The Academy Got The Oscars They Deserved

What didn't work, what was expected, was overshadowed by what didn't work last night at the Academy Awards. The producers that seemed embarrassed by the Oscars created a show that was embarrassing to watch and a slap in the face to those still arguing for the cultural value of movies.

I'm not talking about Will Smith's slap of Chris Rock and his awkward Best Actor acceptance speech, which turned what was supposed to be one of the night's celebratory moments. It was an oddly appropriate finale for a show that, above, was the live assault over the comedian telling a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith.

It was wrong to award eight awards before the show. Dune, the well-received and well-received fantasy blockbuster which earned $400 million worldwide despite Covid conditions, got most of its Oscar love before the proper show.

The two online polls that were supposed to give something to Spider-Man: No Way Home ended up being won by the Justice League and Army of the Dead. Don't tell anyone, but I think Army of the Dead and Justice League are better than Spider-Man: No Way Home. Even though the result was unsurprising, it was still baffling to many people that a scene from a superhero movie four years ago was not nominated.

It is a terrible look, especially as Best Costumes, which was expected to go to Cruella, was aired live and the broadcast.

The show found time to offer a skewed live performance of We Don't Talk About Bruno, which wasn't even nominated, and a James Bond homage without a single person involved with the 007 franchise. Even though Samuel L. Jackson is the highest-grossing actor of all-time by a healthy margin, he was not considered a must-see TV show.

There was time for the usual comic monologues and skits, none of which were good or bad, except for a cheap crack at The Last Duel. They did what they could with what they had. It wasn't considered a must-see live TV when rising star Riz Ahmed won an Oscar for his short film The Long Goodbye.

The show had time for an upbeat In Memorium sequence that obscured the faces of the people being remembered while pausing to offer testimonials for Ivan, Betty, and Sidney. It had the effect of elevating some late filmmakers above others, specifically in this case three filmmakers who the general populace knew and liked.

The show tried to be more about the nominated films than anything else. The result of last night's Academy Awards was aimed at people who don't care for the Oscars and people who aren't obsessive movie nerds. You can argue that rich movie stars sitting in a room dressed in their Sunday best celebrating each other as the world around them burns is a feature, but that is not a bug.

It doesn't mean you don't care about climate change, social strife, war or income inequality if you care about the Oscars. It just means you can do more than one thing. Last night's show, and the controversial decisions that went into it, seemed predicated on mocking or judging anyone who would otherwise look forward to the annual celebration, with an extra whiff of embarrassment or outrage that the Academy members would dare vote for anything other than Spider-Man.

The Academy Awards show last night was the worst in my lifetime, with an extra whiff of despair on my end because it seemed to be embarrassed that the voting members would nominate films that so-called regular people might not have seen. Don't Look Up, Power of the Dog and tick tick boom may be among the most watched nominees last night.

A sci-fi blockbuster, a sweeping western, a star-filled satirical comedy, an uplifting family melodrama, a true-life inspirational sports drama, an epic musical romance, and a star-packed film noir are all nominated for the Best Picture award. Even though a few of those films would have been commercially viable, they weren't counted.

I don't know how the Academy will react to last night's debacle, but I have a suggestion: Direct your show at those of us who watch the Oscars. Don't insult the people who still watch the Oscars by tailoring the show to those who don't. The results ran longer than the last few shows, but no one was happy with them.

We don't have to watch the show as it airs to catch the most memorable moments or discover who won, because there are dozens of pre-Oscar awards/critics groups and social media. The notion that films like King Richard and Coda might pull in the same amount of money as The Pursuit of Happyness and Mr. Holland is gone.

The Oscars broadcast can appeal to audiences who want to watch the show. Concerns about cultural irrelevancy may have doomed the Academy Awards to cultural irrelevancy.