Commentary on the 86th Academy Awards

Ellen said it perfectly: "It's going to be an exciting night. Anything can happen, so many different possibilities. Possibility #1: 12 Years a Slave wins Best Picture. Possibility #2: You're all racists."

12 Years a Slave, the seemingly indomitable Best Picture favorite for months, came out on top yesterday with three wins, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress for the mighty Lupita Nyong'o. Predictors clearly had these as their number ones, and it's hard to argue against them. 12 Years a Slave is an incredible and undeniably important movie- one for the ages. It's even already being incorporated into high school curriculums throughout the country, because of its harrowing and brutally honest account of the horrors of slavery.

I, for one, am mostly happy with where the Oscars went yesterday. I can concede that even though 12 Years wasn't my favorite film of the year, it was still very impressive, and its importance cannot be overlooked. I am also happy Gravity, in my opinion the best film of 2013, swept the technical awards and went home with seven out of its ten nominations, including Best Director for Alfonso Cuaron. In my book, both 12 Years a Slave and Gravity were the big winners- an almost evened out tie that proved both of these movies will be one for the history books.

Dallas Buyers Club did pretty well too, with Best Actor for Mathew McConaughey, Best Supporting Actor for Jared Leto, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling (What?!? It beat Jackass and The Lone Ranger?!?). Cate Blanchett ended her near-perfect awards run by taking home Best Actress for Blue Jasmine (Sandra Bullock was robbed!). Frozen won their two awards, and Her took home Best Original Screenplay for Spike Jonze's fascinating modern fable. The short, foreign, and documentary films largely went as predicted as the rest of the winners of the evening. Not too many surprises last night, but certainly a lot of worthy winners.

Of course, quid pro quo, the dominating presence of Gravity, 12 Years a Slave, and Dallas Buyers Club meant the shunning of several nominees. Nebraska, Captain Phillips, and The Wolf of Wall Street came out empty handed. But the biggest surprise shut out was American Hustle, at once a leading contender for Best Picture, nominated for 10 Academy Awards but lost them all. David O. Russell will get his Oscar one day, and all of the actors in his '70's picture have all become Academy darlings in their own rights. You should still see the film- it's a lot of fun, and should have received some Oscars to further its success.

As for the show itself, Ellen DeGeneres did a marvelous job as host, and even gave a surprisingly effective opening monologue (which included the multi-prong joke, my favorite of the evening: "Jonah Hill showed us something in The Wolf of Wall Street that I haven't seen for a long, long time."). However, her real talent shone when she walked among the audience members, cracking jokes, taking pictures, and even handing out pizza to the starving celebrities. She introduced most of the presenters, which is what a host should do but rarely does; Ellen was incredibly involved in the ceremony, which made her an entertaining host, probably one of the best in recent memory. They even got her to wear a Wizard of Oz dress!

Ellen's best gimmick? Having a TON of big names come together for a giant selfie, after challenging Meryl Streep to help her break the record for most ReTweets on a Twitter photo. And that they did- the photo has been RT'd more than 2 MILLION TIMES, making it easily the most successful. In fact, the trick worked so well that it literally caused Twitter to shut down for a few moments. This shows the lasting power of the Academy Awards, and how fun a ceremony can be when a host actually tries.

The performances were all-in-all awesome, with Pharell's upbeat "Happy" getting celebrities to stand on their feet- and even encouraged Amy Adams, Lupita Nyong'o, and even Meryl Streep to get up and dance with him. U2 and Karen O. sang their songs well, and Idina Menzel gave a Broadway rendition of the eventual winner "Let It Go". Bette Midler sang a beautiful tribute after the "In Memoriam" section, and Pink did a nice job with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" during the Wizard of Oz tribute (which was itself much better than the James Bond disaster last year).

The show otherwise went pretty well. They compacted from the over-booked show last year, only having a few montages that were well edited and showed a variety of famous movies from this year and of film's history. While some complained about them, the tributes to animation, real-life, and film heroes were still enjoyable walks down memory lane. The presenters were mostly alright, with Bill Murray standing out as a first-time Oscar presenter who remembered his friend Harold Ramis, who recently passed away. Kevin Spacey stole the show throughout, helping Ellen hand out pizza, tipping the delivery man, and even impersonating his now-famous House of Cards accent.

Yes, the ceremony went overtime. Sure, there was a few disappointments in the winners. But can we at least acknowledge that this was a phenomenal year for film, and no matter how you feel about the winners, that we can be proud for those who did? 12 Years a Slave was by no means my favorite film of 2013, but it was still an incredible experience. Gravity won by taking home the most Academy Awards, and that in my book is consolation enough for a movie that will go down in history as one of the most important technological breakthroughs in cinema history. This has been a long (and I mean LONG) Oscar season, so it's nice to know that it ended on a positive note. Congratulations to all the winners of the 86th Academy Awards!

Well, there you have it. Oscar Season 2013. I have had a blast these past few months, but time to return to normal. Reviews of 2014's early movies, including The Lego Movie and Need for Speed, will hopefully be up soon. In the meantime, check out some of this year's Academy Award winners!