Oscar, in happier times

Welcome to Oscar Sunday!

Today is practically a holiday for me.  As someone who loves movies and who also loves award shows, the Oscar Ceremony is an important annual event.  I really don’t feel like the previous year is over until the Oscars have been handed out.  For me, I won’t truly be able to move on from 2024 and really plunge into 2025 until the award for Best Picture is handed out.

This Oscar Sunday might be a little bit more lowkey than past Oscar Sundays but we’ll be here, the TSL crew, watching the show and rooting for our favorite films!  We’ll be posting all the winners, maybe a few reviews, and I’ll be tossing out some Oscar thoughts throughout the day.

Remember that picture below?  That was supposed to be the defining moment of the Oscars, an announcement that the Academy was still relevant and that Hollywood could compete with an increasingly online world.  Today, it can easy to forget just how fawning the coverage was over the 2014 Oscar selfie.  The picture is kind of a Rorschach test.  Do you see Hollywood fun and glamour or do you see a bunch of smug celebrities?  I’ve heard both answers.  I’ve always liked Bradley Cooper’s smile and Jared Leto trying to get in the shot.  What’s often forgotten is that poor Liza Minnelli was in the back of that crowd, trying to get in the picture but being not making it.

The Oscar selfie started out as a good thing but then it inspired other “celebs are just like us!” Oscar moments and boy, did those get old fast.  Chris Rock making people buy Girl Scout cookies was okay.  Jimmy Kimmel sending an army of celebs to interrupt a movie playing next door was Hollywood at its most self-important, walking into a movie that people had paid to see and loudly announcing themselves.  (If that movie’s audience cared about the Oscars, they wouldn’t have been at a movie during the ceremony.)  The infamous Stephen Soderbergh-produced Oscars were the worst, a COVID-era slog that couldn’t even pull off its grand emotional finale.  Probably the most spontaneous and human moment on a recent Oscar telecast was Will Smith punching Chris Rock on live TV, cursing at the top of his lungs, and then rambling about God after winning his Oscar.  Last year, Oppenheimer’s victory felt right and Robert Downey, Jr’s Oscar win felt like a moment that deserved a cheer.  It was a return to the wonderful Oscars of old but now, this year, we’re back to largely obscure nominees and the front runner’s chances falling apart because of things she posted online.  The big question tonight is not whether Emilia Perez will win (it won’t) but whether or not Karla Sofia Gascon’s tweets have taken down Zoe Saldana’s chances along with her own.  The old Oscar selfie hits a bit differently after all that.

Of course, the most interesting thing about this selfie is that, for all the attention it received, it ended up being memory holed, largely because of Kevin Spacey managing to get in the frame.  Ellen DeGeneres, as well, is no longer quite as beloved as she once was.  This picture truly is an artifact of a different time.  Myself, I like old movie so I’m always going to prefer Audrey Hepburn with her telegrams.

Enjoy Oscar Sunday!

Oscar, in happier times

Welcome to Oscar Sunday!

Today is practically a holiday for me.  As someone who loves movies and who also loves award shows, the Oscar Ceremony is an important annual event.  I really don’t feel like the previous year is over until the Oscars have been handed out.  For me, I won’t truly be able to move on from 2023 and really plunge into 2024 until the award for Best Picture is handed out.

It’s true that the Oscars are not what they once were.  There have been some truly abysmal recent Oscar ceremonies and the show’s declining ratings are a testament to the fact that the Oscars are not quite the cultural phenomena that they once were.  There’s less glamour in Hollywood and the annual ceremony sometimes seems to alternate between trying too hard or not trying hard enough to keep up with the times.  The last few ceremonies have mostly been memorable for how the people screwed up, like when La La Land was declared Best Picture or Steven Soderbergh tried to turn the ceremony into a terrible Ocean’s sequel.  People may not remember all of the winners but they will always remember Will Smith self-destructing while the cameras rolled.

And I don’t really have high hopes for this ceremony.  Yes, the ratings should see an improvement.  The mix of Barbie and Oppenheimer will provide the show with a boost.  But host Jimmy Kimmel has always been hit or miss and I don’t think anyone is looking forward to the inevitable lecturing that seems to go with shows like this.  I hope we’ll be spared any of the “Celebrities Are Just Like Us” stuff that was so popular just a few years ago.  I don’t want to see Hollywood celebrities invading a movie theater.  I don’t want the host forcing people to buy cookies from his children.  Personally, I think it’s hilarious that the Oscar selfie had to be memory-holed because Kevin Spacey managed to sneak into the background.  (And, of course, Ellen is no longer quite the beloved figure she used to be.)

But, for all the bad things, there’s also the good moments that make it worth it.  Last year, the Daniels were a bit insufferable but Ke Huy Quan gave a beautiful acceptance speech.  The year before that, Will Smith acted like an ass but CODA‘s victory proved that there was a place for a small, heartfelt film.  Steven Soderbergh’s Oscars were a mess but it was a fascinating mess, a true example of what happens when a major talent takes a silly assignment too seriously.  The Oscars, in the end, are meant to be fun.  We cheer when our favorites win and we get mad when they lose.  We watch for the good acceptance speeches but we also watch for the regrettable ones.  The Oscars and Oscar Sunday are still a part of our pop culture and they’re something that I look forward to every year.

And, of course, we’ll be celebrating Oscar Sunday all day here at the Shattered Lens!  So, fasten your seat belts.  It might be a bumpy ride but the destination will be worth it.