Dick’s Last Resort, but not as mean-spirited). It dragged on for a bit before getting to the point, which was that Lawrence’s character wasn’t big on the jokey insults, but more into the actual hurtful insults. It played fine, but it was only mildly funny at best.
There was a truly bizarre sketch toward the end of the night about a couple exchanging letters during the Civil War. It was, in a word, horrible.
Not to be upstaged by true awfulness, though, was a short about a porn film called Danielle. At first, I thought it had promise, but it quickly fell apart into something more than absurd (and not in a good way).
Weekend Update seemed dialed down for some reason this week. It was funny enough, but the usually hilarious visit from Bobby Moynihan’s Anthony Crispino character wasn’t really up to par either, making this week’s news installment merely mediocre.
But one of my favorites of the night had to be Top Dog Chef. It was one of those beautiful SNL sketches that is a real rollercoaster of WTF? to hilarious to ROFLing to wait, what!? It had some really funny moments. And it was just SO WEIRD.
The Lumineers were fantastic. I’d say they were probably one of the best musical guests SNL has had on in a long time. Both songs were a delight to watch, and they sounded amazing. More like that please!
Next week is Adam Levine with musical guest Kendrick Lamar. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t know who either of those people were.
The Reel: Reveal
HUNGER GAMES HUNGER GAMES HUNGER GAMES
Drooling yet?
Character posters for all your favorite HG peeps have just been released, and while they don’t mean a darn thing to me, I’m sure your head is probably exploding right now. YAY! I’m happy for you. I really am. Check ‘em out——
And for those of you who feel like all this talk of districts and fighting and shit sounds like alien language, join the club. I don’t get it either, but I’ve heard it’s great.
(images via Entertainment Weekly, Yahoo!, MTV, Moviefone, IGN, MSN, Fandango, Teen.com)
