Another
Oscars come and gone. This year was an odd mix of really expected moments and
big surprises. I definitely had my disappointments, but I had some great
happy-dance moments too.
In
general, I liked the return of the no-host thing. The opening with Janelle
Monáe was audacious but kind of messy. I loved her, and the ensemble of dancers
dressed in a mishmash of prominent costumes from the year in Hollywood weirdly
worked for me (there were Jokers, some Tethered from Us, Dolemites, WWI soldiers, and I caught at least one Queen from Queen and Slim,) but the number as a
whole wasn’t quite a win for me. Steve Martin and Chris Rock tag-teaming the
monologue was more fun. I especially liked the joke about Rock loving “the
first season of The Irishman” and the
remark about Cynthia Erivo being so good as Harriet Tubman “she hid all the
Black nominees.” And just generally, I liked not spending as much time on corny
host bits, like ordering food for the audience (Ellen) or bringing out a
busload of tourists who don’t realize they’re walking onto the Oscar stage
(Kimmel.) Even though the show never seems to get any shorter, it feels like things keep moving better
when we don’t waste time on those bits.
Instead
we got some fun little interludes like an out-of-nowhere performance from
Eminem and a mid-ceremony recap rap from Utkarsh Ambudkar(!) I also really
liked Taika Waititi giving a land acknowledgement before presenting his bit on
the Governors Awards. Presenter banter as usual ranged from delightful to
awkward. I don’t know what Diane Keaton and Keanu Reeves were doing, but I
enjoyed Brie Larson, Sigourney Weaver, and Gal Gadot sharing their plans for a
Hollywood fight club, Penelope Cruz taking Oscar Isaac’s hand and declaring
she’s finally “held an Oscar on this stage” (with Isaac adding, “Oscar’s not so
white this time!”, and James Corden and Rebel Wilson in Cats costumes admitting that no one knows better than them the
importance of good visual effects.
One cool Oscar First was the presenting duo of Shia LeBeouf with Zach
Gottsagen, who was the first actor with Down Syndrome to present at the Oscars.
Right
down the line, all the acting awards went as everyone was predicting they would
go: Joaquin Phoenix for Joker, Renée
Zellweger for Judy, Brad Pitt for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, and
Laura Dern for Marriage Story.
Nothing surprising there, although I was definitely happy for Zellweger and I
thought Pitt’s speech felt very genuine and lovely. I liked the little montages
they showed before each acting category, giving multiple snippets of each
nominee’s performance instead of just one (but it was funny how much obvious
thought went into selecting the most #feminist clips for each of the nominated
actresses!) Other easily-predicted awards were Best Cinematography for 1917 and Best Makeup and Hairstyling for
Bombshell (I loved how effusive one
of the winners was in his admiration for Charlize Theron.)
Elsewhere
in the night, bigger things were happening. I cheered when the beautiful,
precious, heartwarming Hair Love won
Best Animated Short, and I was happy for Elton John and Bernie Taupin winning
Best Original Song for Rocketman. The
award of the night for me was Jojo Rabbit
winning Best Adapted Screenplay – so excited!
But the biggest news was of course the major victories for Parasite. I was glad to see it win Best Original Screenplay, and
when it won Best International Feature, I thought it was probably done for the
night (figuring Academy voters would keep it “in its lane” instead of awarding
it Best Picture as well.) But then Bong Joon Ho won Best Director, and I was
like, “Could it be…?” And it could! Best Picture! Very cool, and I loved how
thrilled the how Parasite crew was throughout
the night. Bong seemed continually flabbergasted, and I especially loved how
during one of his speeches (Best Original Screenplay, I think?), he got the
cast to stand up and had everyone applaud them – it had annoyed me that, once
again, the #OscarsSoWhite focus was mostly on Black actors when the cast of Parasite was also completely overlooked.
Parasite was probably my second favorite of the nominees,
so if Jojo Rabbit couldn’t win –
which I never honestly expected it to – I’m glad that the top prize went to
Bong and crew. Aside from the cool, historic nature of it (this was the first
time South Korea even had a nominee for Best International Feature, and now it
became the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture along with it!), it
was just so superbly made. Some years, the Best Picture choices leaves me
thinking, “Really?” but this is one where I can definitely get behind the
Academy’s decision.
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