Why the Oscars and the Oscar movies can be fun
I love the Oscars.
Sure, the awards ceremony is long, people thank their agents, not all of the Choices! made with montages or original song performances or “comedy” bits are successful. And, yes, the Oscars don’t always pick the best movies or the most deserving artists in a year to nominate or to reward with the big prizes.
But still — I am excited about the Sunday, April 25, Academy Awards ceremony (8 p.m. on ABC; at 6:30 p.m. something called Oscars: Into the Spotlight will air, according to media reports, and will feature pre-recorded performances of all the original song nominees and maybe this will be fun and maybe it will be lame but I’m totally going to watch it). And this year has the potential of being extra fun/extra weird (which can also be fun) because it’s going to be “like a movie” somehow, as all the reports about the Steven Soderbergh-produced pandemic-era (but allegedly Zoom-free) ceremony have stated.
Perhaps you don’t care about the Oscars (which is fine, we all pick our own things to geek out over). Perhaps you find yourself not caring this year because you haven’t heard of some of the movies (only 18 percent of “active film watchers” have heard of Mank, according to a New York Times article from April 18, the gist of which was the annual freak-out about whether people will watch the Oscars, heightened this year because award shows in general have seen ratings tank during the pandemic). During this year of limited in-theater movie releases and limited “let’s go see whatever random movie is playing” outings, it seems totally normal that people wouldn’t be aware of the movies unless finding out about movies is their Thing.
So, if you haven’t already bought your bubbly and blocked off Sunday evening on your calendar, why is the Oscars, in its 93rd year of fusty award giving and “Webster’s Dictionary defines story-telling”-ness, worth getting excited about? Here are the reasons why I, in spite of everything, love the Oscars:
• The clothes: “Pretty dresses” (and suits and their intersection, i.e. Billy Porter’s awesome 2019 gown) may sound like a shallow reason to be interested in something but capital F Fashion is not something I, a vintage Targeeé and Old Navy couture -type, get a lot of regular exposure to. Post-Oscars coverage can include things like discussion of a designer’s recent collection or side-by-side pictures of a dress on the runway and the same dress, often modified, as worn by an actress. It’s a real Devil Wears Prada “cerulean blue” glimpse at how high fashion connects with the business of styling celebrities. Also, you know, the dresses are pretty.
• The speeches: Corny as it is, it’s fun to see what everybody says to thank their spouses and parents. I also like the general messages of the joy of doing their work: Linda Holmes on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast often cites Once’sGlen Hansard’s saying “make art, make art” in 2008. I also like when people are just tickled with their win, i.e. Julia Roberts in 2001 (in vintage Valentino, I learned). And then there are the “talk to the industry” speeches, like Frances McDormand in 2018. They can be funny and serious and sweet and they still have an element of “real person having an awesome moment” to them.
• The unexpected moments: Sometimes I seek out the clip of when Samuel L. Jackson calls Spike Lee’s name in 2019 and Spike Lee comes up to the stage and gives him a full body hug. Or when in 2017 Jordan Horowitz, La La Land producer, announced that Moonlight had actually won best picture (followed by Jimmy Kimmel’s excellent “Warren, what did you do?” to presenter Warren Beatty). Or in 2020 when the crowd reaction to an attempt to cut off the Parasite team after their best picture win got the camera to cut back to them. I don’t watch a lot of sports so this is one of my few annual reminders of what live TV looks like.
• Olivia Colman: For all of the above-stated reasons. Some people are just really good at being on awards shows. (She’s nominated this year for The Father, which is available for rent.)
• Arguing about what should have been nominated: I hoped Elisabeth Moss for The Invisible Man (currently on HBO Max or available for purchase) had a shot at a best actress nomination. I’d have added The Willoughbys (on Netflix) to best animation.
Beyonce’s Black Is King (Disney+) must not have been Oscar-eligible because it definitely should have grabbed Costume Design, Production Design, Cinematography, Makeup and Hairstyling and Original Song nominations (whatever, see it anyway).
My Original Song nominations would have included Jamie Dornan’s beach power ballad in Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (available for rent but just purchase it because it is silly fun) and something from The Forty-Year-Old Version (Netflix), which also deserved other nominations.
I join other early pandemic-era movie watchers in wishing that First Cow (currently on Showtime and available for purchase) and the comedy Palm Springs (on Hulu) could have gotten some love.
I wanted Regina King to get a director’s nod for One Night in Miami… (on Amazon, the movie did get nominations elsewhere). Sofia Coppola’s On the Rocks (Apple TV+) also feels like it should have shown up somewhere. As my family could tell you, I can go on forever about who should have been nominated.
• Predicting the winners: Despite the existence of Gold Derby and other internet prediction sites which track nominees’ rise and fall in the prediction rankings, it’s still enjoyable to chew over whether Nomadland (on Hulu and available for purchase) will take the top prize (and the director Oscar for Chloé Zhao) as it’s predicted to, or if Zhao can get her win but Minari(available for rent) will pull off a surprise best picture victory, as is my hope.
My other predictions/preferences: Yuh-Jung Youn in Minari is the favorite and my favorite to win actress in a supporting role. Soul (Disney+) will probably take the animated feature prize but my pick would be the charming A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (Netflix) or, as a very close second, the lovely Wolfwalkers (Apple TV+). I am all in for Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (Netflix), which is heartwarming as well as a fascinating history lesson, in the documentary feature category but My Octopus Teacher (Netflix), surprisingly, seems to be what the internet predicts is leading. I want “Husavik” from Eurovision Song Contest (Netflix) to win original song but awardswatch.com predicts that either Leslie Odom Jr.’s “Speak Now” from One Night in Miami or 12-time nominee (zero wins) Diane Warren’s “Io Si (See)” from The Life Ahead (Netflix) will take the prize.
• The movies! The Oscar ballot is, more than anything else, a list of movies; this year, it’s a list of movies you can see right now from the comfort of your couch. In addition to the movies listed in this story, I laid out where to find all the nominees in stories in the March 18 (feature film and acting nominees), March 25 (other mainstream-y categories nominees), April 1 (visual effects category nominees), April 8 (documentaries) and April 15 (international feature films and shorts) issues of the Hippo (find them at hippopress.com).
This year’s nominations make for a pretty good list and the best picture nominees, while they may have dour-sounding one-line descriptions, are all actually quite lively and full of engaging performances. (I gave most of them an A in my reviews.) Minari, Nomadland and Sound of Metal (on Amazon Prime Video), while certainly not wall-to-wall zaniness, have moments of joy and humor and end at a place of optimism and hope. Other nominees do feature helpings of delight, such as Emma (on HBO Max and available for purchase), the short Burrow (Disney+), Love and Monsters (available for rent or purchase) and, for classic Hollywood nerds, Mank (Netflix), as well as the aforementioned Eurovision Song Contest, Farmageddon, Soul, Wolfwalkers and Crip Camp.
And the Oscars nominees aren’t the only list of movies going. Thanks to the podcast This Had Oscar Buzz, I’ve become a fan of the AARP Movies For Grownups awards (which were announced in March). The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Hulu) won their grand prize; see all the nominees and winners (there are categories like “Best Ensemble” and “Best Grownup Love Story”) at aarp.org/entertainment/movies-for-grownups. The British BAFTA awards, given out a few weeks ago, also offer some viewing options (some Oscar overlap, some stuff you won’t see listed elsewhere); see bafta.org.
And get in the Oscar spirit by checking out the Film Independent Spirit Awards (those winners will be announced Thursday, April 22, at 10 p.m. on IFC), which include some of those First Cow-y early 2020 films.
Featured photo: Minari
