 |
| Colin Firth celebrates after winning the Oscar for Best Actor at the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony. |
The 83rd Academy Awards
Ceremony date: February 27, 2011
Best Picture: The King’s Speech
Best Director: Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech
Best Actor: Colin Firth for The King’s Speech
Best Actress: Natalie Portman for Black Swan
For whatever reason, it has worked out that I have made a number
of major life changes immediately preceding the Oscars, meaning my memory of
the ceremony in certain years is inextricably tied to the events going on in my
life. I completed my college education in December 2010 and moved to Grass
Valley, Calif., to begin my first post-college job on Feb. 14, 2011, 13 days
before the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony.
It was just by chance that my first job out of school happened
to be a half-hour from where my best friend had grown up and where he lived
with his parents after we left school. So, for those first two weeks, before I
secured my first apartment, I stayed in the Leydons’ den. At the time, I preferred
to fall asleep with a movie playing – a habit that continued until I met my
wife, who cannot sleep with noise – so I slept on a pullout sofa and watched an
old VHS copy of Back to the Future most nights.
I commuted to my job at the neighboring town’s local newspaper,
ate dinner with the Leydons, drank with my friend (Sean, whose writing you may
have seen on this site), and generally adjusted to life without the structure of
school. My dad lived two hours south of my new home, and the Leydons became like
a family away from family. They still are. The last weekend before the quarantine
went into full effect, I was in Grass Valley, visiting with Sean, and we had a
lovely brunch with his parents. We ate coffee cake and watched Samsara.
Remember social gatherings?
The Leydons graciously allowed me to throw a miniature Oscars
party in their den. The four of us and a Leydon family friend crammed onto the
couch, finding additional seating room on the ottoman, and ate my homemade
vegetarian spinach lasagna, a step up from the Stouffer’s I had served the year
before. I cannot recall what else I prepared, but I remember being shocked by
how much spinach shrinks when you cook it. I remember communal laughs and fun
and a lovely night. Social gathering.
That ceremony became infamous for co-hosts Anne Hathaway and
James Franco, primarily for Franco being stoned out of his mind throughout the
event. They were lambasted as sleepy, boring, and generally unwatchable. My
secret: I loved it. I thought they were great, and I thought Franco was
hilarious. Who didn’t want more Pineapple Express? I remain in the
minority, but my small group had a good time.
This was the year The King’s Speech beat The
Social Network. Time has been kind to David Fincher’s Facebook drama, with
many recently hailing it as one of the best films, if not the best film, of the
2010s. That is going too far. It is quite good. So is The King’s Speech,
a Best Picture winner that film snobs dismissed as stuffy Academy bait. I have
rewatched both recently, and in my estimation, they are not as far apart as
history would have you believe.
Unfortunately, director Tom Hooper’s subsequent work – the overpraised
Les Misérables, the dour The Danish Girl, and the disastrous
Cats – have only served further to take the shine off of his award
winner. I do not have the time or patience to look into it right now, but it
seems likely no other director’s post-Oscar resume is quite this dire. None of
that takes away from the fine accomplishment of The King’s Speech, but it
is worth remembering the next time you see Hooper’s name on a marquee.
I snuck in a screening of The King’s Speech while I
was visiting my dad for Christmas. I was still living in Humboldt in the
immediate aftermath of graduation. My little car was bedraggled and did not
deserve the beating of a 600-mile roundtrip, so I took a bus down to Tracy. For
the trip back, the route was Tracy to San Francisco to Arcata. There was, however,
a four-hour layover in The City, and I figured I had enough time to get to the
Embarcadero Center Cinema for a screening of the much-hyped Oscar contender. I
was right and I was wrong about that timing.
I remain famous among my friends and acquaintances for my
lack of navigation skill. In the days before you could download Google Maps to your
smartphone, I was all but helpless if placed in even moderately unfamiliar
surroundings. Given this, it was foolish of me to believe I could get to the
theater from the bus station and get back without getting lost. After five
years living in New York City, I feel fairly confident I could do it now, but
at the time, there was no way.
The afternoon screening was packed – the limited release
would grow into a massive sleeper hit – and the audience seemed genuinely moved
and entertained by King George VI’s plight. I had about 45 minutes to make it
back to the station to catch my bus. I spent 20 minutes good and lost,
wandering around central San Francisco. I did not have a clue where I was or
how to get where I was going. I flagged down a cab and did my best to explain
what I needed.
San Francisco is, of course, a city of many bus stations, so
it was not precisely helpful to say to the driver, “Take me to the bus station.”
A familiar calm settled over me. I have been lost many times in much more dire
circumstances, and I have learned to roll with the punches. The driver and I
worked it out together, and I was at the station with minutes to spare. Another
adventure to tell, and another Oscars year in the books.
Quick notes: This was the last year of 10 Best
Picture nominees because Academy members complained they could not come up with
10 worthy nominees. That is obviously ludicrous, but the next year, the system
we have now would be put into place. … The best of the 10 nominees in my
estimation was Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours, and the lineup was not
particularly strong in a somewhat down year for film. … That said, I find it delightfully
subversive that Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop and Yorgos Lanthimos’
Dogtooth found their way into the room. … This was the first year I was
able to catch the short films in a theater. They were lovely, but since we are
running long here, I will save that story for another time.
Next time: The biggest Oscars party I have thrown and a
rather mediocre year for nominees.
No comments:
Post a Comment