And The Oscar Goes To... -The iPINIONS Journal

I’m on record stating how much I dislike the annual Academy Awards show (the Oscars). Because I have little regard for preening, pampered poseurs showing off their borrowed frocks and bling-bling as a prelude to a three-hour show — only six minutes of which anyone really cares about (i.e., the time it takes to present Oscars for actor and actress in a leading role, actor and actress in a supporting role, best director, and best picture)…

And, remarkably enough, the host comedians do little to relieve the boredom of the interludes between these carefully spread-out moments.

(“My Review of the 2008 Oscars,” The iPINIONS Journal, February 25, 2008)

Having only read reviews of last night’s broadcast, I hope I can be forgiven for feeling vindicated … yet again. Reports are that the first three hours of this broadcast featured Oscar presentations for screenplay, cinematography, costume design, visual effects, sound mixing, editing, makeup, and the like. But, with all due respect to the winners, virtually nobody tunes in to see them.

This is why I’ve been arguing for years that presenting at least one of the six major awards every 15 minutes would make the Oscars a far more bearable show. Instead, as always, producers made viewers sit through three (anxious) hours of patently boring TV, and then hurled the most interesting awards at them over the last half hour. This amounts to Chinese water torture.

Put another way, it’s like being forced to eat a starter of arugula and a main course of tofu before getting to devour a desert of double chocolate-espresso truffle pie.

But I won’t dignify what I read about the Amos ‘n’ Andy gags featuring Tracy Morgan as “The Danish Girl” and Whoopi as the mop lady from Joy with any comment.

The Host

Ellen buying pizza in the middle of the show was the highlight of her hosting gig two years ago. Therefore, it speaks volumes that Chris Rock selling Girl Scout Cookies might be the highlight of his last night.

But only God knows why he thought it would be funny or relevant to exploit the ignorance of black folks in Compton with a jaywalking bit. This was not the occasion to reinforce black stereotypes and, perhaps worse, there was nothing original about it. Everyone — from Jay Leno to Jimmy Kimmel to Jesse Watters — has being doing the jaywalking bit for years.

Nonetheless, given the OscarsSoWhite controversy, it’s hardly surprising that Rock is receiving near-universal praise for his opening monologue, which targeted Hollywood’s perennial lack of racial diversity. Never mind the spectacle of guilt-ridden whites overcompensating by hailing it as “the best in Oscar history.”

For the record, here are key parts of the authoritative review the Los Angeles Times gave:

For roughly eleven minutes, Rock dealt on the subject on the lack of diversity among this year’s major nominees [but asked] why this year’s ceremony was so controversial when the Academy Awards have also not featured diversity…

Though the audience was receptive, Rock was not as acerbic and his jokes have not was acid-tipped as he has been in previous performances, such as his HBO specials…

And for a routine about diversity, he centered almost totally on the exclusion of blacks, leaving out references to other minorities such as Asians and Latinos.

In other words, he cast lots of race bait, but the audience did not bite much. In “The Oscars: My Picks,” February 26, 2016, I warned it would be thus.

Granted, it did not help to have people like producer Harvey Weinstein and talk-show host Tavis Smiley raising unreasonable expectations with teases like “Chris is going to annihilate us” and “the [OscarsSoWhite] jokes practically write themselves,” respectively.

Apropos of which, in “OscarsSoWhite! Duh. But Boycott? Nah,” January 22, 2016, I scoffed at Jada Pinkett’s self-centered call for a boycott. Therefore, I’m heartened by reports that Rock’s best joke had him ridiculing her for boycotting an event to which she was never invited.

But, as it happens, Rock is on record dismissing the Oscars much as I did in my February 2008 commentary quoted above. Specifically, here is the prescient, even if homophobic, observation he made during a February 1, 2005 interview with Entertainment Weekly:

What straight black man sits there and watches the Oscars? Show me one. And they don’t recognize comedy, and you don’t see a lot of black people nominated, so why should I watch it?

I hasten to clarify that Rock took pains back then to say he wasn’t joking. In fact, he was so convincing in this regard that, in “Only Gays and Women Watch the Oscars,” February 17, 2005, I commended him for daring to call this spade a spade. I added, however, that “he was wrong … to voice his disdain in racial and homophobic terms.”

On the other hand, given his observation, you can be forgiven for asking why Rock, a straight black comedian, would host this show. The down low, of course, is that he would’ve paid the Academy millions for the career-enhancing exposure this gig provides.

The Awards

In light of the OscarsSoWhite controversy, I thought I’d be contrarian by picking dark horses in a few categories. Evidently, members of the Academy had the same thought. Because, arguably, four of the six winners in the main categories were dark horses – only they weren’t the ones I picked.

Sylvester Stallone losing to Mark Rylance for best supporting actor had to have been the surprise of the night. Alas, Stallone was not sly enough to disguise his dismay.

Based on media cheerleading for him, you too were probably dismayed. But, trust me, if members of the Academy had any chance of redeeming themselves for failing to nominate a single black actor in any category, awarding Rylance this Oscar was it. As Hollywood encyclopedia IMDb documents, his 3 Tonys, 2 Oliviers, and 1 BAFTA had already sealed his reputation as one of the greatest actors of all time. So choosing his acting in Bridge of Spies over Stallone’s in Creed was as much a no-brainer as choosing Stephen Curry’s 3-point shooting over Shaquille O’Neal’s (with apologies if you’re not an NBA fan).

Lady Gaga losing to Sam Smith for best original song, however, was probably the most dramatic. Not least because no less a person than VP Joe Biden showed up to introduce her performance of “Til It Happens To You,” her nominated song about sexual assaults on college campuses.

But enough about all that!

And the Oscar goes to: