It feels like if you have a blog that talks predominately about movies, you should write about The Oscars. Truth be told, given that I'd like to think my interests include but are not limited to the Oscars, I should be covering all award ceremonies, but I'm not.
I could go into all the reasons I don't watch every ceremony but it basically boils down to this:
1. I have always watched the Oscars and
2. I work weekends so I usually don't have time to watch a four hour awards ceremony live.
Fortunately I had the day off work and so I tuned into the event.
I don't think I have a lot of really gripping revelations about the experience, but like I said, it feels like I should debrief.
The first thing I want to address is Chris Rock. I think he did a great job. I used to find his humor distasteful but these days I really do like him. He, like any good comedian, sees the world very clearly. And when your job is to make fun of the world, that is very important. I know he's been criticized for being offensive (both at the Oscars and in general), but if I'm honest, I don't really care. I don't think that's an appropriate response to have to a comedian. Every comedian worth his salt-- any comedian you have heard of-- from Louis CK to Sarah Silverman to Patton Oswalt-- agrees that when someone is offended at a joke, that person is misunderstanding the meaning of the comedian. I try not to be controversial here on this blog, but this isn't a new proposition I'm putting forward. A comedian holds up a mirror to the society he is addressing. It might be a fun house mirror, distorted or exaggerated, but you aren't looking at the comedian when he tells a joke, you are looking at the context. I think it's great if a joke makes you mad, or makes you think, or makes you cry. There's a reason professional comics don't tell knock knock jokes-- they aren't contextual, they aren't risky, they don't make you think, they don't offend--and they also don't get laughs. Also, as a final note for anyone still upset: comedians have scripts, awards show hosts have scripts-- these jokes are not their person private diary entries--these are their JOKES.
The second thing on my mind is Leo: mostly, I'm happy we have one more dead meme that is no longer relevant. I kind of wish it wasn't for Revenant but that's because of my unfounded bias against that movie (which I haven't even seen) and it is probably great but I refuse to appreciate it. He has deserved it time and time again, and honestly, although I feel bad saying this, I feel like the Academy just gave him the award as a solid, and also so they didn't have to give the Oscar to Eddie Redmayne for a second time in a row. I don't know, maybe he really did deserve it.
Third important thing: Mad Max Fury Road. Won. All. The. Things. Well six of the things. Which is a lot of the things considering their are 24 total awards are some of those are for like documentaries, and animated films, and shorts... Anyway it's very impressive, and honestly I'm really glad it got as much recognition as it did. I was worried it was going to be relegated to the Hollywood Blockbuster category and ignored by the pretentious Academy. Given just how many awards it won, it's hard for me to complain, but I have one bit of beef. I thought Mad Max Fury Road deserved he award for best director. For two reasons. One, because George Miller is a brilliant director (I mean, did you see Babe: Pig in the City??? I kid). His vision is outstanding and his understanding about pacing is unreal. If you have not heard about his tweaking of the frames per second in the movie-- which undoubtedly helped seal the deal on the Oscar for film editing, you need to educate yourself. And two, because when a movie wins so many awards, for costumes, make up, production design, film editing, and sound mixing and editing-- those are facilitated and overseen by the director. The director has a hand in all of those elements-- so why didn't George Miller win? Because freaking Alejandro Iñárritu (of Birdman fame) had to win for the freaking Revenant. I'm not bitter.
Forth: Oscars So White. I definitely don't have an original opinion on this one: The roles need to exist first, so that the awards follow. This should be obvious.
Other than that, I don't think there were any surprises or upsets. I don't think scandal abounded and that's more than okay with me.
