I almost felt like titling this post, “Best and Worst – And When I Say Worse, I mean THE ABSOLUTE WORST .” But I thought that might be a tad too wordy. I honestly wasn’t sure I would even do this recap. Because the truth is, even before that moment, I wasn’t exactly jumping off of my couch in excitement for this year’s Oscar ceremony.
Most of it was merely serviceable. However, underneath all the messiness and controversy, some bright and poignant moments emerged that were worth celebrating. So without further ado, here is my list of the best and worst of the 2022 Oscars.
BEST
- CODA Makes History – Thirty-five years after Marlee Matlin made history as the first deaf actor to win the Lead Actress Oscar, a film featuring a cast of mostly deaf actors, including Matlin, won Best Picture. CODA’s win was historic for many reasons, including being the first film released by a streaming platform to win Best Picture. How angry do we think the execs at Netflix were – especially since their film, The Power of the Dog started the season as the heavy favorite? Pettiness aside, CODA’s win was a beautiful moment for diversity.
- Points for Diversity – Speaking of diversity, there was much to celebrate among the night’s winners. Along with CODA’s history-making win, for the first time, we had back-to-back women winners in the Best Director category, as well as Questlove’s win for his brilliant documentary about the amazing, yet little-known 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival.
- The Hosts – I’ve certainly seen better, and there were definitely a few cringe-worthy moments (more on that below). However, for the most part, the trio of hosts held their own. And kudos to Amy Schumer, who I am rarely ever a fan of, for brilliantly steering the ship, in the aftermath of that very awkward moment.
- The Reunions – My absolute favorite part of the night. In a brilliant show of what the Oscars should be about – a celebration of films and filmmaking, the producers reunited cast members of some of the most classic films. Such as, The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, and Juno. It was particularly heartwarming to see Rosie Perez, Woody Harrelson, and Wesley Snipes, for White Men Can’t Jump.
- The Speeches – Award speeches can often vacillate between awkward and painfully cringe-worthy. However, every once in a while, there are a few memorable and heartfelt moments. Much of this year’s speeches fell in the latter category. And it was beautiful to see. From Troy Kotsur’s “grab the tissues” moment to Ariana DeBose’s empowering speech.
WORST
- That Regina Hall Bit – I cannot believe how no one – Regina’s team, the show’s producers, or even a crew member – recognized how awkward and frankly, offensive it was to have her grope Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa as part of a comedic bit. Did no one realize the issue here? That in a post-MeToo era, many would point out the double standard of it not being okay if a male host had groped two female presenters as Hall did. The joke started okay but quickly devolved into an uncomfortable, cringe-worthy mess.
- In Memoriam – I don’t get it. It cannot be so hard to put together a video montage of performers who have passed away. And yet, the Oscars manage to screw this up almost every year. The reason, of course, is because rather than keeping the focus on the individuals who’ve passed away, the producers are always trying to “jazz it up.” What in the Technicolor, acid-trippy hell was that mess on Sunday night? As a palate cleanser, I direct you to this year’s SAG Awards In Memoriam to see how it should be done.
- We Don’t Talk About Bruno Performance – Yeah, yeah, yeah…everyone’s obsessed with the song. It’s all many can talk about (pun intended). Except it wasn’t nominated, which means we didn’t need to see it on Sunday night. Okay, I didn’t. Especially after eight categories were cut from the live show, ostensibly for “time.” But apparently, there was enough time to randomly shove in this performance with an even more random appearance by Megan Thee Stallion.
- Edited Awards – In a ceremony that’s supposed to be about the celebration of film and filmmaking, the nominees for eight categories were essentially told theirs wasn’t important enough for the live show. Once again, this was all to keep the ceremony within the time limit. And yet, this year’s ceremony went even longer than last year’s. And in the end, they awkwardly shoved the categories into the live broadcast, to give the impression that it was happening live. There was no point in this. And let’s not have a repeat of it next year. These filmmakers deserved to have their moments be more than an afterthought, so we can randomly see DJ Khaled and once again, hear how we should not talk about Bruno.
- Most of the Fashion – It’s great to have red carpet fashions back. It’d have been much nicer if so much of it wasn’t it so god awful. There were some decent moments – Zendaya, Regina Hall, the young actresses from King Richard, and Nicole Kidman. But overall, the looks ranged from meh to trying way too hard (looking at you, Kristen Stewart and Timothee Chalamet).
Yes, I did not include that moment. Because frankly, it has sucked up far too much airtime and attention from so many of the performers who deserved a better night than the shit show that the awards became because of one man’s ego and narcissism. So I am not giving it any more time and energy. After all, what is there to say other than it was a dick move and should not have happened – PERIOD.
So here’s to the end of another Oscar season. I look forward to next year’s where hopefully I enjoy far more of the films than I did this year. And that the show gets more right than wrong. Cheers!