MY LONG-DELAYED OSCARS POST-MORTEM: THOUGHTS ON THE SHOW, AND ALL THE WINNER!

So, I didn't watch the Oscars live this year.

I mentioned that I wouldn't, and I have good reasons. Admittedly, this wasn't a year that I found myself particularly enthralled to watch them, but that's not the reason I skipped it. I just had other things happening that I had to get to. I figured it would be a fine show and from all accounts, it seems like it was, fine. Maybe better than fine. I mean, Jimmy Kimmel's always gonna be solid, and watching the replay on Hulu, he was solid. Not his best, actually this probably was his,- well, I don't want to say his worst, 'cause that implies bad, but it was his least. 

He kept it low-key, and didn't do too much to get in the way of the show, and it was nice. Comfortable, nice, entertaining. Eh, probably, shouldn't have dwelled on Malala as much as he did, and I don't know,- he wasn't at his top form, with some of his jokes, but he was consistent and he was solid. Although he went back to the Matt Damon gag, and somehow, there wasn't a reveal at the end that Matt Damon was in the Cocaine Bear suit, feels like a giant missed opportunity, but I kinda get it wanting to go light and simple.  Stick to the classics. Besides, last year's show has become so thoroughly overshadowed, it feels like everybody now thinks Chris Rock hosted the show. Which, eh, he did not. He did not. He just presented Best Documentary to Questlove. 

You're trying to remember who actually hosted the show last year, aren't you? (It was Wanda Sykes, Regina Hall and Amy Schumer, there, call yourselves down)

I also liked that the show did the clever thing of showing how every category matters and just give a glimpse of how important they are to the finished product in each category. Like when they showed an example of Gregg Toland's famous under-the-floor high hat shot with the Cinematography award, why the sound of a door matters as much as the sound of fighter jet, how bad "Cocaine Bear" would've looked without special effects, all this stuff was really good. It kept me interested and I think it engaged the viewers. It's not new, but I like it when they do that. It shows how each award is important and matters. 

And I thought some of the performances were good. I liked the "RRR" performance, as well as Lady Gaga's in particular. I was a little perturbed at Sofia Carlson announcing Diane Warren during their performance; I mean, girl, I don't know who the hell you are, and you're gonna introduce Diane Warren?! That one was boring to me. David Byrne sparking hot dog finger hands was definitely a site to see though. 

Yeah, overall, it's a good back-to-basics return to what the Oscars can and should be. If it's underwhelming, and I do think it was, it's mainly due to this year's crop of films, just also being very underwhelming. Don't confuse that for being disappointed in any of the winners, although I don't know why everybody loves that damn 'The Elephant Whisperers" documentary short subject so much. People must like elephants more than I do, 'cause I was just bored. Maybe I just don't like animals;  I didn't think too much of that, "The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse" short either that won for Animated Short either. (Yeah, this is a year, where winners-wise I'm mostly angry at the short awards. I mean, it's not as bad as when "Dear Basketball" won, which, I still can't believe won a few years ago, but eh...)

Anyway, while it didn't feel like it for much of the show, what we got was a huge sweep for "Everything Everywhere All at Once". The final count was seven, the most a single film has won since "Gravity" in 2013, and the most a Best Picture winner has won since "Slumdog Millionaire"'s eight in 2008, and they tied a record with three Oscars for acting. Only "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Network" had previously won that many, and neither of those film won Best Picture. (Wait, I know "Network" lost to "Rocky", what did "Streetcar..." lost too. [Google search] oh yeah, "An American in Paris"; people really thought that was good once upon a time, didn't they...) Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis both gave very emotional and wonderful speeches to start off this show. Ke's win was basically was ordained for months, which makes him the second person of Asian descent to win the Supporting Actor Oscar, after Dr. Haing S. Ngor's win in '84 for "The Killing Fields", but Jamie Lee's win was a bit of a surprise. Not just because Angela Bassett was considered the favorite, but also because she won against a co-star, as Stephanie Hsu was also nominated, and I thought she had a better shot at winning originally, but I guess if there's anybody who really deserves a career-Oscar, it's probably her. It is the first time someone's beaten a castmate in this category since Olivia Spencer's win in "The Help" where she beat Jessica Chastain. 

Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian actress to win Best Actress, and her speech was a highlight for me. I always thought the presumptiveness of Cate Blanchett's win was way too ordained, and besides Michelle Yeoh's career is arguably more important and influential and it's about time she got her recognition. I love "Tar", but when Cate Blanchett starts dancing her way through a barrage of deadly martial artists, then maybe we'll talk.  

If there was an Oscar nominee in Best Actor, I'm sure "Everything Everywhere All at Once" would've probably won that too, but instead, Brendan Fraser, got the heartfelt win for his work in "The Whale". First time in a long time that the Best Actor winner didn't come from a Best Picture nominee; you gotta go back to Jeff Bridges's win for "Crazy Heart" in '09 to see that. The movie also won for Makeup, which made it one of the rare films to win multiple Oscars this year. The only other one was "All Quiet on the Western Front" which did shockingly well in the craft categories. On top of winning International Feature, the film won arguably surprise wins for Cinematography, Score and Production Design, the latter being the biggest so-called upset of the night if you check Gold Derby's rankings before the show. 

Guillermo Del Toro increased his career Oscar total as his "Pinocchio" won Animated Feature, this marks his third win in three different categories. Sarah Polley won the Adapted Screenplay Oscar for "Women Talking", which to a degree, feels a bit like the arbitrary win for the Best Picture nominee that probably had the most frustration from people for getting snubbed. (and along with films like "Everything Everywhere...." and "The Banshees of Inisherin" make great arguments for why the Oscars should adopt an Ensemble category, as well as a Casting category, hint, hint...) The only other nomination that film got was in Best Picture, and thank goodness that streak continues. The last time a film won this category without a BP nomination was 1998's "Gods and Monsters" but winning this category with only two nominations, total, the first time that's happened since Billy Bob Thornton won for "Sling Blade" in '96. Huh, both times, they're actors who win it in writing. That's weird. 

"Top Gun: Maverick" and "Avatar: The Way of Water" won their arbitrary awards for being big Hollywood blockbusters the Academy feels required to honor every year, winning in Sound and Visual Effects respectively. The Visual Effects crew were the only ones for whom their mike got cut off this year, despite earlier threats from Kimmel that "Naatu Naatu" dancers would dance them off if they ran long. That's not good; if you know the history, you get why that stings 

Speaking of, "RRR"'s popular "Naatu Naatu" song win, not only marks Diane Warren's fifteen loss in the category, but it also marks the first time an Indian film has ever won at the Oscars, which, is, on one hand, is one of those facts that's mind-blowing at first, but then you think about it, and it kinda makes sense. I'm told "RRR" is a, Tollywood movie, which..., okay, man, India's cinema is weak,- Google help me out here....

(Google search)

Okay, so Tollywood or Tulugu Cinema- okay, actually I might already be wrong on that, 'cause apparently those are two completely different streams of Indian cinema that work in two different languages altogether. Except maybe it's not, I'm seeing it both ways...- Oh man, why is Indian cinema so freaking complicated to sort though...? (Don't answer that in the comments!!!! I'm just annoyed at it, and annoyed at it and venting frustration; I know enough of the history to get why [aka, I'm sure it's like 90% England's fault] and I'm too tired for the anthropology lessons to learn the rest right now),- basically, Tollywood is the West Bengali of Indian Cinema, so, northeastern part of the country, near Bangladesh, and it's the subset of Indian cinema that gave us Satyajit Ray. So, there. 

A loaded Documentary Feature category ended with "Navalny" winning this year's top honor, a documentary about the Russian opposition and protest leader Alexei Navalny, who Putin has reportedly tried to poison, so this was our reminder about how bad it is there. The Ukrainian President didn't make an appearance, which, honestly is probably for the best. I did catch a couple of the headlines of Zelensky trying/wanting to be on the show, um- I get where he's coming from; he wants to do anything and everything to remind people that the war is still going on and that it matters, blah, blah, blah, America can have a short attention span.... I don't know, I got be honest, that felt a little, weird. I'm glad we didn't go through with that. Maybe it wouldn't have felt so awkward if Zelensky wasn't originally a performer as well. I assume that he's trying to get involved with anything and everywhere and we're just not hearing about it, because y'know, his country's getting invaded, but it does seem a little too weird to keep hearing about him trying to show up at the Oscars. 

Ruth Carter won her second Oscar for Costume Design for the "Black Panther" films, which, on top of her being a legendary costume designer, the first and now, second African-American to win the Oscar, that's the first time somebody's won for the same franchise of films, twice, in this category. Yeah,- it's not the first sequel to win, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" won this category years ago, but the original film didn't win, and if you want to count the first "Fantastic Beasts..." film as apart of the Harry Potter universe, then,- yeah, that's the first time that's happened, but no "Harry Potter" movie won a Costume Design, or for that matter, any Oscars. 

The Daniels, as expected, pulled off the triple wins for Picture, Writing and Directing, the latest in what once was an Oscars rarity that's quickly turning into a regular norm, and they're only the third duo to win Best Director, the first since the Coen Brothers for "No Country for Old Men", they were fun and ecstatic every time. I do like, that for a duo directing team, you can tell the differences between them, and their movies make sense when you see their vastly different influences and how they constantly collide in their work. Also, "Everything Everywhere..."  won for Editing, the first time in a long time you can argue that a comedy won this category. 

Overall, I think the only people who really found the show ecstatic were those who were just super in the "Everything Everywhere..." camp, which, stop, it's a movie. Like, a good movie, but eh,-  IDK, you know my thoughts on fans by now, I'm against them. That said there is a long list of firsts with this Picture win. First sci-fi film to technically win, that one shocked me a bit, first film with a predominantly Asian-American cast to win Best Picture, as well as an Asian-American creator. I saw a lot of people happy about the film's win, and a lot of people upset about it as well. Honestly, to those upset, I kinda want to know what you wanted to happen, or who you hoped would win, 'cause like I said, I've been underwhelmed by most of the nominees, including "Everything Everywhere..." to an extent, but like, it's also the only film I get the passion for, so, yeah. IDK, I know I had a very difficult time cheering for Spielberg's childhood story, or an Aussie's biopic about Elvis, or sequels/remakes to movies I didn't like to begin with, (Okay, that's not entirely fair, I do like the original "All Quiet on the Western Front", but it's not like a favorite or anything.) I know I had a very hard time finding inspiration out of this year's batch of Oscar films, and perhaps there's other films out there that the Academy and others missed; when I eventually sort through all the films of the year, I'll let you guys know, but yeah, mostly this was an award show that had worthy winners that all felt like worthy winners and this was a worthy award show representing that. 

Okay, the "In Memoriam", was ehhh.... I get why opinions are split on Kimmel's Robert Blake joke, but I'm just happy that somebody did finally recognize the show actually recognized the controversies with this segment. As for me, um, I thought the actual Memoriam...-, eh, again, I hate the guest performers for these, but it wasn't overdone and I could read and see all the names, so if you're gonna do it, this wasn't terrible, and Lenny Kravitz was fine, although it's weird for me to think of him playing a piano. (Also, is he, like, still a thing? Like, last year with H.E.R. I remember thinking of how modern a name they got, but has Kravitz had a hit song in a while; I don't even know. Like, did they get him to do it, 'cause he's kinda mostly an actor now, knows how to sing and basically is a Hollywood nepo baby?) Also, the editing of the montage itself was very blah, especially compared to say SAG's In Memoriam. It was very disappointing in general; they could've done more there.

Also, disappointing, how they instructed me here, and all over the show to download a QR code! I hope this isn't a continuing Oscar trend. I like the fact that there's a webpage with a more elaborate list of people who've past, as well as some very elaborate backstories on their lives and careers, that is a nice touch, and about the only website that they advertised and promoted that I would remotely ever go back to. But, just say the website; I'm not a QR code guy in general; I'm terrible at taking photos on my phones to begin with, and even if I wasn't I would still hate QR codes taking me to websites on my phone, and as much as I appreciate the Sound nominees or whomever, I don't need to be advertised about them through a QR code. IDK, maybe I'll give the benefit of the doubt that they're promoting to younger views and whatnot, future filmmakers who may potential find material like that interesting but, eh.... I think I'd rather just see the donkey one more time. Or just give me the website next time. Or maybe give me the website, on the donkey, there we go. 

Oh well, is their anything else to really add here? 

(Yawn) 

I guess not. It was back to basics, and not a lot memorable moments outside of the awards. No pizza getting ordered, no group selfies, no bringing in a touring crowd of random people. They did everything you want, when you just want a safe entertaining Oscars and honestly, that's fine. Maybe in another year, I would criticize it more for being bland, but you know what, this was a bland year at the movies, so I'm okay with a bland Oscars, or at least one, where the show is in the background and the foreground is the celebration of the movies that they do celebrate, especially with most of the main results were so predestined that I don't think their were any serious prognosticators out their even trying to indicate that some other movie might win. It felt right for the show to just stay out of it's own way and let go of everything, everywhere, and all-, all at the same time. 

Oh, I don't see any of the Red Carpet stuff either, I heard about a little of it, and frankly, most of what I saw shows that, eh, the Red Carpet has also too much of it's luster for me to care about it much anymore. Maybe if Joan Rivers was still here, but frankly I've found myself far less intrigued by Red Carpet coverage over the years. Also, the interviewers, they seem to be constantly getting worst. I know who I'd bring in and how I'd have them approach and question celebs, but my objective would be very different from some of the networks, but eh, I wise their were more interviewers who were more intriguing by the technical aspects of the filmmaking crafts, and not-so-much the "glamour" aspects, of award shows, which, ehh,... or have more people who can do both. I don't mind caring a little about who's wearing who, but eh, if an interviewer can't go further than that, what are they doing there? 

Anyway, hope you all enjoy this year's Oscars. Can't wait for next year's, in the meantime, I'm gonna to get ready to be heavily disappointed by the Emmys later this year.