So how did Jimmy Kimmel do? A conversation

EDITOR'S NOTE: Hello readers. My brain is always so scattered post Oscar. The hosting gig, which so occupies discussions of the show each year in real life and online, is curiously the part of the show that I always find least interesting. I'm there for the movies and the celebrities, not the jokes.

But recognizing that this is an uncommon blind spot, I asked three of our contributors, Sean Donovan, Chris Feil, and Eric Blume to weigh in on Jimmy Kimmel as host. They're joined by new team member Kim Rogers, who is a talented actress I saw in a play a couple of years ago, who also likes to blog. Naturally they didn't quite obey the Kimmel directive... but who can concentrate on one topic with Oscar's Envelope Gate and Trevante Rhodes running around in his undies. Here is their conversation. - Nathaniel R 

CHRIS: So how well has everyone studied the Oscar Zapruder film of the Moonlight team taking the stage?

SEAN: I feel like it could be the next season of SERIAL- unpacking who had what envelope when, and why, and how many duplicates? so many questions

CHRIS: First of which: has anyone checked on Trevante Rhodes? Is he ok?

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Only one "woke" at a time

by Deborah Lipp

One of Oscar's best moments. Iranian-American engineer Anousheh Ansari accepting on behalf of protesting Asghar Farhadi

If I may use this year’s vernacular, Oscars are woke. Except, well, they can only be woke about one thing at a time. Last year after the Oscars, I wrote about the powerful “spotlight” (see what I did there?) the Oscars brought to the issue of rape and sexual violence. And I’m going to acknowledge, that yes, that was amazing. 

But rape is so last year.

This year was all about diversity and inclusion. Those are wonderful topics, those are topics that matter to me. The diversity was beautiful to see. The powerful immigrant voices—from Iran, Mexico, and Italy, among other nations—moved me. It was important that people of color were not merely supporting characters—even though the winners were in the Supporting categories, they supported other people of color...

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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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Best Oscar Night Tweets

A film about gay black love won best picture. Im so in love with the 'out of touch liberals' in my industry. 💖 https://t.co/qZYHgXQPvz

— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) February 27, 2017

 More tweets after the jump including Moonlight exuberance and history, Isabelle Huppert, Moonlight making history, Warren Beatty, Murderous Viola Davis, Nicole Kidman photo op, and Janelle Monáe's magical powers...

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Oscar Night Performances: Lin-Manuel Miranda and More

By Nathaniel R

With just 16 days until the Oscars more news hits each day. We now know that all five Original Song nominees will be performed on the broadcast but we can safely expect at least two of the songs to be significantly altered.

Lin-Manuel Miranda will perform Moana's "How Far I'll Go," which is a solo, with Moana herself Auli'i Cravalho so one wonders what kind of arrangement we'll get for the song as a duet. Nevertheless it's a safe bet to say that this will be a highlight of the show since the song is rousing and everybody loves Miranda...

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