Fight Club

The Fight

We’ll start in the middle, as the major headline coming out of this Oscars is unquestionably the fight between Chris Rock and Will Smith.  For context:  Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, who is currently bald, auditioning for GI Jane II.  Pinkett Smith apparently suffers from alopecia and shaved her head because of this.  She grimaced.  Will Smith then went up on stage, took a swing at Rock, returned to his seat, and swore at Rock repeatedly.  (International feeds show the unbleeped exchange).  Chris Rock is rattled but since he’s a pro from thousands of hours of standup, he moves on.  This whole thing absolutely upstaged everything else about the Oscars.  It was not Smith’s finest moment.  And then in a rambling acceptance speech for King Richard, he apologized to the academy – but not to Chris Rock.

Back to the Beginning

The ceremony started on the Compton tennis courts, with an elaborate production number of Beyonce’s Oscar-nominated song for King Richard.  I loved the opening.  Everything – the tennis courts, Beyonce, the musicians, the dancers, and even the instruments – was tennis-ball-neon-green.  The dancers’ costumes made them look like human tennis balls.  It was a fun and inventive beginning.

The Hosts

After last year’s challenging, set-in-a-train-station ceremony, this year things were back to normal, thank goodness.   Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Regina Hall co-hosted.  The three had nice chemistry and a good opening and Amy Schumer then delivered a killer monolog, she’s amazing. As is typical, some of the jokes landed, such as “this year the academy hired three women to host because it’s cheaper than hiring one man.”  Some of the jokes didn’t work as well – particularly the riff in which Regina Hall patted down/felt up single male stars on a COVID protocol pretext.  But generally the hosts kept things moving along and all three are so likable that the audience was clearly rooting for them.

Shortening It Up

Eight “minor” awards were announced prior to the ceremony and edited versions of the winners’ acceptances were shown.  I prefer the old format, as often there are fun or quirky speeches from the behind-the-scenes folks, but I am an Oscar die-hard so maybe this helped retain more casual viewers.  And the lifetime achievement awards were announced, but there was no introduction of the honoree and acceptance speech.  I would have thought that these changes would have shaved a ton of time, but the ceremony was 3.5 hours long, only a half hour shorter than normal. Honestly if the Super Bowl can be 4+ hours, why can’t the Oscars?

The Speeches

For the reasons described above, there were fewer speeches to evaluate.  The speeches that really landed were about inclusion.  Ariana Debose, who is openly gay and won Supporting Actress for West Side Story, stuck the landing with the late great Sondheim’s immortal words “There’s a Place for Us.”  It was wonderful to see Troy Katsur sign his acceptance speech.  And Jessica Chastain killed it at the end with a beautiful speech about accepting and embracing LGBTQ+ people as Tammy Faye Baker did.

The Reunions

The ceremony offered a number of cast “reunions” which were super-fun, great idea!  Uma Thurman, Samuel Jackson and John Travolta came on for Pulp Fiction and it was great to see Thurman and Travolta shimmy onstage. DeNiro, Coppola and Pacino looked a bit ossified but I love me anything Godfather. Wesley Snipes, Rosie Perez, Woody Harrelson came on for White Man Can’t Jump.  And then at the end Lady Gaga and Liza Minelli presented Best Picture! Liza was a great surprise Presenter, it’s the 50th Anniversary of Cabaret in addition to The Godfather.

All In All

Honestly with the Reunions, the Hosts, the Fight, and Shortening It Up, the evening flew by. My guess is that ratings will be up. Is the moral of the story to have a fight to boost ratings? More seriously, the bigger challenge is getting people to go to the movie theater for a movie other than SpiderMan. The Oscars are trying to promote movie-going at a time when, let’s face, it, no one is going to the movies. So here are my movie reviews for the Best Picture nominees. I encourage everyone to go see a movie at a theater! It’s a much more enjoyable, immersive experience. Plus there’s popcorn.

Alice’s Best Picture Movie Reviews

LOVED

West Side Story

I am a huge fan of live musicals.  Unfortunately, movie versions of musicals almost always fail to convey the excitement and energy of song and dance on stage (Cabaret is a notable exception, and, though not a musical, the first 10 minutes of All That Jazz are perfect.)   Spielberg is a master with the camera.  The movie soars. 

Drive My Car

This movie is not for everyone.  It is three hours long.  But I loved it and I’m not really sure why.  Don’t let the Uncle Vanya theme deter you – I don’t know anything about Chekhov and it still worked for me.  It is a slow-moving movie about love and loss, most of which takes place in a cheery red Saab.  Sort of a Driving Miss Daisy or Green Book.  But better.

Dune

I really wish I had seen this movie in the theater.  The Director, Denis Villeneuve, has a very distinctive visual style.  This movie is similar to his other Sci Fi movie, Arrival, but with a much bigger budget.  It is an epic movie, and it deservedly won most (all?) of the technical awards.  So glad to see a big movie that is thoughtfully made and NOT a superhero or Star Wars movie. 

LIKED

CODA

CODA is a heartwarming movie about a mostly deaf family.  It was well acted but had a somewhat cheesy and implausible plot.  But it is easily the most enjoyable movie of all the nominees.  I don’t think it should have won, but I am glad it beat the other front-runner, The Power of the Dog.

King Richard

King Richard was a better sports movie than most.  As others have noted, we had a whole lot of the Dad in the movie, which would have been better with more of the Mom, superbly played by Aunjanue Ellis.  She slays it in her one scene.

Licorice Pizza

Spencer and I saw this movie in Memphis on our BBQ road trip.  We both thought it was overrated.  It rambles.  There are a lot of scenes in which the characters are running for inexplicable reasons. However, the scene in which Alana Haim drives a truck is amazing.  And Bradley Cooper has a killer cameo. 

Don’t Look Up

End-of-the-world comedies are a tough genre.  Even Dr. Strangelove is tough to watch at times.  This movie is polarizing – people either hate it or love it.  I was one of the few in the middle.  With such a starry cast, you can watch the movie and not worry about, well, the end of the world.

Belfast

A cute but overrated movie that shows the violence in Northern Ireland through the eyes of a small child.  Filmed in black and white, the much better black and white movie this year was Passing which was, ahem, passed over in the nominations.

DISLIKED

Power of the Dog

I get that this is a beautifully made, well-acted movie.  But it is about a bully.  And therefore tough to watch.  I had to force myself to get through it.

DIDN’T SEE BECAUSE I DON’T DO HORROR – Guest Review from Spencer Morgan

Nightmare Alley

Good movie, definitely not great. Cooper, Blanchett, and Dafoe all give fantastic performances and the cinematography, camera work, and direction were also very strong. The first half is very cohesive while the second half is not. The movie particularly falls off  towards the end of the movie, but for the most part, it was a good movie with an intriguing plot about something I previously knew nothing about. It could have been great if the script was narrowed down and simplified.

SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED

Passing & The Lost Daughter

These movies were by well-known actresses, Rebecca Hall and Maggie Gillenhaal, who wrote and directed their first films.  Both are amazing debuts worth seeing.

THANKS FOR READING. UNTIL NEXT YEAR!