All right. We knew Matthew McConaughey would probably utter his famous line, with that seductive drawl, while accepting his award for best actor at the Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica.
Then and there, we knew for sure he would be lifting some heavy metal on Oscar night, but we probably knew that all along. “It was hard,” he said, “but in the end, the experience paid off.”
Days later, it was time for the big show. On the Oscar red carpet, Matthew added, “This is the gold standard. There is only one first time, and this is it.” Matthew arrived looking old-school-cool with his wife and mom. He said he is relishing the moment but, “I’ve got three kids. Tomorrow I’ll probably be making breakfast.”
Whew! What a great season for movies and on Sunday night, they celebrated the Super Bowl equivalent to the best in film.
Throw in host Ellen DeGeneres, Pink, Bette Midler and U2, and you’ve got yourself one heck of a show.
I agree with mega-producer Harvey Weinstein that this has been one of the most riveting seasons in years.
Considering that not long ago, a silent movie and a cute pup swept the awards, what a time to pick performances of a lifetime; not just Matthew for “Dallas Buyers Club,” but Bruce Dern for “Nebraska” and Chiwetel Ejofor in “12 Years a Slave.” They reminded me of how movies can transport you.
Alongside the best actor nominees, there was the guy who took me back to the 1990s.
A few years after I moved to Malibu, I went to the local theater. I saw a little film with this young kid in it called “Titanic,” by Malibu producer James Cameron. I was doing movie reviews back then. Instead of rating movies by stars, I did watches (as in how many times you had to look at your watch). “Titanic” was three hours long. Although groundbreaking, there were a lot of watches on that one.
Over the years, I have watched that “Titanic “ kid, Leo DiCaprio, get many Oscar nods and grow into another three hour movie, “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
This year, I thought Leo was “king of the world.” His academy-nominated film was also three hours, but I never looked at my watch. My husband (who has a movie attention span of a hummingbird) never stopped leaning forward and thought it was one of the best films he’s ever seen.
“There were only two films I fought tooth and nail to put on the screen,” Leo said at the Oscars, “This was one of them and both were with Marty [director Martin Scorsese].”
Once again, the competition was just too tough.
Then, just think about who was left off the list all together: the legendary Tom Hanks in “Captain Phillips” and Robert Redford in “All is Lost.”
As expected, “12 Years a Slave” went on to claim the big best picture prize.
Still, there were plenty of surprises, like Pink singing, but not swinging, while belting out “Over the Rainbow” to a standing ovation. Malibu’s “The Edge” also got the room on its feet with Bono and the boys from U2. Then there was host Ellen taking star-spangled selfies that crashed Twitter, and ordering delivery pizza mid-show.
It was a great evening that was fun, exciting, gripping and captivating. And after all, that’s what the movies are all about.