After months of award shows, parties, luncheons, interviews, press and more importantly, a significant amount of controversy, Hollywood’s biggest night finally arrived. And naturally, all eyes were on host Chris Rock, to see how he would handle said controversy and let’s just say he more than lived up to the task.
Controversy aside, Sunday night’s ceremony was much like every Oscar ceremony, celebrating the achievements of all the artists involved in the movie-making process. There were teary speeches, heartfelt and poignant moments and of course the awkward moments. When it was all said and done, Spotlight, the film about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize winning expose on sexual abuse and corruption in the Catholic Church in the city of Boston, took home top honors for Best Picture. The following are my best and worst moments of the night.
Best
The Host With The Most – As noted, all eyes were on host Chris Rock for this year’s ceremony and specifically, to see what he was going to say in his opening monologue. With all the controversy about the lack of diversity among the nominees, particularly the acting categories, there was simply no way for Rock to ignore the controversy. Many were wondering how the comedian was going to address what is in many ways an uncomfortable but serious issue, while still being funny. Not to worry, as Rock quickly proved that he was more than up to the task. Pulling no punches, he went right for the jugular, attacking both sides of the issue and laying out some truths that probably made some of the nominees and celebrities in attendance squirm. It was quintessential Chris Rock – funny, blistering, unapologetic, bold, daring and unafraid and it was almost perfect.
Lady Gaga’s Moving Performance – If I’m being completely honest, while I appreciate the message behind the song ‘Til It Happens To You; on a purely musical level, I’m not absolutely in love with it. That said, I am always in support of anything that shines a light on an issue as devastating and unfortunately all too common, as sexual assault. A survivor of sexual assault herself, Lady Gaga delivered the song with all the emotional honesty and heart of a true artist. The performance’s most powerful moment came when a number of real life survivors joined Gaga on stage, with words of courage and strength written on their arms. I was especially glad to see a few men in the group because I think all too often some forget or minimize the very real reality that men too can be victims of sexual assault.
Didn’t See That One Coming – While some categories, particularly the Best Actor and Best Actress, were pretty much locks coming into Sunday night’s ceremony, things seemed a little more up in the air in the Supporting categories. However, while many pundits were split between Alicia Vikander and Kate Winslet for Supporting Actress, the consensus seemed to be that the Oscar voters weren’t going to be able to resist the nostalgia of awarding Sylvester Stallone his first Oscar for his reprisal of the role of Rocky Balboa; a role for which he’d first been nominated for almost 30 years prior. Alas, it was not be when veteran stage actor Mark Rylance pulled off the upset, for his role in the film Bridge of Spies. You could almost hear the collective gasp of shock when Patricia Arquette read Rylance’s name off the card. Rylance to his credit was incredibly humble and gracious and Stallone later, despite his obvious disappointment, extended his congratulations to the former.
Cheers, Leo – Fifth time’s the charm. After four previous nominations (not counting his nod as a Producer for the film Wolf of Wall Street which was nominated for Best Picture) and more than two decades after his first nomination as a then 19-year old for the film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, Leonardo Dicaprio can finally call himself an Oscar-winning actor. Many, including myself, believed that it was long overdue. While it is quite possibly true that his role in The Revenant wasn’t his greatest and the win was likely a career win versus for the specific role, none of that diminishes the moment. Because in my opinion, Dicaprio is one of the greatest actors of his generation and this win is the perfect cap to a more than 20 year career that has spanned some of the greatest and at times underrated performances. It was nice to see all the love and appreciation from his industry peers and his speech was humble, heartfelt and articulate. Cheers to you Leo!
Keeping It Short – I know many might disagree with me on this one because yes, the show did run past its scheduled time as it always does. However, maybe my perception was just off, but I still felt like this year’s show, more so than some in recent years, went by fairly quickly. Maybe it was the newly instituted thank you ticker (producers had nominees hand them a list of names they wanted to thank if they won, which was scrolled at the bottom of the screen, so as to discourage winners from running too long with their speeches) or the prerecorded spoofs and parodies being kept to small amount or host Chris Rock not really dominating much of the night’s ceremony, I’m not sure. But whatever it was, this year’s ceremony seemed to fly by for me, which I certainly could not say for last year’s ceremony. Of course Neil Patrick Harris was completely crashing and burning as host last year so that might have also contributed to the night feeling very, very long.
Worse
Sam Smith Puts His Foot In His Mouth – It was bad enough that Smith even won Best Original Song for one of the most mediocre Bond theme songs ever, but then Smith proceeded to put a giant foot in his mouth in his acceptance speech. It all started some months ago when Sir Ian McKellan stated in an interview that no out gay actor had ever won an Academy Award. Smith, presumably only catching a soundbite of the interview, interpreted the statement as no out person ever winning an Oscar period; a fact that is of course categorically untrue. However, rather than doing a simple Google search to make sure he didn’t say something stupid in front of millions of people, Smith ran with this notion and thus considered himself the first out gay individual to win an Oscar. Well let’s just say the reactions, which for the record were not positive, were pretty swift on social media. Later, digging the hole even deeper for himself after being informed that he was not in fact the first, Smith stated that he was happy to be the second. Except, once again, he is NOT!!! Unsurprisingly, Smith has since said that he is taking a break from social media, likely due to all the backlash and mockery he’s since received.
Shame On Producers – Speaking of the Original Song nominees, if you were paying attention, you probably noticed that only three nominees performed during the ceremony, yet when Common and John Legend read the nominees, there were five. Well that’s because the producers decided that due to “time constraints”, only three of the nominees could perform their nominated song. What a coincidence that all the three who were allowed to perform were the famous pop stars – Sam Smith, The Weeknd and of course Lady Gaga. The two nominated songs not performed were Manta Ray from the documentary Racing Extinction and Simple Song #3 from the film Youth. Interestingly, the writer of Manta Ray, Anohni, is the first transgender performer to be nominated for an Academy Award and yet in a year where lack of diversity was such a focus, she was booted from the show and denied a chance to celebrate her nomination. Anohni boycotted the show and made it clear she didn’t believe she was cut from the show because she is transgender and I agree. What I think this decision really showed is what Chris Rock so brilliantly pointed out in his opening monologue – that Hollywood is Sorority Racist. In other words, there is a caste system of sorts and when you’re not at the top, you’re considered unimportant. There is a reason after all that terms like A-List and B-List exist. Basically the two booted nominees weren’t famous pop stars with huge hit singles and that made them unimportant to the producers of the show, and I think that was incredibly shameful. These people worked just as hard as Lady Gaga and Sam Smith and The Weeknd and deserved to have their moment. Either that or just nix all the nominated song performances. Personally, I would have gladly appreciated not having to sit through Sam Smith’s whiny and pitchy performance of that very basic song.
That Was Awkward – As great as Chris Rock’s opening monologue was, there were bound to be some awkward and even controversial moments and sure enough, we had a joke about Asians involving children that upset a lot of people and the appearance of Stacy Dash, which also upset a lot of people for different reasons. With regard to the former, during his monologue, Rock announced that Price Waterhouse Cooper (the accounting firm that tallies the votes for The Oscars) sent over “their most dedicated, accurate and hardworking representatives”, at which point three Asian children came onto the stage dressed in mini-suits. Rock, likely knowing the joke was going to rankle a few feathers, dug his heels in further by stating that if anyone was upset about the joke, they could “just tweet about it on your phone that was also made by these kids.” Naturally, many did just as Rock said and proceeded to tweet about the joke, noting the irony of all the talk about diversity and yet there was host Rock making a stereotypical joke about Asians. I can’t say I disagree with the sentiments and certainly understand why many were bothered. That said, and perhaps this is me overthinking the joke, but I actually think Rock may have been making a commentary on exactly the kind of stereotypes Hollywood itself does with regards to Asians. That like blacks and Latinos who are rarely cast as the leads, Asians are often just present in films as a stereotype. But as I said, I certainly understand many people’s outrage. And then there was the Stacy Dash moment. Dash, who controversially announced last month that she thought celebrations like Black History Month and networks like BET should not exist, showed up to wish the audience “Happy Black History Month” in what was meant to be an amusing bit of irony. Unfortunately, the joke fell completely flat because half of the audience had no idea who Dash was so they didn’t get it and the other half who did know who she was, clearly were not impressed and didn’t care for her presence. The moment was the definition of “crickets chirping…”
The Order of the Night’s Awards – Much was made about the producers of this year’s ceremony changing up the order in which the awards were handed out. For the past however many years, the ceremony starts with the presentation of the Supporting acting categories. This year however, producers said they were going to have the presentation of the awards reflect the movie making process and that seemed to be the case when the night started with the awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay being the first two handed out. However, things quickly went off-road with Best Supporting Actress being handed out third and Sound Mixing and Editing being handed out after Film Editing and before Visual Effects. I mean I get that they had to put some acting categories earlier in the night so as to keep viewers interested but then next time, maybe not make such a big deal about supposedly reflecting the movie making process because in the end, it really didn’t.
Fashion – As the premier Hollywood and entertainment industry award show, The Oscars are known for career changing wins, moving speeches, etc. and of course fashion. One of the main reasons to watch the Oscars every year is to see the amazing fashion and marvel at some of the most gorgeous red carpet gowns. Unfortunately there was not a lot to marvel and awe and envy at this year’s show. Don’t get me wrong, there were some okay moments, such as Rachel McAdams’ plunging green August Getty Atelier and Lady Gaga’s Brandon Maxwell pants/gown combo but for the most part, everything was so boring and ordinary or just plain awful. No one truly wowed and stunned me this year and that’s a shame because like many, I too really look forward to the amazing fashion. That said, while nothing truly wowed me, plenty certainly got my attention in the worse way, which meant there was plenty to pick from for the honor of worse dressed. However, at the end of the day, only one truly shone brightest for this wonderful honor. And so without further ado, my worse dressed for Oscars 2016 (and this should be a surprise to no one really) is:
Heidi Klum in Marchesa – This is the definition of what works on a runway and in a magazine may not work on a red carpet. It just baffles me that Klum or her stylist or anyone who actually likes her did not look at this and realize it was a complete disaster. It’s like some weird cotton candy confection mess gone wrong or she’s about 20 years late for her Quinceanera.
PoPnOgR@PhY 