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Review: Academy Awards 2015

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One big charade. The Oscars can be described with that simple sentence. However, it is a fun charade. The annual Academy Awards show is superficial, the movies are not. Likely candidates were Boyhood, The Imitation Game, and American Sniper. The black comedy Birdman turned out to be the big winner of the night.

Last year, Ellen Degeneres was chosen to host the show. This year, Neil Patrick Harris had the honor to do that. Harris is better known as Barney from How I Met Your Mother. Halfway through the show, he entered the stage in his underpants, a joke that refers to Birdman. Here and there, however, Harris was too faint and artificial. For example, he opened the night with a sneer to the Academy and its mostly white nominees: “Today we honor Hollywood’s best and whitest. Sorry, brightest.”

Winner
The night’s big winner was Birdman. The black comedy with Michael Keaton was chosen as Best Movie and won four Oscars in total. Competitor Boyhood only got one, The Grand Budapest Hotel four and American Sniper received (only) one for best Sound-editing.

Activist
The night was full of activism. Several speeches included rather sensitive subjects. Birdman-director Alejandro González Iñárritu called for more respect for Mexican immigrants. Scenarist Graham Moore received an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and told the crowd that at sixteen, he wanted to kill himself because he was gay. “Stay weird, stay different. And then when it’s your turn and you’re standing on this stage, please pass the same message to the next person who comes along.” Common and John Legend won an Oscar for best film song and highlighted racism in the US: “There are more black men under correctional control today then were under slavery in 1850.” Patricia Arquette took a stand for women’s rights: “To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer of this nation. It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all in the United States of America.”

Other remarkable moments: a co-writer dedicated his Oscar to his dog, Larry, a Polish director kept on talking until his speech was cut off by the end tune and Lady Gaga was soberly dressed, for once.

Charade
The Oscar night is one big charade. See and be seen. Actresses wear dresses that were used as instruments of torture in the Middle Ages. The speeches are filled with sentimentality. But who can blame them? They have been working on a film for years, give them their moment. The night begins to get a political feel, however. Because of that, you sometimes forget what it is all about: a good film, that grabs the audience by the throat.


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