First off, like I have been saying for weeks, the Oscars don't need a host. I had been professing for a while they could just open with a musical performance, trot out some comedians who get a slightly longer presentation, and then have the announcer do the rest of the work...and that's exactly what happened. While Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, and Amy Poehler probably made us wish that there was a host, the ceremony itself was a brisk affair, and focused entirely on the cinema rather than celebrity roasting (though Mel Gibson got at least one bite from Trevor Noah that fell pretty darn flat with Tina Fey of all people). And I'm fine with that-I love the Oscars because they celebrate the movies, and so this was great by me. I just wish they'd celebrated better movies, but let's not focus on the bad when there was a lot of good to be had, and the "no host" was a win in my book. I don't know if I want that to be the default, but this was much preferable to Oscar-haters like Seth MacFarlane or Chris Rock getting the job.
There were a few really fun wins last night, perhaps best among them Ruth E. Carter finally taking home an Oscar after decades in the film industry without winning (you have to imagine that no one was cheering harder for her than Sandy Powell, who lost to her twice last night & probably would be fine never winning another statue)-great speech, wonderful standing ovation, and terrific joke from presenters Melissa McCarthy & Brian Tyree Henry (both wearing inspirations from all five of the nominated films, a fact they didn't acknowledge which only made it funnier). Regina King was a choice winner (she won my Supporting Actress trophy too), and it was an actual supporting performance so bravo to her on that victory. Spike Lee finally winning a competitive Oscar (he has an Honorary one, putting him in a club with people like Henry Fonda & Paul Newman who won competitive Oscars after they won honorary ones) and getting political ("Do the Right Thing!") was bliss for my film-loving heart (he's deserved an Oscar before this). And let's not forget about "Shallow," one of the best performances I can recall seeing at the Oscars in years. Honestly-you'd be hard-pressed in the 25 years I've been watching the Oscars to find too many performances that felt so cinematic. Gaga & Cooper nailed it.
Last, I want to pay heed to the commercials, which were wonderfully movie-focused last night. Apple, Wal-Mart, and Rolex, among others, put out catered commercials for the second biggest night of television of the year, and I for one was all onboard. This is a good reminder to companies-if you want people to watch your commercials for major events like this rather than starting an hour late so you can just fast forward, cater your content. I found myself genuinely staying in the room or even pausing for the commercials, which is something I don't ever do.
Of the five nominated women, I think that Olivia Colman gave the best performance. Then Melissa McCarthy. And at the bronze Glenn Close. Spoiler alert for that year's OVP article, but this is the way it shakes out for me, and so in theory I should be happy. It is always so cool when surprise winners take it (and Colman was a surprise) AND they richly deserve the trophy, so this should make me happy. And it's not like Colman didn't ace that speech, the night's finest. She managed to be funny, charming, meaningful, and paid lovely, personal tribute to not one but two of her fellow competitors (I'm sure she bought Yalitza Aparicio & Melissa McCarthy a drink afterwards so it'd be the full quartet) during the speech. Hell, she even thanked the presenters, which is one of my favorite rarities that people do at the Oscars! Nothing about that moment should make me sad...
...but it did. Poor Glenn Close-even an actress that strong couldn't hide the pain in knowing she'd lost for a seventh time, and that it was to a worthy winner doesn't make it easier. People were quick to point out that The Wife wasn't a great film whereas The Favourite was (they're not wrong, though Close is very good in it), and that she could come back with Sunset Boulevard (they've been making that film for two decades now-I doubt it ever actually reaches the screen), but this feels like it was Close's last shot. Women in their seventies don't get chances like this, where they win the Globe and the SAG and are living legends who have never won-it was a miracle she even had this opportunity & it didn't just go to Meryl or not be made at all. I would assume Close will go the route of Peter O'Toole now and get an Honorary Oscar, but she could have so easily won a competitive one this year, and it would have been better than, say, Geraldine Page or Paul Newman because this is one of her best performances. That Oscar weirdly didn't take the time to cap an excellent career like this is shocking, and puts a damper on what would otherwise have been the best win of the night. If Close wins a competitive trophy at some point in the future, Colman's win will look like sheer genius. Otherwise, this is a worthy win with a rough sheen.
I also feel like I need to mention Roma losing Best Picture here. Of the nominated films, this was my favorite, but I wasn't sure I wanted it to win considering its Netflix routes. Netflix feels (to me) like the death of cinema, a hark back to the 1910's and 20's when films were just disposable, tossaway creations, a culture that ended in part because of the Oscars themselves putting a stamp of history on filmic achievements. I didn't want Netflix to win a Best Picture trophy, because essentially they are creating television, not film, and are just a glut of movies without giving us preservation or a sense of tradition (Roma got a run in theaters, sure, but Other Side of the Wind barely registered at the movies, and most of their films never get to have the experience of being in a darkened theater). I would have preferred if they were going to send a message about keeping cinematic traditions alive that they'd have sent it via The Favourite, but I'm not particularly sad that Roma lost even if it deserved the W.
I made it seven paragraphs without mentioning the Best Picture winner, which feels about right since Green Book is the sort of forgettable winner even the biggest of Oscar nerds won't be able to remember a few years from now. The film's problematic look at race aside, this isn't the worst film that could have won (we'll get there in a second), and honestly it feels like the sort of movie that just sort of hangs in the background, like Around the World in 80 Days or Chariots of Fire. Contrary to the hyperbole you'll surely hear this morning (everyone gets ridiculously over-the-top when it comes to Oscar), the Academy has given Best Picture to worse movies than Green Book. It's just that this isn't a particularly good movie, and from the awards body that gave this same statue to Moonlight two years ago, feels like a regressive one.
If you want to complain about Green Book wins, its other two trophies are easier targets. The Screenplay win is a joke, especially with something as special as The Favourite nominated, a flick which approaches movies like All About Eve in terms of screenplay greatness, and considering the racist tweets from Nick Vallelonga, comes across as just gross. And the Mahershala Ali win still feels so strange to me. He clearly didn't want the win, he just won (for an exponentially better film/performance), he's obviously the lead in the film, and there were two worthy, longtime troupers nominated alongside him that would have made for superb speeches. Honestly-think of how meaningful it would have been to have Sam Elliott or Richard E. Grant take the stage, thanking the decades of directors & actors that they've worked with (many of whom would be in that room). Either would have made a fine choice-unlike skipping Close, they weren't honoring a truly great performance instead, they were just giving an afterglow trophy to an actor whose career probably suffers as a result of this victory (close back-to-back winners tend to have career lulls afterwards if they aren't named Meryl Streep).
The obsession with keeping the show short meant that, other than "Shallow," all of the Best Song nominees got short shift (anyone know the actual reason Kendrick Lamar dropped out?) with 90-second snippets rather than a full-bodied performance. You could easily have, say, cut the Queen number that opened the show and given that time back to the actual nominated songs without worrying about the show's length, which feels like a better solution to me (or the best solution-don't worry about the time because its only another 10 minutes max).
And finally, while I was thrilled not to have any "real people" bits, the "random people" presenting the awards just felt odd to me. Yes, it's cool seeing Serena Williams present at the Oscars, but you don't really get the sense of why she gets this honor, for this film. John Lewis was about the only non-filmic presenter who genuinely made sense with his film introduction, and considering how poorly that win is going to age, it feels a bit rude to ask such an important man to lend his legacy to such a film.
The best part about Green Book winning Best Picture is that Bohemian Rhapsody didn't, a refrain I'm going to be saying for many years when people bring up Green Book's victory. I said above that there are worse films than Green Book to take Best Picture...I don't think I can say the same for the taped-together, homophobic, just truly bad Bohemian Rhapsody, my choice for the worst film of 2018, and it didn't deserve a single one of its nominations much less wins. If you had to give it something, Sound Mixing I suppose makes sense if you felt it needed something, but comparing that to the meticulous nature of Roma is absurd, and honestly can we put to rest that just because a movie has music doesn't mean that it needs to be nominated here? A Star is Born had considerably better sound mixing (stronger stadium scenes, for starters) if you needed to honor a musical, and even it wouldn't have made my actual ballot.
The other three wins are cosmic jokes, however. Precisely what Sound Editing even was there in Bohemian Rhapsody other than the old Queen recordings? Seriously-I think I have a copy of A Night at the Opera in my basement-if I go play it at the local AMC do I also get an Oscar? Giving the film, which was lensed by three directors and looks it, an editing Oscar for sheerly existing is a crime (in a year where we had editing triumphs like Cold War, Roma, and Free Solo as options, not to mention the nominated The Favourite, it's even worse), and John Ottman getting an Oscar considering his longstanding partnership with Bryan Singer is just gross. People who have known Singer for just one night have talked about how sleazy he is, and Ottman has worked with him for 25 years; you could tell his entire speech he was trying desperately not to thank Singer, and considering how closely they are related this was basically honoring an (alleged, but with dozens of accusations) pedophile with an Oscar by proxy. And then there's Rami Malek, whose clip of him lip syncing and likely not even playing the piano is indicative of the kind of performance that he gave in this film...precisely what was accomplished here other than putting him in the annals of Mary Pickford in Coquette as one of the worst performances to ever win an Oscar? The Academy had other options (Bradley Cooper was terrific in A Star is Born, Willem Dafoe has deserved an Oscar in the past), but instead threw a bone to what would be a forgettable talent show performance.
Of course, it's no surprise that Dafoe would be ignored in a night void of famous film icons. Other than Barbra Streisand, there were no callbacks to film history last night, and Streisand barely counts considering she presents all the time. Where were the Eva Marie Saints or Rita Morenos? Cicely Tyson was in the damn theater-let her present something! The In Memoriam skipped over Oscar nominee Carol Channing (I know they can't make everyone happy with the In Memoriam and I genuinely don't side with people getting angry on this one that often, but being an Oscar-nominated actor should guarantee a spot in the presentation), which is about as big of an indictment as you can find for the Oscars under John Bailey.
Because while it was an overall pretty good Oscars (if you dismiss some of the winners), the season was a mess, and John Bailey needs to resign. The tepid applause for him (and the "boos" from my living room) show a man who has tried his darndest to destroy the Oscars, and I pray there is a Cheryl Boone Isaacs waiting in the wings when he is forced out at the Academy's next election. This year proved that the Oscars can easily survive without a host, but they might be able to survive under John Bailey.
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