Post Oscar Thoughts (other than Will Smith)

Cafe Society
1

I say this with love - as someone for whom the Oscars have been appointment viewing for 60 years - but I think Will Smith and the hosting triumvirate may have killed the Oscars

Putting 3 comics on stage simultaneously is a bad idea. Mostly because they felt compelled to comment on each other’s punch lines (“uh huh” “that’s right!”). Individually they were meh. Amy Schumer actually made me laugh, with her point about Aaron Sorkin making a story about Lucille Ball without a single funny moment.

The other 2 were god awful. Did anyone else cringe when Regina Hall was groping unwilling men on stage?

It might have been nice to hear from DeNiro and Pacino instead of just having them stand there, mutely.

As usual, the best parts of the broadcast were the film clips – the “anniversary” clips, the James Bond montage,

I was surprised that “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” wasn’t a song nominee. Disney had to pick their nomination choice before the film was released and the song became a smash.

Kevin Costner gave a Lifetime Achievement Award speech even though he wasn’t receiving anything. Meanwhile, Samuel L. Jackson did receive an award but didn’t get to go on stage and accept it. That was … dumb.

I had to google Anthony Hopkins to see why he was presenting Best Actress… that’s how non-memorable the 2021 awards were.

If I died and was included in In Memoriam – but only in the background while the focus is on the choir singing in the foreground – I hope my estate would tell the Academy “Don’t bother.” It’s kind of insulting to have 2 tiers of Memoriam.

I was cringing expecting Tracee Ellis Ross to experience a Scotch tape malfunction

OMG, Liza. Couldn’t they have wheeled her to center stage? Why was she there (she obviously didn’t know)?

I’m pretty happy with all the choices, actually.

2

It increased my appreciation of Lada Gaga as a person. Obviously, Liza was having trouble concentrating (it’s the 50th anniversary of Cabaret and they had several cases where films from 1972 were honored). But Lady Gaga gently kept her on point, without demeaning or losing patience. I don’t know her music, but she seems a stellar human being.

3

Seeing Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett together – with Tony’s dementia in evidence – confirms your opinion.

4

I guess I have some kind of blind devotion to the Oscars; I always enjoy it - though obviously some years more so than others. Aside from You Know What, I thought it was a damned good show.

I thought the three hosts were good. They were used rather sparingly, but just enough, imo.

Beyonce’s song is boring as hell but the production number looked great (as did she).

Robert DeNiro looked better than I’ve seen him in years; he must have transferred some age to Mr. Pacino. Speaking of whom, it kind of looked like he didn’t want to be there; I thought I saw him jerk away from Francis F C.

Mz. Liza made me a little sad but she was smiling and of course, as mentioned, Lady Gaga showed such love and care for her.

I liked Kevin Costner’s speech but I’m not sure why he felt moved to give it.

I agree that the in memorium part was too busy, but it was a step in the right direction in that it seemed to included folks from sectors of the industry that aren’t usually noticed. The choir should not have been in front of the screen and the dancing was distracting.

I thought Billie Eilish was finally giving up her messy look but their she was again. She sounded good, at least.

5

A positive take away would be that most people probably never heard of CODA or knew what it was about and the win will give it more visibility and have the curious (like myself) google it and put it on their watch list.
The Liza moment was a little sad, mostly sweet, and Liza nailed the most important part by shouting out the winner with enthusiasm at the right moment. Lady Gaga handled the moment perfectly by being the right amount of supportive and helpful without making Liza look helpless and never tried to wrest attention back to herself in a panic. Much respect.

6

I thought it was a terrible production. They made this big to-do that they were going to limit the presentations and speeches of the minor awards to shorten things up, then bloated the hell out of everything with James Bond and other anniversary filler. The run time was still way past what it should have been.

And yes - the “let’s line up these men to leer at and grope them” was gross. Yes - it happens to the women all the time, and it sucks. But getting even isn’t helping. Let’s just get better.

7

I suspect mine is a minority opinion, and something on which reasonable people can disagree. But IMHO, clips and montages are the best part of every year’s broadcast.

If we’re cutting the bloat I’d start with Wanda Sykes schtick at the Academy Museum which was 100% devoid of laughs. I would then eliminate all song performances; shoot, I’d even eliminate the category. That would cut 30 minutes right there. And is a song that just plays while the credit rolls (which was the case with Beyonce’s song) really part of the movie experience anyway?

8

I watched most of the show last night. I think that the year they did without a host was great. (Rather like that time in, I think, the 1980s when an NFL game was broadcast with just the field announcements. It was suggested that fans loved it–and it was never repeated). I get the issue with three hosts, but I thought they were the least of the show’s problems.

I like the songs on the broadcast–normally, the performers were not in the film and it is a good way to showcase them. I missed Beyonce at the start, but I liked the other performances. And I guess they felt like they needed We Don’t Talk About Bruno though not nominated.

I haven’t seen Dune or Coda but now I certainly want to see both.

Not sure how to shorten the show–they presented some Oscars earlier in the evening and then showed the winners receiving them. At first, last night, I thought they had ended the musical cues for winners’ remarks, but I was quickly proved wrong. I felt for Questlove who was moved by the win, although a lot of people were expecting it. Not sure how to change or if it is worth changing anything about this. Let’s face it, who knows what you will be prepared to say when your name is called? And pre-taping winner’s remarks seems like a giveaway, although I noticed on a number of occasions that the first movie named in the nominations frequently won.

I think that Lady Gaga worked with Liza Minnelli well and gave Liza space to do what she could. What I couldn’t help was thinking about seeing her in The Sterile Cuckoo when I was in high school and feeling for her and state of health.

I will be watching next year and hoping for less jarring content from very well-off performers.

AliinFree

9

I’m sure Apple TV+ will get a little bump by people who want to watch it, but I wonder if a lot of people will just see it’s on a service they don’t want to sub to and they just shrug their shoulders.

I wonder if the two biggest favorites between distributed by streaming services (CODA and The Power of the Dog) will have an effect going forward.

10

Here’s a clip of Liza Minnelli in January from CBS Sunday Morning. It’s pretty clear her health is deteriorating rapidly.

11

I’ve gone from watching the show pretty regularly to pretty much not caring about it. It’s not helping that I rarely get to see the nominated films nowadays. I was amused that I was able to pick 5 out of 8 of the winners of what I consider the major awards without watching one of them. I got two wrong and didn’t have a good enough feel for best actress to pick one.

12

I used to love them, but now I record them only so I can go back and watch hi-lights or the stuff in the news.

My favorite part used to be the memoriam, but it sounds like they’ve messed that up.

13

Seconded.

14

I expect Apple TV will heavily publicize its week free trial, so a lot of people will sign up for the trial–and some will remain subscribed.

15

There’s a really easy way to shorten it, and it’s so obvious that I guess they just don’t want to do it, but simply cut the stupid comedy bits. Have an opening comedic section like Billy Crystal used to do, and then just have the presenters say a few words about the nominees and give the awards. Keep the montage celebrations of movies, those are fun to see, (except never do a fan voting category again. Twitter bots voting for movies no one cares about or heard of wasted so much time.) but the dumb comedy is always the worst part of the show and goes on way too long.

16

That explains a lot, although “Dos Oruguitas” also charted well.

Probably because she’s circling the drain healthwise and they wanted to give her one last (metaphorical) bow. Which is nice, although she was clearly struggling. Definite kudos to Lady G for her gentle support.

Agreed. Also, cut the hosts altogether. The whole “I’m going to introduce the other presenters” this is tedious. Have someone do the opening, then have the various presenters come out for each award.

17

IIRC, the hostless Oscars were actually longer than the hosted ones (at least the 2019 awards were).

18

The In Memoriam trend of having performers onstage to sing - or, this year, to dance as well - is a huge pet peeve of mine. I find it incredibly disrespectful, especially when the TV show’s director chooses closeup shots of the singer while the photos of those who’ve passed away are ignored for the broadcast.

I can remember the traditional presentation - the orchestra plays a tasteful, melancholy tune while all the photos and names go by for the viewers to remember. I don’t remember exactly when the Oscar producers decided that wasn’t “jazzy” enough, but it’s a terrible decision.

I also noticed at the end this year was a blurb telling viewers to go online to see more of the In Memoriam. Good lord, how disrespectful is that?

19

I don’t know why they even continue to do the “In Memoriam” part. Has anybody ever said, “They really nailed it this year! Good job!”? The reviews are always negative - The music was inappropriate. The dancers were distracting. The pictures were too small. They lingered on that actor too long. My favorite dead foley artist was barely a blip. My dearly departed cousin the hand double was left out entirely.

And, good grief! What are they going to do when Harvey Weinstein dies?

20

Well, I hope a long line of people jump up from the audience, stride onto the stage and slap his photo derisively.