Somebody mentioned that the 98th edition of the Academy Awards happened Sunday night.
I heard the show went long (3 hours and 32 minutes), that one group of recipients got played off the stage, and that host Conan O'Brien delivered a strong opening with a Weapons parody in which he appeared as Amy Madigan's character from that film, the unforgettable Gladys.
O'Brien also closed the evening with a clever riff on One Battle After Another, but by that time, all the awards had been handed out, and some viewers probably already had had enough.
His monologue? I heard, "meh."
OK, it’s not hearsay. I watched.
But I decided to change-up this year and wait until the morning after to see what -- if anything -- stuck from the night before.
Oscar managed to turn Leonardo DiCaprio -- a nominee for best actor for One Battle After Another -- into a supporting character. When One Battle won best picture, I had to search for Leo in the back row of all the film's actors. Fortunately, his Clark Gable mustache made him easy to spot.
Teyana Taylor, a losing nominee for supporting actor (One Battle After Another) seemed more pumped up than any of the winners. If there were an award for best adrenalin rush, she'd have won it.
I was glad to see Autumn Durand Arkapaw become the first woman to win an Oscar for best cinematography for her work on Sinners.
It was equally rewarding to watch Michael B. Jordan take the best actor award for playing a dual role in Sinners.
By the end of the evening, though, I was starting to feel sorry for early best actor front-runner Timothee Chalamet, who looked a little silly to me in his all-white outfit. I wouldn't have voted for him, but Chalamet's off-key comment about opera and ballet was mocked during the ceremony, although it probably didn't figure in his loss.
I say that even though I wasn't a Marty Supreme fan.
Despite the hype about a too-close-to-call best-picture race between Sinners and One Battle After Another, One Battle emerged victorious, the outcome that had been most predicted from the start of an interminable awards season.
Sinners wound up winning four Oscars after earning a record 16 nominations. One Battle After Another took six of its 13 nominations.
It was moving and appropriate to see the Academy offer extended In Memoriam tributes to Robert Redford (Barbra Streisand presided), Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle Singer Reiner (Billy Crystal did the honors) and Diane Keaton and Catherine O'Hara (Rachel McAdams led the way).
In her acceptance speech for best actress, Hamnet's Jessie Buckley said she was ready to have 20,000 children with her partner. I can't knock celebrating motherhood, but, geez, wouldn't 10,000 suffice?
Aside from Javier Bardem, Jimmy Kimmel, a few barbs from Conan, and a pointed cautionary speech from David Borenstein, co-director of the best documentary, Mr. Nobody Against Putin, the night was less political than expected, considering the fraught moment we’re living through.
Jackie Cazares, a mom who lost a daughter in the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, spoke when All the Empty Rooms won Best Documentary Short Film. One of our great sadnesses is that school shootings have become so much less shocking in the 26 years since Columbine.
The best live action short category resulted in a rarity, a tie with Two People Exchanging Saliva and The Singers each getting an equal number of votes.
Amy Madigan, the best supporting actress for her work in Weapons, might be the first Oscar recipient to reference shaving her legs in the shower. Wow, an actual human being wins an Oscar.
Someone noted that the awards didn’t have the indie spirit that seems to have dominated recent Oscar seasons. Warner Bros., a studio that may soon be acquired by Paramount Skydance, released both One Battle After Another and Sinners. Sinners did better than One Battle at the box office, but neither movie can be seen as typical Hollywood fare.
Still, after being nominated for nine Academy Awards, Marty Supreme, released by the adventurous film company, A24, didn't win any.
Bugonia, Hamnet, The Secret Agent, and Sentimental Value -- all of which can be regarded as independent features -- earned a total of 25 nominations, but won in only two categories: best actress (Buckley for Hamnet) and Best International Feature (Sentimental Value).
The first-ever award for casting went to Cassandra Kulukundis for her work on One Battle After Another. I'd love to have heard the directors of each of the nominees in that category explain the role the casting director played in making their films successful.
Where will the awards stop? Lots of folks think stunts deserve an award. How about catering? Animal wrangling, anyone? Just sayin'.
Sean Penn, this year's best supporting actor, was a no- show. Maybe -- like many of us -- he'd had enough of awards season.
If you judged by the audience, you might have thought that Sinners was the only movie anyone truly loved. It seemed to earn more applause than anything else.
That's it from me about Oscar 98. I don't know about you, but I think it's time to leave 2025 behind.
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