A Dozen Takeaways from Oscar Night
Monday, March 11, 2024 at 1:31PM by Nathaniel R
John Cena presenting Best Costume Design. Screenshot from ABC
There are 23 categories at the Oscars but always about 2,038 things to discuss. What to focus on? Here's an attempt to focus with a baker's dozen of things that stood out for yours truly. Overall it was a fun and well paced night. But your mileage may vary. Would you add any particular moment to this list?
In no particular order...
01 Da'Vine Joy Randolph's Oscar speech. Finally ditching the crinkly acceptance speech note, we have no notes. What a moment! She looked beautiful and saved her best speech for last. She also ignored the "don't do that" notes and thanked her publicist which quite honestly more winners should do given how hard those folks work to make things feel "inevitable" by the end of a season whether or not they started that way.
Arthur Harari and Justine Triet win Best Original Screenplay. Screenshot from ABC
02 A great night for heternormativity! Chris Nolan and his wife Emma Thomas were the center of attention via Oppenheimer. It's beautiful that the very famous director acts as her plus one at these things (not every powerful man in Hollywood is that eager to share or cede the spotlight) praising her so often that you begin to think long and hard about how important producers are to the success of a filmography, despite the auteur theory being widely believed by just about every one. Meanwhile the night's other co-nominated power couple, France's Justine Triet and Arthur Harari won for Anatomy of a Fall's screenplay. What's more there were plentiful beautiful shout-outs to husbands and wives from multiple winners. The only straight power couple nominated together that didn't win (Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach) still got a lot of love from the room via Barbie's ubiquity.
03 The endearing power of being a good sport. Paul Giamatti and Lily Gladstone were surely the closest to winning of any of those who lost last night and they both sold 'happy to be there' reaction shots. This was especially true for Lily Gladstone who surely had reason to believe she might win. May she get the opportunities she deserves and return again to the big show as a nominee. Winning an Oscar can feel like a short sprint from the outside, but for most artists a big career and an Oscar win is much more like an endurance race.
04 Jimmy Kimmel's Dad Jokes. There were quite a few groaner jokes on the big night, from the complaint that the Heron from The Boy and The Heron hadn't flown in to accept the Oscar to the double name joke about Poor Things Greek director and editor "Yor-gos is as good as mine". But most of the night he stayed out of the way which is always wise for the Host...
A refreshing silly moment for the audience.
Everyone raise your glass to Mister Colman Flamingo!
05 Streaker / Tequila ... the only true gags that risked slowing things down, proved delightful. The references to the 50th anniversary of David Niven's interrupting Oscar night streaker (with John Cena in the altogether presenting Best Costume Design) and the tequila shot refreshments (complete with mangled star-names) were both obvious hits in the actual room and surely at most Oscar-watching parties, too!
Oscar Glamor 4ever
06 Return of the Best Oscar Presentation Format We Never Thought We'd See Again. We knew it was happening ahead of time thanks to the press release but please give us some variation of the "co-stars, winners, or fans" speaking about the nominees list every year. It's such a thrill to see so many starts gathered which is what the Oscars should be about and lean into! That it comes at the expense of clips is a tiny bummer but it's still a beautiful way to honor actors.
07 Where the §@ª# was Michelle Pfeiffer !?!? We were thrilled that La Pfeiffer was announced as a presenter -- and we still long to see her return as a nominee even if her current career doesn't suggest she's interested in doing so -- but then she was a no-show on the big night. There's nothing on her fairly active Instagram account addressing the situation. With a fairly good ceremony and reasonable winners, this was our biggest disappointment Sunday night.
"I'm Just Ken" got the crowd on their feets
08 That circular window set. Kudos to the designers of the Oscar stage. That circular opening and closing look for the orchestra pit was a thing of elegant beauty, as was the single color theme / lighting choices for the Best Original Song performances be they pink ("What Was I Made For?"), white ("It Never Went Away"), red (" Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People"), orange ("The Fire Inside"), and back to hot pink ("I'm Just Ken")
09 Godzilla Minus One's charming win. Let this be a lesson that whenever an unlikely contender (for reasons of national origin or 'long shot' status or whatever) emerges or makes a finalist list, they actually have a strong shot at the nomination or even win. This is the same factor that made Society of the Snow feel like a no-brainer in Best Makeup (for the nomination round at least). In addition to those crazy Godzilla toys they held aloft with joy, the visual effects team were also wearing Godzilla shoes when they walked the red carpet!
Beetlejuice reunion for Best Makeup Presentation
If I had a nickel!
10 Beetlejuice Reunion. It took us by surprise but the Beetlejuice reunion (complete with music) for Michael Keaton and Catherine O'Hara was a delight. As was Michael Keaton's reaction to former Batman villains (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny De Vito) presenting later in the night.
11 20 Days in Mariupol win. Best Documentary Feature winner Mstyslav Chernov wished he had never won or even made the moment. A startling sobering moment about war and peace, well written and delivered.
Finally...
Sandra Hüller had a big night even though she didn't win
12 Sandra Hüller Rising. While she never seemed like a credible threat to take the Best Actress statue for her riveting star turn (it was Emma vs Lily all season) she got abundant screen time from her enviable seat, was name-checked in multiple speeches, and was moved to photogenic tears in her dazzling "Best Dressed!" Sciaparelli when Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest both won highly deserved statues. The only thing that would have made her night better is if her screen dog "Messi" had been seated next to her for more photo-ops because his reaction shots were bliss, too.
Emily Blunt & Ryan Gosling - a dream pair of presenters
You were riding Barbie's coattails all summer.
13 Ryan Gosling stole the show, thrice over. He may have lost the Oscar for the third time but he proved more than "Kenough" on Hollywood's High Holy Night. Consider... 1) All those dazzling reaction shots including a Jimmy Kimmel joke about winning "the genetic lottery" 2) He wins the Gold Medal (shared) for Best Presenter paired hilariously with "Barbenheimer" rival Emily Blunt. Their faux argument was the night's heartiest and most sustained laugh out loud joke apart from arguably John Cena's streaker 3) "I'm Just Ken" was also the best and liveliest Best Original Song presentation from his seated hat-wearing intro, to his game in-tune energy and dance moves, to the audience inclusion joy of having the audience sing along.
...in conclusion though they didn't win Oscars, we think Sandra Hüller and Ryan Gosling emerged as the night's true champs.
P.S. And if you left your Oscar party early you might have missed this very Jimmy-Kimmel sight gag of Messi threatening Matt Damon.
Reader Comments (17)
There's something really resonant and special about Da'Vine Joy Randolph thanking her publicist. It's small, but for a Black actor to get publicity that leads them to not only prestige TV series, but to the right roles that leads to an Oscar is, I imagine, quite difficult. I get why she thanked her publicist. Great speech overall.
The 20 Days in Mariupol speech was incredible and sobering. It really seemed to get at what it means to be an artist amidst a broken world.
-I did appreciate the ‘past winners circle’ welcoming a new member format. The five BSActress nominees all got the best tributes. If they didn’t receive an Oscar, they had tears in their eyes from a previous winner praising them. What an honor to have Rita Moreno saying/signing your first name. The other 3 acting categories paled in comparisons-each were filled with hollow phrasings (You were marvelous, you left us in awe, you are so talented, you were awesome….groan). I still would’ve appreciate one film clip to remind us of the nominees again…
-Can we point out how terrible the In Memorial segment was? The segment should’ve focused on the deceased-not the fluttering dancers, not the ear splitting singers. The swift roll call of the deceased artists was Way in the background throughout this segment. I could barely see who was listed and what their craft field was before them quickly disappeared.
-The circular window concept was bad during the acting ‘opening of the envelope.’ I wish each nominee’s tiny bubble was bigger to really see the reaction shots of each of the 5 when that envelope was opened.
-If Michelle Pfeiffer couldn’t make it, why couldn’t somebody else have taken her spot (DeNiro, Jodie Foster)? We really needed Michelle (anybody) to recap the list of Best Picture nominees. It was embarrassing to see Pacino go right to the envelope. His eyes might’ve seen Oppenheimer, but might eyes seen a potential Moonlight moment…
-I wish the Godzilla Minus One winners had brought an interpreter up on the stage with them. I could barely understand the whiskering broken English and could’ve wish the orchestra cued their off early.
I also read that Michelle had to deal with a family emergency. It must have been really serious for her to miss. This is the second year in a row that a legendary actress had to miss handing out Best Picture (Glenn had covid last year). How did that position come to be cursed?
Also, on the five actor presenting: I loved it at the 2008 Oscars. I kind of wish it had been more of a secret (just dropping the names of the winners, not the format).
It mostly worked here for me, but I found the women to be far more heartfelt than the male presenters (e.g., Rita Moreno, Jessica Lange, etc.). The men seemed to just say "you were so cool in your film," and it sounded as if a few of them hadn't really watched the film. Odd.
I said this before the show, but hated that they left out the acting clips in favor of the 5 speeches. Especially since many of the remarks seemed random as if they didn't actually know the person, and were just saying nice things about them. And for lesser-known nominees like "Nyad" or "Rustin," people like my parents will have no idea what the movies are about or if they're worth seeing. I hope this element goes away for good.
It has been one of the most enjoyable editions. Even the In Memoriam segment was not boring.
Just one thing. Everyone else found cringe the Orchestra playing I'm just Ken right after the 20 days in Mauripol speech?
I also think the magic of an Oscar speech is one person standing alone on a stage having their moment.
The wide shots of 7 people standing on stage behind the winners were so distracting. Can you imagine Julia Roberts screaming "I love my life!" with Swank, Tandy, Dunaway, Bates and Helen Hunt peering over her shoulder? No thank you! Ghosts of Christmas past.
I’m not a huge fan of The Holdovers, but I have been so happy for Da’Vine. Her speech was beautiful and seeing Giamatti tear up for her was lovely.
I also read that Michelle Pfeiffer had a family emergency, so while it was disappointing that she didn’t show up, I’m just hoping everything’s ok.
It doesn’t seem like Pacino forgot to recap the nominees to me, I just assumed that they skipped that part because of the clips they showed throughout the show. Ariana Grande also went right into the Best Song winner without reciting the names of the nominees, presumably because we had already seen them all perform. It was an odd choice for sure.
Random thought, but for people who have never heard of Anatomy of a Fall, much less seen it, I bet they were thinking "why in the hell is the orchestra playing 50 Cent for this foreign film?!?"
While the Emily/Ryan banter was funny, I did find it kinda cringe that they were promoting their upcoming movie under the disguise as "let's thank the stunt people". At least the Beetlejuice 2 and the Wicked pairing/promo made sense.
The show was the best one in recent years. I prefer the 5 past winners instead of the acting clips, if they insist on showing best picture nominees throughout the show then it would feel too much for nominees in BPs (which were the vast majority this year anyway).
Just like last year, the main speech to me was the best adapted screenplay winner, hope that Cord Jefferson gets a separate post.
Well, Cord Jefferson's speech was as disjointed and meandering as his screenplay.
The movie had great moments, as did the speech.
But as a whole, both were underserving.
Alright Messi!!!!!
That performance of "I'm Just Ken" was way better than I thought it would be. I didn't get my dream supergroup but that performance was just awesome in every way.
Can we not have John Cena and the Crock at the Oscars anymore? I think it's a bad look for Hollywood inviting two of Vince McMahon's most devoted cocksuckers considering the many charges and dark history of rape, cover-ups, and all sorts of horrible thing McMahon has done. Plus these 2 are his most loyal supporters.
I'm happy for 20 Days in Mariupol winning as I saw the doc this past Saturday and it pissed me off at those who are Putin-apologists such as Roger Waters formerly of Pink Floyd so fuck him and his fucking bullshit politics.
Three things Huller is going to be back and if Ryan ever wins let us hope it's for a performance that plays to his strengths and not some Revenant suffering clap trap.
Please casting director's put Jodie Foster in something really great.
The Fall Guy premieres May 3rd (in the US) and if it's a half-decent summer moneymaker, Gosling and Blunt will be well placed for his-and-hers Golden Globe nominations, if not wins.
Also, I was never a big admirer of Jessica Lange’s in the first place—but it’s incredible how the Ryan Murphy universe has diminished her. Everything about her reads as high camp now, I don’t think all the Emmys and Golden Globes were worth it.
Sally Field has more movie star gravitas and she is the Wonder Bread of prestige actresses (and don’t we love her for it)!
First let me thank Nathaniel for his very good predictions. At my Oscar party I scored 19/23 voting according to your predictions, I won 2nd prize! (the winner got 20/23)
Thank you for all your hard work, and interesting coverage as well !
This Oscar ceremony was one of the best in years. I love the circle of stars greeting the nominees.
Please continue this tradition.
Ryan Gosling was amazing in that production number, choreographed by Mandy Moore.
The dancing Ken's playing tribute brought the audience to life.
I have mixed feelings about "Poor Things", but not about Emma Stone. Terrific performance and getting a nod from Sally Field seems very appropriate.
Thank you for the information!