All in all, it was a fairly bland and predictable Oscars telecast.
The Leonard Bernstein biopic, “Maestro,” a Bradley Cooper passion project that seemed increasingly to be viewed as a vanity project, was sent packing with zero awards. Don’t get me wrong, I want a good Leonard Bernstein movie as much as the next guy, but this one offered very little illumination as to what made Bernstein such a significant force, not only in classical music, but also in the wider culture. I understand this was not really the filmmakers’ objective, and they were aiming for something on a more intimate scale (easier than trying to pin down the ineffable), focusing instead on the much more mundane dramatic issues surrounding Bernstein’s complicated relationship with his wife, Felicia Montealegre (played in the film by the excellent Carey Mulligan). But pantomime-conducting Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony and dancing around in a sailor suit in a “Fancy Free” fantasy sequence isn’t enough even to suggest the scope of the man’s accomplishments. And you know how it is, unfortunately: one movie about anything underperforms, and those who greenlight such projects come to view the subject as box office poison. I guess for now our hopes ride on John Malkovich’s Sergiu Celibidache (!) project.
If you’re looking for true passion, it’s the short features and documentary categories, the ones that few in the broader public seem to care about (to the extent that the Academy has tried to remove them from the broadcast), since they lack overt glamor, that are the Awards’ beating heart. These provide rare opportunities for blood-and-sweat filmmakers, often working with very limited resources, to be recognized on a world platform. So it makes me a little sad to see Wes Anderson’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” snag the award for Live Action Short. I love Wes, and he’s hardly the most commercial filmmaker, but face it, he’s a celebrity director who still has years ahead of him putting together high-profile feature films.
Be that as it may, “Maestro” may have tanked, but arguably the more important music film, “The Last Repair Shop,” was recognized for Best Documentary Short. The film, which I admit I have not seen (I will remedy that tonight), is about those unassuming technicians who perform the heroic service of restoring instruments in the Los Angeles Unified School District, thereby improving students’ lives and, presumably, by extension, quality of life in the broader community. I’ll know more about it tonight.
There were a few upsets. “Barbie,” the pop cultural phenomenon of the year (especially taken in tandem with “Oppenheimer,” capturing the public imagination as “Barbenheimer”) and also the year’s box office champ, was honored with only one award, for Best Original Song (Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?”). I had it pegged for a couple of design awards at least. But “Poor Things” mopped up Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Production Design. At least “Barbie” enjoyed the night’s showstopper, when Ryan Gosling participated in a garish and amusing production number built around the Academy Award nominated song “I’m Just Ken.”
In what was a pretty weak year for film music, Ludwig Göransson won his second Academy Award for Best Original Score, for his work on “Oppenheimer.” You could certainly hear it in the movie! Jerskin Fendrix’s quirky flourishes for “Poor Things” were more memorable, and John Williams wrote the single loveliest cue in the retro theme for the character of Helena in the otherwise godawful “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” But the year belonged to “Oppenheimer.” Göransson’s previous win was for “Black Panther” in 2019.
Andrea Bocelli anchored another unnecessarily busy “In Memoriam” segment, performing his signature song, “Time to Say Goodbye,” in duet with his son, Matteo. Dancers and superfluously showy camera work were employed for the attention deficit crowd, at the expense of those supposedly being honored. In an attempt to head off the inevitable criticism about omissions, a QR code (!) was appended to the segment, in case anyone was curious to see who else passed in the last year. At least composers Ryuichi Sakamoto (“The Last Emperor”) and Robbie Robertson (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) made the cut. And Tina Turner received the position of honor as the last to be shown, in her role as Aunty Entity in “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.” Is it that hard just to keep it simple and exhibit some good taste for five minutes, Academy?
More broadly, one of my pet peeves about the Oscars anymore is how little it seems to acknowledge the movies’ rich history. More film clips, I cry! Well, last night included a few, notably in a montage honoring stunt performers. And there were a couple of stills from “Cabaret” and of a young Barbra Streisand. But really, there was very little attempt to convey a sense of continuity or tradition. I suppose there was a nod to the 50th anniversary of the notorious streaker who photobombed David Niven.
The honorary awards, which, again, used to be one of the highlights for film buffs, were relegated to a separate ceremony years ago, with acceptance speeches edited down to soundbites for lip-service exposure during the regular broadcast. This year, unless I missed it, there wasn’t even a mention of those awards. I can only assume the Academy believes nobody cares about Angela Bassett or Mel Brooks.
Musically, there was little acknowledgment of the grand tradition of memorable film scores. There was an allusion to Henry Mancini’s “The Pink Panther” theme as a bumper leading into a commercial. “Schindler’s List” was played to introduce Steven Spielberg to mark the 30th anniversary of that film’s release. I realize we’ve a heightened sensitivity now about the kind of baggage that comes with “Gone with the Wind,” but it seems not too long ago that Max Steiner’s music was emblematic of Hollywood glamor. What happened to the medley of Oscars favorites that used to play over the end credits? “Gone with the Wind.” “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” “Moon River.” “E.T.” Now it’s just some generic, neo-disco filler. On the other hand, surely this year was the first time Akira Ifukube’s “Godzilla” theme was heard on an Oscars broadcast!
The big upset of the night, for me, was that Emma Stone was voted Best Actress, again for “Poor Things.” (The favorite, I believe, was Lily Gladstone, the first Native American nominee, for “Flowers of the Killer Moon.) Stone, with three previous nominations, already won in 2017 for her work in “La La Land.” Her performance in “Poor Things,” while certainly fine, seemed the most simplistic next to that of the other nominees in the category, who all had meatier, more nuanced roles. But Stone I’m sure is a great favorite of the ever-younger Academy electorate, and I can only assume as she spends so much of the film’s running time unadorned that, on top of any of its other merits, the performance was perceived as “brave.” If that be the case, somehow the voters didn’t walk away with the same impression of Mark Ruffalo. (Parenthetically, Stone was also a producer on the film.)
The ceremony chugged along fairly innocuously, with no extraneous stunts like pulling in tourists off the streets or snapping group selfies. There was a brief bit featuring host Jimmy Kimmel’s sidekick, Guillermo, toasting Charlize Theron with tequila that got a pretty good laugh, from me anyway.
Political statements were largely limited to what you would expect, given the continued war and bloodshed in Ukraine and the Middle East. When “20 Days in Mariupol” won Best Documentary Feature, it was unavoidable that the situation in Ukraine be addressed, and it was appropriate. When winning the award for Best International Feature, for “The Zone of Interest,” which chillingly conveys the banality of evil through a slow-burn portrayal of Nazi domestic life in the shadow of Auschwitz, director Jonathan Glazer warned about the persistent threat of dehumanization and projected the film’s lessons onto the current crisis between Israel and Gaza.
A Trump tweet was acknowledged late in the show. Kimmel’s putdown was ace, but I’m still not sure it was the forum for it. But it was an easy laugh.
I realize producing a satisfying Academy Awards broadcast is like walking a tightrope. And face it, every year, those responsible are going to put a foot wrong and plunge to their death. On the one hand, the Awards are about honoring the industry (a fact the trolls overlook when they complain about all the nauseating self-congratulation); on the other, they’re hoping to attract the unwashed masses, which on the whole are made up of people who just want to see Ryan Gosling do his production number. In televising the event, they’re setting themselves up to fail. Remember how, in the old days, they used to actually include segments highlighting the different disciplines, in an attempt to educate the public?
Nobody but the least discerning viewer is ever going to be wholly satisfied with the Oscars telecast. At least this one ended early.
