“Shhhh…..”
Under the fluorescent lights of the Olds Dormitory lobby and in the year-round Christmas light-lit ambiance of the Love Shack were Hillsdale College students, awaiting the outcome of the 85th annual Academy Awards, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013.
“Hey guys, I am so glad we get to do this together,” said Mary Clare Smith, freshman, from the huddled blue couches in Olds Lobby as she won the advertisement-guessing-game that entertained the girls between awards announcements
“I didn’t want to go do homework,” junior Rachel Heider said in her vintage Chinese Laundry gown and self done up-do. “I was having fun sitting on the couch wearing a nice dress and watching people in nice dresses talking about movies.”
Heider, along with a group of friends, celebrated the awards with a black-tie gathering in the off-campus house known as the Love Shack. While the Olds girls found the show’s host, Seth McFarlane’s, jokes repulsive and repeated, “get off the stage, there are families watching,” Heider and the Love Shack guests found McFarlane amusing.
“I thought he was great,” she said. “I mean he had some great jokes, especially about the actor getting inside Lincoln’s head with John Wilkes Booth. That was a good one. I thought he was very funny and very spot-on and very mixed, like the classic Oscar host with humor. And he is a really great singer who has released albums, so he utilized that talent and was very personable, I thought, and kept the show moving. He wasn’t just completely apathetic like James Franco last year.”
From Halle Berry’s risque introduction to James Bond’s 50-year anniversary in film, to the final reveals in the 24 categories of the awards, the ceremony reveled in the ceremony’s official theme: “Music and Musicals.”
As Adele, Oscar winner for Best Original Song along with Paul Epworth, took the stage, Smith shushed the chatter around her, and the Love Shack turned the lights off.
“I loved hearing Adele perform ‘Skyfall,’” Heider said. “She was great, and she is really fabulous.”
The same silence continued in Olds as the 2012 film cast of “Les Misérables” took the stage.
“I am already crying. This is just so beautiful,” freshman Mattie Vanderbleek said as she fell into Smith’s arms while “One Day More” was performed.
“Les Miserablés” took home three Oscars for Best Sound Mixing, Best Makeup and Hair Styling, and, most prestigiously, Best Supporting Actress. As Anne Hathaway walked across the stage to receive her award, the girls of Old’s cheered, snapped, and nearly fell off their seats, subtly expressing their approval of the Academy’s decision.
“Good job Anne. You deserve this,” Smith said over the snaps.
“I didn’t think Anne Hathaway should have won her Oscar,” Heider said. “I felt her performance was very histrionic and just very overly emotional and it just wasn’t worth an Oscar and she was not better than Sally Field. Sally Field should have won the Oscar, in my opinion. I didn’t see ‘The Master’ so I can’t really say if Amy Adams was good, but I heard she was good. But I knew, because I saw ‘Lincoln,’ that Sally Fields was just much better than Anne Hathaway, so that really surprised me.”
“Lincoln” received two Oscars for Production Design and Best Actor. The Love Shack grew silent to hear Daniel Day Lewis, Best Actor, as he reached the microphone.
“No one was surprised that Daniel Day Lewis won,” Heider said. “I was surprised that ‘Life of Pi’ took as many Oscars as it did, and I was surprised that ‘Argo’ won Best Picture. I thought they were going to give it to ‘Lincoln’ because the Academy likes to play it safe, but ‘Argo’ won, so I was really happy about that.”
“Life of Pi” took home four Oscars for the Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Director. “Argo” received the long awaited award for Best Picture, along with Best Film Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Helge Bjerck, senior and president of the Hillsdale Film Society, said, “I was pretty surprised by ‘Argo.’ I am worried that I have to take Ben Affleck seriously, and I don’t like that. I can officially tell you that the Hillsdale Film Society is of the opinion that ‘Argo’ did not deserve Best Picture. I don’t think we’ll be showing it.”
Bjerck spent the evening playing video games, he said.
“I watched half of the Oscars last year and it was all just terrible jokes and they dragged it out,” Bjerck said. “And you have to watch the whole thing to see all of the things that you care about because they spread it out and it is not worth my time when I can just look it up later.”
The three-hour-long ceremony exposed the celebrities to ridicule and adoration as the Olds girls laughed at Kristen Stewart’s “usual, emotionless face” and limping, and clapped encouragingly at Jennifer Lawrence’s fall as she received her award.
“That was a graceful fall,” Smith said. “Aww, Jennifer Lawrence is so adorable.”
Jennifer Lawrence won the Oscar for Best Actress, honoring her work in “Silver Linings Playbook,” beating the youngest nominee in Oscar history, Quvenzhané Wallis, 9 years old, for her lead role in “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”
“I saw ‘Silver Linings Playbook,’ and I thought Bradley Cooper actually did better than Jennifer Lawrence in the movie, well, I mean, compared to his other roles,” Heider said. “I really wish they could have given it to the little girl, she was so cute. I wish she could have won just so I could have heard her acceptance speech.”
“Beasts of the Southern Wild” was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Picture. The Hillsdale Film Society will be showing this film next Monday, March 4, at 8 p.m. in the Hames Room.