Stumbled onto the Oscars 2021

 

I spent two posts last year on the Oscars; one before and one after Scarlett Johansson was snubbed. This year, I decided to be a bit more mindful of my brother’s time, who is kind enough to read all my posts, and combine the two into one. I am actually combining three posts into one, as I will also include my ongoing complaint about the Oscars going hostless. Efficiency should be my official middle name, I say. Although is it efficient if this ended up being one very large post? You’ll be the judge.

Let’s start with the ceremony as a whole. This year was very different because of Covid and we were all very understanding; I will forgive them for the uglier venue and restricted red carpet, it was expected and applauded. I am not entirely sure, however, if this also justifies that god-awful blue curtain they used as a background to the stage. There are no Covid guidelines for interior design, as far as I know. My biggest complaint about the ceremony is how stiff it was. The Emmy’s did a much better job adjusting to the Covid circumstances and typically the Oscars always have a few gimmicks to keep you going through the 3+ hour runtime. This might seem less important to people in LA, but for us who stay up until 6.30 am to watch the Oscars, we do it for moments like #DaButt. Thank god for international treasure, Glenn Close. If there ever was a year to bring back hosts, this was it. We definitely needed someone to throw a few zings here and there. There are always opportunities for a host or two to make things flow a little bit better, even with Zoom. We are all on Zoom for over a year now; such bits would be welcome just fine. And even without a host, they could, like last year, have someone do something of a monologue, someone fly down with an umbrella to honour Mary Poppins, someone crack a joke other than my new Korean idol, Yuh-Jung Youn. I hope Brad Pitt bought her a drink after. It was a little bit cringe-worthy too, as presenters spent a lot of time awkwardly praising nominees, as if the nomination itself isn’t the sort of praise that I imagine keeps you going for a couple of years confidence-wise. Maybe next year they can have Daniel Kaluuya host, because I still have a few unresolved questions about his parents’ sex life.

I also minded the lack of musical numbers, but I will accept that perhaps this was to avoid unnecessary spit. I am all for avoiding unnecessary spit. The last thing I minded was that unwarranted switch of awards; the Best Picture award is usually the last award to be announced and that makes sense as it sort of encompasses all else. This year, someone decided they would have Actor in a Leading Role as the last award and we all rightfully assumed that they would wrongfully award Chadwick Boseman, as a sort of tribute. However, Anthony Hopkins gave a breath-taking performance and rightfully won that award making the last and seemingly most substantial award of the evening a white male recipient. Which upset people. And it also upset my OCD, which has been used to a certain order of awards all these years. But enough about the ceremony, let’s take a look at the awards! It is not as if these are available at every single website since Sunday.

I am being a bit cheeky and starting off with the more interesting awards, will then continue with awards I have invested no time in, and will then complete the post with the big one. I am trying to sustain readership as much as I can.

Adapted Screenplay

‘The Father’ won. If it were up to me, this movie would have won any award it was nominated for; it crushed my soul and sent me to a very dark place, but it was perfect. I loved all of it; the screenplay, the direction, the performances, everything. I found it very original and very sentimental. Which was the case for last year’s Adapted Screenplay winner, ‘Jojo Rabbit’. I seem to have a special bond with this particular category.

Original Screenplay

Everyone thought it would be Aaron Sorkin’s political tale, I hoped it would be ‘Sound of Metal’, but ‘Promising Young Woman’ won. It was a great movie and my only disappointment is that Camilla won an Oscar. My fellow ‘The Crown’ watchers will know what I am talking about.

Actor in a Supporting Role

Daniel Kaluuya won and proceeded to thank God, and his parents for boning. A great speech, with a bit of help from what I believe was weed and a beautiful performance. Again, I was insanely moved by Paul Raci in ‘Sound of Metal’, but I understand that it wouldn’t necessarily be fair for the Academy to award my two favourite movies all of their awards.

Actress in a Supporting Role

The aforementioned legend Yuh-Jung Youn won for Minari and decided to make the most of it by taking a shot with Brad Pitt. Minari is the one film left on my list, I should have watched it last night, but the effects of the Oscars were that I was asleep by sundown. I am, however, very glad she won and if she could win things every week so we can watch her acceptance speeches, I’d be a much happier person.

Short Film (animated)

Now that I am to discuss the short films, I should disclose I have watched nothing of the sort. The winner, ‘If Anything Happens I Love You’ is available on Netflix, even; I don’t have much of an excuse. I was sort of hoping for another short film to win, just because I was feeling rebellious and didn’t want Netflix to round up half of the evening’s awards. This might seem inconsequential, but so did Lex Luthor. I therefore voted for ‘Genius Loci’, mostly because I can’t wait for ‘Loki’, the TV series.

Short Film (live action)

For this category we trusted our friend who had watched a couple of nominees and supposedly could remember which one was which and so we all voted for ‘The Letter Room’, which she had not watched after all and ‘Two Distant Strangers’ won instead. Ironically, this is very much what I would call me and said friend now that she failed us.

Documentary (short subject)

We voted for ‘Colette’ and it actually won! A shot in the dark alright, but a marksman shot nonetheless.

Documentary Feature

This one said friend got correct; ‘My Octopus Teacher’. This was apparently about a man who became friends with this one octopus and documented it. If I were the octopus I would be weary of his motives; did he actually want my friendship, or did he just aspire to be in the same room with Regina King for an evening?

International Feature Film

‘Another Round’ won. Said friend said it was definitely not worthy, but I guess if I were part of the academy and was shown a film with Mads Mikkelsen, I might have also given the award to that film. But that’s just my pheromones talking. Unfortunately, I have wasted all substantial arguments for my choices on stuff I have actually watched and now I have resorted to the so called ‘horny criteria’.

Animated Feature

I was so happy about ‘Soul’ winning; I have heard good things about ‘Onward’ too, but for me Soul was eye opening and inspirational. I really do wish I had watched this as an early teen. Or on drugs. Works either way as a film.

Visual Effects

‘Tenet’, obviously. Say what you will about Tenet. Where there scientific gaps? Sure. Was it incomprehensible and flat out illogical? Yes. Is anything done by Nolan visually stunning? Always. I actually liked Tenet, come at me, Internet!

Film editing

This technical award was won by ‘Sound of Metal’. This was an amazing film that felt very intense, which, from what I understand, depends on film editing. For those reasons, though, I had voted for ‘The Father’, but as these two were my favourite films of the season, I was happy either way.

Sound

‘Sound of Metal’ very obviously won this award. We should say, however, that they put the very name of the award in the title; bribe much?

Production design

This one went to ‘Mank’. If you have not watched ‘Citizen Kane’, I doubt you will have much incentive to sit through ‘Mank’. I had and I am still not all that grateful about my time spent on ‘Mank’. But I do understand that the production was dreamy and you never once broke out of that Old Hollywood trance.

Costume design and Makeup and Hairstyling

‘Emma’, ‘Mank’ and ‘Pinocchio’ were also nominated for both categories and lost both times to ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’. I personally did not like ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ as a film, but the costumes were beautiful. What was also astounding was Viola Davis’ make-up; you could tell the year, the weather and the struggle on that make-up. As Lisa Eldridge is teaching us now, make-up can be much more than superficial.

Original Song

The winner was ‘Fight For You’ from ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’. Had they presented the songs during the ceremony as they do each year, I would know if this was indeed the best song out of this category. But as they didn’t, I had no choice but to vote for ‘Husavik’ from the ‘Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of the Fire Saga’ and do not need to explain myself.

Original Score

This one was won by ‘Soul’. I guess this sort of explains why ‘Soul’ wasn’t nominated for best Original Song, even though the music was great! Personally, I was just happy the award went to someone from the Colbert team. Now that the Oscars organisers have an in, maybe get someone from that group to host next year (wink).

Cinematography

Now for the big ones. I count cinematography for a big one, because I feel it is directing adjacent, anyway. This was surprisingly won by ‘Mank’. I think most of us expected ‘Nomadland’ to win, with those out-of-this-world sceneries, but as the annoying Greek commentators pointed out during the ceremony voiceover, ‘Mank’ had a more difficult job to do. And it was pretty, which is how I interpret the criteria for this award.

Directing

This was probably the most expected win. Chloe Zhao won and no one batted an eye. ‘Nomadland’ was beautiful and the direction was special; of course, it won. I don’t remember much about what happens in the film, but I remember it was magnetic and suppose that is the very reason it won best direction and not best adapted screenplay.  

Actress in a Leading Role

I was rooting for Carey Mulligan as a promising young woman, but I am always happy to see Francis McDormand win anything because I love her and want to adopt her. Or have her adopt me. They are both equally unlikely, but I love her is what I am trying to say. And she is always great, ‘Nomadland’ was no exception.

Actor in a Leading Role

This one I have a lot to say about. There was a rumour going round that Chadwick Boseman would win and some felt (including yours truly) that this would be partly because of his untimely death. I didn’t enjoy Ma Rainey much, mostly because it felt like they put no effort in transforming it from a play to a movie. That was my complaint about Boseman’s performance as well. It was theatrical and didn’t really resonate with me in a movie setting. Betting sites had Boseman as the sure winner; Oldman as the runner up. I was very frustrated because in my mind, Anthony Hopkins was amazing and the non-negotiable winner this year. And if not him, then Riz Ahmed, who gave an incredible performance that I would otherwise swoon over. Unfortunately, I am not a betting gal, because Anthony Hopkins was indeed the rightful winner. Luckily, others I know were and even made money off this justified win. I am currently trying to be happy rather than envious for them. I will let you know if I succeed.

Best Picture

And here we are. The big one. The one that should have been presented last, but wasn’t. For this one it is worth mentioning all the nominees; ‘The Father’, ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’, ‘Mank’, ‘Minari’, ‘Nomadland’, ‘Promising Young Woman’, ‘Sound of Metal’ and ‘The Trial of the Chicago Seven’. I regrettably haven’t watched ‘Minari’, which I hear is really good, but I therefore have two films that, for me, were the core contenders; ‘The Father’ and ‘Sound of Metal’. I found them both to be very special and as I have said before, I would have loved to see ‘The Father’ win any category, even Short Film (animated). However, we all knew ‘Nomadland’ would win. I do not exactly object to this outcome, but I do feel as if the importance of the film was already reflected in its win for Directing. As long as ‘Mank’ did not win, I am satisfied. Every year, I need an antagonist movie and this time round it was ‘Mank’. I am sorry it had to be this way, Gary Oldman, but I am sure our interests will align again someday in Oscar season.

And so, here are the reasons I spent most of my Monday asleep. It was possibly less worth it than any other year as the ceremony was dull, the duration long, the premiere was two hours later than back in England and we had Greek narration on top of the speeches. Maybe the ceremony was slightly better during the Original Score and Original Song segments; I wouldn’t know, I was very much asleep during these two. It was a sad but beautiful collection of movies this year, but I am very much looking forward to watching such movies on a big screen next year and spending three different posts on the Oscars. Sorry bro.