Great! I spend most of the last 6 months trying to avoid Les Miserables, having heard enough clips to satisfy my morbid curiosity of how bad these types of maudlin faux down and dirty musicals really are and then.

Whatever justification they have foisting this awful music on us there can be no excuse for submitting us to a musical interlude of Chicago, apparently due to some manufactured anniversary. The awfulness and bloated reputation that both these film enjoy was only highlighted by the classy performances of Adele, Shirley Bassey and the evergreen Barbra Streisand. Basseys performance reminding us of the thing that made so many of the James Bond title songs so memorable; a lesson not lost either on Adele who with Skyfall has brought us the best Bond song since License To Kill.

 The real buzz about this years Oscar ceremony though was whether presenter Seth MacFarlane would bring his withering and unsparing humour to bear on the Tinseltown love-in. The verdict on his performance seems to have been a bit negative; wonderfully anticipated by him in Star Trek sequence. I however (as a big Family Guy fan) found him very funny and finding just the right balance between insulting and incisive humour. He also had the best dance/musical sequence with his ode to Hollywood’s actress’ propensity to have a ‘topless’ clause in their contracts! However his nominated song from his movie Ted was the only low point of his night. That and no Gywneth Paltrow acceptance speech joke, which I thought was a contractual obligation for all Oscar hosts.

We all know how the Hollywood industry mostly vote Democrat but the introduction of politics to the proceedings in the guise of First Lady Michelle Obama presenting the award for best film seems a jarring misstep by the Academy. I wonder what the audience reaction might have been say if a Republican First Lady was presenting the Best Film Award for a film about a C.I.A.operation in a foreign country. If you get over the ridiculousness of having any awards at all; how do you compare Lincoln with Django Unchained, Christoph Waltz with Alan Arkin – then it all comes down to a showcase for the movie industry. Apparently this year the viewing figures were 42.40 million viewers; some market for your wares!

As usual most of the major awards are easily predicted more to do with knowledge of how the Academy actually votes rather than merit. Argo (Best Film, Adapted Screenplay) and Life of Pi (Best Director, Cinematography) were the big winners and it is hard to argue against either as both were standout movies in a very good year for film.

I fear that by winning the Best Actress Award that Jennifer Lawrence may now be too ‘big’ for roles such as her stunning breakthrough one in Winter’s Bone and indeed her award winning one here in Silver Linings Playbook. As regards Daniel Day Lewis, maybe from hereon, for fear of winning the Best Actor Award for a possible 4th time, he will ONLY take on roles in ‘small’ movies and be careful never to go anywhere near a Weinstein project. While the Oscars can be great fun for any movie lovers it does tend to be a bit of a black-hole for cinema in general. There are plenty of equally worthy movies which do not make the nominations (The Sessions, Moonrise Kingdom, etc,) while independent and foreign movies barely get a look in; the former could not afford the costly lobbying campaign and the latter is stymied by Academy rules.

Also can we ever hope to see a documentary make a breakthrough out if it’s own category to the Best Film category as some foreign movies have done (Amour this year for instance); if it was ever going to happen it had to be this year (Searching for Sugarman, Queen of Versailles, were not even nominated in their category such was the competition)?

Finally I thought the Academy might own up as to why or how Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close got nominated for Best Picture at last years Oscars. I am still waiting!

This article is written by K.J. Fitzpatrick. The first Guest author review in Our Movie Blog.  Share your views in Comments. Cheers.