It’s been just over two days since the 82nd Academy Awards came to a close and while some thoughts are still fairly clear, many are flitting away, so it’s time to get my post-game analysis down.

At the bottom of this article, I’ve posted the full text of my Twitter updates that night. Before that is my perception of some of the best and worst wins of the night.

The first thing I did was tune into the E! live red carpet coverage where Ryan Seacrest made several blunders, including metaphorically pushing Anna Kendrick out of the way so he could talk to Mo’Nique. Kendrick, Sandra Bullock and Gabourey Sidibe were among my favorites for best dressed of the night. And the moment of the evening came when Meryl Streep breezed past Seacrest in a moment reminiscent of all those celebrities avoiding Joan Rivers when she did her red carpet coverage on E!

There was more entertainment and informational value in the E! coverage than in the official half-hour Oscar pre-show and quite a bit more talent. Kathy Ireland was stiff, unapproachable and dense. She was a walking example of how NOT to do her job. Sherri Shepherd was overly effusive about everyone and spent far too much time reading her prepared teleprompter notes than actually talking with the celebs. I feel bad for Jess Cagle who seemed to balance looking at the camera and reciting facts without reading them. He was the lone bright spot of the pre-show hosts. Sadly, the rest of the pre-show was fairly unexceptional. They got all five Supporting Actress nominees together and then didn’t get any of the other groups, which felt like a missed opportunity.

The other nice touch I can remember was showing posters and reciting the nominees for the Oscars 66 years ago when the Academy last had 10 Best Picture nominees. Sadly, few in the audience had probably heard of most of the films, but winner Casablanca was surely well known…at least we can hope. Then they compared with the list of 2009 Oscar nominees which was also a nice touch, but which also highlighted a decline in quality in the last 60 years. But, it was short lived because by the end of the 30-minute broadcast, they had sited Taylor Lautner as the most famous werewolf in film and entirely neglected the great Lon Chaney Jr who basically influenced all who came after him.

Then the show started.

Trotted out onto the stage were the 10 nominees for Lead Actor and Lead Actress. Alternating between the boys and the girls, it was presumably done to highlight that this was a competition, but with the brief introduction and then nothing further until the awards were presented, the concept was a failure. It was followed immediately by another unsatisfying failure. Neil Patrick Harris would have been a great choice to host the ceremonies, but instead of going directly into a skit by co-hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, the first event of the evening was an awful song-and-dance number (the song, not really the dance) that at once highlighted the glamorousness of what Hollywood used to be and the trainwreck of a poorly written song. Perhaps not as terrible as the Rob Lowe/Snow White debacle, but certainly not a highlight of the evening.

The set design was a mixture of gaudy, questionable and pleasant. The first thing I noticed about the set was the very lovely design of the closest orchestra seating. It gave a more intimate feel with its blue motif and curved seating. The stage, however, was the questionable part. Aside from the gorgeous blue, crystal-beaded proscenium curtain, the stage itself was a mixture of tacky staircases and blocky accouterments, rotated out throughout the evening. One of the most horrid of these ironically accompanied the presentation of Best Art Direction.

Then we got another of the night’s factual errors: Woody Harrelson was mentioned as having had two hit films during 2009. They listed The Messenger (which was anything but a hit) and Zombieland (apparently, they forgot he was in 2012).

Hosts Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin had a fairly solid monologue with a few dud lines and some questionable ones, but I was entertained. Unfortunately, their schtick grew old fast and other than a couple of zingers later in the night and a modestly funny Paranormal Activity video bit, they failed to keep the show lively as the evening went on. The most amusing cut-away shot during their monologue was when they cracked wise about Christoph Waltz’s character Hans Landa looking for Jews and finding the mother lode. One of the Coen brothers (I think it was Joel), was notably miffed at the reference, but the audience (and especially Waltz) seemed to like it. But, one of the worst things about the opening was how long it was. I quipped during my Tweeting that it reminded me of Shirley MacLaine’s famous quip about the length of the show (you can read it below).

Then we finally got into the presentations starting off with Supporting Actor going to Waltz. I liked the extension of the clips used to highlight the performances, a change I’d like to see repeated. Then, the Animated Feature category presentation was one of the night’s highlights as they “interviewed” the characters from the five nominated films. Although they were funny, they saved the best for last with Carl Frederickson from Up.

They presented Original Song very early in the evening, not having to give the singers chances to perform (one of the most unwelcome changes). At least the clips from the songs were long enough to highlight a little of the song. But having Mamma Mia’s Amanda Seyfried and singer/actress Miley Cyrus present the award is a bit of a slap in the face to all the serious songwriters out there who deserve someone more important to present them with an Oscar. After that, one of the most curious choices of presenters was revealed with Chris Pine, star of Star Trek, presenting the Best Picture clip for District 9. It was rather insulting to the film, in my opinion.

Robert Downey Jr and Tina Fey put on a fairly humorous bit for the Original Screenplay award, and accompanied the nominees with the traditional “read the stage directions with the scene” bit that has become popular. Then the show shuts down unnecessarily for ten minutes as they present a John Hughes tribute with seven actors who worked with him heavily in the 1980s. What’s disappointing is that an acting legend like Karl Malden not only got a tiny bit of the In Memoriam reel later in the broadcast, Hughes got more attention in the program than honorary Oscar winners Lauren Bacall and Roger Corman.

Factual Error #2 (at least the of the ones I noticed) crept into the presentation of Up as a Best Picture nominee. Samuel L. Jackson referred to Up and Beauty and the Beast as the only two films to earn nominations for both Best Picture and Best Animated Feature. Except, Sammy, that Beauty and the Beast was released in 1991. The Animated Feature category didn’t come around until 2002. Either Mr. Jackson adlibbed poorly or the writers don’t know how to research their facts. Either way: Failure.

The montage of interviews with Oscar-winning short filmmakers who went on to have successful careers in feature films, was a nice touch that highlighted the importance of the Short Film awards. Then, after a really nice touch, the producers decided to throw a wrench into things and let Ben Stiller back on the stage. As if his ludicrous presentation at the Oscars last year wasn’t bad enough, they made him up to look like a Na’vi from Avatar and proceeded to perpetrate an unfunny joke that ended up being little more than a waste of time.

Then the most disappointing moment of the evening occurred: Up in the Air, one of the year’s best films, and easily one of its best screenplays, lost the Adapted Screenplay award to Precious, shutting out the Jason Reitman dramedy from the competition. This was followed up by the too-short Governors Award clip with a too-brief recognition of Bacall and Corman in the audience (at least bring them on stage and let them bask in the glory of their recognition). After that, we get a surprisingly subdued Robin Williams presenting Best Supporting Actress and on through more tech awards that don’t get nearly enough attention or explanation (and an ugly stage backdrop).

The semi-highlight of my evening arrived shortly after that. Although I wouldn’t have asked the stars of New Moon (Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner) to present this montage, I’m excited there was a montage at all on HORROR films! Sure, it’s not the most glamorous and the Oscars are very reticent to recognize the genre, but it’s a fun genre that needs more recognition. But, instead of having a classy Jamie Lee Curtis and maybe fellow scream queen Adrienne Barbeau present the clips, they chose the inept duo. And what’s worse is that Twilight, which was included in the reel, isn’t a horror film…thankfully it was only brief. Other highlights of the montage were the regular inclusion of clips from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and an early recognition of Freddy Krueger. The introduction also brought about yet another poorly researched fact: It was stated that The Exorcist (1973) was the last horror film recognized by the Academy. They forgot Oscar winners Jaws (1975), The Omen (1976), An American Werewolf in London (1981), Misery (1990) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991), all of which had clips in the clip reel, and those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head.

The unusual pairing of Zac Efron and Anna Kendrick came with the Sound Editing presentation where, using The Dark Knight as an example, Morgan Freeman narrated a video on what Sound Editing and Mixing are, a welcome addition to the program, though one that probably needed to be exemplified through the year’s nominees, not last year’s winner. Then, to counter-balance the information overload, Sandra Bullock comes out and lists off the Cinematography winners without delivering a much needed, example-filled explanation of what Cinematography is (and no, the answer is not “it’s just about the lighting”). Then a further unusual presenter choice, Demi Moore comes out to introduce James Taylor who will perform a poorly-chosen song to the In Memoriam segment.

At just past the two-hour mark, the show comes crashing to the ground around the absolute worst presentation of the entire evening (and one of the worst I can remember in many years). What are deemed The League of Extraordinary Dancers (the movie was crap, why would you want to associate with it?) perform an pseudo-interpretive dance to the music of the Original Score nominees. The choreography has nothing to do with the films being highlighted and only tangentially relates to the style of music. And worst of all, it lasts an interminably long 5 minutes (felt like longer). So much failure is fortunately capped by the victory (finally) of Michael Giacchino with his score for Up.

Mostly boring filler follows with “shocking” wins by Avatar for Best Visual Effects and The Cove for Documentary Feature, then we slow down again for Tyler Perry to tell us about editing while acting like a prima donna telling the production trailer to “cut” when they are a bit slow on the buzzer instead of letting the actual director of the telecast do that. Keanu Reeves and his terrifying patchy facial hair present The Hurt Locker as a Best Picture nominee, then an odd pair, Quentin Tarantino and Pedro Almodovar arrive to present Best Foreign Language Film. Tarantino overly emphasizes his pronunciation so he seems more cool, but nothing exciting comes out of the pairing.

Now we get to the final four awards of the evening. First up, in a twist on the magnificent 5-team presentation of the acting awards from last year, Tim Robbins, Colin Farrell, Vera Farmiga, Julianne Moore and Michelle Pfeiffer come out as “friends and co-workers” of the nominees to express how cool the people are and briefly gush over their performance before last year’s Best Actress winner, Kate Winslet, elegantly arrives to award Jeff Bridges with his standing ovation. While I like how the presentation feels a bit more personal, it doesn’t have the impact last year’s did when only one of the five (Robbins) is an actual Oscar winner and there’s no “welcome to the club” mentality.

Same chorus, different verse with the Lead Actress celebs: Michael Sheen, Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Stanley Tucci and Peter Sarsgaard (another group with only one previous Oscar winner). And the winner, announced by last year’s winner Sean Penn, is Sandra Bullock. The internet suddenly erupts in disgruntled rants about how Meryl Streep was robbed. And no one else cared.

Barbra Streisand comes out next to present the Best Director award to Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker. No one expects a different outcome, but when Streisand makes the announcement, Bigelow gets a standing ovation anyway. The big surprise of the presentation is when Streisand intones that it could be the first woman to win, or, as an afterthought, it could be the first African American winner, or, as an even further afterthought, it could be one of the other three…it’s kinda funny the way she said it, but it’s rather insulting to Tarantino, Cameron and Reitman.

And with all said and done, we have no suspense left and we’re off to the Best Picture prize. No commercial break as custom and also no re-reading of the 10 nominees. Tom Hanks launches into the winner from the envelope because he was told to and makes for a truncated and anticlimactic revelation of The Hurt Locker as Best Picture (who couldn’t have guessed that after Original Screenplay and the Sound Awards?). But if it weren’t anticlimactic enough, the lack of drumroll and recitation of nominees makes it even more so, marking the end to a rather uneven telecast that had a couple of high points, but far too many low ones.

And so the 82nd Academy Awards is finished and I’m as unexcited about them as I have been the previous three years. I want excitement. I want fun. I want winners I can love. But, we’ll just have to wait another yet.

The overnights are in, of course, and it was the highest rated show since 2004. Adam Shankman will claim his changes, including the vapid and vacuous young “actors” he brought in, are responsible for bringing in viewers, but everyone knows it’s because Avatar was nominated. And considering that the 2003 show had more viewers than this year when The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won Best Picture. And Lord of the Rings made less money (even adjusted for inflation) than Avatar did, so if even Avatar couldn’t bring in more viewers than that year, or even 2004 when the most popular film in the lineup was Ray, then Shankman’s changes certainly weren’t responsible.

Let’s just hope we get someone new next year who can look at what didn’t work and get rid of it. Perhaps one day these producers will listen to the critics who seem to know a thing or two about these things.

Biggest Oscar Surprises:

• Original Screenplay: Precious beating out Up in the Air
• Animated Short: Logorama breaking Nick Park’s unbeaten record

Biggest Oscar Mistakes:

• Original Screenplay: Precious over any of its competitors
• Makeup: Star Trek over Il Divo

Biggest Oscar Successes:

• Animated Feature: Up

Cinema Sight’s Twitter Feed for the 82nd Oscars

• Ryan Sechrest is a bit of a jerk. “Oh hey, Mo’Nique! Who was I speaking with again? Oh yes, Miss Kendrick, goodbye.” Posted @ 5:12 PM
• Anna Kendrick was looking great on the red carpet. A gown that close to her own skin tone is dangerous, but it worked. Posted @ 5:21 PM
• Sandra Bullock seems overly nervous, but she’s looking good. Posted @ 6:00 PM
• They should have put Sechrest on a crate or something…nearly everyone he interviews makes him look short. Posted @ 6:26 PM
• While I’m not rooting for Streep in Julie & Julia, I love that she just blew off Ryan Seacrest. Posted @ 6:32 PM
• Someone should warn everyone! There’s some strange black-haired creature stalking the red carpet…and it attacked Keanu Reeves’ face. Posted @ 6:38 PM
• Wow. Gabourey Sidibe is stellar. The dress looks terrific and she is so funny. Posted @ 6:41 PM



• The Official Red Carpet Oscar special begins in just a couple of minutes. Then in 30 we get the 82nd Oscars. Posted @ 6:58 PM
• The Red Carpet’s been around forever, but you’d only expect since the ’90s by the footage from the Red Carpet special. Posted @ 7:01 PM
• First nice touch of the evening: Collecting all the nominees together for brief interviews. The questions aren’t that great, but it’s nice. Posted @ 7:03 PM
• Jake Gyllenhaal doesn’t seem like he wants to be doing this interview. Posted @ 7:04 PM
• Kathy Ireland feels painfully out of place. And Sherri Shepherd needs to learn how to memorize lines instead of reading off the teleprompter Posted @ 7:07 PM
• The second nice touch: The list of Best Picture nominees from 1943. Though, the constant back-and-forth motion is a bit nauseating. Posted @ 7:13 PM
• Most famous werewolf? I’m really getting sick of this revisionism… Posted @ 7:27 PM
• Bridges, Bullock, Clooney, Mirren, Firth, Mulligan, Freeman, Sidibe, Renner, Streep…all on display to open the show Posted @ 7:31 PM
• Neil Patrick Harris opens the Oscars with a song and dance number. He should have hosted. Posted @ 7:32 PM
• What a terrible song, a bit of glamor to the dancing, but so much for speeding the show up. Posted @ 7:34 PM



• The design of the floor seating is lovely, the stage isn’t so great. Posted @ 7:37 PM
• 2 hit movies? The Messenger wasn’t a hit and they’ve forgotten 2012… Posted @ 7:39 PM
• Martin and Baldwin aren’t too bad playing off one another. There’s some funny stuff and some not so funny. Posted @ 7:40 PM
• I’m reminded of a quote from Shirley MacLaine at the Oscars: This “opening” has already been longer than my career. Posted @ 7:43 PM
• Presenting: Supporting Actor – Penelope Cruz. Posted @ 7:44 PM
• Longer clips of the acting nominees, not a bad change, but they cut the original song performances for this? Posted @ 7:46 PM
• Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds Posted @ 7:48 PM



• Waltz didn’t ramble nearly as much as he has previously. Posted @ 7:50 PM
• Cameron Diaz & Steve Carell present Best Animated Feature Posted @ 7:56 PM
• Carl Frederickson ftw. Posted @ 7:58 PM
• Best Animated Feature: Up Posted @ 7:58 PM
• Amanda Seyfried & Miley Cyrus present Original Song Posted @ 8:01 PM
• Not a bad way to present the Original Song nominees, but still miss the performances. Posted @ 8:02 PM
• Best Original Song: “The Weary Kind” – Crazy Heart Posted @ 8:04 PM
• Chris Pine presents Best Picture nominee District 9 (why???) Posted @ 8:05 PM
• Robert Downey Jr & Tina Fey present the screenplay awards. Posted @ 8:12 PM
• Best Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker (Best Picture, here it comes) Posted @ 8:15 PM



• Molly Ringwald & Matthew Broderick present John Hughes tribute. Posted @ 8:17 PM
• Jon Cryer, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, Macaley Culkin are there for the Hughes tribute. And someone else whose name escapes me. Posted @ 8:23 PM
• Up presented by Samuel L. Jackson Posted @ 8:24 PM
• Wow. I had no idea that Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Animated Feature! Way to research things, writers… Posted @ 8:24 PM
• Carey Mulligan & Zoe Saldana present Short Film Awards Posted @ 8:28 PM
• It’s nice to see them do something lengthy to explain and highlight Short Films. Posted @ 8:30 PM
• Best Animated Short: Logorama Posted @ 8:31 PM



• Best Documentary Short: Music by Prudence Posted @ 8:34 PM
• Best Live Action Short Film: The New Tenants Posted @ 8:36 PM
• So angry with myself. The New Tenants was my prediction for the longest time, and I changed it…grrr Posted @ 8:36 PM
• Ben Stiller presents an award to Avatar… Posted @ 8:38 PM
• Stiller presenting Best Makeup Posted @ 8:38 PM
• Best Makeup: Star Trek (so depressing that this is the first Oscar for the franchise) Posted @ 8:41 PM
• Jeff Bridges presents A Serious Man Posted @ 8:43 PM
• Jake Gyllenhaal and some actress I don’t recognize who got caught off from the commercials presenting Adapted Screenplay. Posted @ 8:48 PM
• Best Adapted Screenplay: Precious Posted @ 8:50 PM
• Queen Latifah presents Governor’s Awards. Posted @ 8:53 PM



• Roger Corman & Lauren Bacall recognized in the audience. Posted @ 8:54 PM
• Robin Williams presents Supporting Actress Posted @ 8:55 PM
• Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique – Precious Posted @ 8:59 PM
• A standing ovation. You can’t deny they loved her performance. Posted @ 9:00 PM
• I was not impressed by Mo’Nique’s speech. I loved her performance, but there was something mechanical and prepared about the speech. Posted @ 9:01 PM
• Colin Firth presents An Education Posted @ 9:02 PM
• Sigourney Weaver presents in front of one of the ugliest backdrops in Oscar history…oh and presents Art Direction. Posted @ 9:05 PM
• Best Art Direction: Avatar Posted @ 9:07 PM
• Tom Ford & Sarah Jessica Parker present Costume Design Posted @ 9:09 PM



• Best Costume Design: The Young Victoria Posted @ 9:10 PM
• Charlize Theron presents Precious Posted @ 9:12 PM
• Is this one of the most boring Oscars because it’s slow (contrary to producers’ desires) or b/c the winners aren’t that interesting to me? Posted @ 9:16 PM
• A horror tribute at the Oscars? Played for laughs of course…and that was it. Pathetic. Posted @ 9:18 PM
• Oh no…Twilight stars Kristen Stewart & Taylor Lautner present horror film clips??? It’s not even a horror film? Posted @ 9:19 PM
• The horror film montage was fantastic! Posted @ 9:23 PM
• Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick and the voice of Morgan Freeman present Sound Editing. Posted @ 9:23 PM
• Best Sound Editing: The Hurt Locker Posted @ 9:25 PM
• Best Sound Mixing: The Hurt Locker Posted @ 9:27 PM
• Presented Sound Awards: Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick and the voice of Morgan Freeman. Posted @ 9:30 PM



• Presenting Best Picture nominee Inglourious Basterds – John Travolta Posted @ 9:30 PM
• So, it looks like The Hurt Locker’s going to end up with 7 awards in total, including Best Picture. Avatar will end up with two. Posted @ 9:32 PM
• Sandra Bullock presents Cinematography Posted @ 9:35 PM
• Best Cinematography: Avatar Posted @ 9:36 PM
• Demi Moore presents In Memorium Posted @ 9:37 PM
• James Taylor sings over the In Memoriam segment. Posted @ 9:41 PM
• Jennifer Lopez, Sam Worthington present Original Score Posted @ 9:45 PM
• WTF is the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers? Lame dance montage…bring back the song performances! Posted @ 9:46 PM
• The choreographer should be fire. Posted @ 9:49 PM



• or fired… Posted @ 9:49 PM
• Best Original Score: Up Posted @ 9:52 PM
• Gerard Butler & Bradley Cooper present Visual Effects Posted @ 9:54 PM
• Best Visual Effects: Avatar Posted @ 9:55 PM
• Jason Bateman presents Up in the Air Posted @ 9:57 PM
• Matt Damon presents Documentary Feature Posted @ 10:01 PM
• Best Documentary Feature: The Cove Posted @ 10:04 PM
• Tyler Perry presents Editing Posted @ 10:06 PM
• So, they need to explain Editing, but avoid explaining Cinematography, probably because they don’t award great cinematography… Posted @ 10:07 PM
• Best Editing: The Hurt Locker Posted @ 10:07 PM
• Keanu Reeves presents The Hurt Locker Posted @ 10:09 PM



• Pedro Almodovar, Quentin Tarantino present Foreign Language Film Posted @ 10:14 PM
• Best Foreign Language Film: El Secreto de Sus Ojos – Argentina Posted @ 10:17 PM
• Kathy Bates presents Avatar Posted @ 10:19 PM
• Tim Robbins, Colin Farrell, Vera Farmiga, Julianne Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer recognize the Best Actor nominees Posted @ 10:24 PM
• While I miss the “welcome to the club feeling” of last year’s acting awards, this isn’t too bad Posted @ 10:29 PM
• Best Actor: Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart Posted @ 10:32 PM
• Michael Sheen, Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Stanley Tucci, Peter Sarsgaard Posted @ 10:40 PM



• After Kate Winslet presented Best Actor, here’s Sean Penn presenting Best Actress. Posted @ 10:47 PM
• Best Actress: Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side Posted @ 10:48 PM
• Barbra Streisand presents Best Director Posted @ 10:52 PM
• Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker Posted @ 10:55 PM
• Tom Hanks presents Best Picture (without the customary commercial break prior). Posted @ 10:58 PM
• Best Picture: The Hurt Locker Posted @ 10:58 PM
• And there you have it. History made. Blockbusters told to shove it. And a boring Oscarfest that wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but… Posted @ 11:10 PM
• That was quite a ride…the constant switching between browser windows was more exciting than the Oscarcast…now it’s time for bed. Posted @ 11:20 PM