I heard someone call the Academy Awards the Super Bowl for movie nerds, and it’s true. My family has been movie nerds for ages, so it’s always a big deal to watch the show together.
The 95th Annual Academy Awards certainly was a step up from previous years. Host Jimmy Kimmel had a great opening monologue with the appropriate jabs at the glitz and glamour — and naturally poking fun at the ugliness of last year’s “slap” incident with Will Smith and Chris Rock. I think my favorite part of the monologue is when Kimmel called out all the badasses in the audience who could “protect” him if anything should go awry.
I was also not disappointed by the night’s winners. It was a testament to the underdogs (Everything Everywhere All At Once and Michelle Yeoh), those making comebacks (Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan) and Hollywood royalty (Jamie Lee Curtis). I guess I’m not surprised All Quiet on the Western Front took home a bunch of awards, but I wish Martin McDonaugh’s The Banshees of Insherin could have taken home at least one Oscar. Oh well. I feel like Colin Farrell might have another shot at some point.
What had me scratching my head a little, though, was the blatant shilling for Walt Disney. I mean, having The Little Mermaid stars Melissa McCarthy and Halle Bailey come out not to present an award but to introduce a TRAILER FOR THE MOVIE was like “huh?” Certainly, Disney, who owns ABC, has the right to do that but it just felt out of place and not in step with what the Oscars should be about. Still, it was a good trailer… watch!
All in all, I do feel like we are coming out of the pandemic fog and movies are getting good again. If you want to hear some predictions on what will get nominated next year, listen to the podcast below with me and my fellow Oscar pundits Joel Amos, Andrew Payne and Adam Spunberg!
