As usual, I watched the Oscars this year. But this was a very, very different broadcast. First, not a great year for movies since a lot of movies were postponed with the theaters being closed most of the year. Second, again due to Covid but with things sort of opening safely, they couldn’t have the usual big Oscars, so they had it at a smaller venue with far fewer attendees, and some people at different places remotely (usually venues, not their houses, like some other award shows). That was nice that they could still dress up and be together even if it wasn’t at the Oscars. There seems to have been a pre-Oscars show with some music numbers, but there were no songs played through in the main broadcast and none performed live, since Quest Love acted as a house DJ. I feel like performing all of the nominated songs can be a bit of a time waster, especially when it isn’t a strong category (maybe they could do one or two if they are good). For some reason they also changed the order of the awards. I started recording the show before watching and maybe an hour after the broadcast started but before watching, I checked on Wikipedia to see who had won the early awards, thinking someone had vandalized the page by putting the director of Nomadland as the winner, since that is usually one of the last awards. Not this year. Director often goes to the same as Best Picture, but not always, so it kind of takes some suspense out early about Best Picture, but I do like that they spread out the awards. I still think Best Picture should have gone last instead of Best Actress and then Best Actor, which really backfired on them since Anthony Hopkins won the final award and he wasn’t there or online. So then it was just over.
I read a really good article by Kyle Buchanan in the New York Times predicting the Oscars and he had a great run for the most part, nailing almost every award (even the minor ones), but I don’t think many predicted Anthony Hopkins would beat Chadwick Boseman, though Buchanan felt like sentiment was peaking for Hopkins. He also predicted Viola Davis would win Best Actress, though he knew it would be close and acknowledged that Frances McDormand probably had a bit of an edge, discounting that because she had won before (can you hear Meryl Streep laughing at you, Kyle?). It’s good to have some surprises though I feel bad for Boseman’s family who probably thought they had this in the bag and planned on giving a wonderful tribute in their acceptance speech on his behalf. Tough enough to lose him as well as a chance for another honor. Still, Boseman left a great body of work that will speak for him forever (I really liked him in Marshall). I have no opinion on who actually deserved it, since like most of the movies nominated for awards this year, I didn’t see his or Hopkins’ performances. Or McDormand’s or Viola Davis’. I only saw a handful of movies nominated for big awards (Mank B, Chicago 7 A-, Promising Young Woman B, and Borat 2 C-) one of my worst showings ever, and not overly impressed with most of those I did see, only one of them in my current Top 10. I’d like to watch all of the Best Picture nominees I missed, plus Ma Rainey and My Octopus Teacher (Best Documentary winner). I know at least a couple are on Netflix, so nothing is stopping me from knocking a few out of the way.
The show moved really well without all the fluff, showing that if they stick with the awards, the pace isn’t a big problem. They didn’t limit acceptance speeches, but I skip a lot of them. Nobody cares about a long list of names of people who helped make best short documentary. And there was no reason for the best foreign film winner to go on for so long about a movie nobody saw (ditto so many of the other small awards). I was really worried when Nomadland’s director handed the microphone to Frances McDormand who has been so preachy in the past, but she kept her part very short, and her speech for Best Actress was also brief, so it didn’t matter that I didn’t really know what she was talking about. I liked when Soul won for Best Animated Feature that Pete Docter let his collaborator, Dana Murray, talk, but then she said she wasn’t supposed to talk (I think she was just supposed to thank a couple of people, but it was funny she got in a few extra sentences). At first I felt kind of bad for Youn Yuh-jung, who won best Supporting Actress and whose English is not very good, but she was actually really funny talking about how to pronounce her name, acting for her sons, and getting to meet Brad Pitt. Supporting Actor winner Daniel Kaluuya had some funny moments in his speech, but was actually harder to understand than Yuh-jung. I like Jon Batiste from Stephen Colbert and it was fun listening to his acceptance for Best Score. I guess since Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross had won before they let him do the talking this time (or maybe they asked for only one speaker when multiple people won, explaining Dana Murray’s comment). Batiste’s music wasn’t all that was used in the movie; his hands were also used to model the main character’s hands, something about his fingers being long and really strong which makes him a better piano player.
There was no real attempt at a monologue or comedy, which, if it can’t be done well, is better skipped I guess, but generally I’d like to see a few funny jokes. The only bit they did was the trivia contest which didn’t go well at first, Andra Day having to be bleeped and acting like it was racism that kept “Purple Rain” from being nominated for Best Song. In fact, all of the songs for Purple Rain were nominated for “Best Original Song Score,” (a different category than Best Song or Best Score) which it won. And that year Stevie Wonder won Best Song for “I Just Called to Say I Love You”. Anyway, after that bump, Glenn Close was pretty hilarious correctly guessing the song from School Daze and dancing to “Da Butt” (she’s a song and dance person from way back, so she might have legitimately known it, but I wonder). It was maybe just as funny watching how hard she was laughing after doing the dance, given that she had already lost Best Supporting Actress at that point, the 8th time she has come up empty at the Oscars.
I think people will say how terrible this year’s Oscars were, and they are right, but mainly because even fewer people than usual saw any of the movies (and how lackluster the movies were). I think there were actually some positives in how it was presented, those changes fixing some things, breaking a few new things, and leaving some things unfixed. The broadcast only went 15 minutes over, which is a feat in itself.