"Stay Weird, Stay Different": Imitation Game Writer's Oscars Speech
Max Read · 02/23/15 01:25AMHere's Imitation Game writer Graham Moore's Oscars acceptance speech. Full text below.
Here's Imitation Game writer Graham Moore's Oscars acceptance speech. Full text below.
At this point in Lady Gaga's career, she has begun transitioning from spicy pop tart in a meat suit to subdued Barbara Streisand ballad-singer, and when she was called in to a perform a medley of Sound of Music staples in the stead of Julie Andrews, she did not disappoint. In fact, she sounded amazing. A real stunner.
John Travolta and Idina Menzel presented Best Original Song tonight with a bit that referenced Travolta's pronunciation screw up at last year's Academy Awards, which you certainly have never forgotten nor wished to forget. The whole thing was totally boring and predictable but it did include a very normal interaction between Travolta, a man, and Menzel, a woman.
John Legend and Common came together tonight for a stirring performance of "Glory," the song they wrote for civil rights film Selma. Because the Oscars have thus far been lackluster, uncomfortable, and flat (as they tend to be), watching the two perform "Glory" on an Edmund Pettus Bridge was tonight's standout and the night ain't even over.
Host Neil Patrick Harris welcomed Selma star David Oyelowo and Cake star Jennifer Aniston to the stage this evening with these words: "It's my pleasure to welcome two people who absolutely deserve to be here tonight: Jennifer Aniston and David Oyelowo!"
While doing that thing where people come out and talk about nominees for Best Picture (in this case: Whiplash, The Imitation Game, and Selma), Terrence Howard almost started crying. When he did this, I thought he was leading into an introduction of the notoriously snubbed Civil Rights drama Selma. He was not leading into that, but into The Imitation Game, the Alan Turing biopic. OK, then. I guess he really likes Alan Turing?
The "In Memoriam" montage at the Oscars this year looked beautiful, but brrr—chilly!
The Oscars never forgets to honor its dead with an outsize, syrupy montage embedded somewhere in the last half of the broadcast when most of the audience is drunk or sleeping. This year there were many personalities to be remembered: Robin Williams, Mike Nichols, a few marketing directors that were likely important in some way, and for some reason Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
The Academy Awards that go to movies you haven't seen are usually a little forgettable, but check this out: two British dudes just won for short film, and one of them pretended his statuette was his willie.
After the very beautiful and very boring Polish movie Ida won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, director Pawel Pawlikowski spoke for about 30 seconds before the orchestra began playing him off, just as he was thanking his late wife. As the music swelled so did Pawlikowski's voice, until the show's producers finally admitted defeat and cut off the orchestra. His steadfastness inspires us all.
Wes Anderson, a mouse-man and also a movie director, is at the Oscars tonight with a decidedly "alt" looking woman. HMMM. How did she get in? Who is she? Is she a spy? My viewing companion says she looks like a two-bit Rachael Leigh Cook, but I am impressed by her hair, which looks natural, her face, which looks natural, her willingness to be myopic in public, and her vintage wedding dress.
Dakota Johnson brought her mom Melanie Griffith to the Oscars tonight, and Jaysusss was she embarrassing. It turns out that Mel hasn't seen Fifty Shades of Grey, and she doesn't really plan on seeing Fifty Shades of Grey, because she doesn't have to see "that" to know Dakota is a great actress. Moommm.