I have been writing these for a while, so here goes . . .
I watched the Oscars last night. As far as the awards go, I think it played out mostly as expected for the main awards except that Parasite won Best Picture and Best Director instead of 1917 and Sam Mendes. Even that wasn’t terribly unexpected. I didn’t see Parasite. It started playing at my local theater in the last few weeks, but I didn’t get around to watching it. I’m not sure I like the idea of a foreign film winning best picture. I am sure there are a lot of movies made all over the world that are great, but if you can’t understand it in its native language, you are missing a lot, and I would hate to think that every best picture made in every year until this year was in English. Maybe just let the rest of the world have the foreign film category and people who want can explore from there. Federico Fellini won Best Foreign Language Film 4 times, but was never even nominated for Best Picture. Oscar nominates enough small movies already without opening it up to every small movie in the world, but it kind of looks like that is where things are headed. I’m not saying this because I don’t like or appreciate foreign films, just that I don’t see how foreign films can get a fair shake, even if they are allowed in to the category. Who is going to compare the best movie in Poland with the best movie in Brazil and decide if they are better than the best movie in America? Like I say, I haven’t seen Parasite, so maybe it really is that good, and the year seemed a little weak to me anyway. 1917 was my highest rated of seven movies I saw in the Best Picture category and it was number 7 on my Top 10.
Not having a host works fine. Steve Martin and Chris Rock did fine (not great) in the opening monologue as the non-hosts, and that was about all that job was anyway. The opening number was good despite Janelle Monae’s *two* wardrobe malfunctions right off the bat (a missed button in her blouse that she fixed, but she never did get her Mr. Rogers sweater buttoned). She recovered quickly and it was a very good way to start the broadcast. It was great seeing Brad Pitt get his first acting Oscar and even though it was only as a supporting actor. He was the best part of that movie.
The presenters were pretty bad, but they always are. Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph’s thing went on for way too long and wasn’t funny, like they made it up on the way out to the stage (hey let’s pretend we’re angry; go with it). Some of the nominated songs didn’t deserve to be sung through, including Randy Newman’s (who I really like, but this wasn’t his best work and it looked they spent about $10 on cotton to glue to nearby objects to make it like he was in the clouds?). Even Elton John’s song, which actually won, was repetitive and not that good. I did like that Frozen II showed off the singers from the international language tracks of the movie, even if it was still mostly Idina Menzel singing in English. The Harriet Tubman song was probably the best performed.
I was happy to see the love letters to the Best Actor and Best Actresses gone as well as past stunts to visit adjacent theaters or otherwise appreciate the little people that pay admission and support all the millionaires in the room. One of the few time wasters was a music in cinema montage (where a guy introduced Lin Manuel Miranda, who introduced the piece) that ended with a live performance by Eminem, which I guess was a big secret, but so was all of it for me. It was still good. Another time waster was a guy who rapped a summary of the awards show up to the minute, which was pretty impressive even if it was unnecessary. While I skipped most of the acceptance speeches as soon as the winner started going down their thank you list (or before for the minor categories; I don’t mind not hearing from production designers and sound mixers). I think it would be better to do the technical awards separately and then do small pieces about the winners each year, showing what they do and what they are doing that is better than everyone else. I also skipped the speeches for best documentary and short films. Who sees these? I did think it was interesting that while no women were nominated for best director, four of the nominated documentaries had women directors. Maybe a case of women not taking the flashy jobs and instead making more personal movies. The only female director that might have deserved a nomination this year was probably Greta Gerwig for Little Women (a best picture nominee, though there were 9 in that category so at least 4 directors were going to get left out), and it was still pretty marginal, plus she was nominated two years ago. And her husband didn’t get one for Marriage Story either. It’s competitive, even for white men! Hollywood is pretty liberal and bashing them for a lack of inclusiveness while almost every other business in the world isn’t nearly as inclusive, seems unnecessary. Not that the disparity isn’t there. For the first time ever a woman got to conduct the orchestra, but she still only got one song (before returning the baton to a black guy . . .).
I was also happy to see my top movie of the year, Toy Story 4, win best animated feature. There was some real doubt on this since Klaus had won some other awards, but Oscar likes Pixar.
I watched as much as I could of Joaquin Phoenix and Renee Zellweger accepting their awards, but their speeches made it clear why actors, even the best actors in the world, need a script and a director. I think it is unfair to let them blather on and on while other people are played off, but I didn’t see that many people played off this year since I skipped most of the speeches. I skipped all of Parasite’s acceptance speeches since they don’t really speak English and it took twice as long with the interpreter, and still they said nothing. Olivia Colman was hilarious in her brief bit introducing the Best Actor nominees, saying her husband said her winning the Oscar last year was the best night of his life, and pointing out that they have three children, which is a nice piece of perspective. She was really funny last year when she won and could probably host, reminding me a lot of Ricky Gervais.