Okay, lately I have stepped back a little bit on awards show reviews, but the Oscars are something else and as the highlight and closing point of the 2023/2024 awards season, there is no way I will miss out here. The show ran (without commercials) for slightly over 2.5 hours and the schedule was alright this time. It did not go longer than expected despite the host making some jokes about it. In the end, however, there was still some time left, so he mocked a former American President and also asked if anybody wanted to come on stage and still say something. Said host is Jimmy Kimmel. I still don't like him and don't think he is particularly funny, but last night he was tolerable, mostly because his material was really good for the most part. The John Cena segment was maybe the highlight of the show away from the winners, especially when he started his introduction with "Costumes" after all that happened before. I also liked the joke on Downey's career-highs and a little later the adopted screenplay reference. Towards the end, he improvised a little gag related to Emma Stone's win that had a connection to her win from a few years earlier that resulted in big Best Picture mayhem. It would have been funnier of course if he had run there and grabbed the envelope in a more physical manner instead of just telling people to keep a close eye on the envelope when the Best Picture letter would have been given out, but oh well. This is something that maybe superior hosts like Chris Rock or Ricky Gervais would have done. Would be nice to see one of those for the 100th anniversary that is not too far away anymore. Of course, Kimmel also had a few poor moments like the pre-recorded segment for the start featuring Margot Robbie or the inclusion with a guy in the audience who said there's free drinks for everybody, but oh well. All in all, his hosting could have been way worse and actually was in the past. There were other funny moments that did not involve him directly. I liked Tim Robbins' little mishap when introducing Robert De Niro. The Barbenheimer battle between Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling was entertaining as well.
If we look at the winners, there were some close categories and almost all of those went the way I hoped they would. I am happy Japan took two Oscars in the visual effects category as well as the animated feature category. Quite a pity, however, that Miyazaki was not there. Would have loved to see his speech, even if I have to admit I could not understand anything from the Godzilla folks. Another one who was sadly not there to accept his award was Wes Anderson, but good he finally has one at least. And I do not dislike Cumberbatch as strongly anymore as I once did, even if I still think he is overrated. Of course, in terms of comedy, I must mention Nicolas Cage too here, who brought a really funny moment and did as much as he could with his short screen time. He was part of the segment in which the five previous winners announced, or rather introduced the acting nominees. I realized that I liked the ones for male lead way more than those for female lead that did not include a single actress I think that I am really fond of, but tastes differ and, as I stated earlier, Stone winning her second trophy instead of the Academy taking the political route made more than up for it. There were inclusions of politics during the show, but it was bearable. The Trump moment I mentioned already and then there was a lot attached to the documentary winners given the subject of their film, but I am not sure if the recipient was honest there in saying he would have preferred a scenario in which his movie never would have gotten made. I do believe in reality he ranks personal profit and triumph higher, but he said what everybody wanted to hear. I only liked this moment a bit because the female standing behind him was maybe the biggest beauty of the night. Or was it Becky G? Or maybe even Billie Eilish? I do have a thing for her, not gonna lie.
The latter two were of course part of the best song category. Thumbs-up there for including all the best song nominees during the show and give us the tunes, even if some of them felt shortened. Ryan Gosling definitely rocked the house with his performance and Emma Stone's outfit wasn't ready for it. Well, Billie Eilish is still only 22 and has two Oscars there. As for Diane Warren, let's not talk about it. It was already a weak year for Best Song, but they wanted to give "Barbie" at least one trophy and there was no other category where it could happen as we know now. At least, the makers cannot cry again now the way they did when Gerwig was not nominated for Best Director. I would still say that the Best Song win was among the weakest of the night. The one song that was far superior to all the nominees was Andrea Bocelli's famous number of course. He was there for the In Memoriam segment. I really love the tune and the lyrics fit this segment nicely, maybe better than any other tune and I also liked the violins. With the dancers I am not so sure, but it was alright. Maybe the camera just should have stayed on the nominees. I like that approach more in general than showing us the stage. It just brings out more emotions. What I did not like too much was Tina Turner getting the last spot. Sure she was a star and an icon, but this would have been an honor more suitable for the Grammys. She has acted, but nobody sees her of an actress as much as of a musician. Still, all in all, I am happy the goy Bocelli to perform and I think his son was with him. The standing ovation for Bocelli was also deserving.
Before some more brainstorming, let me say that I do not approve of the idea that stunt people do not get honored during the show. At least they were mentioned this time, but not in a way like the other ones coming on stage. There was also some early talk about casting directors or so being honored with an Oscar? Was not part of the show either. I think it is just disrespectful for any award show to give out awards to people and do not include them during the broadcast because it automatically implies something like your work is less worthy than the work for other categories. What else can we talk about? Oh yes, Al Pacino announced the big winner at the very end and I think he is maybe the best actor of his generation and nice to see him there. The 50th anniversary reference to The Godfather felt accurate too. Masterpiece of a movie. Still, there was a little bit of confusion with the Best Picture winner the way Pacino announced it. So, again in a year that Emma Stone won for Best Actress, Best Picture got a little messy. Not Beatty/Dunaway level messy, but still. Nonetheless, at that point everybody pretty much knew that Oppenheimer would win the big category of the night in contrast to "Moonlight" and "La La Land", even if maybe "La La Land" was also a big favorite and again Stone was part of one of the contenders, this time the challenger. As for Stone, we can say that Yorgos Lanthimos definitely has a good touch with his lead actresses. Colman was the underdog against Close, Stone also an underdog, but maybe not by as much, against Gladstone. The latter featured in Scorsese's newest that did not score a win this night, but the joke about how you can travel to where the film was set and solve a murder during the running time of Killers of the Flower Moon" was also a but funny. Films really have gotten longer these past years.
I have not yet talked about the short film categories except Wes Anderson. Not seen anything really there, so can't elaborate in detail, but from a personal perspective I am glad that the Yoko Ono animated short won (more Japan triumph there) because the filmmaker who shot the initial frontrunner "Letter to a Pig" seemed to have gotten a bit arrogant because of the Oscar nomination. Surely the current political climate here helped with the "war is over" theme featured in the animated short. Besides, it is a really fine number and I am far from a huge Beatles fan, so it means something when I say so. Let's keep going: Spielberg was shown several times and also presented a crucial award, but his funniest moment was linked to Jeff Goldblum (always a win when he is included, even only talked about), even if the speech from the two female presenters was not exactly a success other than that, but with an SNL actress and a Barbie supporting actress you should not really expect too much. There were quite a few segments when two females presented an award. Another included Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. The latter is a Black actress I have big respect for because of her views. As for Grande, she is alright too, even if I am not sure what she is doing there on Oscar night. Still nice to look at and has aged well and her voice still sounds like the one from a teenager. Speaking of presenting duos, Schwarzenegger and DeVito were also pretty nice. They did not take the obvious route of mocking Arnie's movie or so, but with the help of Michael Keaton or rather his face expression, they came up with a really hilarious moment. There were quite a few strong men there that night: Arnie and Cena I mentioned already and these two brought some of the best moments of the night. The trio is completed by The Rock who was more on the forgettable side and his backstage handshake with Cena before a commercial break is all I remembered about him. I guess this is pretty much it then. Before the review ends, let me say that I as a German found the inclusion of Sandra Hüller interesting of course. Whose films had a really good night. Especially the sound category win for "The Zone of Interest" was not super expected. Pity though Christian Friedel was not featured more. And now I know what Americans think about German romantic comedies. Christoph Waltz was also there. Cool. Would be nice to see him in more movies again. Character limit is approaching, so that's it. Great Oscar show in 2024!
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