EMMA STONE GIVING HER OSCAR ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

Oscars "Night" 2024
The awards. This year the quality was very high. There are nothing but good things to say about THE ZONE OF INTEREST (an unusually brilliant and edgy Best International Feature Film), OPPENHEIMER, POOR THINGS and its remarkable star Emma Stone, the wonderfully entertaining and smart ANATOMY OF A FALL and Sandra Hüller, who starred in both ANATOMY and ZONE (and though she got no statuette, could be seen sitting there smiling). We might have chosen THE HOLDOVERS. We might have chosen Paul Giamatti. But it was hard to feel disappointed under the circumstances with any of the awards, especially since all the main ones where exactly as expected from the lead-up awards seasons predictions chronicled in my Filmleaf Awards thread.

Snubs? KILLERS didn't get anything, which has happened to Scorsese before. Sadly, Bradley Cooper again didn't get anything for what the show called his "renaissance man" performance, despite reportedly six years learning to conduct a symphony orchestra, and his movie got nothing even for the elaborate makeup by the renowned Kazu Hiro, or for writing, directing, and starring as Leonard Bernstein. Indications are the Academy just didn't like MAESTRO. Maybe if they'd seen it at as part of the NYFF Main Slate, where everything looks better, as I dd, they'd have liked it more. THE BOY AND THE HERON won Best Animated Feature, though as Miyazaki goes it was a bit meh, some think, and everybody loved the new SPIDERMAN. Some of us wish that Annette Bening and Jodie Foster had gotten to go up to the stage instead of just sit and smile.

The Show. How did the awards show itself go? Jimmy Kimmel gave a nice, informative intro speech with mild laughs that ruffled few feathers, though it fully honored the labor issues that dominated a lot of Hollywood's year, and endorsed the unions. Ryan Gosling showed his talent with a full-throated performance of the "Ken" song.

Flubs and caresses. The 83-year-old Al Pacino, though like the 80-year-old Robert DiNiro he fathered a baby with a young girlfriend last year, seemed to show cognitive impairment judging by the way he walked on and and just tore open the award envelope for Best Picture with no introduction at all. He read it off right - OPPENHEIMER - though he didn't seem 100% sure he was getting it right. On the other hand the Best Actor awards were elaborately and handsomely introduced by a set of previous winners providing lots of complimentary descriptions of each nominee, which ought to be satisfying to everybody - except those who find scenes of mutual congratulation a bit much (in which case they should probably not watch the Oscars).

Mishaps? Da'Vine Joy Randolph failed to applaud for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar, 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL. Did she find it just too depressing, or was she having a costume malfunnction, like Emma Stone, whose zipper broke on her sea-lime Louis Vuitton gown before she went up to receive her statuette? If she hadn't pointed this out so plainly people might not have noticed - but I guess under that kind of spotlight somebody always will.

Jonathan Glazer gave the one really strong political acceptance speech, swiftly passed over perhaps here, perhaps a bit confused and confusing, about Gaza and the nightmare in Israel.*

Too Early? The ceremony began at seven p.m. East Coast time, which meant four p.m. West Coast time. That's not very festive, considering especially that it was the first day on Daylight Saving Time, so by our bodies' time it was three in the afternoon. And by the way, when are we doing to get rid of Daylight Saving Time - which nobody likes?

Though I was unusually well prepared this year, there remains catching up to do. Still not seen: THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR, Wes Anderson's prize-winning short. 20 DAYS AT MARIUPOL. SOCIETY OF THE SNOW. Tough watches, those. Maybe better start with GODZILLA MINUS ONE.
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*Glazer's speech.
P.s. In case you want more detail, Vulture's staff wrote a full roundup, "The Highs, Lows, and Whoas of the 2024 Oscars."

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.