First, a little gripe: No offense to screenwriters, cinematographers, makeup artists, et al, but I cannot overstate that most viewers watch only to see who wins the big six awards. Those, of course, are the ones for actor and actress in a supporting role, actor and actress in a leading role, achievement in directing and best motion picture.
This is why I’ve been arguing for years that producers would be well-advised to present one of these six awards every 15 minutes and limit the entire show to two hours.
Instead, they persist in producing four hours of Chinese water torture masquerading as a suspenseful night of entertainment. And it provides very cold comfort indeed to hurl four of those six most-suspenseful awards at viewers in the last four minutes of the show.
Given that, I have found it wholly satisfying to read Oscar reviews (complete with video highlights) the morning after. And, as in previous years, this morning’s reviews vindicated my decision not to bother watching last night’s show. This headline from Deadline, the new Hollywood bible, said it all:
Eminem Can’t Save Another Hostless Night for Hollywood…
And the Oscar goes to:
- Actor in a Supporting Role
My pick was Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood. The winner was Brad Pitt.
- Actress in a Supporting Role
My pick was Margot Robbie in Bombshell. The winner was Laura Dern in Marriage Story.
- Actress in a Leading Role
My pick was Cynthia Erivo in Harriet. The winner was Renée Zellweger in Judy.
Yet I would bet my life savings that, in an open forum on the artistic merit not just on the performances of these actresses but the biography of their respective subjects, most Academy members would say Erivo was far more deserving of this award. As it happened, I suppose one can hardly blame white folks for relating more to Zellweger and Judy Garland than Erivo and Harriet Tubman.
- Actor in a Leading Role
My pick was Joaquin Phoenix in Joker. The winner was Joaquin Phoenix.
A Little Oscar Redemption
As indicated above, everyone expected this telecast to be boring and all too predictable. I injected picks like Margie Robbie and Cynthia Erivo to keep things interesting for commenting purposes. I knew neither one stood a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning.
But nothing telegraphed the low expectations quite like wizard influencer Drudge Report running this banner headline yesterday:
Why Even Hollywood Doesn’t Care About Show This Year…
This is why I fully expected to wake up to see that Sam Mendes had won for Achievement in Directing and his film 1917 for Best Motion Picture. What’s more, given what I read about the opening of the show, viewers would’ve been forgiven for expecting the same old OscarsSoWhite fare, especially for the top six awards.
Sure enough, in addition to making a wise crack about the lack of women among the nominated directors, Steve Martin and Chris Rock joked that Oscar’s progress has been so great, it went from nominating no blacks at its inaugural 92 years ago to nominating one this year. Ba dum chhh!
But nothing is more patronizing than producers of awards shows trying to make up for lack of diversity in nominations by enlisting people representing the united colors of Benetton to present and perform. And don’t get me started on the manifest folly of producers going from having no comedians host this show to having two comedians open it with an oxymoronic joint monologue.
But that’s Hollywood these days, folks!
Anyway, a funny little thing happened towards the end of this show. Never mind that, by then, many of you were probably already fast asleep – safe in the knowledge that winners for the final two awards were already scripted. But that’s when Oscar threw in a plot twist that redeemed this night.
- Achievement in Directing
My pick was Sam Mendes for 1917. The winner was Bong Joon Ho for Parasite.
This was shocking enough. Indeed, because Mendes had won every other major award this season, he would’ve been forgiven for mistakenly heading to the stage, only to be told that someone else’s name had been called.
More to the point though, this meant that Oscar would save face by having at least one non-white person receive one of the six big awards. After all, the first four had already been given to the same kinds of lily whites who have been winning Oscars over the years.
But then came the biggest shocker of all:
- Best Motion Picture
My pick was 1917. The winner was Parasite.
Here are a few things that put this win into perspective:
- Bong Joon Ho himself thought Mendes had a lock not only on the Oscar for directing but for this one too. He said as much, noting that he was perfectly prepared to sit back and drink the night away after winning for Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film.
- Parasite is the first non-English-language film to win this award.
- Its win tempers one of my abiding pet peeves about Academy members splitting the proverbial baby, which too often sees directors like Bong Joon Ho win for Achievement in Directing only to see their films lose for Best Motion Picture.
- Like many of you, I suspect, I must see it now. Truth be told, though, I have never been so happy to have been so wrong.
But Mendes’s trolling fans made clear how they felt – as the following headline from this morning’s Daily Mail blared:
‘The worst snub in history!’ Fans left RAGING as 1917 misses out to Parasite in historic Best Picture win … with viewers branding the Academy ‘farcical’ and ‘a joke’
I guess, like me, they won’t bother watching the show anymore either (hehehe). But, given reports that last night’s ratings fell to an all-time low, we seem to be in the vanguard of a new trend.
With that, here’s to Hollywood making one small step forward, after making many giant leaps backwards.
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