Review and Analysis of the 91st Academy Awards

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Review and Analysis of the 91st Academy Awards

This year’s Academy Awards were easily the worst since I’ve been watching the ceremony this decade. Not only was the ceremony terrible, but the biggest awards were the worst travesties in terms of the winners, though a couple of smaller ones were pleasant surprises. Overall, I was saddened, frustrated and really put off by this panel favoring populism over true art.

 

THE CEREMONY

This year the Oscars had the worst ever year with all the controversies from their Best Popular Film category which they thankfully dismissed eventually and the decision to not show some categories which also thankfully did not come into fruition.

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However, the no host problem remained and came to bite them in the ass as I personally found this ceremony the worst one of the entire decade. And that is coming from me who isn’t the biggest proponent of the idea of an Oscar host itself, but that was definitely felt in the end as we just jumped from one award and song to another and they should have at least included some segments besides the movie inserts themselves, maybe about history or anything about cinema.

It was just all so bland. The speeches were mostly bad or typical and some people behaved like genuine fools. Alfonso Cuaron was a class act, but Spike Lee jumping into Samuel L. Jackson’s lap was painful to watch as this is the nominated director we’re talking about and he behaved like a buffoon. I loved the musical numbers, especially Shallow wonderfully performed by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, but other than that, it was a slugfest to sit through with all the jokes failing miserably and many people making me cringe endlessly. Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph and Amy Poehler were definitely very good in the beginning though and I wish they got more time.

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BEST PICTURE

This was by far the weakest Best Picture slate of the entire decade! The year itself wasn’t bad, but the slate most certainly was. None of the movies are amazing and to me only Black Panther was very good and it deserved to win the most, but of course being a superhero flick, it didn’t have a chance. Thus, I was rooting for Roma as it had a very strong chance at winning and it would have been a great sign that the Academy is changing for the better as the film isn’t great, but it’s very artistic and it’s a atypical and most importantly a foreign film. Unfortunately, Green Book ended up winning which shouldn’t really have come as a surprise when you realize how the preferential ballot works, but even though the movie itself is good, it had no business winning any awards. It’s another terrible choice from the Academy as they clearly showed they favor populism over art this year and how predictably boring they are when they picked another film about racism which had the most cliched story of the bunch. If this was the eighties, it would be fine, but this is the 2010s decade and in this day and age this choice already feels quaint and outdated.

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BEST DIRECTOR

Thankfully, the directing Oscar went to Alfonso Cuaron who was clearly the best nominee of the very weak bunch. He’s not my pick for this year, but his work on Roma was truly remarkable and he deserved to win his second Oscar as he’s a hugely talented, diverse filmmaker. This is one of the most deserved wins of the night and it’s funny how we get another Mexican winning this American award.

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BEST ACTOR

I was appalled, absolutely devastated by this one, even though I expected it. Rami Malek played a caricature in Bohemian Rhapsody and the fact that he won over Viggo Mortensen, Bradley Cooper and especially Willem Dafoe felt like a punch in the fact for me personally as all of those people gave out genuinely strong, real acting performances and Malek beside them felt like an afterthought. What was even more appalling was his speech which got me all furious. He literally tried to gain the politically correct points by pretending that he acted a famous gay person when in reality he acted in what is one dangerously homophobic movie in its true intentions. He should be ashamed of himself for trying to pick points for the things that he nor the movie itself ever did. Just shameless.

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BEST ACTRESS

This is it. The worst choice of the night and one of the worst of the entire decade. When I heard the name Olivia Colman, I was at first shocked because it was such a surprise, but it was a terrible, nasty surprise and then I quickly started insulting her and her horrible junk movie that had no business being in any serious nominations slates. She won for basically puking and cursing the entire movie and if that is now considered Oscar-worthy, I have to say that I give up. But the reason I was so mad is because of Glenn Close who genuinely gave the best female performance of the year and couple that with the fact that she has never won an Oscar and you’ve got one truly horrible situation and a travesty. She was robbed and I feel so sorry for her.

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BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

This was a no-brainer. Mahershala Ali ended up winning for his great work in Green Book and yes, he was great in that film and he deserved this award much more than the one he got for ‘Moonlight’ where he was just okay. But, and this is a big but, the fact that he won over people who were genuinely supporting players in their movies and he was obviously a lead still is very problematic and they need to stop doing that.

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BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Again, no surprise here. I thought maybe Amy Adams could win and I hoped she would finally win her Oscar, but it ended up being Regina King whom everyone predicted to win. It was a safe choice in what is truly one of the weakest slates this year.

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BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

This one hurts so bad. This category is literally called Best ORIGINAL Screenplay and yet the movie that won hasn’t got a single shred of originality, creativity or freshness in it. It’s a tired movie with a cliched story that we’ve seen countless times before and the fact that they chose to honor this screenplay over ‘A Quiet Place’ and ‘Border’ and so many truly original and greatly written films that weren’t even nominated just goes to show that this category continues to be probably the worst each and every year when it comes to both the nominees and the winners.

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BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

This was also an obvious choice as BlacKkKlansman needed to win something, but oh boy did it not deserve it. This movie had a messy script and it was a good flick, but it wasn’t written or executed greatly at all. But all the nominees were also weak and the only one that should have won of the nominees is Can You Ever Forgive Me?, but otherwise this is another bad slate.

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BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Thankfully, Disney/Pixar didn’t pull an upset and the award went to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. This movie was clearly the best of the nominees, but this year was so bad for animation, especially for American animation that I ultimately did not care for this award at all and I wasn’t invested in it having in mind that I find Spider-Verse good, but not great and certainly quite overrated at the end of the day.

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BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Roma was so much weaker than both Shoplifters and Capernaum and of course the not nominated Border is clearly the best (foreign) film of the year, but still Roma was very good and I was fine with it winning and was even sad that it did not win Best Picture. This was one of the better slates this year undoubtedly and a solid pick to win.

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BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Free Solo won and I am happy for it as that’s the only nominee of the bunch that I watched and it’s a good film, but this year so many great documentaries weren’t even nominated with the worst travesty being the absence of Three Identical Strangers which is one of the best films of the year. This category continues to be a big problem for the Academy as I don’t know who is voting for this, but whoever they are, they don’t know a thing about documentaries.

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BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

Again, Pixar took this one and personally Bao is a very good film, but Late Afternoon is so much better. This was a weak year even for short-length animation as evidenced by this not so great slate of nominees, but the best nominee was that Irish nostalgic charmer and it’s a shame that it lost in the end.

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BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

I am so happy that Black Panther took home this award as its score is lively and wonderfully influenced by African music and very fittingly so. Having in mind that First Man was so horribly snubbed here, I am pretty happy with the eventual winner as it’s clearly the best of the nominated scores.

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BEST ORIGINAL SONG

This was the most obvious and cliched winner of the night, but sometimes that is the right one and Shallow is clearly the finest song of the entire year with no strong contenders for this prize anywhere to be found. It’s also the only win for A Star Is Born in the end.

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BEST SOUND EDITING

Bohemian Rhapsody won this award which is simply a travesty. A Quiet Place is literally a film about sound and the fact that it lost here just goes to show how horribly snubbed that great film was overall when it comes to this year’s Oscars.

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BEST SOUND MIXING

This one also went to Bohemian Rhapsody which is also bullshit. The movie has Queen’s music and that’s why it deserves to win both sound awards? It’s a ridiculous choice that led to this shitty movie getting the most awards this year which simply never should have happened.

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BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

I expected The Favourite to win this so I was pleasantly surprised that Black Panther ended up taking it and deservedly so as that movie had some great set pieces and interiors.

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BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

By far the most deserved award of the night is Roma’s win for cinematography as that film looks absolutely gorgeous and a work of art by all means. The fact that Cuaron managed to make such a great movie for his first time as cinematographer is admirable and I am so happy that he was rewarded for it.

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BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

This was the expected win for Vice, but it remains a horrible one nonetheless as Border’s makeup is literally essential for the story and is impeccable. And the fact that the best movie of the year just got this one nomination is a further reminder how pointless these awards are at the end of the day.

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BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Again, I was so happy that Black Panther took this one as well. This film is a technical marvel and it deserved to win all three of its awards and the fact that we finally got a Costume Design-winning film that isn’t a period piece is wonderful.

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BEST FILM EDITING

Bohemian Rhapsody’s another travesty of a win is for editing which beats me how it happened, but literally all of the nominees here are badly paced and badly edited movies so I did not care one way or any other whatsoever.

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BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

And by far the best and most pleasant surprise of the night was First Man winning for effects over Infinity War. This was a truly inspired choice and for everything they are doing right, I have to commend the Academy for always rewarding the best looking movies for this category and for looking for quality over quantity and for seamlessness over obviousness. First Man is this year’s Ex Machina in that regard and I am so happy that it won. But it was snubbed in every other category which remains a sore point for me.

 

So in the end, undoubtedly some choices here got me really happy, but those were mostly just the lesser technical categories whereas the biggest awards including acting and Best Picture were all pure travesties that should have never happened. Couple that with the snoozefest that was this ceremony and you’ve got one very depressing Oscar night which I hope I had skipped.