The whole Oscars So White controversy, and how host Chris Rock would address it probably gained more column inches leading up to this year’s Academy Awards than speculation and anticipation on who will win. Rock wasted no time, meeting the issue head-on in a better than expected opening monologue which included a hilarious dig at Jada Pinkett Smith’s boycott of the event. That was followed shortly afterwards by a very amusing sequence involving inserting black characters into some of the year’s biggest films: Joy, The Revenant, Danish Girl and best of all The Martian.
However, aside from a quip, “The In Memoriam montage is just going to be black people who were shot by the cops on the way to the movies”, those early moments remained the highlights. Painfully unfunny appearances by Stacey Dash and Angela Bassett and a tired feature showing Rock interviewing black cinema goers, meant that the relevance of the issue seemed to die away as the jokes disappeared. The rest of his hosting efforts were largely efficient, rather than inspired, with a segment about selling cookies to the audience coming across as a pale imitation of Ellen’s excellent pizza delivery from a few years ago.
Of the awards themselves, things started very predictably with the two screenplay gongs deservedly going to Spotlight and The Big Short, and Alicia Vikander grabbing the supporting actress award. At that stage, it seemed more likely than ever that this was going to be a predictable night, with The Revenant set to hoover up the big awards at the end of the proceedings. However, things started to take an unusual turn when Mad Max Fury Road swept up six of the next seven awards including for costumes, production design, make and up and hair, and both sound awards. It was expected to do well in the technical categories but not sweep them like that, and when it caused a surprise by grabbing the editing award, I began to wonder if George Miller was destined to get the best director award.
That run of prizes was interrupted by one of the most obvious locks of the night, Emmanuel Lubezki’s third consecutive cinematography nod, and with Inside Out picking up best animated feature things seemed to getting back to what was expected, despite Ex Machina causing a mild upset by winning for visual effects.
Moving towards the halfway mark, things seemed to be building towards the crowning of Sylvester Stallone as best supporting actor, with the lengthy standing ovation that was bound to accompany it. So, when the envelope was opened and Mark Rylance was announced I was astonished and delighted. Don’t get me wrong, Stallone was great in Creed, but I didn’t share the view it was his time to win. Since the original Rocky film he hasn’t exactly been covering himself in glory, choosing to appear almost exclusively in dross, with the notable exception of Cop Land in 1997. Rylance on the other hand is one of the most respected actors of his generation who has mastered stage work, TV in last year’s Wolf Hall, and was thoroughly deserving of his award for playing Rudolf Abel. His award also meant that Bridge of Spies didn’t go away empty-handed, which would have been an injustice.
After that jolt, things settled down again, with the bafflingly lauded Amy winning for best documentary, Son of Saul getting the foreign language award, and the great Ennio Morricone getting the best score Oscar for The Hateful Eight. Whilst, I wouldn’t have picked Morricone, it was good to see him winning, and again, ensured that a notable film didn’t end the evening with no awards.
It is around this part of the evening when things began to drag a little, so I had to get my enjoyment from little things, like wondering if Kate Winslet and Patricia Arquette were sharing a pair of glasses, and Louis CK’s very funny introduction to the documentary short award.
With an emotional performance by Lady Gaga of her nominated best song, Til It Happens To You, it seemed certain that she would soon be back on stage to pick up her award. However, instead the next big shock occurred with the awarding of the prize to The Writing’s on the Wall from Spectre. I imagine that award will attract the most haters, and I’m no fan of Sam Smith, but I thought it worked well within the context of the film, and anyway, its not an award I can get worked up about at all!
Really into the climax of the ceremony now, Brie Larson took a predictable best actress win and pre show favourite Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu winning the best director award for the second year in a row. And for the second year, I was baffled by the academy’s adoration of the stylish but empty films he produces. With Leonardo Dicaprio confirming his 100-1 on odds, and delivering the best acceptance speech of the night, things seemed to be moving swiftly to the predictable conclusion that I feared.
However, there was one surprise left in store when Morgan Freeman opened the final envelope of the night to reveal Spotlight as the best picture winner. Cue fist pumping in my living room and an invasion of the stage by cast and crew members from the movie.
So overall, a decent show with enough shocks to keep things interesting and a clutch of worthy winners.