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“2022 is the year we came back to the movies” has become something of a rote and over-repeated catchphrase during this year’s awards cycle. I’m hardly blameless of course, I’ve gone to that well myself and there is truth to it if can be ascertained by the box office for movies like Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water. But it also has started to come off a bit shallow, a pithy way of acknowledging a particular greatness in this year’s movies (indeed I think it might have been the best year for movies since 2019) without really celebrating that breadth meaningfully. I was thinking about that through this years’ Oscar telecast, in which only half of the ten Best Picture nominated films won anything at all -with two in particular vastly overshadowing the rest. A formidable result for them, but not exactly representative of the great year in movies it has been.
2023 needed to be the year the Oscars came back though. And they did, whatever you might think of them. The 95th Academy Awards could only improve upon last year’s ceremony, which in terms of both the results and especially the production may well be the worst in the institution’s history. Everyone talks about the Slap, but it was a dreadful affair of cynical, condescending, movie-hating trash long before that incident that as everyone predicted wound up being lampshaded a couple times the night of March 12th.
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This year the Academy played it relatively safe, and skirted little controversy bar some justified criticism for its continued overlooking of black movies. They restored all twenty-three categories to the main show and brought back Jimmy Kimmel, an uninspired if responsible host who can cross-promote for ABC well enough. There were no stunts to shoehorn fake categories for popular movies in, because a handful of popular movies were nominated in real categories -in fact this is the first year in quite some time that the top two grossing movies of the year both wound up in the Best Picture category -and fairly deservingly so. The show played out respectably, the producers perhaps still too spooked from last year to try anything big to change things up. However the double-edged sword to that is that the show felt awfully devoid of surprise or spontaneity -and there is a difference between good and bad spontaneity where the Oscars are concerned. A few unexpectedly sharp jokes from Kimmel, the suggestion of a “Naatu Naatu” dance troupe in lieu of playing one off (which never actually materializes) and the surprise appearance of Jenny the Donkey from The Banshees of Inisherin isn’t quite enough of a smart or creative way to make the Oscars more interesting or fulfilling. I appreciate that it wasn’t actively trying to chase ratings so much, which are an antiquated measure of viewership in the 2020s to begin with, but it ought to do a little more to distinguish itself.
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Setting it’s foot in the ground as a callback to Oscars past, the show opened with a montage of movies from the year, including many left out of the nominations, that closed on Kimmel Billy Crystal-like inserted into the action of Top Gun: Maverick before parachuting down in the Dolby Theatre in a stunt that some expected would be done by Tom Cruise. Alas both Cruise and James Cameron were absent tonight, something Kimmel noted with jokes at their expense as two figures noted for trying to bring people back to theatres. The Cameron jokes in the monologue were particularly weird, invoking of all things his high profile divorces and ego, which haven’t really been a thing in the conversations around Avatar as much as his bold frankness about the industry and audience expectations. But then a lot of Kimmel’s material, though inoffensive, seemed awkward or slightly out of date, like a pair of QAnon jokes that probably play well to his talk show audience, always geared up for Trump material. And of course it wouldn’t be hack Oscar writing without a series of lame jokes about the show’s length -including at one point casually blaming it on the short film categories. Strangest of all might have been a call to vote on the Oscar app for Robert Blake’s inclusion in the In Memoriam -the actor from In Cold Blood died just a few days ago and the joke relies on being aware of his involvement in the wrongful death case of his wife Bonny Lee Blakley eighteen years ago -incidentally Blake was left out of the Lenny Kravitz-performed In Memoriam, alongside several more notable figures including Anne Heche, Paul Sorvino, Triangle of Sadness’ Charlbi Dean, and in one last Oscar indignity, Sacheen Littlefeather.
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Of course there were a few more obvious, pandering references, like the acknowledgement of those overlooked black movies designed to make the Academy look receptive to criticism, but only comes off as an obligatory P.R. move. Yet another attempt to go viral was made by Kimmel lightly bullying some guests into answering dumb pop culture questions (trying to get Nobel winner Malala Yousafzai to comment on the “Harry Styles spitting on Chris Pine ‘scandal’” has to be the most embarrassing moment of the show), but at least Colin Farrell found a charming way to diffuse yet another joke about his apparently incomprehensible accent. The other contender for the lowest point of the show has to be the ad stuffed in there just early enough for Disney’s The Little Mermaid remake that had no purpose within the show but to be gross self-promotion for the conglomerate that owns the Oscars’ broadcast network but probably knew they weren’t taking home any major awards this year. That felt like a leftover bit from 2022 and I hope never to see it again.
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Mostly though the pace of the show and the quality of its presentation was a mix of awkward or incongruous and occasional moments of delight. Yes, when an incredibly hoarse Elizabeth Banks came on (nearly tripping) with a man in a Cocaine Bear costume it was a lame bit, but on the other hand Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors explaining some cinematography innovations was cool. John Travolta kinda stumbling through his In Memoriam intro was evenly matched by Hugh Grant self-deprecatingly (and on stage with his Four Weddings’ co-star Andie McDowell) referring to his face as a scrotum. The Best Original Song numbers were each performed competently, from Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” with set dressing that intentionally or not evoked the un-nominated The Woman King; to a hot-dog fingered David Byrne crooning out “This is a Life”, and even Lady GaGa’s “Hold My Hand” -which was so clearly a last-minute addition, with her barren set, complete lack of make-up, and raw intimate shot choices following on an intimate introduction that felt more like something out of the Grammy’s. She probably over-exerted herself but her passion came through.
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The much-anticipated performance of “Naatu Naatu” from RRR was a bit of a mixed bag, as while it did have the best choreography and production standards of any songs, it loses a little something not having stars Ram Charan and N.T. Rama Rau Jr. there -also for a song about the superiority of Indian music and dance over white people’s, there were too many white back-up dancers. Fortunately the most important win of the night did happen for this song; M.M. Keeravani in one of the show’s best moments accepted the award by bringing up his love for The Carpenters before singing a verse of an RRR-themed rendition of “Top of the World”.
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But this Oscar night it was Everything Everywhere All at Once that was on top of the world, winning the largest sweep by a single movie since Gravity in 2014, and the largest sweep of the major categories since The Silence of the Lambs was the last movie in 1992 to win all of the Big Five (Everything Everywhere fell just one short of this). It began early in the night when Ke Huy Quan to everyone’s prediction won Best Supporting Actor and gave as sweet and emotional a speech as everyone anticipated, bringing up his family’s journey as refugees and the inspiring bent of his own story. But what nailed the fate of Everything Everywhere was right after, when Jamie Lee Curtis in an upset won Best Supporting Actress over Kerry Condon, her far more deserving co-star Stephanie Hsu, and the favourite to win Angela Bassett. It signaled that the legs this movie has had all awards season would extend through the Oscars. Curtis’ speech included a tribute to her parents and a worthy acknowledgement of the importance of genre movies (Everything Everywhere is the first sci-fi film to win Best Picture), but it can’t help be a disappointing win: yet another POC-led movie that has to give the least interesting white character an award.
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These would be the last Oscars for Everything Everywhere for a little while, as All Quiet on the Western Front became the night’s most successful winner, starting with Best Cinematography for James Friend, and going on to Best Production Design, Best Original Score for Volker Bertelmann (which became a foregone conclusion by the ceremony’s continued playing of his grim theme through the telecast), and of course Best International Feature, which director Edward Berger and his cast accepted with grace. It’s surreal to note that this movie that nobody really saw coming for a long time, has won more Oscars than the original All Quiet on the Western Front, the third ever Best Picture winner and a cinema touchstone -and in so doing is one of just three movies to win more than one Oscar this year. The other is The Whale, which against all the push-back that movie has had, won Best Make-up and Hairstyling for turning Brendan Fraser into an obese caricature.
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I should run down the other winners of the night before getting to the major awards. The show officially began with Guillermo del Toro receiving his Oscar for Pinocchio, a rare break from Disney’s automatic stranglehold of that category. Ruth Carter won her second Oscar for Costume Design, and second for a Marvel movie, for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever -a movie that was refreshingly beaten at the Visual Effects podium by Avatar: The Way of Water -the only possible correct outcome. Largely motivated I suspect by the current political situation, Navalny, the film about Russia’s imprisoned opposition leader, took home Best Documentary, with a moving speech by the subject’s wife. In the short film categories sadly My Year of Dicks did not get Oscar gold, rather the Animation gong went to The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse; and the documentary was won by India’s The Elephant Whisperers -a producer for which was cut off in her speech while both the former movies’ British producers were allowed to spin anecdotes to their hearts content. A cute moment happened when An Irish Goodbye won Live-Action Short and it turned out to be the birthday of one of its recipients -star James Martin- resulting in the entire Oscar crowd singing ‘Happy Birthday’. Top Gun: Maverick won Best Sound, about the only category it had any realistic shot in. And a really nice surprise of the night came when Sarah Polley won Best Adapted Screenplay for Women Talking, one of the most genuine and earnest winners.
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Alternatively, it was perhaps something of an upset that the Daniels won Best Original Screenplay over Todd Field, Martin McDonagh, Tony Kushner and Steven Spielberg. And yet in their first moment on the stage proved themselves to be cool, humble guys about it who you just couldn’t bring yourself to dislike. They’re so grounded and un-Hollywood, as evident by their stylish fashion choices (with Kwan’s yellow-on-red jacket bearing “PUNK” on the back), and their unpretentious demeanour. Because of the strange way some of the categories came up this year, they won this before their film also nabbed Best Editing for their equally chill colleague Paul Rogers, only on his third movie. And from that point, but for one exception, the podium would belong to them. Against those same aforementioned rivals, they claimed Best Director, the third time in Oscar history the award has gone to a pair. Here they brought up the personal significance of the win, dedicated it to their moms, and Scheinert got a great and relevant pro-drag remark in. They were briefly interrupted in their streak by Best Actor, which came through for Brendan Fraser over Austin Butler. The Oscars love a good comeback story, and possibly the novelty of giving their highest honours to two stars of Encino Man. It’s sad that Fraser, who was probably my least favourite in that category, won for a performance that while good will always be handicapped by its tropes, shortcomings, and insensitivities. Much like his character, he espoused several laboured metaphors about whales and the sea in his acceptance speech, but of course like everything it was a stark step-up from his predecessor.
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Best Actress came, and the Oscars brought Halle Berry on stage to present it, no doubt in the hope that it would go to Michelle Yeoh and they could make a statement with the first woman of colour winner handing the award to the second (and praying a repeat of 2021 wouldn’t happen). And indeed this time they were proven right. In spite of Lydia Tár’s greatest supporters, Michelle Yeoh’s name was called and she made history. It was a lovely emotional moment, no attempt was made to play her off through a moving and powerful speech, and it geared everyone up for the now obvious final winner. Harrison Ford only had to read one word and Everything Everywhere All at Once was secure as the strangest Best Picture winner in recent memory -and that is including Parasite. Everyone was so enthused but handled it well, it felt a satisfying victory for the little movie that could. Kwan emphasized the support for mental health issues during these difficult times, Scheinert kinda took Kimmel’s role in saying goodnight, and that’s that.
And yet I felt a little nonplussed by the end. Going into the night it was reported that Everything Everywhere had against the odds surpassed Return of the King for the most awarded movie in awards season history and that jarred me in both precedent and scope. Everything Everywhere is a great movie, but… really? Looking at all the movies over this awards season and thinking about my own opinions on them I realized that my feelings on the idea of an Oscar sweep had changed, and not just towards Everything Everywhere, which I’ll reiterate was my favourite movie of last year.
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I used to think about how cool it was that Return of the King won eleven Oscars back in 2004, claiming the record spot with Titanic and Ben-Hur. But I kinda feel like that’s too many for any film now. And especially with this year’s line-up it’s a touch dreary that just two movies won the lion’s share of feature awards. As much I love Everything Everywhere All at Once, I would have given it four Oscars tops. As much as All Quiet on the Western Front was impactful for me I wouldn’t say its cinematography is better than Bardo or its production design anywhere close to Babylon. It’s a weird feeling where the happiness I feel for my favourite film winning is undercut by my disappointment that such amazing, significant movies as Tár, The Banshees of Inisherin, and The Fabelmans went home empty handed. That was in all likelihood John Williams’ last Oscar nomination -it would have been closure for him to win it. 2022 honestly was such a brilliant year for movies, so why do this year’s Oscar results look so thin? It’s a conversation I think the Academy should have -and it starts with members actually watching the movies in question, which this year’s revealed ballots proved is a startling issue, with people voting based on irrelevant bias or ignorance or even just what happens to have strong campaigning feet without actually engaging with the movies themselves.
Still, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a Best Picture winner, which is nuts. The Daniels, the guys who made the “Turn Down for What” video for Lil John a decade ago, now have the prestige of Best Director to their name. And for as much as I may feel hollow about the lack of variety in this year’s Oscar results, the big winner does happen to be one of the most versatile movies out there -and unlike anything that has ever achieved this acclaim. Maybe it means bright things for the Academy, as it surely does for the movie industry. And that’s pretty cool.
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Apart from this and a handful of standalone highlights, there’s nothing all that special to the 95th Academy Awards, which is just fine -it might be what its producers wanted after last year, although I doubt it. The handful of elephant in the room references made over the course of the night, right down to the ceremony’s final shot, indicate ABC is at least on some level hungry for controversy. But that, this show did not deliver on. The Oscars could stand to be better still, more engaging and artful and ambitious, but I also can’t help feel it needed to be steady this year -though I wonder if that pared down, casual 2021 ceremony doesn’t still represent a way forward.
The Oscars came back in 2023, somewhat different in outcome and implication, but aesthetically and structurally mostly the same. It churns on, it has the power to churn on. But it has other powers too, and I would like to see the Academy use them.
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