The 2013 Oscars: Winner and Losers

It may have been long. It may have been riddled with bad jokes and too many musical numbers. But when the right people win (which was almost completely the case last night), it’s hard to see the Oscars as anything but a fun night at the movies. So here they are, the winners and losers in my eyes from what was a memorable 2013 Oscars.

Winners: Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner

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Source: Us Weekly

Not only did they both look great, they proved once again to be the sweetest, most normal couple at the Oscars when Ben talked in his acceptance speech about how marriage is work but, “…it’s the best work. There’s no one else I’d rather work with.” Real, lasting marriages take hard work, but the key is to find someone you love working with—and I’m so happy two of my favorite people in Hollywood found that in each other.

Losers: Seth McFarlane’s attempts to be edgy
With jokes about 9-year-old nominees dating George Clooney, Rihanna and Chris Brown, and actresses looking great after getting the “flu” (a not-so-subtle reference to bulimia), there were more than a few spots where McFarlane didn’t just fall flat; he crossed the line. And I kept feeling uncomfortable when he would call out the crowd for not laughing or for reacting poorly to his jokes. It just wasn’t my style of humor, but I suppose we sadly can’t have Amy Poehler and Tina Fey host everything.

Winners: Dancers
Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron looked gorgeous during their old-Hollywood-style routine, as did Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Daniel Radcliffe. If there’s one thing McFarlane and the producers did right, it was bringing back some panache to the show in the classiest way possible: good-old-fashioned dance numbers.

Loser: Catherine Zeta-Jones
Her performance of “All That Jazz” was just painful. If you’re going to lip-synch, at least have the decency to match up your mouth with the music.

Winner: Jennifer Hudson
Now that is how you relive your Oscar glory, Ms. Zeta-Jones.

Losers: James Bond fans
Was anybody else severely underwhelmed by the Bond tribute, or was that just me? Halle Berry was the best you could do, producers? Did none of the past (or present) Bonds want to come to the Oscars?

Winners: Musical Theater Nerds
Seeing the cast of Les Misérables all on stage at once, belting their hearts out to “One Day More” was enough to give me chills and keep me rewatching multiple times. Kudos to Samantha Barks, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, and, of course, Hugh Jackman for standing out and making the Oscars feel for a brief moment like the Tony Awards—and I mean that as a compliment.

Losers: The men of America not named Hugh Jackman and Bradley Cooper
After Jennifer Lawrence’s unfortunate tumble on her way to accept her Best Actress Oscar, Jackman and Cooper immediately rushed to her aid, proving to all the women watching that chivalry isn’t dead and gentlemen do still exist. My expectations for the opposite sex may have just been raised more than a little bit.

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Nerdy Girl Predicts: The 2013 Oscars

kristen bell so excited

It’s finally here! After months of going to see movie after movie (my credit card will thank me when award season is finally over), analyzing critical reactions, and watching every award show possible leading up to tonight, it’s finally time for the culmination of the 2013 movie awards season: The Oscars.

I’ve been watching the Oscars since I was a little kid. I remember Ben Affleck and Matt Damon winning and thinking they were my new Hollywood crushes (some things don’t change). I remember Halle Berry’s very emotional (and very long) acceptance speech for Best Actress. I remember that fantastic feeling you get when the first time a movie you actually saw in theaters wins Best Picture.

I’m a movie fanatic—always have been, always will be. Movies hold a special spot in my heart; there’s nothing quite like sitting in a theater with a bunch of strangers, experiencing the same emotional highs and lows but knowing that this one film can touch each person in this theater in a unique way. I know more about film history than I do about American history; I can probably name more Best Picture winners than I can name presidents. And I can’t wait to watch history be made again tonight.

Enough waxing poetic about my lifelong love affair with the silver screen. Here are my picks for who’s going to be taking home an Oscar tonight:

Picture: Argo
After the way it’s swept the rest of the major awards so far, I can’t see anything beating this film—and that’s more than okay with me. Although I thought Silver Linings Playbook was a better film overall, I wouldn’t be disappointed in this slightest to see Ben Affleck and the rest of the team behind this filmmaking tour de force win for this inspiring adrenaline rush of a film.

Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)
No one else stands a chance, as sad as that makes me as a fan of both Hugh Jackman and Bradley Cooper’s great performances. This has been Day-Lewis’s Oscar since the day Lincoln opened in theaters.

Actress: Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)
I just saw this film for the third time yesterday, and every time I see it I walk away even more impressed with the level of maturity, depth, and detail Lawrence put into her performance. She is this movie’s igniting force, the spark that intensifies the performances of everyone around her.

Supporting Actor: Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook)
De Niro delivered his best work in years in this film, and I think he’s going to get recognized for that. His performance in this film is nuanced, surprisingly subtle, and grounded in a warmth that infuses the film with the sense of deep, familial love that makes it so beautiful.

Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)
Like Day-Lewis, this has been Hathaway’s Oscar from the start, with the first trailer that was released for this film. And she more than earned it with her incredible physical dedication to the role and her gut-wrenching performance.

Director: David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)
In what should have been Ben Affleck’s category to lose, I’m picking the man who I felt got the most out of his actors and crafted the most heartfelt, quietly powerful movie of the year. In order for Silver Linings Playbook to resonate so strongly with audiences, it needed a director who could bring truly great performances out of all of his cast, and Russell certainly accomplished that—with four acting nominations for his cast to testify to that fact.

And here’s what the rest of my ballot looks like:

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