FYC: Keke Palmer as Oscar Host

by Murtada Elfadl

Hear me out. I’m on record on the podcast liking last year’s hostless ceremony and wanting that to continue. However that was before I saw Hustlers. Now is a different time.

The Academy recently announced that the 2020 ceremony will be produced by Stephanie Allain (Hustle & Flow, Beyond the Lights) and Lynette Howell Taylor (A Star is Born) and of course the media started speculating about whether or not they’ll bring back a host. They haven’t divulged any of their plans yet but the usual lists of who should host have started appearing everywhere. And it’s the usual suspects (Ellen, Kimmel, The Rock). Sorry to these suggestions, we can do better than that...

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Podcast: Reflecting on the big show. Plus "Greta"

with Nathaniel R, Murtada Elfadl and Nick Davis

 

A week after the Oscars we reflect on the big night. Which wins will age well? Was this a fluke year or telling for the future? Should actors speak out on their problematic films? As an after-dinner mint, we nibble on Neil Jordan's stalker thriller Greta with Isabelle Huppert and Chloe Moretz. 

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Reflecting back on Oscar Night.

"We Are the Champions" (on LGBT Representation at the Oscars)

by Deborah Lipp

2019 was a very LGBT Oscars. (Well, at least LGB.) And it was not merely the presence of LGB characters, although this was staggering in numbers. It was also that many were presented in a new way.

Consider Can You Ever Forgive Me? Melissa McCarthy was not nominated for playing a lesbian. She was nominated for playing a famous writer—a famous lesbian writer. I’m not particularly a fan of the “happens to be” formation—I think it erases the struggle and complexity of arriving at a queer identity. Let’s face it, no one “happens to be” queer. We get there through a process that is sometimes difficult, or even agonizing, sometimes complex and winding. There’s always a road to be taken, always an arrival that may or may not require yet more journeying. Despite that, our stories should be about more than how we got there...

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Team Experience Oscar Reax Pt 2: Good Times, Speech Writers, and Noticeable Absences

As is our practice we polled the team and a few friends shortly after the Oscars to get their takes. You already saw part one on joyful and horny moments so here's part two. We hope you'll answer the same questions in the comments. 

1. Who was having the very best time in the theater?
2. Who most needed a speechwriter?
3. Without a host who was the MVP guiding you through the night?
4. Whose absence did you most feel during the broadcast?

Our answers are after the jump...

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Should Acceptance Speeches Reflect the Achievements They're Honored For?

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

How an Oscar winner accepts their award often becomes just as imprinted in the minds of movie fans as the performance or project itself. Roberto Benigni memorably leapt over chairs to gleefully accept his Oscar for Life is Beautiful, a questionable move given the fact that he was being honored for a Holocaust movie (even if it was a lighter one than virtually all over films of its genre). James Cameron shouted “I’m the king of the world!” when claiming his Best Director prize for Titanic, which was famously just a quote from his own film but which likely sounded considerably cockier than he meant to.

Now, there's no rule that says that an Oscar winner needs to match the tone of what their prize is meant to reward. Many winners – even actors accustomed to public performance – don’t deliver particularly put-together speeches, and the shock factor can affect composure and coherence. Nevertheless, here’s a look at this year’s telecast speeches in terms of how well they reflected the achievement they were being honored for...

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