The Academy Awards, in which golden statuettes are awarded to heroes of motion picture arts (and sciences), took place once again on Sunday night, for the 95th time, with traditional invocations, celebrations and rituals of naming the dead. And as it has been since before any of the nominees can remember, it was broadcast on television (on ABC). Whatever the Oscars stand for, it is, to all but a small handful of humans, a TV show.
Because what we mostly, if not all, remember from last year’s ceremony is Will Smith and the Slap, this year’s project, including a “crisis team” hired to keep the academy healthy in case emergency, was to spend the night. No unplanned distractions. (Smith, last year’s winning lead actor, was banned from academy events for a decade and, coincidentally or not, last year’s producer, Will Packer, was replaced by the crew of Don Kirshner’s son Ricky Kirshner. , of “Rock Concert” fame, I can’t resist mentioning him, and longtime Oscars director Glenn Weiss). To mount something extraordinary, but ordinary! Something not controversial, but exciting! Relevant, but glamorous!
Jimmy Kimmel, who has hosted twice before and runs a generally uncontroversial late-night talk show, must have seemed like a safe choice, despite intruding on Quinta Brunson’s Emmy acceptance speech in September, playing dead to her feet. And indeed, he did a good job of setting the tone for the evening, which ran efficiently, if not exuberantly, with lots of cheering, lots of hugs, more than a few tears, and a chorus of “Happy Birthday” to everyone. “An Irish Goodbye” James Martin, and with a modicum of industrial complacency that, at its worst, can make the Oscars telecast an argument for the movies’ demise. (An illuminating and illuminating montage nonsense celebrating 100 years of Warner Bros. and a segment promoting the academy museum and its “fantastic museum store” were exceptions, mercifully brief.) It was as if the room was breathing a collective sigh of relief now. that movies have proven not to be completely dead and that the odds of anyone being on anything but their best behavior were slim.
Kimmel, who parachuted onto the stage from a mock clip of “Top Gun: Maverick,” and a real jet flyover of hollywood He was as friendly as you’d expect, allowing him to be a bit sharp here and there. The Slap was buried with a couple of sharp jokes that can be tweeted without mentioning anyone by name, and overall it was funnier than anything Chris Rock had to say about it in his recent Netflix special.
“If someone in the theater commits an act of violence at any time during the show, they will be awarded the Best Actor Oscar and will be allowed to give a 19-minute speech,” Kimmel said. “If something unpredictable or violent happens during the ceremony, just do what you did last year: nothing. Maybe even give the abuser a hug.”
Kimmel entering the stage at the Dolby Theatre.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
He returned to the topic a couple of times during the night, commenting that the documentary feature category had been the occasion for the slap in the face and that this time it would hopefully go “without a problem, or at least without a problem”, and if, as the show was approaching two hours, a little violence might liven things up.
The broadcast marked the return of several award categories, recently axed in no small protest, and, beginning with the opening night montage of Movies in Front of and Behind the Camera, and continuing through the night, there seemed to be a concerted effort, even of apology. to give love to technical workers.
In fact, some of the best jokes introduced technical awards (Julia Louis-Dreyfus presenting costumes: “Each year, the Oscar for Costume Design is presented to the most elegant and fashion-forward actress in Hollywood.” Elizabeth Banks for Visual Effects: “ Without the visual effects, ‘Cocaine Bear,’” a film she directed, “would have been an actor in a bear costume, probably high on cocaine.”) It was also a night especially starred by the musical numbers, each of which had its own visual framework. Rihanna, David Byrne and Lady Gaga (in extreme close-up) performed, and the winner of the original song, “Naatu Naatu” from “RRR”, took the stage in Telugu.
As academia and industry faced a relatively hashtag-free time regarding issues of diversity, inequality, and bullying, there was a lack of chest-thumping in the presentation. Politics was also kept to a minimum. (A proposal by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for him to appear had been rejected, again.) Plus a couple of Kimmel quips: “Editors can turn 44,000 hours of violent insurrection footage into a respectful sightseeing tour of the Capitol,” a George Santos quip. — Such remarks were relevant to awards and laureates, including the documentary feature “Navalny,” about the Russian dissident, and the short film “The Elephant Whisperer,” with its themes of interspecies cooperation and indigenous life.
Sarah Polley, who won the adapted screenplay award for “Talking Women,” described the theme as “an act of democracy where people who disagree on every issue manage to sit together in a room and carve together a path free from violence”. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” co-director Daniel Scheinert mentioned dressing as a woman, “which is not a threat to anyone,” and winning lead actress Michelle Yeoh proclaimed, “Ladies, don’t let anybody tell you They’re past their prime.” .”
By putting many costumed stars in a room, award shows represent the last remaining illusion that Hollywood is a real community. Perhaps that is why we continue to subscribe to them, albeit in dwindling numbers.
Even though we know in advance that the ceremony itself will likely fall somewhere between Better Than Expected and Worse Than Imagined, putting on this spectacle may be the most thankless task in Hollywood, and many millions will have spent three and a half hours of on a Sunday night to see it.
“Now we join ‘Good Morning America,’ which is already in progress,” said Kimmel at the end of it, after “Everything Everywhere” got the best picture. It wasn’t a bad party, all in all.
