Oscar Reactions
So last night, Oscar season came to an end with the 90th Annual Ceremony, and it largely played out as expected. I missed a few of my predictions – the biggest being Best Picture, which after two years of playing it safe and getting it wrong, I decided to go with my gut this time – and, of course, got it wrong. Other than that nothing was too shocking (I also missed Documentary and Foreign Film but wasn’t really shocked by either win, and Cinematography, which I like to tell myself I didn’t predict Deakins as not to jinx him). It was a rather anti-climactic end to a season that felt long this year – but not overly bitter.
The Winners
Overall, I’m fine with the winners, even if out of the major categories (Picture, Director, Acting and Screenplay) only three of my choices won (Actress and the two writing categories). For Best Picture, I just want to take a second and say that while I was one of the people who hoped that Jordan Peele’s Get Out would come from behind and win, I think we really should acknowledge how strange a choice Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water is here – and how it is far from a safe choice – which throughout the long season, some people have talked themselves into believing. It is, after all, a film about a mute woman who falls in love with – and has sex with – a monster fish man. It is an incredibly personal film for Guillermo Del Toro, which he made on a surprisingly small budget, given how great the film looks. While it does have the 1950s nostalgia that is often popular with older Academy voters – it’s also more clear eyed about the past than most, openly acknowledging the misogyny, racism and homophobia of the era (perhaps that’s all a little too on the nose, but that’s preferable to ignoring it, as many films do). Del Toro is also a director who loves LOVES movies, who is also seems like a genuinely nice, genuinely passionate filmmaker and is ultimately a force for good in films. When I look at the Best Picture winner of any given year, I always like to think of a future “me” out there, who will learn about film history in part by going through Oscar nominees and winners – and if future me gets to The Shape of Water, and starts exploring Del Toro – with films like The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy, Blade II and Crimson Peak – I don’t see how that can be an entirely bad thing. It also may help Del Toro to make something even stranger next. So while the film wasn’t my favorite of the year – or of Del Toro’s career – I’m fine with it, and him winning.
The same goes for the acting awards, mostly. No, Gary Oldman’s performance in The Darkest Hour is my favorite of the year – or from him – but he has been so good in so many films (Meantime, Sid & Nancy, Prick Up Your Ears, JFK, True Romance, The Professional, The Contender, Hannibal, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and his only other nominated performance, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and so frequently ignored by awards groups, that I have a hard time getting too upset about him winning when he probably should not have. It makes it even easier considering the other options would be to either give Denzel or Daniel Day-Lewis another Oscar, or to give to one of two newcomers – Daniel Kaluuya or Timothee Chalamet, both of whom would be very worthy – but I’m not sure an Oscar for their breakthrough roles would really be the best for their career.
Frances McDormand was my favorite for Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri – so I was happy to see her win – and it’s great that her role is so different from her other Oscar winning role for Fargo 20 years ago. Sure, you can argue for Saorise Ronan – but with 3 nominations by the age of 23 – for three very different movies, she’s well on her way to becoming one of the greats anyway. She’ll win one sooner or later. I do find it a little odd how easy this win for McDormand was though – I would have thought Hawkins or Ronan would have been closer. I would have preferred Dafoe or Harrelson for Supporting Actor – but Sam Rockwell is always a welcome screen presence, he did the best work of his career in the film, and he’s a likable guy – even if you HATE his character, like many do, I don’t think that’s Rockwell’s fault. I have loved Allison Janney since The West Wing – and think she is one of the great actresses working – but I have to say that right up until the end, I was rooting for Laurie Metcalf. Out of all of the acting wins, Janney’s is the most confusing to me – not because she wasn’t great in the film, she really was, and is a deserving winner – but because so many people loved Lady Bird so much, it wasn’t winning anything else, and Metcalf is so great in it.
The writing awards went the way they should have – Peele’s Get Out screenplay is so layered and complex, and flat out brilliant I’m glad he won, and it’s hard to argue with the almost 90 year old legend James Ivory finally winning an Oscar (for those of you who skipped the great run of films he and his producer Ismail Merchant and writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala) made in the 1980s and 1990s – dismissing them as typical British costume dramas, the way I did stupidly before watching them – correct that now. A Room with a View, Howard’s End and especially The Remains of the Day are among the best movies of their kind.
The rest of the awards were fine – I was happy to see Roger Deakins finally win his richly deserved cinematography Oscar on his 14th nomination – he deserved it to, even though his brilliant work on Blade Runner 2049 isn’t as good as his work on many other films (like, say, Barton Fink, Fargo, Kundun, The Man Who Wasn’t There, No Country for Old Men, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford or Skyfall) – he’s still a genius, and worthy of winning. I would have preferred a different score winner – even though I love Desplat. I liked that my favorite film of the year – Phantom Thread – didn’t go home empty handed, and liked it even more that the winner was Mark Bridges for costumes, who has worked on every Paul Thomas Anderson film since the beginning. I feel a little bad that the brilliant team of Visual Effects artists on the Planet of the Apes trilogy lost all three times. I really do need see Foreign Language Film Winner A Fantastic Woman now (I was always going to – just hadn’t gotten around to it yet).
The Ceremony
For the most part, I think Jimmy Kimmel does a good job hosting. He keeps things fairly low-key, he keeps the show moving quickly, and more of his bits and jokes land than don’t. I wish he’d stop doing the whole “lets introduce movie stars to the normies” thing he’s done two years in a row – but whatever, it’s a small thing. I know some people didn’t like the montages – but I love a good montage, and most of them were good – reminding me of some films I want to rewatch again. I get that people think there were too many, but I’m a sucker for them. The musical performances of the Best Song nominees were mostly fine – although I don’t think the staging of eventual winner Remember Me from Coco did it any favors, and I was a little disappointed that Sufjan Stevens brought so many interesting musicians on stage (especially St. Vincent) and then did nothing with them.
Most of the speeches were fine – if rather forgettable. The highlight was clearly Frances McDormand’s speech – who stood there and did exactly what you expected and wanted her to do, and gave a truly rousing and inspiring speech. Rockwell and Janney also reminded me of why I like them so much – so effortlessly charming and funny. Oldman, not so much.
#MeToo
After the Golden Globes, where the MeToo movement was front and center, I expected we’d see a tamer show in regards to the MeToo Movement, and we did. Kimmel made one Weinstein joke, but basically when it came up, he talked more about systematic change, which I think is good. The winners basically stayed away from it – other than McDormand. The telecast did have Mira Sorvino, Salma Hayek and Annabella Sciorra on, and I thought that worked fine.
There was something weird about it all though, given that during the ceremony Kobe Bryant won an Oscar, as did Oldman – both have accusations in their past, and the pre-show on E! (which I didn’t watch) was hosted by Ryan Seacrest, who is currently facing them. Was it mere lip service, or are we actually seeing real change? Only time will tell.
Final Thoughts
I’m glad the Oscar season is over. It’s true, I don’t pay as much attention to the ins and outs of the whole season as much as I used to – but it’s still a LONG season – too long really to spend discussing too few films. There is too much over-analyzing and hot takes out there on all of these things, so it’s always nice when it’s over, and the films can go back to being films, and not horses in a race – and we get a few months off before we get going at it all over again.
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