A Reel Opinion: Oscar Wrap-up - The Good, The Bad, & The Glorious

The 90^th Academy Awards were last night, bringing a fair amount of moments ranging from good, bad, and glorious. Here’s how the punches landed…

The Good

-Host Jimmy Kimmel, in only his second Oscars, looked right at home and set the tone early…which was high energy and showing no fear in skewering topics; topics that have plagued Hollywood in the past year, including the mistreatment of women by the industry, our vice-president, along with last year’s screw-up when the wrong Best Picture was announced. Gags such as the awarding of a jet-ski to the shortest acceptance speech and a field-trip to a movie theatre with a gaggle of nominees were excellent.

-In keeping with Kimmel’s early tone, actors and actresses were also fearless in going after Hollywood’s turbulent year. Ashley Judd, Salma Hayek, and Annabella Sciorra…victims of abuse by now disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, stood on stage together, as they introduced a very well-done montage of Hollywood trailblazers who are speaking out about inclusion and equality. Frances McDormand, during her acceptance speech for Best Actress, literally brought the place to its feet with a call for unity.

-Writer and director Jordan Peele made history as the first African American to win the Best Original Screenplay Oscar.

-In a rare crossover, sports and Hollywood came together. Best Documentary Feature went to ICARUS, which explored the Russian doping scandals, and NBA superstar Kobe Bryant took home the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film with DEAR BASKETBALL. And keeping with a theme of stars, Bryant was given his Oscar by the stars of STAR WARS, which included the basketball-shaped droid BB-8.

The Bad

-The In Memoriam piece was once again a show-stopping tearjerker; very well done with Eddie Vedder performing the late great Tom Petty’s Room at the Top. But, every year there seems to be an exclusion or two. Powers Boothe did not appear in the montage, and neither did Bill Paxton…who died on last year’s Oscar Sunday and was not included in that montage.

-Fans of the horror film GET OUT, which was nominated for four Oscars and took home one, have been in a rampage since the end of the ceremony, which did not honor their favorite film for Best Picture. The internet can be an ugly place for film criticism, and the overzealous fans of the film who don’t know when to quit are starting to give GET OUT a lousy reputation; which is the exact opposite of what the film stands for. No one likes a sore loser.

The Glorious

-This Blogger has been saying for years that the Academy needs to embrace their history more, and this year they listened. The lead-ins to the major categories were preceded by wonderful montages of past winners, and the four-minute 90 Years of Going to the Movies, which was a tribute to both film and theatre-goers, was nothing short of tremendous. Also great was a montage of past war films which served as a way to honor our veterans.

­-Famed cinematographer Roger Deakins and actor Gary Oldman finally taking home Oscars, with Oldman’s acceptance speech speaking directly to his mom.

-Guillermo del Toro’s Best Director win, for his fantasy love-story THE SHAPE OF WATER, made him the fourth Mexican director in five years to win that Oscar.

-Guillermo del Toro would also take home the top prize, with THE SHAPE OF WATER winning Best Picture. It was glorious moment because it made history while blazing a trail forward. It is the first female-led film to win Best Picture since MILLION DOLLAR BABY in 2004, and the first since 2014 that even had a Best Actress nominee in it. It’s also the first fantasy film to win since THE RETURN OF THE KING in 2003. What’s also interesting about its big night is that genre films usually win the technical awards (Visual Effects, Sound Mixing and Editing, etc.), and drama takes home the big creative Oscars such as Director, Writer, and Best Picture…but this year that was reversed. THE SHAPE OF WATER is also the first film in 22 years to win Best Picture without a nomination from the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG). There are many stats and trends to follow when trying to predict Best Picture, but sometimes all of that can be obliterated by just being a good movie. And that is all anyone ever wants. With that in mind, the right film won.

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The 91^st Academy Awards arrive on February 24^th, 2019.