Pandemic Academy Awards Part II

Winners and Losers

Winner: Yuh-Jung Youn's Acceptance Speech

Thank God I had “elderly Korean woman flirts with and roasts Hollywood hottie” in my Oscars betting pool. Dinner on me, y’all. Yuh-Jung Youn was the second-ever Asian woman to win Best Supporting Actress, and she was the first to do it since 1957; an amazing achievement in and of its self, not even considering that she beat out the likes of Glenn Close and Olivia Colman along the way. Youn’s performance in Minari was so sharp, earnest in all the best ways, and consistently hilarious. Unsurprisingly, just like her speech.

Loser: Oscars Song Trivia

The Academy Award’s poignant tone was an explicit choice by showrunners to best encapsulate the status quo: loss of industry, normalcy, life. Classic award show tropes were ignored: no zany host, no opening monologue, no music performances. Why not lighten the mood and play a little game? Comic relief is a beautiful thing when done appropriately. Unfortunately, the bit felt forced, ill-conceived, and random. The only saving grace was Glenn Close doing “Da Butt.” Although, the spontaneity of that, confirmed by The Los Angeles Times, was scripted.

Winner: The Telecast

Covid protocols were always going to dramatically shift what a traditional night at the Oscars may look like, which created a tricky endeavor for producers to pull off the show in an interesting way. Spearheaded by Steven Soderbergh, an Academy Award winning director in his own right, the Oscars broadcast took a calculated creative risk to disrupt the traditional beats to a normal award show. Essentially, they turned an award show about movies into a movie, a unique swing-for-the-fences approach. The night started with a Regina King power strut while movie-standard opening credits rolled to melodic tunes playing in the background. Nominees were presented as narratives, an almost script-like story-branding description of careers and performances. Camera angles were rarely centered, a Soderberghian cinematic trick giving the audience a sense of firsthand experience or observation. Movie buffs rejoiced as ratings plummeted.

Loser: The Telecast....Yup

Two major flaws here. First, higher-level movie production of the show alienated casual observers. Second, changing the award order on a hunt for the dramatic backfired.

If acting in movies is the big leagues, then the Academy Awards is the Super Bowl. Millions of viewers tune into these events with zero prior engagement with the material. The beauty of a predominantly layperson audience, at the Oscars specifically, is the exposure to niche films and actors that perhaps haven’t broken into the mainstream but deserve a bigger stage based on the quality of their work. Rarely, if ever, were clips and montages of movies nominated shared during award presentations. Without contextualizing the warrants of why nominees were selected, in hopes of protecting the production style of the broadcast, viewers were left guessing on the merits and content of the films and performances.

The production team had every right to restructure the order of awards to their liking. Historically, Best Picture is always the last award presented but that doesn’t make it a requirement. This year, Best picture was third to last, followed by Best Actress and then finished with Best Actor. It appears showrunners structured the last three awards on the presumption that Chadwick Boseman would win Best Actor posthumously for his role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, established not only on Boseman’s unbelievable performance but also wins at the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards respectively. Their rationale seemed super fair. Finish the telecast on a dramatic, bitter-sweet moment honoring Boseman’s life and career achievements, grab yourself one more pigs’n a blanket, and head on home. However, it didn’t shake out that way. Anthony Hopkins won for his role in The Father. Joaquin Phoenix – a world-class actor but perennial Oscars agitator – was forced to award Best Actor to Hopkin’s headshot since he no-showed the event and any remote filming locations. The evening ended like a balloon getting popped, but not the fun kind with confetti or helium to be huffed, just a deflating “pppppfffffff.”

Be honest, did you make that noise out loud after reading it?

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What Is Next?

Via Getty Images

The efficacy of amazing movies doesn’t revolve around how funny or boring an award show was, and it shouldn’t have to. It should be a night about exposure to lesser known films and the chance to see nine-year-old Alan Kim sporting a Thom Browne shorts suit ala David Rose. We can, however, view the results of the Oscars as a barometer to measure the joys in a year like 2020 that brought so much heartache and anguish. Daniel Kaluuya’s portrayal of Chairman Fred Hampton will continue to educate and inspire. Netflix will continue to crank out Oscars contenders after a second frustrating year of bad results – The Trial of the Chicago 7 went zero for five after The Irishman’s zero for ten performance in 2019. Chloé Zhao will continue to intrigue her audiences with compelling storytelling like Nomadland. If you have missed any of this year's nominees, I encourage you to watch one or all to escape, or explore, or enjoy.

Here is one sentence (and probably a lot of parentheses) and how to stream 2020’s Best Picture Nominees.

Mank

Hollywood folklore told from such an anti-Hollywood director, David Fincher, with an original screenplay by his late father, while Gary Oldman is up to his usual tricks (being a kick-ass actor).

Stream on Netflix

Minari

A thought exercise on the sanctity of the “American dream” and how important finality and story reconciliation are to you as a movie watcher.

Rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Youtube for $19.99 and in select theaters

Judas and the Black Messiah

Out of this world acting performances from creepy white guy (but super nice fella, saw him buying pants one time) Jesse Plemons and co-nominated LaKeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya; plus an absolute flex by writers and the director tasked with telling a story using dramatic irony (audience is privy to knowledge the character doesn’t know) the entire time.

Rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Youtube for $19.99

Nomadland

A classic story arc about the tension between familial obligation and settling down versus inherent cravings of seeking the unknown told through a beautiful permutation of a McDormand masterclass, real-life nomads, and such original directing.

Stream on Hulu

The Trial of the Chicago 7

Come for the fast-talking history biopic written and directed by Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing, The Social Network) and stay for the crazy stacked cast (Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance).

Stream on Netflix

Promising Young Woman

A unique blend of perfectly written dark comedy meets crime thriller meets rom-com love interest.

Rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Youtube for $5.99

The Father

A simply heartbreaking story told through an empathetic and clever lens about dementia and its diminishing effect on loved ones and personal sanity.

Rent on Amazon for $19.99 and in select theaters

Sound of Metal

My favorite of the lot; Riz Ahmed’s devotion to accurately portraying the transition into the deaf community and the struggles that ensue was so raw and well crafted.

Stream on Amazon Prime Video