The late, legendary New York City sports columnist Jimmy Cannon was known to quip, "Nobody asked me, but..." and then provide his thoughts about whatever was on his mind. In that spirit, nobody asked me but I'll weigh in on the 96th Annual Academy Awards broadcast from last evening. Reviewing the Oscar ceremonies is like shooting fish in a barrel in that there are always aspects of a production of this size that will inevitably be justly criticized. However, no matter how in vogue it is to bash the Oscars, regular readers of Cinema Retro know that I've tried to maintain objectivity. Here are my random observations:
Host Jimmy Kimmel did a decent job, as he had in the past. The Academy long ago abandoned ensuring that the host of the ceremonies has a background in the film industry. That went out the window when long-time host Bob Hope was replaced by Johnny Carson, whose brilliant timing resulted in higher ratings. Carson had the gig for quite some time and a variety of hosts followed, with Billy Crystal being the most popular. Kimmel is probably not well known in certain areas of the globe but his late night chat show is very popular in the U.S. That makes for both good and bad news. The good is that Kimmel is quick-witted and can improvise cleverly. The bad news is that he keeps shoehorning comedy bits into the broadcast that would be suitable for his TV show but still seem out of place on the Oscar presentations. There were mercifully fewer of these transgressions this year and the same can be said with the atrocious "spontaneous" banter between presenters, which was kept to a minimum.
I confess that I never watch the red carpet pre-show simply because of the vacuous banter ("Who are you wearing tonight?") but in general, outrageous attention-getting outfits were not on display. The ladies all looked very glamorous and most of the male stars were nattily attired in traditional black tuxes, although a number of them chose to wear open collar shirts and no ties. I guess that was to show non-conformity but some of them looked like the guys I used to see in the late 1970s queueing outside of Studio 54. (Full disclosure: I'm not a slave to fashion myself and as I write this, I am sporting a T shirt with an image of Shemp Howard imprinted on it.)
The event had its share of big names in attendance but for many years it has been noted that some of the diminishing ranks of living legends rarely attend the ceremonies unless they are nominated. Yes, we had Steven Spielberg there to present the Best Director award and Arnold Schwarzenegger was reunited with his "twin", Danny DeVito, for some amusing moments. Al Pacino attended to announce the Best Picture award but he did so in a cursory and confusing manner that undercut the impact of his appearance. There were no signs of the likes of Meryl Streep, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand, Harrison Ford or Denzel Washington. Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster were in attendance, as was Martin Scorsese, as they were all up for awards, though none won. It was astutely pointed out that De Niro and Foster had been in the auditorium before on the same night back in 1977 when they were both nominated for Scorsese's "Taxi Driver". Regarding Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon", his acclaimed film was shut out of any wins, the momentum having switched to "Oppenheimer". Similarly, last year's most popular movie, "Barbie", only won for Best Song. I must admit that while I thought the film's concept and execution were clever, I was not swept up by enthusiasm for the film. But then again, I doubt that men in the late late sixties were the demographic target for the marketing campaign.
It was an innovative idea to have previous winners introduce the nominated actors in their respective categories. Another nice touch was the homage paid to union members who work behind the scenes on film productions. We also learned that there were finally be Oscar recognition for casting directors, though the process might be a challenge in terms of deciding who exactly was the responsible party for casting certain actors, given that producers and studio executives have a say in the process. There was also a good video segment that paid tribute to the importance of stunt people throughout movie history. Acceptance speeches were fine, and the pace was brisk. The show had started earlier this year and, amazingly, ended up finishing on time.
The "In Memoriam" segment was the worst ever. This ritual and the controversies about it had inspired a major Washington Post article that ran a couple of days before the ceremonies. I gave up trying to figure out all the notable people were not mentioned and the staging was awful. The cameras concentrated on the elaborate settings and musicians, with photos of the dearly departed shown on a screen in the background. Most of the images were pretty pretty small even on today's giant-sized TVs and people who were not instantly recognizable had their credits line too tiny to read. Why can't the Academy get this right? TCM certainly does with its annual in memoriam video. They ought to just buy the rights to that.
The songs were all pleasant enough, but none of them particularly memorable.
A highlight of Oscar ceremonies used to be the presentation of honorary Oscars to legendary figures in the industry. The Academy decided with was all too superfluous and years ago relegated the honorees to brief film clips from a separate ceremony. This year, even that cursory effort was no longer included. Instead, we were told to scan a code on the TV screen in order to watch these honorees receive their Oscars. What a wasted opportunity. Mel Brooks was among those honored and the mind reels at how wonderful it would have been to see him receive the award on live TV. As a public service, we are presenting his speech below.
Politics were present, as usual, but kept somewhat restrained. There were references to the Israel/Gaza crisis and a moving and heartfelt speech by Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov in which he pleaded that peace might finally come to his beleaguered country. It earned a standing ovation, but unfortunately these people can't move the aid package through Congress. At the end of the show, Jimmy Kimmel read a social media posting by Donald Trump in which he eviscerated the host's performance on the show. Kimmel's reply may have been witty but if he really wanted to one-up the former president, he wouldn't have mentioned him at all. It would be nice if politics didn't play a part in these ceremonies, but that hasn't been the case in decades and with political tensions higher than they have been in the U.S. since the late 1960s, it's doubtful the Oscars will ever again be a telecast that brings people together in a common love of movies.
It was nice to see a Godzilla movie get Oscar recognition and I thought I could hear the cheering in Tokyo in my living room.
In my opinion, this was one of the better Oscar telecasts of recent years, even without Will Smith on hand to provide some spontaneous action.