Screenings

Celebrating Oscar Night at the Rialto
It’s fun watching the Academy Awards show on the big screen, and thanks to Ky Boyd, Sebastopol’s Rialto Cinemas hosted an event benefitting Food For Thought—the Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank on Sunday night. The Rialto’s largest auditorium was brim full of glittery garbed movie lovers who wanted to be there—especially since they didn’t have to watch the TV ads.
Rialto’s Melissa Hathaway (who, we were jokingly told, is the big sister of Best Supporting Actress winner Anne Hathaway) co-hosted locally with Food For Thought Board President, Allen Cone. During the advertising breaks, the pair gamely plodded on reading trivia questions and tossing out prizes to the loudest winners.
One of the perks of watching with an audience is the emotional response to what’s happening down at Hollywood’s Dolby (formerly Kodak) Theater. People literally stood up and cheered as 76-year-old Shirley Bassey belted out her iconic rendition of John Barry’s James Bond theme song for “Goldfinger,” (or, as Welsh-born Bassey has always sung it, “Gold finGAH!”).
By the end of the evening, five other female soloists and a singing “crowd” had wowed the audience. The solos included an amazing Jennifer Hudson selling her signature “And I Am Telling You” song from the 2002 Oscar-winning musical “Chicago,” and Catherine Zeta-Jones seductively dancing while singing “And All That Jazz” from the same musical. In contrast, Adele occasionally got lost behind the too loud off-site orchestra while singing “Skyfall” The delightful Norah Jones sang “Everybody Needs a Best Friend,” the catchy theme song from Seth McFarlane’s movie “Ted,” and Barbra Streisand brought tears to the audiences in both Hollywood and Sebastopol, when she sang “The Way We Were,” as a memorial tribute to songwriter Marvin Hamlish. The “crowd” was the entire name-brand cast from the movie “Les Miserables,” joining together for a rousing rendition of “Suddenly,” the musical movie’s Oscar-nominated song.
Hollywood host Seth McFarlane cracked jokes and even did the old-soft-shoe with Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The singing and dancing were reactions to Star Trek’s Captain Kirk (William Shatner) appearing from the future to help Seth from becoming the Oscar’s “worst host ever.” One funny sequence Captain Kirk tried to prevent involved Seth dressed as a flying nun in order to convince Sally Field to go on a date “in the Trans Am” after the show.  But the most laughter came from the low-brow humor song entitled “I Saw Your Boobs,” where Seth named various actresses and the movies where they appeared topless while the camera caught the negative reactions from the stars seated in the Dolby Theater.
But Seth’s scripted jokes were upstaged in the last few minutes of the night. Saying “she needs no introduction,” Seth walked off the stage before Meryl Streep appeared to announce the nominees and winner for the 2013 “Best Actor” award. The not unexpected winner was Daniel Day-Lewis for his portrait of the 16th President in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln.” But as Day-Lewis clutched his gold statuette, he confessed that he had originally been cast as Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady” (the role which won an Oscar for Meryl Streep last year), and that Streep had been Spielberg’s first choice to play Lincoln. “I’d like to have seen that one,” Day-Lewis quipped.
Unlike other years, there were no really big multi-Oscar winners in 2013 and the surprises came from the stars onstage. One was the kilt Mark Andrews wore alongside his co-director Brenda Chapman to accept their “Best Animated Feature” Oscars for Pixar’s “Brave.” Another was how the limp-haired and glassy-eyed Kristen Stewart ditched the crutches she used on the red carpet (for a heel badly cut by a piece of broken glass), and hobbled unaided to the microphone. But the class act was when “Best Actress” winner Jennifer Lawrence took a tumble on the stairs before accepting the statue for her work in “Silver Linings Playbook” and received a standing ovation. “You guys are just standing up because I fell and that’s really embarrassing but Thank You,” Lawrence said in her acceptance speech.
The Rialto Oscar Night Gala was an enjoyable evening, and I would recommend it to movie lovers for 2014 as well.
 
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