Another year has passed and thus the gods of Hollywood are rewarded for their generosity over our meager lives.

The last few years that the Academy Awards have been presented have… how to say this nicely… straggling the line of being a shit show. Covid had nothing to do with this outcome. Yes, having a major awards ceremony in the middle of lockdown did present some setbacks in reference to location, but the nature of the world is not what made their last few years memeably bad. It was the Academy themselves and their decisions to be as discourteous to their own field that led to so many viewers being fed up with them.

The planners focused heavily on editing the show down for time while chasing an audience that only finds joy in mocking them. This led to controversial decisions like cutting out clips for nominees, adding online polls which opened them to being trolled, and setting up their entire show on the premise that Chadwick Boseman would get an Oscar posthumously only for the winner to be Sir Anthony Hopkins, who wasn’t even in attendance. Expectations were well below the ground for this year, and I think it’s safe to say they exceeded.

The Red Carpet

I watch the Academy Awards because I love movies. Other people watch it to see celebrities, and other people beside them watch the red carpet where the celebrities get to show off their expensive clothes and fashion. I wasn’t able to watch it all this time around, but I did catch two significant parts of the red carpet leading up to Oscar night that I think we should glance at.

The first is Hugh Grant for his notorious interview. I was honestly surprised by how many people took offense to it. I went to work a few days later and one of my coworkers, who didn’t watch the Oscars, is super into social media and talked about how rude Hugh Grant was and how he rolled his eyes at the interviewer. He didn’t, at least from what I saw, but I found the social media POV of an interview that looked to be playful with misunderstandings to be in such an uproar. Sure, I can understand a chunk of Americans not understanding his particular British humor, but I just can’t believe it blew up to this degree.

I was all smiles when I saw it on the red carpet. No idea who the interviewer was, my coworker said she’s an influencer(?), but it was very apparent that she didn’t do her homework. That’s fine, not every person will be able to watch everything in time for a big event like the Academy Awards, but it was the snowball effect of misunderstandings that I couldn’t believe.

First off was the Vanity Fair joke. While many people focus on her not knowing the hundred-fifty year old reference, what I was focusing on was Hugh Grant’s reaction. Truly priceless how stunned he was. Then, for whatever reason, he was asked about his tuxedo, a tuxedo that looks like it was bought off the rack and probably sat in his closet until his award ceremony appearances. Nothing fancy, but he was still asked who his tailor is. Hugh Grant may be in movies with stylish styles, but he personally doesn’t strike me as a guy to be part of the red carpet glamor, so his response to not knowing his tailor felt expected. But the piece-de-resistance has to be the Glass Onion question. This question was truly unbelievable because Hugh Grant has one scene that takes up a minute at most of screen time. He interacts with only one character who isn’t even the main character. Grant plays it off well joking that he had three seconds of screen time, but then the interviewer keeps coming back to that question with “Yeah, but still you showed up and had fun, right?”

Such a weird interview.

However, what people should have been talking about was Harvey Guillén killing it on the red carpet! He’s most known for his stunning work on the television show What We Do in the Shadows, but this year he’s living it up with the success of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Guillén makes fashion history by being the first plus-sized actor to wear Christian Siriano on the red carpet. His magnificent outfit has a “tuxedo top with a flare at the bottom,” adorned with shiny patterns of black on black. He truly is having the most fun on the carpet twirling around for all to swoon. Unmistakably one of the highlights of fashion adorning film celebration.

The Host is Back

One of the Academy’s experiments over the last few years was having the show without a host. It was alright, but you could feel the momentum of the show all over the place as different actors took center stage to give history and present awards. This year Jimmy Kimmel is back as the safe choice and does alright to keep the ceremony going.

Right off the bat, Kimmel mentions that the Academy has been focused on making the show shorter, but this year that’s not the case. They put back the categories (the Academy removed technical categories from their telecast and released the winners online to keep the show short, even though the show ran longer) and are not going to focus on time. They’ll go as long as they need to, and that was music to my ears. I love this time of year, for me, this is my Superb Owl, and I always felt it strange that industry members, critics, and pundits, all felt the need to have the show as short as possible when I needed more. Selfishly, in a perfect world, the Oscars would take a week but I’ll settle for a 3+ hour show instead. Runtime was never an issue.

Kimmel begins the show with a traditional monologue. It’s surprisingly strong. He singles out Nicole Kidman as the face of AMC theaters, calls out James Cameron and Tom Cruise for not coming to the theater when promoting going to theaters, mentions Steven Spielberg and John Williams’ long historic careers, and brings up how weird it was that in a building of hundreds, nobody did anything when Will Smith and Chris Rock’s controversial confrontation happened. However, the most important part of his monologue, which earned a lot of my respect, was when Kimmel called out the Academy in a joke on their diversity towards Dublin, shouting out movies like Till and The Woman King (movies people thought would be up for Oscars) as must-see watches to everyone at home even though they weren’t nominated. That’s fucking cool.

Thank you for reading Film Assist. This post is public so feel free to share it.

That said, while Kimmel as a host was good and helped the ceremony move along, not everything he did worked. A lot of his jokes landed flat, sometimes awkward like his interaction with Malala. While I was expecting him to bring up the Will Smith of it all he for some reason kept bringing it up throughout the show. Like, guy, you can’t be that desperate for jokes to keep going to the well of old news. Overall, his humor was a mixed bag, but his direction necessary.

The Ceremony

The set design for this year’s Academy Awards may be my favorite. It looks classy. Old school. It has digital marquees showing the names of the winners. For a ceremony whose thesis is theaters are back, this set is very clever and cool. Even if they picked weird clips and pictures for the nominees/winners.

It never felt slow. While I am very pro-length, there are times during the ceremony when it can feel like a slog. I never felt that here. Every speech was engrossing. I was interested in every category. The bits they had sprinkled throughout were fun or cute (looking at you Jenny the donkey). They didn’t feel desperate to add comedy, mostly, which relieved me.

Along with the notion that theaters are back, the Academy also focused on the love for the craft of film. Instead of presenters only giving a brief history of a category this year we had props. In one section they demonstrated how Orson Wells cut open a floor to lower the camera to its needed position. During editing you saw two ways people edit films; one digitally in front of monitors and the other literally cutting and splicing film on a table. It was heartwarming to see the behind the scenes of movies get a shoutout when usually the masses only care about big named actors winning.

Even though Kimmel said they weren’t going to play you off, and time wasn’t an issue, you could tell that it started rearing its head later on in the show. Sadly, the show did play off at least three people. The first two were part of the technical awards where a group comes up and everyone takes turns talking. Unfortunately, both groups were interrupted, and their mic cut when they were switching people. Both people cut off happened to be women too when their male peers were able to speak. The other team to be played off were visual effects and the only reason they were played off was for Jimmy Kimmel to make a joke. That fucking sucks. Not only were they not able to say anything, but they were used as the butt of a joke. For a year where they did so much right these small acts feel egregious.

Nominees and Winners

Other than All Quiet on the Western Front, this year felt very cut and dry. On my ballot, I got 18/23 categories right and there weren’t many surprises. That said, I was riveted the whole time. It didn’t matter if it was an easy guessing year or not, it all felt so special still and I’d like to break down some of the notable moments of the night.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio:

I love animated films. Clearly the Academy voters don’t, considering nearly every year a Disney or Pixar film, which Disney also owns, wins even when they’re not the best. This year was different. Guillermo Del Toro, Oscar darling, came out with an animated movie co-directed with Mark Gustafson, breaking that Disney curse. I still think he won purely because he’s Guillermo Del Toro, a previous winner with name recognition, but I truly hope this brings new opportunities to this category.

Ke Huy Quan

I never understood why the supporting acting categories were usually at the top of the show. They always felt big enough to me to warrant middle show status. That said, this was by far the best speech of the night, so in a way, the Oscars peaked in the first twenty minutes.

Ke Huy Quan has no bounds when it comes to energy. His heartfelt speech had me crying. You could tell that he meant every word with how much that moment meant to him. He wasn’t the only one emotional. This moment meant so much to everyone. The whole audience stood up for him. The presenter choked out his name as she felt the emotion of his win. It truly was one of the greatest moments to bless the Academy stage.

Jamie Lee Curtis

I find it more fun to watch these shows when you accept that the winners are not the best of the year. As many pundits like to point out, this show is a narrative project. Voters don’t watch every movie nominated, or they have a preference, but every year people love to talk about snubs and get angry over who won.

I was honestly surprised when they announced Jamie Lee Curtis being nominated, but I’m not mad that she won. She gave a good speech and shouted out all her horror fans while praising genre work. I honestly can’t see her getting another opportunity, which I think was the deciding factor for Academy voters, which is why I’m not mad. Not to mention her nod to her parents. It was really cool to see her be thankful to everyone who supported her while also giving praise to all she worked with.

Sarah Polley

Polley rocked the tux harder than Hugh Grant. ‘Nuff said.

The Whale

I have conflicting thoughts about the movie. I think it’s interesting, but also not the best at fat representation. It had some really good acting, and just like Ke Huy Quan, I am so happy for Brendan Fraser. It’s great to see him back, it’s great to witness his speeches, all around a warm time.

I don’t remember them doing this in previous years, but I thought it was really cool that they showed off the makeup work when it won. I think they showed designs and then quickly talked about how revolutionary the face work is. Understandably, I believe many people are only focusing on the fat suit, but the face is truly astonishing work and I’m glad they highlighted it, albeit quickly, during its win.

Overall

This year was a massive step in the right direction. The Academy has heard grievances from past shows and has taken it to heart. You can absolutely feel the love for the craft on display as winners make this year one of the more personal outings. When the Academy isn’t overthinking the show it runs smoothly and gives time, mostly, to the winners for some inspired speeches. I’m hoping this continues. I’m hoping we can expand categories at some time. And I’m hoping this is a sign for the years to get better.

But that’s enough about me. I’ve had too much time for my thoughts. I want to know what you thought of the Oscars. Ups? Downs? Leave a comment!