What does it say when I agreed with the sentiments and still truly hated the Oscarcast? What a boring, pretentious, heavy-handed slog. The only time you saw stars was in the In Memoriam segment. And those names whizzed by so there was more time for music trivia. Only highlight for me was Tyler Perry. The speeches were interminable. And screw the Academy. They shifted Best Picture to end with Best Actor, obviously in anticipation of Chadwick Boseman winning and ending on a big tearjerker. Instead, Anthony Hopkins (deservedly) won, and no dummy he, he figured why schlep all the way out there to lose? So for the big finale, the winner wasn’t present. A fitting Wile E. Coyote ending to a tedious lecture-filled, self-congratulatory salute to movies that no one has seen or wants to see and stars that no one knows.
Expect the ratings to absolutely crater. And if you breakdown hour by hour. I bet the numbers nosedived after the first hour.
They were held in a train station. Next year, if there is one, I suggest a bus station.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers-Padres game on ESPN was great!
The most bone-headed part about it was not showing clips of a lot of the nominees! The Oscars are supposed to celebrate and promote the film industry and for a lot of the categories they didn't show any clips! What the heck were they thinking? There are folks out there who think Promising Young Woman sounds like some boring arthouse flick that takes place in Victorian England. Maybe showing some scenes from this vibrant and dark black comedy might have helped it find more of an audience! Shame on the Oscars!
ReplyDeleteI love Regina King, but when she opened the show by saying we endured last year because of our love of the movies*, I burst out laughing. What got us through last year was Television! Sheesh, so pretentious.
ReplyDelete*Can't recall her exact words
All the boxes were checked. The black community, women, women of age, Asian, senior men, youth with bright future, foreign community, male poney tail community, let your hair turn grey naturally community, Amtrak community. Everything, EVERYTHING you guys wanted was given to you either in the form of a gold statue or at least a participation trophy called a nomination. In the words of Marcus Aurelius, "Were you not entertained? WERE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?" Don't worry LGBT community your year is 2022, the script is already being written.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Dodgers/Padres game was excellent even if it took 5 hours to complete.
ReplyDeleteI had read that ABC was discounting ad rates to fill spots. Yet, they had a two-hour pre-show that pre-empted the local and network news here. The In Memoriam was a disgrace. Cut the one-minute speech and go right to the photos and give the departed their due.
ReplyDeleteDumb question: Who was the voiceover announcer who showed up just before and after commercial breaks? She sounded like Tiffany Haddish, but I missed her credit, and Google is not my friend on this topic.
ReplyDeleteI decided to take a poll on the Facebook Columbo Appreciation page. Final tally: 92 watched Columbo on COZI, two watched the Oscars. And Nomadland has got to be the most BOOOORING best picture winner since The Last Emperor.
ReplyDelete....sorry. Only 91 watched the Oscars.
ReplyDeleteIt was great. Old Hollywood style. Until the 60s, this is what it looked like.
ReplyDeleteSeveral non-industry friends texted me, and loved it.
Pretentious???? NOT EVEN.
Shut up, David Rubin.
DeleteJust wondering why Sorkin did not win?
ReplyDeleteKeep writing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Telly
The Oscars have done a complete 180 degree when it comes to its African American presence -
ReplyDeletethis one appeared to aim at a key demographic of African Americans aged 18-30.
John Baptiste said in his speech that music was created using only 12 notes. He missed the 13th note, that of the record swishing sound at the commercial breaks - not sure what Oscar winning song that came from.
As for "Name That Tune" - are they trying to steal it from Fox?
However the worst part for me by far was the cringeworthy writing.
I'm used to self important pompous meaning of life utterances -
but e.g. to say an animated movies' goal is to show children that “anything is possible.”
Even Bruce Vilanch must have done a spit take at this one.
The No. 1 priority of Steven Soderbergh was not to put on a good show, but instead to shoot it at 24 frames per second -
that move will be worth ratings gold.
I saw only the clip of the In Memorian segment. Who was the woman who introduced that? It looked like Telma Hopkins from Tony Orlando and Dawn. And why was she wearing those orange inflatable safety devices on her upper arms? Was she expecting the room to flood?
ReplyDeleteAh, come on, you could do at least one joke about the show.
ReplyDeleteJust one.
It's being hailed as the most "Woke" awards presentation yet seen. The irony is rich indeed as this was the most somnambulant effort I can remember suffering.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing I did enjoy was the terror expressed by the folks who were called upon to play the Oscar song game. That was not acting. Make them perform without a script and they fall apart.
I would have been happier if the Dodgers had actually won the game (since Dustin May is on my fantasy team), but it didn't affect the final result; my team won anyway.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I have to constantly remind myself: WTBGUTLO (Watch the Ball Game Until the Last Out). Between that game and the Twins-A's game on Thursday where the A's came back to win on consecutive infield errors by the Twins with two outs in the 10th, you never know what will happen.
You're being too kind. Sweet Christ, that was a horrible show. Has Daniel Kaluuya finished his speech yet? 70 years ago, when they began telecasting the Oscars, they understood that they had to make all these rich people self-congratulating other rich people for the courage of making movies for a lot of money needed comedy to keep it from being unbearable to people who work for a living and don't have entourages, and so they hired Bob Hope. They sure forgot that this year. I had brains enough to wait three hours before watching it so I could fast-forward whenever it got boring. Who knew it would ALL be boring and turgid? In the opening monologue, when whoever that was started to lecture us, she said, "I can see you at home reaching for the remote." Yes, I had just picked it up and her realizing it didn't stop me from hitting fast-forward.
ReplyDeleteI never thought I'd miss overly-big musical numbers and lame comic banter, but I sure did.
The intros of the Best Actress winners was a compendium of cliches and meaningless babble, and included congratulating Carey Mulligan for her "courage" for starring in a movie. This turned Joaquin Phoenix's refusal to read the bullshit written for the Best Actor nominees into the highlight of the evening. (One I almost missed. I had turned it off after a movie you couldn't pay me to sit through won Best Picture because it's over then, right? Then I realized that they hadn't awarded Best Actor and Actress and turned it back on again.)
When Harrison Ford, an genuine movie star, showed up, my first thought was "How did this convention of nobodies land Harrison Ford?" Then I remembered it was The Oscars, which used to be stuffed full of movie stars. Harrison was presenting at The Oscars and it came across like he was slumming.
The Oacars were last night? That's why "The Rookie" wasn't on.
ReplyDeleteM.B.
I only read the recap in this morning's newspaper. The biggest surprise? A Caucasian male actually won an Oscar in this over woke society.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWoke Oscar Show Puts America to Sleep
A weary nation finally got some rest Sunday night, when Hollywood decided to provide a three-hour instructional video on how Planet Earth should 'be better'.
That's Not Entertainment, so any viewers who were able to keep their eyes open during Springtime for Oscar were driven to alcohol and substance abuse at the sheer horror of it all. Eventually they passed out on the couch, so they probably won't remember any of it. Lucky bastards.
Either way, former Oscar winner Woody Allen said it best: "You want to help mankind? Tell Funnier Jokes."
Glenn Close doing "Da Butt" provided the highlight of the evening! John Baptiste's speech was the second of that...
ReplyDeleteSomeone has to take a good, hard look at the whole matrix. These people are talented and the work honored is of high quality.
ReplyDeleteBut that is it.
Last year proved that the motion picture industry is no more worthy of its self-styled importance than what is currently on home screens. Last night, the marching orders were to continue the illusion, but it didn't work. Without theaters, the public did just fine with TV programming that was either made for network, streaming, home video or (gasp!) classics that were rediscovered. None of this has to cost what movies do, none of these people need to get paid what they do. They only did, emphasis on the "did," because the box office allowed them to. And the sponsor money. Both of which is now changing.
A lot of talented, capable people work just as hard and give just as much to entertainment for a whole lot less than the people we saw last night. Thousands more cannot get jobs. The scales need to be readjusted and the god-like status is no longer "relevant" and completely contrived. Not that it wasn't always a construct, but now it is more forced, and every bit as scripted and crafted as in the golden days.
You would also think that, in the wake of the various people who have been exposed in scandal, on a regular basis, there might be less speechmaking and more humility. After all, Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein, and Bill Cosby were the darlings of the industry before they were found out and when they appeared at these ceremonies, they were royalty.
Regina King's scripted line, designed to position Hollywood as once again getting the public through a tough time, may have backfired. If we "endured last year because of movies," it wasn't because of the ones being honored last night, nor was it because of the movies produced in the last year.
If they believe they are being forward-thinking, then the idea of deifying and overpaying movie stars and related Hollywood "giants" should be the last thing they cling to. The world has changed and if we ordinary people have had to make adjustments, so can they.
I only watched the Regina King's opening and the final 3 awards. Also happened to see Yuh-Jung Youn accepting the Oscar for Supporting Actress. What a fantastic speech! Sincere, insightful, and FUNNY! This had to have been the highlight of the show.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syrGt0fpffY
Glenn Close doing "Da Butt" was obviously a scripted bit, and was almost as laughable as her performance in "Hillbilly Elegy."
ReplyDeleteThat was Angela Basset who spoke before the In Memoriam segment. Or, as she was introduced prior to the break, "Angela Bseet, that's all you need to know, Angela Basset!". Her speech prior to the clip was condescending and overly wrought with ham fisted dramatics. Had they just run the clip, we might have been actually been able to read some of the names that were inexplicably sped up then slowed down again for certain people.
ReplyDeleteAs an increasingly liberal over 60 white guy who left the GOP the minute Sarah Palin was announced, I really resent watching any show or reading anything that tries to make me feel guilty for being born a white guy who, with luck, will grow old into his 60's and beyond. Don't ever, ever try to tell me what's proper to think or feel. I'll get there on my own, no thanks to absolute bullshit like the 2021 Oscars.
You know the show is boring when you start looking forward to the Accountants.
ReplyDeleteThey won't make it to 100 years of Oscars. Terrible show. There is no need to give a breakdown of things wrong with it, it's just trash.
ReplyDeleteBoy, they raced through the In Memoriam sequence like Mrs. Howell on sugar beets, didn't they? On top of that, they left out two wonderful actresses, Barbara Shelley and Jessica Walter. Oh well, at least Union Station looked great.
ReplyDeleteAt dinner the other night, a family friend, who knows I'm a movie buff, glowingly asked me if I'd be watching this year's Oscar show. She was taken aback when I said "No." The last time I even watched it was when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway screwed up the Best Picture announcement. As you've pointed out several times, it used to be a real event, but after talented hosts such as Johnny Carson and Billy Crystal stopped hosting, it became an overblown bore. And no, I did not see a single movie that was nominated for anything this past year.
ReplyDeleteWell I don't know about you, but for my family the big news yesterday was the fight between the Josh Swains.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThey promised us this Oscar broadcast would be "like a movie." Instead, it was like the Amalgamated Insurance Professionals' Agents of the Year Award, held at the Grand Ballroom of the Boise Hyatt.
If anyone was vindicated by this show, it was the producer who would normally cue music to play off winners who've been talking too long.
Who'd have thought that the hippest guys in the room, Jon Batiste and Questlove, would both have day jobs as the musical sidekicks on network talk shows?
I like Lil Rel Howery, but his segment was awful. I guess Hollywood thinks Glenn Close has made the leap from a ferocious, vital, sexy actress to an old white grandma, which is why they thought it would be funny to make her dance to "Da Butt." (And when Andra Day cussed out the Oscars themselves so badly that she had to be bleeped, it was a perfect symbol of the entire ceremony.)
I liked the intimacy but if ever there was a time they needed a live band, it was last night. The acceptance speeches were nothing but a bunch of rambling that went on forever. Daniel Kaluuya's talking about his mom and dad having sex definitely made me do a double-take.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I feel that for a few years now, the Oscars have been trying too hard to be hip and not be seen as a pretentious Hollywood circle-jerk. By trying too hard, I mean adding too much quirky humor (this year it was the announcer's odd comments going to break) or the "did this song win an Oscar" trivia game.
I read some of the Guardian live blog; the blogger said he was so bored he wanted to quit despite being paid (and that was early in the show).
ReplyDeleteAs ever, however, Quinn Cummings delivered the most fun of the night with her assessments of the women's gowns. Her best quip of the night, you should experience in full
https://twitter.com/quinncy/status/1386469555132792833
wg
I would have enjoyed watching a montage that included films shot at Union Station to give this intimate event some context. Monday morning quarterbacking hasn't helped the show in decades. Perhaps the committee who forces the creatives into make the show "their" way need to be reformed?
ReplyDeleteDon't know for sure, but I am guessing The Amalgamated Insurance thing has better jokes.
ReplyDeleteYou saw this coming: Variety reports that ratings for the Oscarcast were down 58%.
ReplyDeleteBut if you watched Dodgers-Padres, you got to see a truly great actor: A-Roid.
ReplyDeleteWasn't an important scene from Rain Man filmed at the same train station?
ReplyDeleteI didn't watch this years oscars. I'd tried to watch Nomadland and turned it off when I realized how bored I was and I was only halfway through it.
I still think the oscars matter, but not the presentation show.
This year was a perfect example of how timing matters. Releasing a movie in this past year, seemed like all the competition would normally be classified as indie movies, making the short term results less interesting, and the long term effect of being able to say Oscar Nominated or Oscar Winner that much more.
I watched portions of the show covered in blankets, shivering in my cold trailer.
ReplyDeleteGlenn Close doing “Da Butt” made me think of Stepin Fetchit. I truly don’t know why. Don’t want to.
Whomsoever made the decision about the length of each clip in the memorial section is just wrecked. Hollywood status indicators: money, power, and how long your clip is if you’re dead.
Brrrrr
Based on the comments here I think China had the right idea: they refused to carry the show live in case Chloe Zhau said something critical of the government in her acceptance speech. Apparently the real danger was putting a billion people to sleep.
ReplyDeleteAs far as interest in viewership, a big part of that is in the last decade or so, with celebrities on social media, there is no allure anymore. They are everywhere all the time. So who cares if they're all in the same room reading from a prompter?
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, the idea of "celebrity" is blurred now. The guy who unboxes new shoes on YouTube is as much a celebrity to young people as Harrison Ford, a one time bona fide "movie star" is to people over 40. Add that there are a million different ways to waste your time on a Sunday evening now coupled with nominated movies the vast majority of the world has never seen, and you get rock bottom ratings.
Finally, and this is probably unpopular, but let's stop bitching about the In Memoriam part of all these shows. In fact, they should stop them all together. Nobody is ever happy with them. They're too short. They're too long. They left out so & so. And be honest - you don't know or care about a lot of them anyway.
Watched the first hour. It wasn't horrible but I found the setting REALLY distracting. Looked like one of those fake indoor atriums that were all the rage in hotel design in the '8o's.
ReplyDeleteDespite delivering zero entertainment value, the positive is that I learned a very little bit more about the nominated films, none of which have I seen. Inclusion of clips, as mentioned above, would have been welcome, but it was the too-rapid "in memoriam" segment that most informed me. I didn't know Conchata Ferrell had passed, a sad and significant loss, as well as producer Chuck Gordon, who I worked with for a short time back in the day, and whose "October Sky" is one of my favorite films. RIP
ReplyDeleteCouldn't take it more than 20 minutes, still it made me wonder: If Billy Crystal had been hosting, what would the Oscar song parody segment have sounded like? "Judas and the Black Messiah" ...hmmm, I don't think so.
ReplyDeleteI forgot they were on. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, the Oscars were one of the few things I was allowed to stay up late for. Of course, when I was a kid, they had Clark Gable.
here are the early ratings:
ReplyDeletehttps://deadline.com/2021/04/2021-0scars-tv-ratings-academy-awards-low-abc-disney-1234744135/
You'd think an awards ceremony that's supposed to celebrate film culture around the world might be, you know, at least interesting. Well, the world is interesting. The Oscars are not.
ReplyDeleteThat was Angela Bassett! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI've always respected her prodigious skills as an actress, but in that intro it looked as though she were emulating this Saturday Night Live parody:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3N6zqBP2Tw
With so few movies released last year, I've always thought that if Jim Varney were still with us he could have been in the running for an Oscar. Just imagine "Ernest Goes to Russia" nominated for Best Picture. And I'll bet it would have been more entertaining than any of the films that actually were nominated.
ReplyDeleteJesus, what a snooze-fest. I watched on & off, switching to Star Trek re-runs on Heroes & Icons network once a winner was announced. Lat year, I had not seen ANY of the movies that were announced. This year, same thing BUT there were movies announced that I hadn't ever heard of! The "In Memoriam" segment went by so fast that I blinked and missed six deaths. Any faster and it would have shattered the sound barrier. I'm surprised none of the swearing made it on air, I would have thought the ABC censor would have been fast asleep after the first 15 minutes. Bryan Cranston looked like he had been told "Look, either do this bit for the MPTF or when it's time for you to need their services we may not have a room for you." Some of the outfits the ladies had on.....well let's just say that I wouldn't have been surprised if someone came out with a stick to take a few swings at them thinking they were pinatas. Harrison Ford looked like he was constipated and was ready to stop his speech and just say "This is a real shitfest....I'm outta here!"
ReplyDeleteI have seen complaints on twitter about the Oscars being a lot less white this year. Someone compared the pre show and the actual show to the BET awards. It shows we have a long way to go with race relations.
ReplyDeleteMy problem with the show was too many people we don't know giving speeches and a lot of movies most have not seen. Not much star power. And they let the speeches go too long.
I don't have a problem with any of them delivering messages. You can't just pretend that everything is fine. Some of the movies talk about the problems.
It felt like we were watching one of those shows where they hand out awards to the categories that don't make the big show. People don't want to see that.
The better entertainment last night was on 60 Minutes, where I learned that Gilbert Gottfried has sold 4000 shout outs on Cameo at $100 a pop.
ReplyDeleteThe Boise Hyatt comment was right- I told someone last night they managed to make Union Station look like the lobby of a suburban hotel- small-looking production that was also disjointed w/ the different locations
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, if Boseman HAD won, he wouldn't have been there either.
ReplyDeleteUsually love the show even in the "off" years but didn't watch this year. It should have been a 2 hour clip show of everything nominated, basically telling people what the movie is and where to find it (ie streaming). AND it should have included clips of movies being released right now and telling people where to find them (i.e. theaters and/or streaming). I agree with the sentiment above - if you can chat with your favorite actor/actress on Twitter and if the guy making a video of himself staring into the camera is a 'star', what makes the Oscars special? Nothing. That's really sad but it is the state of it. I also agree that the Oscars' fatal mistake has been to try to be all things to all people and has, in effect, lost their brand. Their brand has been high glitz and a sense of occasion. At least from the past few years that I've seen the show, it feels like the show apologizes for being an awards show by hiring hosts who tear down the movie industry. To me, that doesn't make sense. No, making a movie is not curing a disease - but entertainment is vital to our mental health - the past 14 months would have been a lot worse if we didn't have movies to watch.
ReplyDeleteI did not realize the train station people were talking about is LA's Union Station. It's a real pity they didn't show any good pictures of it because it's one of the true gems - beautiful tiled floors, a waiting courtyard, and lovely old wooden benches and other decorations.
ReplyDeletewg
Movies are important. But when you have to write down a phone number, finding a pen in important. The pen should write well. Isn't that always the thing--you can't find a good pen that writes when you need one? So how great it is when you do have a terrific pen in the kitchen drawer that really works well.
ReplyDeleteBut it doesn't mean that a pen is the only thing that knows what it means to live a life.
Friday Question: Sorry to most of your readers but here comes baseball talk: Having worked with both the Padres and Dodgers organizations, I know you must be loving (like I am) how both teams this season have quickly made this the most exciting rivalry to watch in all of baseball. Both teams seem to really enjoy hating the crap out of each other while having the utmost respect to bring out their best - what's not to love? So, I want to know which current player do you feel is the most exciting to watch in the league? Who, if you had your pick of anyone - do you think should be the face of the league?
ReplyDeleteI love everything about Shohei Ohtani and Fernando Tatis Jr. and think it's remarkable how fast Tatis is already turning the old guard - both in the clubhouse and in the booth - that his style and the fun he brings to the game is what will save baseball's future. The fact that other players around the league seem to realize it's a better move for the game than holding up the archaic "unwritten rules and traditions" like some sort of savior to the game gives me hope.
I watched the segment "in memoriam" clip on You Tube. They went through the faces and names so fast, you couldn't grasp the gravity of the loss.
ReplyDelete