3 Thoughts on The Oscars

1. The Show - I loved it! I loved last year's Oscars too, so this is a nice run! I hate Jimmy Kimmel (although I think he did a great job last year), so I was SO relieved that they let someone else do it this year - and I think Conan did a fantastic job. He told good jokes - nothing too political (aside from one joke), nothing too mean, but still solid jokes. My favorite joke actually happened right in the beginning with his "four-time Oscar viewer" introduction. However, there were some weird choices made for the rest of the show. While Ariana & Cynthia sounded fantastic - why the Wizard of Oz montage? I don't get it. Just so they could get a Wicked moment on stage? (one a side note, my cat Mazie is weirdly TERRIFIED of Cynthia - I think it might be the nails, but as Cynthia was singing she got all spooked and her fur poofed out and and then she ran away when she really started belting those notes. It was actually hilarious and I wish I recorded it). And then why was there basically an In Memoriam for James Bond featuring Margaret Qualley...for some reason??? It was so weird and I'm not cool enough to know who those singers are. I've at least heard of Doja Cat, but I've never heard her sing before and I hope I never have to hear her again because that sounded terrible. And then a tribute to Quincy Jones??? I loved him! But that would make more sense for the Grammys. And another song from The Wiz?? WHAT? WHY? I think they should have done a longer tribute to David Lynch if anything. I don't know why they just didn't have the nominees for Original Song perform?? Plus, I don't know why they keep trying to reinvent how the nominees are announced. Just have two presenters come out, do a bit, then show clips of the nominees. Done and done. This whole let's have the presenter talk about each nominee is so stupid. And even stupider is the 5 presenters for each nominee bit. This made the show even longer than it needed to be. But I did like Nick Offerman as the announcer (his mispronunciation of Amy Poehler made me laugh), and I enjoyed some of the surprise presenters (Daryll Hannah?! She looked fantastic! Mick Jagger?! I loved his quip from Bob Dylan to "find somebody younger"). Overall, I thought it was a fun show. 

2. The Winners - I know Anora became the front-runner after the DGA, PGA & WGA wins, but I was NOT expecting Sean Baker to walk away with four awards, nor was I expecting Mikey Madison to upset the Demi Moore sweep. While The Substance is my favorite movie of 2024, I really loved Anora too, so I have no complaints. Plus, it's an independent film & Sean Baker has made two other EXCELLENT films. I didn't realize that he edited this movie, too (and I loved his "I saved this film in the editing" line). Mikey is incredible in Anora, and she's proven her talent previously with Better Things. She's young, sure. And she's relatively new to the film world, but I appreciate that the Oscars, for once, seemed like they voted for the work in front of them instead of giving an award for a career (like with Jamie Lee Curtis a few years ago, and others). I knew I was going to hate whoever won for Best Actor because I hate three of those actors - Ralph sort of had a chance, and Colman was unfortunately a long-shot, but those other three....UGH. I knew it was going to Brody or Chalamet (Chamalet? I will never know which one is correct), and I have not seen either of their movies so I can't really comment, but I could tell you already that Brody was going to give the most grating speech of the night. I do think he's actually a terrific actor, but he's so fucking full of himself and he flat-out gives me the creeps (and I think those creepy feelings are warranted - if you're interested look up his obsession with his ex, Elsa Pataki. It's gross and CREEPY. Plus, dating Georgina Chapman doesn't help - that woman was married to a FUCKING MONSTER for like 15 years and she didn't know that he was abusing and harassing women in the industry? I don't believe that at all. She's totally complicit, I think). ANYWAY, I'm on a rant. Sorry! I'm annoyed with the Supporting winners because those are Lead performances, but WHATEVER. But I did love that they SPREAD THE LOVE! I think all of the Best Picture nominees won at least one award except A Complete Unknown and, unfortunately, Nickel Boys, right? That's pretty cool. It's so boring when one film sweeps everything. I do not think Flow is better than The Wild Robot, but it's cute and about a cat so I won't complain. 

3. The Fashion - I never in a million years thought that my favorite Oscar look would be Ariana Grande. It's the perfect dress for the movie she's nominated for, plus it's glamourous but interesting and modern. And I never in a million years thought that my second favorite Oscar look would be Selena Gomez. She usually dresses too old for her young age, but this was so stunning. The dress fit her so perfectly and it was old school Hollywood glamour. A few others that I liked - Meg Ryan looked great in that red velvet dress, Colman Domingo is always on point, and Isabella Rossellini gets a mention too for wearing blue velvet to honor David Lynch! Perfection! Everyone else kind of sucked. Either too boring - like Elle Fanning (she looked fine! I just wanted her in something younger and cooler), or really ill-fitting. Actually that was probably my biggest problem with a lot of dresses. Rachel Zegler's dress was way too tight on the top. Mikey's dress doesn't flatter her at all (although I love the nod to Audrey Hepburn). I love Timmy's yellow suit, but again, the fit was terrible. As far as worst dressed - Zoe's dress looked like a lampshade. But nobody really wore anything too terrible, which is a good thing, but also I like when people take chances with fashion! Break the rules! Wear short shorts like Kristen Stewart!