Oscars Reaction: An Entertaining And Memorable Show… For Good This Time!

The most magical night in Hollywood has come to a close once again with many deserving movies and performances winning. While most of them were predictable, we did get a couple of surprises. Most importantly, the actual ceremony made for a fairly entertaining night of honoring movies, feeling brisk throughout even while having the typical run time. Personally, I predicted 17 out of 23 categories correctly, but the surprises were all the more welcome. 

Jimmy Kimmel has basically solidified himself as a terrific Oscar host, providing the laughs in the monologue while poking at the movies and celebrities, but always keeping it playful. He is wry and cheeky, yet keeps the night genuine and heartwarming. You always felt like you were in good hands as he would occasionally appear and carry things along with a quick joke without prolonging the bits. Kimmel has proven that he should continue to host for many more ceremonies, but John Mulaney, from his appearance at the Oscars and his recent hosting of the Governor’s Ball, has absolutely shown himself as a worthy replacement. 

The majority of the written bits were all hilarious, from John Cena’s brilliant callback to the seventies streaker to the great Twins and Batman villains reunion of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. America Ferrera and Kate McKinnon were also charged with one of many great bits with Steven Spielberg, until the beautiful moment where the legendary director handed off the mantle to Nolan in a wonderful exchange. There was also a shameless The Fall Guy advertisement with Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling that turned into a very funny Barbenheimer bit, even though it opened a misguided tribute to stunt performers when what they should really get is a category recognizing their work. 

This ceremony also brought back a beautiful way to introduce the acting nominees with past winners talking about each nominee. It proved to be a very emotional and substantial way to honor the nominees, but having clips of those actors performing should always be a must and was a notable absence. We did get clips for many of the other categories, which were great to help explain what makes those categories and technical aspects great in perspective films. 

All of the speeches, from Christopher Nolan’s beautiful quote about one hundred years of film to Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s inspirational words and sharing her experience in Hollywood, were all great additions to the night. Cord Jefferson won for Best Adapted Screenplay and had a great message for Hollywood to make the smaller budget films. Robert Downey Jr proves himself to be one of the coolest guys in the room being gracious and self flagellating, but always charming. 

One of the frequent complaints of awards shows is that it gets political, but this year most speeches were just heartfelt dreams that came true. However, the most political speeches came from Jonathan Glazer after winning for The Zone of Interest and 20 Days in Mariupol winning for Best Documentary, both of which spoke head-on about the violence going on throughout the world. Kimmel only went political when talking about the past and upcoming labor strikes, bringing out behind the scenes workers that will be facing upcoming negotiations in a wonderful setup, before later finally taking a playful jab at Donald Trump only when he was provoked by the former president online. 

The Best Animated Feature was one of the first major surprises of the night with The Boy and the Heron winning over Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in one of the first indicators that international features were going to dominate in several categories this year, such as Best Original Screenplay going to Anatomy of a Fall, unexpectedly and deservedly with Best Visual Effects in Godzilla Minus One, and Best Sound for The Zone of Interest which were some of the best wins of the night. 

The first four song performances were just like the actual songs, perfectly fine but obviously not given as much attention as the final nominee of “I’m Just Ken” which brought the house down in the best of ways, creating a fun atmosphere that absolutely worked in both the room and at home. Ryan Gosling may not have won an Oscar, but he easily won THE Oscars with this performance; it was certainly the moment of the night. 

Besides the main winner, Poor Things definitely had a great night, sweeping many of the technicals including Makeup and Hairstyling, Production Design, and Costume Design. Maestro was the expected winner for Makeup and Barbie was threatening in the latter two categories. The biggest win for Poor Things was Best Actress where Emma Stone won a very close race between her and Lily Gladstone. While it would have been great to see history being made with Gladstone being honored for her great performance, Stone was exceptional in her role and absolutely earned the win, while also being truly gracious and genuinely stunned.  

It’s impossible not to talk about this year’s Oscars without the film that won the night and that was unsurprisingly Oppenhimer; while the film won everything that it expected to win, all of the wins still felt deserved with many of the winners being first timers and all felt genuine in their excitement to be there. The show then ended with a humble and just as cool acceptance speech for Cillain Murphy’s Best Actor and then the final Best Picture award accepted by Nolan, which felt important and heartfelt. 

Even with so many expected wins, this felt like an entertaining ceremony. Those involved with its creation knew how to make things both fascinating and economic. While there were no outright insane moments, there were some that will definitely stay in Oscars history for good reasons instead of the usual bad.

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