Oscars 2013

Last night was the big night for the film industry. The 85th Academy Awards were held and numerous actors, films and the ones who helped create them, were honoured.

Let's get one thing out of the way first: the Oscars have their own distinctive criteria for what constitutes a "good" film. Sometimes that coincides with the general public's likes, but most times it does not. Though The Academy has become more accepting of some of the more popular films released over the years, they still generally favour the lesser known, more artistic films in the industry.

Here at Don't Sit Next To Us, we have our own ideas of what are good and bad films. And although we have our favourites for each category, we wanted to give you our reaction to the winners of last night's awards show.

Best Supporting Actor

Winner: Christoph Waltz
Who Should Have Won: Christoph Waltz

It's unusual for a past winner, who has recently picked up the same award less than five years prior, to walk away the winner again. Especially when the category is made up of well-deserving actors. However, Christoph Waltz struck gold once again with the role of Dr. King Schultz in Quentin Tarantino's masterpiece, Django Unchained. He has seemed to find his lucky charm in Tarantino, previously winning the Oscar for his role in Inglorious Basterds. Like that role, Waltz took a supporting character and somehow made them the most captivating part of the film without over-taking the entire story.

Arlaine

Check out our review for Django Unchained here.


Best Supporting Actress

Winner: Anne Hathaway
Who Should Have Won: Sally Field

From the announcement of the nominees, it was clear that Anne Hathaway would be crowned the winner in this category. Her performance as the destitute and desperate Fantine in Les Miserables was heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time. Add in the fact that she had to sing live during filming and you have a recipe for an Oscar win. It was a great performance, but we felt that it wasn't deserving of the award; at least not this year.

Sally Field, who was nominated for her portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln in Lincoln, was utterly breathtaking. She was strong, yet fragile. Dominate, yet shy. She held her own against the incomparable Daniel Day-Lewis and helped carry a film that was centered around the president. Like The King's Speech, Lincoln featured scenes with only the actors demonstrating their abilities, and Field did this in spades.

Arlaine

Check out our review of Les Miserables here and the Lincoln review here.

Best Actress

Winner: Jennifer Lawrence
Who Should Have Won: Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain

This one was really only ever between Lawrence and Jessica Chastain, in my opinion. With both the oldest and the youngest ever nominees in the category competing in the same year, it seems to me they were being honoured through the nominations rather than with a real shot at the award. Jessica Chastain gave an incredible performance in Zero Dark Thirty as Maya, the American federal agent who devoted herself to finding Bin Laden but as Americans I imagine that the voting Academy had a much different relationship to this movie than we did here at Don't Sit Next to Us. Lawrence's somewhat unusual romantic role of Tiffany Silver Linings Playbook is a much safer option for the Academy to single out as the winner. And did she ever deserve it - I know I was taken by surprise at just how connected I felt to the characters in this movie.

Christine

Check out our review of Silver Linings Playbook here and stay tuned for our Zero Dark Thirty review.

Best Actor

Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis
Who Should Have Won: Daniel Day-Lewis

We called the winner back in our review of Lincoln and we weren't alone. Daniel Day-Lewis has made history with his third win for Best Actor and we believe he's earned it. Having seen four of the five films from which this year's nominees were drawn I think we can safely say that while Day-Lewis took home the award, Denzel Washington and Bradley Cooper gave fabulous performances but weren't likely winners. (The Master, with Joaquin Phoenix, was not released in theatres in our area so I can only trust the Academy nominators recognized an excellent performance from him as well). Both Washington's character in Flight and Cooper's character in Silver Linings Playbook were the flawed anti-hero who has to deal with unwanted fame and attention. Yet Day-Lewis' portrayal of President Lincoln presented audiences with a man who was trying to achieve greatness for his country by reuniting it, stopping the war, and fighting for equality. In comparison with Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln is a positively cheerful feel-good movie and Day-Lewis' performance was one that Academy voters and audiences could support.

Christine

Best Director

Winner: Ang Lee (Life of Pi)
Who Should Have Won: Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)

I don't get it. I really don't. It's like James Cameron being nominated best director for Avatar. Sure, it's amazing and beautiful what Ang Lee helped create with Life of Pi. But can you really compare to the work Steven Spielberg did with Lincoln? Or to be honest, any of the other directors nominated? But perhaps the Academy is making up for snubbing Cameron in the same category in 2010. (Kathryn Bigelow took home the award for directing The Hurt Locker). Though the majority of the praise for Lincoln was given to its actors, the work that Spielberg put into this film should not go unnoticed. In development since the early 2000s, Lincoln has been without a doubt, the best film that Spielberg has put out in almost 10 years. That being said, Spielberg has a long list of work that should have helped sway the Academy in his direction. But sometimes the Academy just gets it wrong and there's not much we can do about it.

Arlaine

Best Picture

Winner: Argo
Who Should Have: Argo

He wasn't nominated for the directing category. We've all heard the jokes. But Ben Affleck did get to take home the award for Best Picture which is arguably the biggest award of the night.This was a tough category, and one that could not have been more diverse. Each film on the list was outstanding in it's own way. This was one of our most successful years here at Don't Sit Next To Us in terms of being able to see the majority of the films nominated in this category (six out of nine) and we enjoyed every one we saw. What made Argo stand out just a little bit ahead of the others was it's simplicity. It didn't have to rely on CGI to create its background and characters. It didn't have to have an elaborate script. It didn't have to be based on a historic character. It was a good story about something that really happened but wasn't overdone or told. I think it also had a "wow" factor in the sense that the majority of audiences probably did not expect the film to be as good as it was. As well, Affleck starring in the film was a risk but it paid off as he was pretty decent in the role. (He's not critically successful with the majority of his acting roles - and let's please remember that he is an Academy Award winner...FOR WRITING! - Good Will Hunting).

This isn't Affleck's first great turn at directing (Gone Baby Gone and the The Town were fantastic) and it won`t be his last.

Arlaine

Did you watch the Oscars this year?

What were your thoughts on the night's big winners?