The Oscars 2016 Recap

OSCARS SO WHITE?

For the second consecutive year, African Americans were systematically shut out of Oscar’s major categories. The resulting backlash and calls for a boycott from film industry luminaries such as Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Spike Lee heightened expectations for a provocative, controversial telecast. Host Chris Rock didn’t disappoint. In his opening monologue he didn’t merely address the elephant in the room, he shot and mounted it to the living room wall. First he joked about the number of black actors in the traditional clip montage (none), and then he unleashed an incendiary state-of-the-industry address that came across as impassioned, justified and fair.

He chided those who called him out for breaking the boycott, comparing Pinkett-Smith’s snubbing of the Oscars to him snubbing a chance to get in Rihanna’s underwear: first one has to be invited. “Last thing I need is to lose another job to Kevin Hart,” Rock quipped. Then he leveled his elephant gun at Hollywood. He slyly acknowledged the progress African-Americans had made in both the film industry and in civil rights when he joked about why, in the eighty-eight years of the Academy Awards, this debate was happening now instead of, say, the 1960s. “When your Grand-mama’s hanging from a tree, it’s hard to care about who won for best documentary foreign short!” he stated emphatically. Mulling whether or not Hollywood was actually racist, he concluded it was, but not to the offensive degree that people think. “Hollywood is sorority racist,” he confessed. “It’s like, ‘Rhonda, we like you, but you’re just not a Kappa.’”

The audience in the Kodak Theater looked stunned, and even Rock seemed a little nervous calling out colleagues in the crowd to their faces, but his funny, excoriating monologue not only set a tone for the evening, but also cleared the air in welcome fashion.

AND THE AWARD GOES TO…

Early awards held true to prediction with Spotlight nabbing Best Original Screenplay and The Big Short taking home the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Alicia Vikander’s win for The Danish Girl was a mild surprise over Kate Winslet (Jobs) in a contested race, but not unexpected. Vikander had already won a BAFTA and SAG Award for her role.

The two Supporting categories have long been a ripe field for upsets, and respected Shakespearean thespian Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies) beat out longtime industry vet Sylvester Stallone (Creed) for Best Supporting Actor. Forty years after Rocky won Best Picture but Stallone lost out to the deceased Peter Firth (Network), most prognosticators rated him a sympathetic shoo-in. Perhaps the loss was due to the #OscarsSoWhite backlash or to Sly’s polarizing, idiosyncratic personality. Whatever the reason, Rylance’s humble acceptance speech epitomized winning with class.

Mad Max: Fury Road came into the awards as one of the best-reviewed films of the year. It figured to win something, but when costume designer Jenny Beavan trumped double-nominated Sandy Powell (Carol and Cinderella), the victory jumpstarted a nearly clean sweep of the technical awards. With additional Oscars for Makeup and Hairstyling, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Film Editing, only Visual Effects eluded its grasp. That award went unexpectedly to another Vikander-vehicle Ex Machina.

As the night wore on, the political tone subsided and predictability reigned, signaled by Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki’s Best Cinematography win for The Revenant. Nine other DP’s have won three or more Cinematography Oscars, but none before Lubezki had won them in consecutive years. Moments later his director, Alejandro G. Iñàrritu, claimed his second consecutive award for Best Director.

The chalk continued with Amy, a profile of rock singer Amy Winehouse, grabbing Best Documentary Feature, the Hungarian Holocaust drama Son of Saul snagging Best Foreign Film, Pixar’s Inside Out taking home Best Animated Feature and 87-year old Ennio Morricone winning his first Oscar for Best Score over fellow composing legend John Williams.

After Brie Larson won Best Actress as expected for Room, Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant) finally took home a golden statuette for the first time in six tries. For many, his win was the highlight and talking point of the evening, but Leo's big moment felt like a fait accompli, more like a royal coronation than a rousing victory. He's earned his due. He's the rare star committed to film as art and to working with the best talent in the industry on smart, challenging projects. To the victor goes the spoils.

After the acting awards, there was only one real mystery left: would The Revenant or Mad Max: Fury Road take home the Best Picture award? To the apparent delight of many in the crowd, neither did. Spotlight, an ensemble drama about the Boston Globe’s breaking of the Catholic Church’s molestation scandal, stole the night’s ultimate prize. The entire cast joined producers Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Racklin and Blye Pagon Faust onstage where actor Michael Keaton polished off a box of Girl Scout cookies leftover from an early Chris Rock gag.

WINNERS, LOSERS AND RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

This year’s Awards were more or less evenly distributed among the nominated pictures. If there were any losers they would have to be Stallone and Carol, which was nominated for six awards but took home none. Carol was one of the most critically adored films of 2015, garnering a lot of early buzz during awards season, but the lesbian period drama failed to break through with Academy voters.

It had been a rough year for Sam Smith. First the singer was forced to give Tom Petty songwriting credit on his Grammy winning smash “Stay With Me” when it was determined Smith had accidentally interpolated Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” Then in November James Bond fans panned Smith’s “Writing’s On the Wall,” especially after Radiohead debuted their own rejected Bond theme (the soaring, haunting “Spectre”). But on Oscar night Smith got the last laugh. Following Adele's win for “Skyfall,” Smith (with Jimmy Napes) beat out Lady Gaga and The Weeknd for Best Song. Presumably he won’t have to add anyone else’s name to it in the future.

Speaking of Lady Gaga, her live performance of the nominated song “Til It Happens to You” was undoubtedly powerful, if a little grim. Introduced by Vice President Joe Biden, the theme song to a documentary about college campus sexual assault featured male and female rape survivors surrounding a finger waving Gaga, clutching hands and sporting supportive messages scrawled on their forearms in black magic marker.

The Revenant was actually filmed once before in 1971, as Man in the Wilderness with Richard Harris playing the DiCaprio part and John Huston in a key role. It's a different kind of movie, slow-paced and philosophical, but Harris is exceptional in it. It's annoying that none of The Revenant team ever mentions it.

SNL players Tracy Morgan and Leslie Jones gave hilarious cameos in a skit as black actors forcing their way into The Danish Girl and The Revenant. Jones played the bear that mauls DiCaprio; Morgan donned a slip and eye shadow to lovingly devouring a cream cheese Danish.

The political subtext added a thrilling charge to the show’s opening. Too bad it went away. By the time a troupe of Girl Scouts marched through the crowd selling cookies to guests, the show was back to boring business as usual. At least no one took a group selfie.

The Oscars changed its format up a little bit, handing out awards in an order that replicated the movie-making process from screenplay to completed picture. It only mattered to the screenwriters who benefitted from an early trip to the bar once their categories were called first.

The much-loved In Memoriam tribute was particularly nice this year. Dave Grohl played a stripped-down acoustic version of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” over a montage featuring Christopher Lee, Maureen O’Hara, Wes Craven, Omar Sharif and Leonard Nimoy.

Louis C.K. had the joke of the night when he teased the humble earnestness of the Best Documentary Short Award nominees. “This Oscar is going home in a Honda Civic.”

Quincy Jones, the coolest man on the planet for the last forty-five years, had the line of the night when he called film scores “emotion lotion.”

This isn’t a fashion blog, so don’t expect a long dissertation on red carpet couture. But to this (partly Irish) observer’s eyes, nobody looked better than Saoirse Ronan (Best Actress nominee for Brooklyn) in a green sequined custom Calvin Klein. Worn in honor of her native Ireland, it shimmered like snakeskin. Best Actress winner Brie Larson’s blue lingerie-inspired ruffled Gucci gown also impressed.