The curtain set on another Oscars night, this the 90th Academy Awards and seeing as it was following last year’s debacle which featured the most insane ending to an awards show, maybe ever, it was going to be hard to match the level of craziness this year.
And overall, the night never really reached great heights. Under the hanging gloom of what has transpired in Hollywood over the past six-months, it was going to be a tricky occasion for host Jimmy Kimmel, who didn’t really have the freedom he did last year.
It was however a great crop of nominated movies and a great group of Best Directors and performances across the four-key actor/actress categories. Despite this, the major categories all contained strong favourites and the only real mystery was coming from Best Picture.
It was an Oscars which will be remembered no doubt, but nothing overly memorable will last the test of time.
The favourites won as expected
Gary Oldman was a lock for Best Actor and duly delivered. Allison Janney was heavy favourite for Best Supporting Actress and didn’t disappoint. Sam Rockwell was always going to take home Best Supporting Actor and Frances McDormand was a certainty for Best Actress. Put simply, the favourites came through. There weren’t any major surprises across the board, really in any category. The closest thing to a major upset was Icarus winning Best Documentary, however its reputation had been growing, particularly with Russia’s systematic doping being in the news around the Winter Olympics. The Shape of Water emerged as a front runner for Best Picture early on and even though Three Billboards was the recognised favourite and there was plenty of late buzz around Get Out, Guillermo Del Toro’s fish monster love story taking the major prize wasn’t a major shock.
Kimmel’s an ideal Oscars host
Returning for his second Oscars, Jimmy Kimmel was a good as always. His opening monologue was strong and his bits throughout the night worked. Overall the comedy was a little stale, but it usually is at the Oscars, but Kimmel’s self-depreciation is a welcome change in an environment where everyone takes themselves very, very seriously. The major skit involving commoners won’t be remembered like last year’s tour bus guests. It was literally just celebrities interrupting a bunch of people’s trip to the movies. However, Gal Gadot constantly reminding us how much more fun she was having there than at the Oscars and Armie Hammer firing what looked like a potentially lethal hot dog cannon saved it from completely falling flat.
The #MeToo movement didn’t dominate, and that’s a good thing
It was always going to be the elephant in the room and thankfully it wasn’t overdone. Kimmel touched on Weinstein, while three of his most prominent accusers, Ashley Judd, Salma Hayek and Annabella Sciorra introducing a montage which featured the likes of Lee Daniels, Ava DuVernay, Kumail Nanjiani and Greta Gerwig discussing the changing culture of Hollywood. Emma Stone had a strange moment where she labelled the Best Director nominees, “four men and Greta Gerwig”, which was unnecessary and it all built to McDormand’s speech which led to all the female nominees standing. It was prominent without being totally overbearing.
Not enough love for Dunkirk
My personal pick for Best Picture was upstaged as expected in the main award and director Christopher Nolan missed out again for Best Director. It did sweep the two awards for sound, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing, while also picking up a third gong for Best Film Editing. The award Dunkirk should definitely have won was Best Original Score. Zimmer’s incredible musical accompaniment to almost every scene is such a major part of the movie and definitely served a bigger impact than Alexandre Desplat’s winning score in The Shape of Water.
No love at all for Lady Bird
Of the seven films nominated for five or more awards, only Lady Bird failed to bring home any statues. Gerwig missed out in her two categories and lead Saoirse Ronan always faced a mammoth task overcoming McDormand for Best Actress. Laurie Metcalf should have won Best Supporting Actress, but alas Lady Bird came up empty. I did see a tweet labelling it the best movie to have not won an Oscar, an interesting debate to be had.
Props to Jordan Peele
Get Out winning Best Picture would have been the real talking point that would have carried this Oscars further into the future. We’ll never know where Peele’s horror masterpiece ended up in voting but he did snag the Best Original Screenplay award and rightfully so. It was a stacked category, but you do feel that Get Out will be the movie most remembered from this year’s class, so Peele being recognised with an Oscar win was exciting.
Kobe Bryant won an Oscar
It’s always funny to see those takes of “BLANK has an Oscar while the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt have none.” Add Bryant to that list as his animated short, Dear Basketball earned the long-time Laker another statue for his mantle piece. It may be a little odd considering the short returned mixed reviews from critics and also Bryant’s own personal history, in this, the year of #MeToo.