Less Snarky Oscars Thoughts

Sorry, readers -- no Oscars snark this year. Half of the group I usually gather with to watch the Oscars was out of the country on vacation this year, and for those of us who were left, it seemed like we weren't feeling the need to convene for what was likely to be one of the more "foregone conclusions" Oscars in recent years. But if you care for a few less snarky scattered thoughts on this year's awards, here you go:

I did not see all the Best Picture contenders this year. I made it to 8 of the 10 as of this just-past Friday, when I watched (and loathed) Poor Things. Yet that still doesn't make it the Best Picture nominee I liked least: I actually tried sitting down to watch Maestro a few weeks back, got perhaps 20 minutes in, and decided to "nope" out. (That leaves The Zone of Interest as the only nominee I've not attempted at all. I'm open to it, but very much need to be in the right frame of mind.)

Usually, there's a "clear winner" in my mind, one movie that stands out above the rest and usually has no actual chance of winning. (And usually, my personal favorite movie of the year isn't in contention at all.) This year, the Anatomy of a Fall would have been my personal pick from the available options -- though I would have been equally appreciative of Barbie or American Fiction taking top honors. (But none of the three had any actual chance of winning this year.)

As for the ultimate winner, Oppenheimer... it's a classic example of Oscar doing Oscar does: awarding a person who has not done career-best work, because they missed the boat years earlier on awarding someone's best work (when they were busy giving some other person an overdue award). I maintain that one-third of Oppenheimer's runtime is devoted to a subplot that undermines the core thematic conceit of the movie (but hey, Robert Downey Jr. must be happy Nolan saw fit to put it there, as he won his own "time delayed" Oscar as a result).

The broadcast itself had some nice highlights. The best were comedic: the over-the-top live performance of "I'm Just Ken," John Cena's memorable "Best Costuming" intro, Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling's banter (that convinces me that the upcoming The Fall Guy will probably be better than I expect), and John Mulaney effectively auditioning to be a future Oscars host. More earnest moments played well too, like Da’Vine Joy Randolph's acceptance speech moving half the audience to tears, the filmmaker of 20 Days in Mariupol wishing he'd never made the movie, and some of the past acting winners paying tribute to this year's nominees. (You could easily tell who meant what they said and who, let's say, would not be up for an Oscar for presenting an Oscar.)

There are still more 2023 movies than 2024 movies in my personal viewing mix right now. But "officially," the movie year of "Barbenheimer" is now in the history books.