Hollywood awoke Monday after a night of post-Oscar partying to a cocktail of mixed reaction to the biggest event on the movie industry calendar.
Among the main talking points in the trendy cafes on streets such as Rodeo Drive, Melrose Place and Sunset Boulevard were the Jekyll and Hyde performance of Oscar host Seth MacFarlane, the snubbing of Steven Spielberg, Robert de Niro and the Osama bin Laden movie Zero Dark Thirty, and the surprise presentation of the best picture Oscar by First Lady Michelle Obama.
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times' noted film critic, said the 85th annual Academy Awards were already being called "the Year of the Snub," but also pointed out that it yielded the most balanced Oscar distribution in recent years.
Life of Pi was the nominal leader with four Oscar, including best director and cinematographer, while Argo won best picture, adapted screenplay and film editing. Les Miserables also won three Oscars, including best supporting actress for Anne Hathaway, while Lincoln, Skyfall and Django Unchained all collected two trophies apiece.
"In a year this rich, the Academy chose to spread out its honours instead of rewarding one single film with a near sweep," said Entertainment Weekly's Anthony Breznican. "Life of Pi or Lincoln could easily have claimed the top prize if the dynamic had shifted just a little bit."
Still, the winner was Argo - the first time in 80 years that the best picture accolade has gone to a film whose helmer was not a nominee in the best director category. The conventional wisdom was that Academy members compensated for the snub of Ben Affleck as director by choosing his film for the top award.
Some of the snarkiest comments of any Oscar year always come from the direction of Deadline.com's Nikki Finke who explained the Spielberg snub like this:
"When you've been moviedom's legend for seemingly forever, the Academy voters can't wait to knock you off your pedestal," she said. "OK, I'll say it; Hollywood actually hates Spielberg. And denying him an Oscar is their unsubtle way of showing it."
There was less mystery about the snub of Zero Dark Thirty, whose Oscar chances were apparently ruined by the political controversy surrounding its alleged inaccuracies about the use of torture in gleaning the information leading to the locating of bin Laden.
Controversy didn't seem to hurt Django Unchained that much. Creator Quentin Tarantino won best original screenplay, and Christoph Waltz took the supporting actor Oscar despite widespread controversy about the film's graphic violence and allegations that it disrespected the legacy of slavery.
There was also controversy about the first-ever participation of a first lady in the Oscar ceremony. Right-wing bloggers led the chorus of protest, often arguing that it was the Obamas' payback for all the support they have received from Hollywood over the years.
"It makes both the president and the first lady seem small and grasping," said Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post. "In this case, it was just downright weird."
Opinion was also mixed about the performance of Seth MacFarlane. Stars such as Russell Crowe, Steve Martin and William Shatner all took to Twitter to congratulate him on his performance.
Finke didn't agree, calling his show opening "one of the lamest ever."
But the more balanced assessment was given by the Washington Post's Lisa De Moraes.
"MacFarlane, the potty-mouth cartoon mogul turned latter-day lounge lizard, did a fairly middle-of-the-road job as host on a fairly middle-of-the-road telecast," she wrote. "What you got was a combination of sicko and retro, an Oscar show hosted by someone who waited until Oscar night to discover that he's only so-so at stand-up comedy."