Ellen DeGeneres ordered pizzas and Meryl Streep gave the world her best selfie face. Welcome the a recap of the 86th Annual Academy Awards.
Ellen carried the show with a confidence that only a truly respected comedian who has been in Hollywood for 20 years could have. She gracefully mocked Hollywood, joked about LA’s recent rain prevalence and made fun of social media. The most iconic moments from her hosting last night are without a doubt the starpower selfie that crashed Twitter and the three large pizzas she ordered. Nobody else could get away stealing Lupita Nyong’o’s lip balm or Pharrell Williams’ hat to collect money for the pizza. Pure brilliance.
My favorite person of the night was Lupita Nyong’o, the extremely well spoken 31-year-old who won Best Actress in a Supporting Role for “12 Years A Slave.” I predict she will be Hollywood’s newest sweetheart and Buzzfeed’s most popular topic. Her touching speech had a major goosebump-inducing moment within 10 seconds of being onstage: “It doesn’t escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else’s,” she said, instantly skyrocketing her status from superstar to role model.
Cate Blanchett deserves an Oscar for best Oscar speech as she put the industry on blast for the lack of strong female-centric films. While accepting her award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for “Blue Jasmine” Blanchett said, “Those in the industry who are foolishly clinging to the idea that female films, with women in the centre, are niche experiences. They are not. Audiences want to see them. In fact they earn money.” You go girl.
Jared Leto was my second favorite person of the night. He started the night off by winning Best Supporting Actor for his role in “Dallas Buyers Club” and giving an emotional speech dedicated to his mom, who accompanied him to the ceremony. Not to mention, his effortless ombré hair looked better than half of the women at the awards.
Matthew McConaughey wins for worst Oscar speech. The Best Actor acceptance speech for “Dallas Buyers Club” began normally, as McConaughey thanked God, his dad and his wife and kids. He concluded by telling everyone that his hero was himself in 10 years. Followed closely behind him for worst Oscar speech would be Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, the producers of “Frozen.” The entire thing was all too Disney. It was unclear whether the duo was brother and sister or husband and wife as they rhymed in unison.
As far as fashion goes, Sandra Bullock’s dress made her look like she was still in outer space. Although maybe that was a fitting choice, as “Gravity” ended up taking seven Oscars, all for mostly its technical achievement.
As far as the unplanned, Jim Carrey made an LSD joke while announcing a montage of animation clips over the past hundred years, which I definitely don’t think was on the teleprompter. I don’t know how Zac Efron got the Oscar presenter invite, but he heavily favored the word “um.” And John Travolta might be at the point where he has too much botox to pronounce Idina Menzel’s name correctly.
Pharrell Williams’ performance of “Happy” started the Oscars off right with a dancy, color block-filled performance rivaling “School of Rock.” U2 provided the most stripped down performance of the night. The performance veterans sang “Ordinary Love” with ease and no frills. “Moon Song” from “Her” was performed by indie starpower duo Karen O and Ezra Koenig. The song itself was beautiful, but the giant projected moon was distracting and if Karen O was planning on taking off her shoes, she just shouldn’t have worn any. Perhaps the biggest mistake of the evening was having Bette Midler sing “Wind Beneath My Wings” in memoriam for Hollywood’s stars who have recently passed away. I can just see Philip Seymour Hoffman rolling his eyes during her cheeseball choreographed wing flapping.
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