After a much later date than usual, the Oscars are finally behind us. While award shows have been hit hard and changed up due to the ongoing pandemic, some for better and some for the worse, the Oscars' unique approach this year led to the weirdest Oscars of all time in my opinion. Lets take a dive into what made this ceremony so weird and ultimately, a missed opportunity to transcend other pandemic-era award shows.
For the third year in a row, the Oscars went host-less. While the opening of the show, framing the Oscars as a movie of sorts, showed promise, the rest of the show was anything but. Regina King opened up the show and explained to viewers that the Oscars was treated like a movie set. Masks off when cameras were on and then masks on during commercial breaks, a socially distanced crowd in Los Angeles' Union Station (along with others Zooming in from around the world), and a new, unique approach to unveiling the nominees. For each presenter, they gave a fun fact of sorts for each nominee. The result was...perplexing to say the least. I was surprised that virtually no clips were shown from the nominated films. It's almost like you could not get into the "Oscars spirit". After watching the show, I do think the Academy should return to having a host for next year's show. I know it's a thankless job and nearly everyone gets bad reviews, but someone out there would be willing to take it. The shows have lacked any sort of comedy in recent years and I think it would also get more people re-interested in the Oscars, which has suffered low ratings with each passing year.
Other moments in the show stood out as kind of so-so for me. A big one was that the "In Memoriam" segment was extremely rushed. The only two celebrities that really got longer than five seconds on-screen were Sean Connery and Chadwick Boseman (more on him later). While the wait between Oscars was longer this year and the number of people in the industry that passed, the producers really had a lose-lose situation here. Especially since the segment came near the end of the show where the pace of the show was pretty stagnant at that point. Another strange choice was the camera angles for winners delivering their speeches. Very rarely did the camera shoot the winners or presenters straight on, especially on stage. While this may have been due to Union Station's layout, it was still a very unique choice that I found distracting throughout the show. Also when they kept cutting to the above-eye view of the entire room was distracting to me.
Over two hours into the show, Questlove and Lil Rey Howery did a comedic segment for Oscars trivia pertaining to songs that have or haven't been nominated in the past. I found this segment to be entirely unnecessary. Since this was over two hours in, I think the segment just added to the extremely slow pace of the show. The nominees were cold-called on by Howery and many looked a tad nervous in my opinion. The saving grace of the segment (and perhaps of the night) was Glen Close doing "Da Butt" dance, a dance nearly no one expected her to know how to do or even heard of.
While the show was a strange one, it did have some positive moments and was also a record-breaking Oscars for its diversity. Chloe Zao won for Best Director for Nomadland, becoming the first woman of color and only the second woman to win the award. Zao was one of the many inspiring speeches of the night, along with Yuh-jung Youn's enjoyable speech and Daniel Kaluuya's speech which cumulated in him thanking his parents for...having sex (I'm serious). Mia Neal won for Best Costume Design for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, the first Black woman to win the award. Tyler Perry was given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and gave an inspiring speech about meeting in the middle and refusing to hate. Sound of Metal, a film about a drummer losing his hearing and coming to terms with it, won Best Sound. The film is a significant push for disability awareness as the film has lots of deaf representation. Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin (who is the only deaf performer to win an Oscar) was on hand to present two awards as well. Diversity at the Oscars has come a long way, especially when the "Oscars so White" controversy was just five years ago.
As for Best Picture, Nomadland claimed the top prize, although some were puzzled when it was announced. Not that Nomadland wasn't worthy or there was a mixup or anything like that, but the timing of the award. Ever since 1972, Best Picture has always been the final award of the night since it is technically the biggest award for the show. But this year, Best Picture was handed out before the Best Actress and Best Actor awards. It certainly surprised the hell out of me, I even thought for a second that I missed the Best Actor/Actress awards. So why did Best Picture not go last? The answer leads us to the biggest surprise of the night.
By far the biggest upset of the night was the Best Actor category, when Anthony Hopkins won for The Father over the front-runner, the late Chadwick Boseman for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Since Best Actor was handed out last, the end of the show proved to be a stunner and largely anticlimactic. For one, there is the shock that Boseman did not win the award as many expected him to. Also, Hopkins wasn't even at the ceremony. He was halfway around the world in his hometown in Wales. It seems that the producers gambled on Boseman winning the award, where the end of the show could be a tribute of sorts to him. Since Hopkins wasn't there, presenter Joaquin Phoenix accepted the award on his behalf and the show abruptly ended. Hopkins' win was also a record for the oldest actor to win an Oscar at 83 years old. While I am disappointed that Boseman did not win, Hopkins certainly deserved the award in his own right. Hopkins himself was even shocked he won, sending out a video message the following morning that also included a tribute to Boseman. While Boseman didn't win, his legacy will always be legendary whether he won the award or not, leaving a strong mark on the industry in a variety of ways.
So there you have it...the weirdest Oscars of all time. What started out as a "movie" got one hell of a twist ending, here's to hoping things go better next year. Hopefully things return to normal (or relatively normal) and we can expect a good old-fashioned Oscars. The show has a lot to do to get people interested again, and it should start with having a host again. While I shouldn't knock the Oscars too much since it did the best it could during a global pandemic, the show was just kind of eh this year. Almost as if after the opening the entire show was on autopilot and the most memorable moment for years to come will be the stunning ending (but it does not top 2017's ending!).
Did you watch the Oscars this year? What did you think of the show? Let me know in the comments below!
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