For an Oscars season and Academy Awards ceremony as strange and eventful as we just experienced, it felt necessary to break the wrap-up into parts. In Part I, we will cover the actual award winners and their speeches. In Part II, we will talk about the ceremony itself. And, for Part III, the controversy around the Will Smith-Chris Rock altercation.
Forgive me for being a little off my game on Oscars night. I think any of us who care about this organization and these awards – however silly and uncool it may be to admit that right now – probably was going through something inexplicable for the final hour of the show and the rest of the night. It is understandable. But, Last Cinema Standing exists to celebrate the art of film, and it felt that night like the art got short shrift. So, today, I want to talk about the winners, the speeches, and all these wonderful films.
Sian Heder’s CODA, purchased by Apple TV+ for $25 million at the Sundance Film Festival last year, won Best Picture. Heder also won for her adapted screenplay, and Troy Kotsur won Supporting Actor for the film. CODA is a lovely little film whose victory made a lot of history – first Sundance premiere to win it all, third Best Picture ever directed by a woman, and most importantly, first film from a streaming service to win the Academy’s top award.
I liked CODA a lot and recommend it to everyone, but there is a case to be made this Oscars triumph is probably the worst thing that could happen to it. The things we will discuss in Parts II and III of this series notwithstanding, the Academy Awards are a marker of quality for many people. They confer importance and imply a certain thematic heft, and not all films hold up under that weight. Green Book is a recent example that comes to mind, and CODA is miles better than Green Book.
It is ultimately a feel-good film, and these are definitely feel-bad times. No one can begrudge the Academy choosing a movie that made voters feel good for a couple of hours amid the events unfolding all around us. But, fair or not, the sober light of day and the slow passage of time are likely to cast a harsher shadow on this film because it carries a Best Picture badge.
Kotsur’s speech was probably the best of the night, especially with the context that last year’s Supporting Actress winner, Yuh-jung Youn, stood by his side, holding his Oscar statue so he could sign with both hands. The speech was smart, funny, heartfelt, and emblematic of all the reasons Academy voters felt compelled to vote for Kotsur and the film.
All four acting categories went to the expected winners: Will Smith for Actor, Jessica Chastain for Actress, Kotsur for Supporting Actor, and Ariana DeBose for Supporting Actress. Chastain’s speech was rambling and odd, but this moment has been a long time coming for her and she can be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed by it. I might have preferred Olivia Colman or Penélope Cruz, but that’s me voting with my head and not my heart. The heart says it was great to see Chastain holding an Academy Award.
DeBose’s history-making win was an early emotional moment in the show, as she acknowledged her queerness, shared her experience as a woman of color, and gave encouragement to people living in fear of putting their true selves out into the world. In a nice moment, she tipped her cap to Rita Moreno, who previously won the award for playing the same character.
Kenneth Branagh won his first career Oscar with an Original Screenplay win for Belfast. This is fine, and Belfast is a good movie, but it really makes you wonder if Paul Thomas Anderson is ever going to get up on that stage. He couldn’t get there for There Will Be Blood, an indisputable modern masterpiece. Phantom Thread and Licorice Pizza didn’t do it. What will it have to look like for PTA to clear this final hurdle?
Anderson was not the only person or company unable to clear the final hurdle, however. Netflix once again came up short of the top prize it so desperately desires as The Power of the Dog went an almost unheard-of 1-for-12. Jane Campion won Best Director, becoming just the third woman ever to win that award. This is the first time since 1967 that a film has won Best Director and nothing else – Mike Nichols and The Graduate managed to pull this same trick that year. Why did The Power of the Dog lose so many awards? I think it comes back to what we talked about – admiration vs. love. Voters just didn’t love it, and they rewarded the one person most responsible for their admiration, the director.
Dune won just about everything below the line, missing only Makeup and Hairstyling (which went to The Eyes of Tammy Faye) and Costume Design (which went to Cruella). I tried to get too clever in my predictions and outthought myself in Editing and Production Design. Voters clearly just checked the box next to Dune everywhere it made sense. As we said before, the road is now paved for Dune Part II – whenever it comes out – to sweep the Oscars in a fashion not seen since Slumdog Millionaire or The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
We correctly predicted Drive My Car in International Feature, Encanto in Animated Feature, and Summer of Soul in Documentary Feature, which taken together, means Flee was shut out. Hopefully, more people will discover that film in the years to come and its stature will only grow. We will get to Drive My Car director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s speech in the next installment, when we talk about the show itself, but I felt bad for Amhir “Questlove” Thompson, who won his Documentary award in the immediate aftermath of the Will Smith-Chris Rock incident.
That is a terrible spot to be forced into. Summer of Soul was one of the best movies of any kind last year, and Questlove has been passionate about keeping the focus on the story and the people of Harlem and the wrongly forgotten events chronicled in his film. Then, to have the crowning moment of the film’s run spoiled by something completely unrelated, it’s just a bummer. Questlove’s speech was humble, gracious, and endearing, but of all the winners Sunday night, he most deserved better.
Billie Eilish and Finneas won Best Original Song for their No Time to Die title track, proving that the modern Academy just can’t stop awarding James Bond songs. At least this is not as bad as when voters awarded Sam Smith’s truly awful Spectre song, “Writing’s on the Wall.” Mostly, I am disappointed Lin-Manuel Miranda missed out on his EGOT yet again, but he will absolutely have other chances.
I missed all three of the shorts categories. Star power basically always helps because people tend to vote for their friends or, failing that, people they recognize. So, it is unsurprising that The Queen of Basketball won Best Documentary Short, produced as it is by NBA stars Stephen Curry and Shaquille O’Neal. Director Ben Proudfoot was nominated in the same category last year for the superior A Concerto Is a Conversation, but at 31 years old, he is clearly a talented filmmaker who is likely to be competing in the feature categories someday if he so chooses.
On the same “star power drives votes” note, Oscar-nominated actor Riz Ahmed won for his live action short The Long Goodbye, which is powerful and shocking but also a little underdeveloped. Definitely check out his related feature-length film, Mogul Mowgli, which is excellent but probably was hurt by comparisons to the previous year’s The Sound of Metal. Much as I love Ahmed and am pleased to see him with an Academy Award, I would have picked the devastating Take and Run or the good-hearted On My Mind.
Overall, it is hard to take issue with any of the winners. There is nothing egregious here in the way of My Octopus Teacher or “Writing’s on the Wall.” Unfortunately, there was nothing terribly exciting either. Most everything went as predicted, and that is problematic in its own way. To some degree, the cumulative blandness of the winners paved the way for the Will Smith-Chris Rock incident to dominate the conversation. There was just nothing else to talk about with this show, so rightly or wrongly, that stepped in to fill the void.
Next time: Part II – Can the show be fixed?
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