Uri wrote:It seems that with Smith’s acceptance speech, we were privileged to get a rare, naked glimpse into these people’s worship at the altar of self-delusion.
Mister Tee wrote:My favorite tweet of the night by far: "See what happens when you say 'Macbeth' in a theatre?"
With all due respect to Washington, on Sunday he was not the main protagonist of the Shakespearian tragedy unfolded in the Dolby Theatre.
For more than two decades Macbeth-Smith and Lady Macbeth-Smith were plotting to take over the thrown of Scotland, sorry, Hollywood - i.e. winning the Best Actor Oscar. Everything about their tightly scripted public life was in service of this one objective. Every career move was aimed at turning this likeable yet very lightweight performer into a “thespian”. Every cliché ridden, ghost-written “interview” they gave projected self-important “gravitas”. Every fashion choice - Will’s evolving into this tweedy English professor was all about manifesting “respectability”. Hell, the Lady even turned herself into a full-blown activist, recruiting 300 years of slavery, solely to get her man an Oscar.
And it finally worked. All the stars were aligned. The right Oscar friendly project was found (it even had “king” in its title!) The overly-due-narrative was heavily pumped all over the place. It was a done deal. The setting for the ultra-kitsch post Oscar photo of the self-declared Royal Family was arranged in advance. The Coronation was officially on its way as planned. And then The Fool arrived onstage. The Bard of Avon couldn’t have envisioned it better. A mere court jester utters some insignificant words and all hell let loose. Obviously, as it should be done in this kind of tragedy, the protagonist made the wrong move. And being the self-centered hero, he carried on, believing he could fix things up.
Now all is left for us to do it to wait for the third act to see what will be the body-count onstage at the final curtain.
Great post Uri.
They really tried to get him nominated with Concussion some years ago. I think it was the #oscarssowhite year and the "snub" led them to boycott the ceremony (to which they were not invited, as Chris Rock mocked at the time). I wonder how much is this couple really liked in the indutry. Apparently he developed this Mr Nice Guy persona but it might come down to a really fake persona/couple.
The Academy has never, to my knowledge, revoked an awarded Oscar. They have revoked nominations, but never Oscars. That is, unless I've missed something important.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
A full meeting of the Academy’s board of governors has been called for Wednesday evening, where the matter of Smith slapping presenter Chris Rock onstage at the ceremony is expected to be topic number one, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively.
The decision comes just hours after the officers of the Academy’s board of governors — including president David Rub and CEO Dawn Hudson — convened Monday for an emergency phone call about the incident. Shortly thereafter, the Academy issued a statement declaring: “The Academy condemns the actions of Mr. Smith at last night’s show. We have officially started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct and California law.”
Expelling him from the Academy and ruling him ineligible for any awards for the next 3-5 years should be enough.
I can't believe that there will be anyone dumb enough to call for Smith losing his Oscar when Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein still have theirs.
A full meeting of the Academy’s board of governors has been called for Wednesday evening, where the matter of Smith slapping presenter Chris Rock onstage at the ceremony is expected to be topic number one, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively.
The decision comes just hours after the officers of the Academy’s board of governors — including president David Rub and CEO Dawn Hudson — convened Monday for an emergency phone call about the incident. Shortly thereafter, the Academy issued a statement declaring: “The Academy condemns the actions of Mr. Smith at last night’s show. We have officially started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct and California law.”
Will Smith's apology posted on Instagram late yesterday:
Will Smith has issued an apology after slapping Chris Rock on the Oscars stage Sunday night.
“Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally,” Smith wrote. “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”
The post continued, “I would also like to apologize to the Academy, the producers of the show, all the attendees and everyone watching around the world. I would like to apologize to the Williams Family and my King Richard Family. I deeply regret that my behavior has stained what has been an otherwise gorgeous journey for all of us. I am a work in progress.”
It seems that with Smith’s acceptance speech, we were privileged to get a rare, naked glimpse into these people’s worship at the altar of self-delusion.
Mister Tee wrote:My favorite tweet of the night by far: "See what happens when you say 'Macbeth' in a theatre?"
With all due respect to Washington, on Sunday he was not the main protagonist of the Shakespearian tragedy unfolded in the Dolby Theatre.
For more than two decades Macbeth-Smith and Lady Macbeth-Smith were plotting to take over the thrown of Scotland, sorry, Hollywood - i.e. winning the Best Actor Oscar. Everything about their tightly scripted public life was in service of this one objective. Every career move was aimed at turning this likeable yet very lightweight performer into a “thespian”. Every cliché ridden, ghost-written “interview” they gave projected self-important “gravitas”. Every fashion choice - Will’s evolving into this tweedy English professor was all about manifesting “respectability”. Hell, the Lady even turned herself into a full-blown activist, recruiting 300 years of slavery, solely to get her man an Oscar.
And it finally worked. All the stars were aligned. The right Oscar friendly project was found (it even had “king” in its title!) The overly-due-narrative was heavily pumped all over the place. It was a done deal. The setting for the ultra-kitsch post Oscar photo of the self-declared Royal Family was arranged in advance. The Coronation was officially on its way as planned. And then The Fool arrived onstage. The Bard of Avon couldn’t have envisioned it better. A mere court jester utters some insignificant words and all hell let loose. Obviously, as it should be done in this kind of tragedy, the protagonist made the wrong move. And being the self-centered hero, he carried on, believing he could fix things up.
Now all is left for us to do it to wait for the third act to see what will be the body-count onstage at the final curtain.
Mister Tee wrote: To come up with a year that was so blindingly predictable and so unbearable, I think I have to go back to the Gandhi putsch of 1982. (There's an anniversary not worth celebrating.)
… (Which would also have spared us Kevin Costner's "I make overlong movies, so expect overlong intros, as well" meandering. Apologies to those who liked it/didn't tune out on it.)
The In Memoriam was really oddly done.
When I realized Lady Gaga was the only name left as best picture approached, I simultaneously thought "That's being a good sport, showing up when you were snubbed" and "Not close to being a big enough film name to present the top prize -- star-whoring at its worst". So, I was kind of pleasantly surprised when it turned out Liza was her surprise partner...but then disheartened to see what sad shape she was in
Nice summary!
I like “Gandhi,” but even Richard Attenborough thought “E.T.” deserved it more.
I liked Costner’s intro. It was more memorable than the laundry list Campion gave after it.
I agree the In Memoriam was odd with dancing choir blocking the screen and long shots making it hard to read names.
Finally, I also had mixed feelings about seeing Liza. My grandmother is turning 94 this year but is still mostly there mentally. Her younger sister, my great-aunt, is unfortunately suffering from dementia and could not join us for the show this year. So we all recognized that Liza is having trouble there, which was sad.
"Because here’s the thing about life: There’s no accounting for what fate will deal you. Some days when you need a hand. There are other days when we’re called to lend a hand." -- President Joe Biden, 01/20/2021
I have to say one thing that drives me crazy is that there's so many logical and practical things the producers could have done to a.) make the show better and b.) make the show shorter even if like big, bad ABC is requiring them to do things:
They HAVE to do a Bond tribute? Get all the living Bonds together. Oh, they can't do it? Get Judi Dench and Javier Bardem to do it. They're nominated and they're RIGHT THERE. Wait, "No Time to Die" is nominated so why not do the montage and segue that into the performance OR better yet, incorporate the montage WITH the performance. BOOM! You did a Bond tribute and saved time.
Oh, we HAVE to have a Godfather tribute? Oh, great. Do the montage then introduce Coppola and Pacino. Make them say something then have them PRESENT Picture and/or Director. BOOM! You did the tribute and saved some time right there.
Oh, we HAVE to perform "We Don't Talk About Bruno"? Make it the opening number! Or better yet, why not incorporate it into a medley that ends with the nominated "Dos Oruguitas"? They did the same with Les Miz years ago. BOOM! Saved some more time!
These are all no-brainers. I don't know why none of the producers seem to have thought about it.
Greg wrote:I thought Frances McDormand and Chloe Zhao were supposed to have presented Best Actor and Best Director, respectively.
They were never announced.
Directors are not traditionally asked to present the following year although it has certainly happened. Why 3-time winner McDormand has been a no-show throughout awards season I don't know.
My favorite tweet of the night by far: "See what happens when you say 'Macbeth' in a theatre?"
Normally, I watch my DVR of the show to catch jokes I missed from people at my party talking. Today, I watched to remind myself what happened before It Happened. I commented on It a bit last night, and I'll get back to it, but first some thoughts on the show, if it hadn't turned into Will Smith's psychodrama.
It was nice to just see unmasked celebrities in a theatre, with film clips, performed songs, and people making jokes -- in short, an Oscars like we've had all our lives, but were mostly deprived of last year. (I think the no-jokes regimen -- except for that egregious Glenn Close boogie -- was last year's greatest failing.) It was good to have hosts again, though I think one would have been easily sufficient. I've been seeing all over the Internet, since hosts were announced, that Amy Schumer was "over", but I think she's exactly who she's always been: often very funny, with a great sense of timing. (And, witness her "Did I miss anything?", a good think-on-her-feet comic.) I'd have rather she'd been the solo host -- partly because I think that gives the show greater coherence, but also because the other two had less funny bits: Sykes' museum tour went on too long, and Hall (a solid actress) was stuck with a fairly lame sex-starved routine that wasn't any funnier for being female-on-male rather than the old-line male-on-female.
The evening was hugely handicapped for me in that it honored too many films I just don't care for. I was happy with much of the below-the-line action -- all the prizes to Dune, Drive My Car and Summer of Soul, No Time to Die. And I loved that The Windshield Wiper won animated short, especially, as its director articulated, for representing adult animation (a genre Animated Feature has yet to broach). But in the top 8 categories, Jessica Chastain was the only one I was inclined to cheer -- I could be semi-happy for Branagh as "old-timer who's aid his dues but never won anything", but the prizes to West Side Story and King Richard (even without the context) evoked yawns from me, and the CODA prizes something far more angry. Coming after a year when I was appreciative-to-enthusiastic about the entire top 8, this was a huge comedown.
Made worse by the fact it had all been so predicted. The winner at our party had a perfect prediction-ballot (though we don't cover the shorts, because I'm the only one in attendance who actually watches them.) More than one Oscar year has left me with only mediocre or terrible winners, but usually the worst of them featured a surprise of some sort. As bad as Green Book, Crash or Braveheart were as best pictures, they offered the frisson of an upset. To come up with a year that was so blindingly predictable and so unbearable, I think I have to go back to the Gandhi putsch of 1982. (There's an anniversary not worth celebrating.)
So, given this huge handicap, what did I think about the show? Mainly that it squandered all that time it gained from slicing and dicing a bunch of Dune winners by interpolating pointless/aimless sequences. If you're going to do a James Bond tribute a) get people associated with Bond, not random athletes, to intro it, and b) lead into the nominated song. (That seemed a no-brainer; instead, the segment dribbled away.) Similarly, The Godfather "tribute" (which trotted out two of our most famous actors for a wordless photo op), rather than being a cul-de-sac, could have led into Francis giving the best director prize. (Which would also have spared us Kevin Costner's "I make overlong movies, so expect overlong intros, as well" meandering. Apologies to those who liked it/didn't tune out on it.) And then there was that non-nominated song getting the full-on treatment because, hey, it's a hit, and Disney!
Bottom line: I'd rather have seen those 8 categories presented in real time over anything that made the show because they were cut.
Is it my imagination, or haven't the announcers traditionally identified lesser-known presenters with a credit or two? To dispense with that in this year, when there were more "who the hell is that?" folks on the roster, seemed a rookie mistake.
How weird a choice was it for Daniel Kaluuya and H.E.R. to be brought out to the tune of "Africa"?
My reaction after Billie Eilish's performance was, goddamn, I love her voice. I think it's a good song, as well; way superior to that previous Bond winner.
The In Memoriam was really oddly done. On one level, you can praise them for mixing it up -- having Bill Murray eulogize friend Ivan Reitman (Murray has now mourned two former directors at the Oscars), and Jamie Lee Curtis salute Betty White with a cute puppy. For a moment, I was afraid Betty White was last in the line, which panicked me, because on our at-home ballot for predicting that spot, I hadn't even included her (since she, you know, really barely did movies). It turned out not to matter. The official answer for last in the queue was Charles Grodin, but it didn't really feel like that, did it? Years back, they added music to discourage people from using an applause-meter approach to the segment, and this year it felt like they tried to even eliminate the building-to-the-most-significant aspect; like the final name was close to random.
When I realized Lady Gaga was the only name left as best picture approached, I simultaneously thought "That's being a good sport, showing up when you were snubbed" and "Not close to being a big enough film name to present the top prize -- star-whoring at its worst". So, I was kind of pleasantly surprised when it turned out Liza was her surprise partner...but then disheartened to see what sad shape she was in (this after watching Anthony Hopkins stumble through his presentation moments earlier; it's not pretty seeing people get old and feeble.)
By the way, nice that Hopkins got the ovation he was denied last year.
So, okay: the elephant in the room. Like, I think, many, I initially assumed it was a bit...until the seemingly minute-long set of bleeps, and then Chris Rock's shaken-looking expression, made me (and our whole room) understand it was real. It's shocking to me to see some actually taking up for Smith in this -- acting as if Rock's joke (which barely registered, and was no more harsh than Schumer's knocks at the Ricardos or about 100 other jokes I've heard over the years at this show) somehow explained an utterly thuggish act. (A joke which, initially, had Smith himself laughing -- till, apparently, he got his cue from Jada. There's a relationship could stand some exploration.) The rest of the night became waiting to see what happened when Smith took the stage for his best actor award.
Word was Smith's publicist read him the riot act, saying he'd better clean this up. And it seemed like he was initially trying to do that -- in a weasel-worded "I'm sorry if anyone was offended" way. But his (to me) narcissism took over: a weird/patronizing speech that sought to portray him as defender of everyone with whom he comes in contact (many of whom don't seem to have asked for this protection), and that, in a patently obvious way, never apologized to the person he wronged. I genuinely think this is a moment from which his career might never fully recover. He won't lose all his fans; some are on Twitter taking his side. But this is a guy whose career has been dependent on people thinking he's a good guy. Tom Cruise had the same, until his couch-jump/scold-Brooke-Shields period -- and though Cruise is still a big enough star internationally, his domestic audiences have never been the same subsequently. I think Smith might suffer the same fate.
danfrank, in the other thread, expressed discomfort with my lumping this in with other bizarre Oscar moments -- the streaker, Sacheen Littlefeather, the La La/Moonlight brouhaha. And I'll acknowledge this is way uglier than those earlier things (I've found I want to skip past these moments on my DVR). But it definitely goes into the ledger as "the thing no one will ever forget they saw at the Oscars".
Which, weirdly, achieves the zeitgeist connection the producers (and ABC) were trying so lamely to bring about in other ways.
ON EDIT (Because I always think of stuff afterwards):
Sabin is perfectly correct, that Hamaguchi didn't understand the rhythm of Oscar speeches: when you hit a high note, people are going to think you're finished. Hamaguchi kept hitting high notes, and then going on; it wasn't the orchestra's fault for starting to play him off.
Sonic was also correct (in another thread) that the wiggling-fingers salute the whole audience was giving to CODA's wins (something that had to have been coached, to be that universal) suggested a religious commitment to the film.
The clear conclusion to be drawn from this year's presentation: Always go with strong Hollywood buzz, even if it contradicts Oscar precedent (CODA wins without directing or editing). Plus, never go with strong Hollywood buzz, if it contradicts Oscar precedent (Penelope Cruz not a SAG nominee).
I don't get We Don't Talk About Bruno's popularity. I like Dos Oruguitas better, but my favorite song from the film is "Surface Pressure" and liked "My Own Drum" from Vivo better than anything but Surface Pressure and I have them on even footing really.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
OscarGuy wrote:Since it was twice mentioned, original song requires submission for eligibility. We Don't Talk About Bruno wasn't snubbed by the music branch. Disney chose to submit only ONE song for competition, as they've done countless times in recent years when they release animated musicals.
They had great success once upon a time with multiple nominees, but ever since the music branch changed the rule regarding how many songs could be nominated for one film, I think Disney wanted to make sure they didn't cannibalize their other nominees, so one was the way they went.
And really, who could have guessed that the insular, rap-adjacent salsa song you can't understand without the movie's context would have been such a monster hit over the lovely Spanish-language ballad. Disney inadvertently flubbed it.
Since it was twice mentioned, original song requires submission for eligibility. We Don't Talk About Bruno wasn't snubbed by the music branch. Disney chose to submit only ONE song for competition, as they've done countless times in recent years when they release animated musicals.
They had great success once upon a time with multiple nominees, but ever since the music branch changed the rule regarding how many songs could be nominated for one film, I think Disney wanted to make sure they didn't cannibalize their other nominees, so one was the way they went.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
