Star power rules at the Oscars
The winners may well have been chosen with an eye to quality, though most people will never know since the nominated films have to be among the least-viewed crop in Academy Award history. But even if quality determined the votes, clearly the show itself was driven by star power and a desire to reach out to a different audience.
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Chris Rock is likeable and he's funny. But his opening to the Academy Awards was shouted stand-up and no matter what Entertainment Weekly said, he didn't make us forget other hosts. I may be closer to Rock's generation, but I actually prefer the way Billy Crystal or Steve Martin can play the clown or rise to the occasion to the relatively limited amount that Rock added. Rock has charm and could potentially be a good host, but his first stint didn't accomplish what the producers wanted nor did it really add to the style of the show.
Some hosts are a tough act to follow, and though it was timely, it's hard on any current host to run a montage of great moments from Johnny Carson's five-year stint as host. The best hosting lines of the night were 20-year-old taped moments. "This is day 164 of the Oscar telecast..." We do miss you, Johnny.
The real crime of the night, though, was the music. Beyonce is in some ways a rare performer: she's a pop star who can actually sing. She has style. She can hold the stage. And yet, her range was seriously tested by the range of material she was asked to work through, and even if she did a passable job all the way through, one can't help but wonder what some of the music would have sounded like in other hands. Why not have whoever played Christine in the Phantom of the Opera come on stage? But Beyonce wasn't the problem.
The problem was Antonio Banderas and Carlos Santana. It pains me to say this, because I like both of them, but the brief snippet of his own song that Jorge Drexler sang instead of his thank you speech demonstrated everything that was wrong with the choice not to allow him to sing it in the first place. [EW called this one right, surprisingly enough. Dana Stevens' take on this is on Slate here.]
But the Academy Awards show is like everything else on TV: it's about ratings. Now if only the movies they recognized did so well.
Read more...
Chris Rock is likeable and he's funny. But his opening to the Academy Awards was shouted stand-up and no matter what Entertainment Weekly said, he didn't make us forget other hosts. I may be closer to Rock's generation, but I actually prefer the way Billy Crystal or Steve Martin can play the clown or rise to the occasion to the relatively limited amount that Rock added. Rock has charm and could potentially be a good host, but his first stint didn't accomplish what the producers wanted nor did it really add to the style of the show.
Some hosts are a tough act to follow, and though it was timely, it's hard on any current host to run a montage of great moments from Johnny Carson's five-year stint as host. The best hosting lines of the night were 20-year-old taped moments. "This is day 164 of the Oscar telecast..." We do miss you, Johnny.
The real crime of the night, though, was the music. Beyonce is in some ways a rare performer: she's a pop star who can actually sing. She has style. She can hold the stage. And yet, her range was seriously tested by the range of material she was asked to work through, and even if she did a passable job all the way through, one can't help but wonder what some of the music would have sounded like in other hands. Why not have whoever played Christine in the Phantom of the Opera come on stage? But Beyonce wasn't the problem.
The problem was Antonio Banderas and Carlos Santana. It pains me to say this, because I like both of them, but the brief snippet of his own song that Jorge Drexler sang instead of his thank you speech demonstrated everything that was wrong with the choice not to allow him to sing it in the first place. [EW called this one right, surprisingly enough. Dana Stevens' take on this is on Slate here.]
But the Academy Awards show is like everything else on TV: it's about ratings. Now if only the movies they recognized did so well.
posted by Marshall at 11:38 PM
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