The Academy Awards put another ceremony in the record books and all told, it was a pretty good night for celebrating the magic of Hollywood. Chris Rock turned out to be the host with the most and The Movie Mensch’s Oscar Watch has to start with him.
The host could not have been a better choice by the Academy and this is a case of the organization needing to thank their lucky stars. Rock was announced as the host, long before the nominations were revealed and #oscarssowhite became a national conversation. To have him up on that stage, addressing these issues – head on and with humor and perspective, was priceless.
Of particular note was his comments about how this is not a new issue. He was pretty sure there was a lack of black performers nominated in the 50s and 60s, but where was the uproar then? Well, “they had real things to protest.” That’s exactly it. Rock put it in such perspective that we as a society must be in a much better position than we used to be if those who are protesting the lack of diversity in Oscar nominees, don’t have much else to raise their banners over.
Also, we adored his take on gender and the Academy! Like, while we’re at it… why are there separate categories for male and female acting? “Acting is acting!” Well put, Chris. Well put. And what turned into a serious burn on Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s boycott of the evening’s festivities, Rock compared Pinkett Smith boycotting the Oscars is like him turning down Rihanna’s panties…. “I wasn’t invited!” He also got in a jab how it wasn’t fair that Smith got paid $20 million for Wild Wild West. Again… well put, Chris. Well put.
Now, in terms of the awards themselves, there was a few shocks. Most notably, when Morgan Freeman called “Spotlight” as Best Picture, many were thrilled that the film pulled the upset. Others felt that it was hardly a surprise at all. See, The Revenant was the odds-on favorite to win, even though most people we talked to in Hollywood admitted that was not their favorite movie of the eight nominated films by a longshot. Many would have put the Leonardo DiCaprio starring epic seventh or eighth on their ballot. Therefore, we knew that some other film would win Best Picture.
We just thought it would be The Big Short. Given that it was going to win the Best Adapted Screenplay category, it had a solid chance of winning Best Picture. Spotlight won Best Original Screenplay. We had the right idea, just the wrong movie. In the end, Oscar Watch is thrilled with the choice of Spotlight. Looking back on the year that was, it was the Best Picture. Decades from now, the Academy can look with great pride that they placed their highest honor on that Tom McCarthy film.
Mark Rylance scored an “upset” of Sylvester Stallone in the Best Supporting Actor category for his turn in Bridge of Spies. The Creed star was the favorite heading in… but, in hindsight, was he really? Stallone was not nominated for the same award at the SAGs and at the BAFTAs, two early indicators of who would win. Rylance was. It also reminded us of the year that everyone thought that Lauren Bacall would win for The Mirror Has Two Faces. She was the sentimental favorite. People imagined the standing ovation she would get when she won. Then, Juliette Binoche won for The English Patient and the world realized, smartly, that was actually the best performance. So looking back, why did we all think Rocky would win for playing a part he has played seven times prior?!
Oscar Watch also has our knives out for the Academy with their Best Song Oscar. The Writing’s On the Wall from Spectre? Really?! First of all, it’s one of the weaker Bond themes in the history of that franchise. And did you hear that Lady Gaga song? Did anyone listen to the lyrics? It fit the motion picture, The Hunting Ground, better than any of the other nominees. Don’t get us started on the nominations in that category (check out our Oscar Watch Snubs for more on our opinion on the mistakes made with that category). When it comes to the Awards itself, they gave the wrong song the big prize.
One of the bigger shocks of the night came in the Best Visual Effects category. Mad Max: Fury Road had been cleaning up the technical awards (it won six) when we got to the biggie of that realm of the Academy Awards. Some (including this guy) thought that Star Wars: The Force Awakens could sneak one away from George Miller’s post-apocalyptic masterpiece. Neither would win as Ex Machina scored the upset of the night. That was our biggest wow moment, honestly.
Before we put Oscars 2016 in the history books, let’s go back to the beginning. Do we think that the Academy has addressed its race and diversity issue? Sure, in some ways the changes to the membership that Academy President Cheryl Isaac Boone put in place will ensure that the membership skews younger and thus more attune to the need of inclusion in our society at every level. But, the Academy is not the problem. Hollywood studios and casting decision makers are the problem.
The Academy Awards come at the end of the line. The start is where we need to shine the spotlight. The people who make the decisions of what movies get made and who we put in them are more rightly the ones whose hands we need to keep pressured on — only when that changes will #oscarssowhite drift into the past.