93rd Oscars Wrap Up

THE 93RD ACADEMY AWARDS

Host: None

Winners: Nomadland, Chloé Zhao, Anthony Hopkins, Frances McDormand, Daniel Kaluuya, and Yuh-jung Youn

Notable Occurrences/Trivia: 

+Zhao becomes the 2nd woman to win Directing, and the first woman of color to do so.

+Hopkins wins his 2nd Best Actor Oscar, while McDormand wins her third Best Actress Oscar. The latter joins Daniel Day-Lewis and Katharine Hepburn as the only performers with three (or in Hepburn's case, 4) Lead Oscars. 

+In the first time since 1972, the award for Best Picture was not presented last. 

+Yuh-jung Youn becomes the first Korean to win an acting Oscar.

+The show takes place at Union Station instead of the Dolby Theatre, where it had been held since 2002. 

+The nominated songs were performed in pre-recorded segments, and aired during the pre-show. 

The Good:

+Well, it took place. 

+No zoom calls.

+The opening with Regina King arriving at the show actually felt like a movie I would watch. 

+The pre-recorded performances that aired during the pre-show were mostly pretty good. I think maybe opening up the performances to other locations for future ceremonies might be a good idea.

+The first of the performances was "Husavik" and it was easily the best. And probably the best moment of the night. 

+The clips they did show for Picture, International Feature Film, Animated Feature, and Documentary were fairly good, and I'm glad they just weren't trailer excerpts. 

+I liked the early parts of Laura Dern, Reese Witherspoon, and Steven Yeun's presenations where they mentioned seeing movies at a young age. If they can figure out a way to incorporate stuff like that, but pick up the pace a bit, it would be a nice touch. 

+Angela Bassett can present and liven things up even when she's introducing the In Memoriam.

+The outdoor part of the venue featured during the red carpet was kind of nice. 

+With the exception of Zendaya, all the presenters are Oscar-nominees or Oscar-winners. None of last year's "junior presenters" bullshit. 

+The West Side Story trailer premiere - more trailer premieres during the Oscars, please!

The Bad:

Ooof, where to begin. Instead of just bullet points, I'll just free write. 

So, the show largely started going downhill after about 10 minutes. Good opening, Fennell's speech was good, their letting her and the other winners speak...but the show feels a little too low key. There was a lack of gravitas, for lack of a better word. I know having a dinner party-ish environment that harkens back to the days of the early ceremonies was probably the goal. Maybe they needed more booze, because there was a stark lack of energy from the attendees. The winners are going long with their speeches. No one's being played off. I usually like that and want it, but now it's clear why they start with the wrap-up music. People will just ramble. Numerous speeches felt like they were about to end, then didn't. That makes the night a long slog. 

Minus the four categories mentioned above as well as the Honorary Oscar categories, no clips are shown. Clips would help break up the monotony. So would musical numbers. And some old fashioned banter, but everyone is presenting by themselves. The introductions to each nominee all start to feel the same. I don't remember a single one? Phoenix skipped over it, bless him. Zellweger sold it the best. Dern's writing was lame. Don't even remember Pitt. Harrison Ford probably gets the best introduction, talking about Blade Runner's test screening reaction. Ford is so zoinked out at these things, though. Even Rita Moreno, a ball of energy, comes out to little fanfare. When they finished announcing some nominees, no one in the audience is clapping. Barely anyone received any enthusiasm. Were they giving out Ambien? Wasn't everyone excited to be around people again? I guess everyone realized there was no afterparty and this was as exciting as things were going to get. 

Bryan Cranston presents from the Dolby. It looks beautiful. The beautiful red theater. It looks like the Oscars. It's empty. He shows a clip package. It almost feels like an Oscar night. Union Station is nice. They did what they could with it. But the stage feels too small. During the show, there's a constant murmur being heard likely from the rest of the venue. It gets annoying at times, especially with the dead silence coming from the audience and the long rambling coming from the winners. The lighting was also weird. Like they wanted a nightclub feel but left too many curtains open. With it being later in the year, there was way more light than usual. There's some light that kept shining on Carey Mulligan making her gold dress even more golden. It doesn't go well with the film-look the producers wanted. 

About a half an hour before the end of the show, they finally do a bit that's meant - I assume - to liven things up a bit. But it's coming at the end of the show, and everyone looks like they'd rather be anywhere else. Questlove has been playing odd, and even obnoxious, musical choices all night. Zellweger comes out to "Don't You Forget About Me", while Pitt was introduced right after "Fight the Power." Wut. Lil Rey Howery starts asking people about music and whether it was nominated or not. Andra Day swears. Daniel Kaluuya doesn't care. Glenn Close shakes her ass after delivering an obviously scripted bit. This is what's happening when the show is already about 15 minutes late, and there's probably a winner on stage still talking about an octopus, and Reese Witherspoon is talking about The Secret of NIMH. 

We get the In Memoriam soon, which goes really fast. About the only thing of the night to do so. It omits people, setting social media into a tizzy. Someone suggested it years ago, and now I'm 100% in favor of this: get rid of the In Memoriam. It only pisses people off. Soon enough, Rita Moreno comes out and I realize what's happening. Best Picture pops up on the screen behind her. I stare blankly at my television, feeling an odd mix of rage and indifference. They're really doing this? Nomadland wins, Zhao won almost 2 hours earlier. Both moments feel like they don't matter. Zellweger comes out to present Best Actress instead of Best Actor. Would you believe I'm actually fine with the presenter switch? McDormand wins. She hates this stuff (must be nice!), so she's up and off stage in a matter of seconds. Then Joaquin Phoenix. Anthony Hopkins (somewhat) surprises. He's not there. He apparently wanted to do a Zoom-in. As did Costume Design winner Ann Roth, who also wasn't there or at any of the satellite locations. Joaquin accepts it on Anthony's behalf. The producers wanted that Boseman moment that didn't come. Cut to Questlove, who says good night. A whimper of an ending. It could've ended, like all things should end, with Frances howling and saying how she can't wait for us all to be back in theaters. 

When I think about what the Oscars should be, I often go to Melissa Leo's Oscar speech. (Yes, really!) She said "It's about selling motion pictures and respecting the work." I think back to being a kid watching the show and seeing clips from all the films I hadn't yet seen, and how it made me want to see them. In a year that was mostly lost, a lot of people clearly didn't see many/most/all of these films. This would've been a great way to sell them on what they missed, and a great reminder that movies are still the best in entertainment. I love these things, but if 2.5 hours in I'm rolling in my eyes, hoping for the end, that means regular people probably checked out hours ago. 

Best Dressed:

I didn't care for most of the looks. The Best Actress nominees, in particular, were trainwrecks. So, I'll declare a threeway tie:

Maria Bakalova, classy at her first Oscars

Regina King, on my list for the 3rd year in a row

Amanda Seyfried, who made my list years ago

And the longest award season is officially over. 

For next year, they need to go big. They need a host. They need to be back at the Dolby. Best Picture needs to be last. And I'm now in agreement with a host choice that many have been pushing for years: Dwayne Johnson. Officially putting that out there. And they need Lady Gaga to perform on the show. She totally gets what these shows need. 

Steven Soderbergh, if you want us to forgive you and your fellow producers for this snoozefest, I'd advise you get Regina King for your next cool heist movie.