The Many Faces of the Shocked Oscar Crowd

Chris here, to help you finally digest the shock ending of the Oscarcast, even if Meryl is still frozen in place. And maybe we can get the jokes out of your system as well.

By now we've all dissected crowd photos and video footage of the stunned response of famous people in the crowd like it was our own little Oscar Zapruder film. But if there's a silver lining moment for Moonlight's moment being a bumpy one (the history books will always honor it, remember) it's all of the delicious face we were served, from a heart-palpitated Trevante Rhodes, to a Snapchatting Taraji P. Henson, to well, Meryl.

Luckily for you readers, The Film Experience has obtained exclusive audio files to tell you exactly how every star responded...

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Oscar's Musical Numbers Fly Among the Stars

Dancin' Dan here, and I am thrilled to say that after years of mostly rather dully staged performances, the great Oscar musical numbers of the past are back.

We had planned a ranking of this year's performances, but they were all of such high quality that, feeling magnaminous, I'm unwilling to declare one better than the other.  Instead, a review of the musical numbers as they happened during the ceremony, in all their glory.

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The Furniture: Another Art Deco Oscars

"The Furniture" is our weekly series on Production Design. Here's Daniel Walber with a special Oscar ceremony episode. 

The following is an image of the 89th Annual Academy Awards, taken from the craziest moment of the broadcast. You know the one.

I am not here to talk about the Best Picture Situation, however. Instead, I’d like to draw your attention away from the drama and toward the shining Art Deco Gotham City/Metropolis that looms above it.

Since the Millennium, Oscar ceremony set design has been dominated by a few trends. I know this because I spent last week analyzing every televised set in Academy history. You can trust me. This year was very in tune with the past decade, with the notable exception of the “Classy Spaceship.” Thank heaven for that. If you don't know what I mean, here's a still of Jon Stewart being slowly released from a tube back in 2008...

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Beauty vs Beast: Bonnie & Clyde's Last Stand

Jason from MNPP here continuing the talk of last night's big events - specifically the biggest, the corker, the one for the ages, when Warren Beatty rammed the wrong envelope into Faye Dunaway's hands and just made her deal with it. (Something tells me Annette Bening is the one who calls the plumber and writes the checks in that household.) Or was Warren just too scared of Faye to speak up? Don't fuck with her, fellas - if Faye was eyeballing me like that I might crumble to dust too.

Or perhaps it was a Russian conspiracy that will be solved when we finally see Donald Trump's tax returns? So many possibilities, and it's clearly a bit rude to lay any real blame for a dumb mistake at the feet of Faye & Warren, who were after all standing there in the hot glare of two billion eyeballs with a ticking little paper time-bomb in their hands.... but here we are.

PREVIOUSLY For Valentine's Day we wiped our brains clean with the quirky romance of Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine, and of course Kate Winslet won but I'm proud of you guys for making it closer than it could have been - she only took 58% of the vote. Said Scott:

"Clementine. In real life she would drive you insane. Onscreen you can't tear your eyes away."

Viola, the Speech of The Night

Chris here. That shockeroo at the end of the night wasn’t the evening’s only fireworks. But the kind of awe I’m thinking recalling is the kind that we watch the Oscars for: the acceptance speeches. Viola Davis’s in particular.

Viola’s Fences win was already such a forgone conclusion (as you may have heard during our Smackdown) that the lead-up to her category felt the tiniest bit underwhelming, in a way that it mightn’t have been if *ahem* she’d been nominated in Lead. But forgive me, readers, for momentarily losing sight that the best part of the Oscars has everything to do with after the name is called: the speech. Hers was the speech we were waiting for, both for the actress herself and as people who relish in awards speeches.

And was it ever one for the ages, sober and uplifting while recalling the themes that led to her winning performance. “You know, there’s one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered... the graveyard.” It’s the candid performer telling us what made them an artist, but also demanding representation for the unheard. For a night that ended up championing previously untold stories and dreams both fulfilled and unfilled, consider her speech the night’s gorgeous thesis.

A master class in gratitude and passion. Can we give her another Oscar? No, I mean, like now, today.