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The Good, the Bad, and the Oscar

2/28/2019

Well, another Academy Awards broadcast in the books, and 2019 was nothing if not... interesting. Here's my thoughts on the positives and negatives:

+ NO HOST

Oscar went without a host for the first time since the Rob Lowe Snow White debacle back in 1989, but this time, I barely noticed. In fact, it seemed to run smoother without an MC, like a well oiled machine. The takeaway? I could get used to this.

+ QUEEN

Without a host, Queen opened the academy awards with front man Adam Lambert. Rocking the place with We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions. It was bold, brash and in keeping with the theme of the evening, very bohemian. Any excuse for more of this!

...but oddly enough, even Queen wasn't quite enough. Perhaps it was the song choices. C'mon, be daring. We know THESE are safe. Perhaps it was Adam Lambert. He has an impressive vocal talent, but he's no Freddy Mercury. No one is. Perhaps it was Christian Bale, looking like he was barely tolerating the whole spectacle. I dunno. Something was off.

- QUEEN

+ Maya, Tina, and Amy

Right from the get go, the first trio of presenters Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were, riffing on the No Host controversy and making a solid case for why they should be hosting next year.

+ Pacing

The broadcast felt snappier, quicker and better paced than previous years. (Our opening trio had the first award out in eight minutes versus TWENTY last year). It was a very economical way to run the show, and it moved well.

One of the consequences of pacing was the lack of montages. Those wonderful (yet admittedly pointless) breaks in the action that celebrate cinematography or editing with a four or five minute series of clips of great films strung together to a John Williams score. We like those. And we miss those.

- No Montages

Oddly, the one montage of clips to a John Williams score we did get this year, the in memoriam segment celebrating the lives of those Hollywood has lost, had very little emotion in it, and felt very sterile and cold.

- In Memorium

+ Melissa and Brian

This was one of... if not THE funniest visual of the night, and McCarthy proved that she's got the comedic timing and acting chops to not only pull stuff like this off, but to truly sell it with a rabbit puppet.

+ All Categories, LIVE

Academy voters had a hissy fit (and rightly so) at the idea of awards being presented during commercial breaks. We're glad we got to see ALL the presentations LIVE.

While it was great to see every category get their moment in the sun, when the award for Best Hairstyling and Makeup was announced and the three winners fumbled all over themselves trying to let someone else go first and no one could read prepared notes and then they got played off and the microphone got cut, we almost wish they had been on during the commercial break.

- Hairstyling and Makeup "Speeches"

Okay, we get it. Winning an Academy Award is a big deal. You're nervous, excited, overwhelmed, etc... Shock is a factor. Bring notes. Be brief. Tell a witty story, go to pieces, these are acceptable. Do not thank everyone under the sun. If you start off with "oh, there's so many people I have to thank... in alphabetical order they are..." Dude, unless you brought the fucking Micro Machines guy with you I don't wanna hear it. Post that shit on the internet later because inevitably the shock is gonna make you forget someone and they're gonna be mad and you know you can't get them all in anyway.

- Bad Speeches

+ Regina King's Speech

Not you, honey. You did just fine.

We know it's customary--nae, tradition--for the president of the Academy to deliver a speech of some sort during the proceedings. But after all the issues this year, the false starts, the course corrections, etc... it just seemed like there was an air of "How dare you show your face here!" Maybe this would have been the year to forgo that little tradition and stay hidden away backstage.

- The King's Speech

+ Shallow

...was anything but, as Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper delivered a performance for the record books. Not only heartfelt, soulful, and--OMG are they an item?!? But the Academy shot it just like Cooper did in the movie--from the stage. It was unique and beautifully done, and took none of the luster of the foregone conclusion that the song would win.

+ Spider-verse

It was the victory I think most of us were hoping for, the one that everyone kinda KNEW was going to happen, and yet was terrified that it wouldn't. Not only was Spider-verse the best Spider-Man movie released thus far, it was the best animated film of the year. And it has the statue to prove it. It also became a nice capstone for Stan Lee's legacy.

+ Diversity

There was far more diversity on display during this year's Oscars than at any time previous. Which is not only a good thing, it's a great thing. More voices should be represented here...

...but all that diversity was tempered with Hollywood's "business as usual" with the big award, Best Picture. Now I LOVED Green Book, but I also understand it was the safe bet. Hollywood is run by OLD, WHITE, MEN. And that's the category that's the most resistant to change and new ideas. Black Panther, (IMHO) is the film that really deserved to take home the statue. But 1) It's a new idea for Oscar: a superhero film. 2) It's a sci-fi action film. 3) It's a film that has a tiny African country be revealed as more rich and powerful than any other nation state on the planet. 4) The plot involves arming blacks around the world with superior weaponry so they can rise up to fight their white oppressors. I doubt very much the OLD, WHITE, MEN who run the joint were particularly eager to celebrate the movie regardless of how well it was made. Their second option if the internet is to be believed? Spike Lee. Also not happening. Roma was a lock for foreign film, and the Academy isn't fond of doubling up, which left Green Book. The Safe Choice. But in a year of diversity, safe feels like a back step and the wrong message to send...

- Squandered Good Will

Ah well, there's always next year...

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Excellence In Film?

2/12/2019

3 Comments

Sooo... awards season is in full swing, and I have something I need to confess:

I am an Oscars fan. I can't help it. I love the awards show. Not all of them. I'll watch the Golden Globes with a small measure of enjoyment and some excitement. I'll tolerate the MTV Movie Awards if they happen to be on in the same room as me. I loathe the Grammys and the Tonys and the Emmys and the whatever -eees happen to be on this week. Now don't misunderstand, I am not besmirching the noble work done in those fields, I am not looking down on television or music or theatre. I'm not saying those award shows hold any less weight or merit in their fields. But there is something about Oscar. The pomp, the circumstance, the overbearing superiority of it all. The class, the elegance, the history. The moments, the laughter, the tears, even the speeches.

I love it all. Every since I was a kid, I would watch every year, and even without really understanding the magnitude of what I was watching, I knew the import of the history that was unfolding up there on the screen. I knew, in the words of Roy Neary, "This means something. This is important."
And of course I held Oscar watch parties and submitted my picks, and bought books and read up on the history and the culture and the controversy. For where would the Academy Awards be without controversy?

Sure, we've had the usual how can so-and-so not be nominated for such-and-such for years. We've had the political commentary, we've had the stuck in a rut same kind of film winners for decades. Lately, the controversies have gotten more varied, ranging from super serious and topical to ultra ridiculous and back again. It started with #OscarsSoWhite when in 2016, for the second year in a row, all 20 actors nominated in the lead and supporting acting categories were white despite a slew of popular and powerful performances given by minority actors. This lead to complaints, boycotts and calls for change. Then we had Time's Up and #MeToo movements dealing with sexism and harassment against women, which Hollywood is rife with. We've all heard of the casting couch, and it wouldn't be a trope if it wasn't a thing. And Oscars addressed it. Kind of. A few more jokes were made, a few montages were shown, but in general it was light on content and impact, and it took Frances McDormand in her acceptance speech for Three Billboards to declare, “I have two words to leave with you tonight ... inclusion rider.” She had wound up the audience to expect Time's Up. Instead, she gave them instead was something concrete — a practical suggestion that could lead to real money for people of color, women of all races, and other underrepresented groups in Hollywood.

And while the whole point of the Oscars is to celebrate excellence in film, recently the academy has become obsessed with it's broadcast ratings. The Academy has been broadcasting the awards since all the way back in 1953. But now we keep hearing about changes to keep the audience. Television viewers tend to stay away in years when heavy dramas are big nominees, the so-called "Oscar Bait" films. Comic Book/Sci-Fi/Action movies, so essential to Hollywood's bottom line, very rarely if ever get the nod. Look at The Dark Knight, which failed to earn a nomination for Best Picture despite its popularity and excellence in filmmaking. To combat that trend, in 2010 the Academy switched up the Best Picture category, allowing up to TEN films to be nominated up from five. "The Avatar Effect" as I have come to think of it, not only makes seeing everything nominated that much harder, it feels like the Academy is throwing up a few sacrificial lambs that really don't stand a chance, but were popular at the box office in order to try and fool viewers into sticking around to see what happens. The other side of the coin is getting several solid, good films, but no real standouts, which can be just as bad. Behind the scenes, the nomination process itself is ridiculously convoluted (which you can read about here).

(Back to 2016 and #OscarsSoWhite, in my mind the Academy double goofed that year. In addition to no minority actors of color being nominated, there were only 8 films submitted for Best Picture, and Straight Outta Compton was not one of them. It ticks so many boxes that Oscar normally likes: Biopic, popular, did well but wasn't a runaway blockbuster... films like this are the very reason they went up to ten. Are you telling me they honestly couldn't fill those slots? Don't get me wrong, I harbor no illusions that those films would have won, but still, why offer up to ten if you can't find ten to honor? Why not just leave it at five?)

This year, Black Panther was released to become box office gold. Not only was it a certified hit, not only was it a popular movie that played in theatres PAST it's home video/DVD release date, not only was it loved by critics everywhere, it was exceptionally well made.

Oh, and it was a comic book/sci-fi/action film.

What to do? Well the Academy came up with a brilliant idea for just such an emergency, a whole new category:

The Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film.

What... the actual... FUCK?!? Are you guys shitting me? Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film? What is this? The goddamn MTV Movie Awards? Evidently, cooler heads prevailed, as the Academy has shelved that particular award, at least for this year, and Black Panther has gone on to actually be nominated for Best Picture, along with five other Oscars.

And then, there's the running length. The broadcast has been running long since even before it was a broadcast. Hell, Bob Hope made jokes about the running length when he was host. And yet, Oscar seems to think it needs to cut corners by shortening speeches, cutting off presenters, eliminating segments, or the newest outcry: giving out awards during commercial breaks.

The following is a letter from Academy President John Bailey:

Dear Fellow Academy Members,

After months of anticipation and much talk, I’d like to address a topic that’s close to me.

Viewing patterns for the Academy Awards are changing quickly in our current multi-media world, and our show must also evolve to successfully continue promoting motion pictures to a worldwide audience. This has been our core mission since we were established 91 years ago—and it is the same today.

As you may remember, last summer the Academy’s Board of Governors committed to airing a three-hour show. I want to reiterate however, that all 24 Academy Award-winning presentations will be included in the broadcast. We believe we have come up with a great way to do this, and keep the show to three hours.

While still honoring the achievements of all 24 awards on the Oscars, four categories—Cinematography, Film Editing, Live Action Short, and Makeup and Hairstyling – will be presented during commercial breaks, with their winning speeches aired later in the broadcast.

And, with the help of our partners at ABC, we also will stream these four award presentations online for our global fans to enjoy, live, along with our audience. Fans will be able to watch on Oscar.com and on the Academy’s social channels. The live stream is a first for our show, and will help further awareness and promotion of these award categories.

The executive committees of six branches generously opted-in to have their awards presented in this slightly edited timeframe for this year’s show, and we selected four. In future years, four to six different categories may be selected for rotation, in collaboration with the show producers. (This year’s categories will be exempted in 2020.)

The Academy Awards honors the year’s best films and filmmakers. It is an international show, filled with great emotion, and (we hope) stirring acceptance speeches. This year, in addition to performances of all five nominated songs, the show will feature Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic playing during In Memoriam, as part of their own centennial celebration.

So, buckle up! We are committed to presenting a show which we all will be proud of.

John

John, you're making it hard for me to keep defending you guys here.
CINEMATOGRAPHY?!?!
EDITING?!?!?!
Yeah, those aren't important to the craft of fucking filmmaking or anything.
I'm not saying I have the solutions for Oscar, I don't. I don't have any suggestions for them on how to have their cake and eat it too. I know many friends who couldn't give two shits about the Oscars. And I don't blame them. I genuinely get their frustration and apathy. But the allure of the gold keeps bringing me back, like a broken down prospector who knows his claim is played out, but wants just one more shot for it to strike. In much the same way, I keep hoping that the Academy will wise up and return to the glitz and glamor of celebrating the achievement of film and stop worrying so much about the multimedia world, the viewing numbers, and what is "proper". A good movie should be celebrated regardless of its genre, and a well crafted one should get it's moment in the sun to celebrate those who crafted it.
Perhaps Guillermo del Toro said it best: