She's brash, she's fun - the always interesting Lisa J. Kanovsky weighs in with her first column for Dark Horizons which takes a look back at the the 78th Annual Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday. Who looked great, who didn't, the highlights, the lowlights, and everything in between:
<strong>Lisa's Annual Oscar Commentary</strong>
"Considering this was the gayest year ever for Oscar nominations, it was the straightest show. The show could have benefited from a little flamboyance. Enough with all the straight actors portraying gay people, let's go back to the good old days when lots of gay actors portrayed straight people. Back when the movies were straight, at least the Awards show had more flair.
What can I say about the new host? Here's Jonny! He got off to a nervous start, but Jon Stewart found his stride as he started to feel more at home in his tuxedo and on the stage. He was just funny enough, just irreverent enough, just self-deprecating enough, and just clever enough. He was almost reminiscent of Johnny Carson, the king of quips. He managed to make everyone laugh without insulting anyone too much. And he got the opening just right: Is there anyone who doesn't want to wake up in bed next to George Clooney? Basically, he did just enough right to stand a chance at being invited back.
Unfortunately, the tone of Jon Stewart's coolness set the tone for the evening...not too much excitement, not too much enthusiasm, and even the dead people montage got more applause than the live people. And no one cried. Where were all the tears? Not even a sniffle from Ryan Philippe. Also, everything was too predictable: it took over three hours to finally get a surprise result - It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp winning Best Song, and then, Crash winning Best Picture. The Oscars have become like political elections: too many polls, paid ads, predictions, pre-shows, and pundits. There are almost no surprises anymore. Perhaps the answer is to give more awards to Three 6 Mafia - the most exuberant speech of the night. You've got to love those guys - they thanked everyone from Gil Cates, the show's producer, to George Clooney, and they don't even know him, but who doesn't like Clooney?
What was up with the Red Carpet this year? Was there a traffic jam at Hollywood and Highland? There were so many stars and nominees that managed to avoid the Red Carpet pre-show. I watched two hours of E! and TV Guide Channels and I couldn't find some of the biggest fashion icons and some of the best dressed of the night: Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Garner, Jennifer Lopez, Hilary Swank, Uma Thurman, and Ziyi Zhang. Isn't the Red Carpet mandatory? Do they get to keep the free dresses if they don't pose on the red carpet?
There were certain trends this year that truly stood out. Dresses had a lot more fabric than they've had in years... long full skirts and fabrics with structure. Gone were plunging necklines, front and back. Hair was soft, romantic, and mostly up on some version of a ponytail. Earrings were big diamond drops. All the trends added up to some lovely visions on the red carpet. Women got to look beautiful without looking naked and wearing dresses where they could possibly eat a vegie kabob without worrying that their dress might burst. A few of the women, like Amy Adams and Sandra Bullock, even had pockets in their dresses so they could keep a snack or a juice box in case of a hypoglycemic attack which often follows 48 hours of starvation.
The trend for the men - diamonds. Not only are more men wearing earrings, now they're wearing diamonds on their studs, cufflinks, lapels, and thanks to Hustle and Flow's song nomination, their teeth.
Women wore the full range of colours. In Green, were Charlize Theron and Jennifer Lopez. In Gold, Jessica Alba and Reese Witherspoon. In Aubergine, Keira Knightley and Meryl Streep. In Ivory, Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Garner. In yellow, Michelle Williams and Barah Soomekh. In Black, Rachel Weisz, and Hilary Swank. In Blue, Sandra Bullock, Helena Bonham Carter, Salma Hayak, and Jada Pinkett Smith. In nude, Naomi Watts and Uma Thurman. In Brown, Amy Adams and Felicity Huffman. And in pink, Dolly Parton.
So many women looked fabulous. Kudos to Uma Thurman in Versace chiffon, Nicole Kidman in Balenciaga, Ziyi Zhang in Armani, Keira Knightley in Vera Wang, and Sandra Bullock in Angel Sanchez. They all managed to look sexy, sophisticated and elegant without all looking alike.
The Best Dressed this year were the women in Gold. Jessica Alba looked beautiful in Versace gold. And Reese Witherspoon followed my theory: if you want to win an Oscar, dress like one. Reese looked like a little gold statuette in her vintage Dior gown and wins my Best Dressed Award in addition to my Best Speech Award. Reese also scores extra points because she actually paid retail for her dress at a vintage store in Paris. Dressed as a Sunflower, not quite an Oscar, was my runner-up for Best Dressed, Michelle Williams in Vera Wang chiffon. These women know how to dress for their skin colour and personality and not just their easy-to-fit bodies. Honorable Mention goes to Amy Adams in Carolina Herrera who managed to embody the difficult balance of youth and sophistication.
The Worst Dressed is a difficult category this year because there wasn't much competition. Dolly Parton's dress was bubble gum pink. Not a colour most women can pull off, particularly over the age of seven. But at least Dolly was showing off her curvaceous womanly figure. My Worst Dressed Award has got to go to Felicity Huffman. There are probably plenty of women reading this who will say she looked, fit, sophisticated and stylish, but the men will agree with me - not only was that plunging neckline passé, but she looked more like a man in that Zac Posen dress than she did as the character she played inTransamerica. Sorry Felicity but take a tip from Hilary Swank, when you play a guy on screen, dress extra girly at the Awards and show lots of breast and cleavage, not chest muscle and biceps.
The men looked great this year: Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, David Strathairn, Keanu Reeves, George Clooney, Ryan Philippe, Terence Howard, Jamie Foxx, Sam Jackson and John Travolta. The standouts to me this year in the Best Dressed runner-ups were Eric Bana in Calvin Klein and Ludachris in Georgio Armani. But, my Best Dressed Award goes to Matt Dillon because he was a modern classic in Prada, and because he didn't have a date - I would have been happy to step in.
Worst Dressed Man: Tim Burton. Easy target, but a red shirt and a polka dot tie is all it takes to attract the fashion police. Can't let you off with just a warning. Runner-up for Worst Dressed: Larry McMurtry, winning writer for Brokeback Mountain, in jeans with his waist-up tux - sorry Larry, you're no Ralph Lauren. You can't pull that off. I'm guessing you had an accident in your tuxedo pants as you were about to leave your house. If that was an attempted homage to Brokeback, you should have gone with cowboy boots or a hat, or even borrowed one of the flamboyant bowties from the Wallace and Gromit guys.
Best moments other than the best acceptances from Three 6 Mafia, and Reese Witherspoon, was the woman that won for Best Documentary Short who thanked the Academy for sitting her next to George Clooney at the nominee luncheon. Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep had the best presenting moment, with the exception of Jennifer Garner tripping on her dress.
The toughest job was not Jon Stewart's hosting, or Wolfgang Puck's cooking; the toughest job this year was for ABC's Standards and Practices having their first live performance of a Hip Hop group in front of a billion viewers singing It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp and convincing them to say "witches" and other creative word substitutions.
Other best moments: Itzak Perelman, Robert Altman, montage, montage, montage, Good Evening Ladies, Gentleman... and Felicity, Bjork was trying on her Oscar dress and Dick Cheney shot her, all the big winners crying - wait, that didn't happen. And finally, Oscar count: Marty Scorcese, Zero; Three 6 Mafia, One.
This was a big year for Independent Films, which means either the Oscars will encourage more people to see small films, or next year the Best Picture winner will be Titanic 2".
