And Now We Start Again
The Oscars are over. The Oscars have just begun.
I went to a concert recently—The Beths at Brooklyn Steel in case you were wondering—and I had quite a bit of trouble seeing it.
Yes, I had to stand on my tip-toes to reach the average eye-line in order to watch some live music, and it was very, very infuriating. As a 5’7” fella, I’m not short, but I’m certainly not tall, and this flat venue and the taller-than-I’d-prefer crowd made it a near impossibility for me to fully enjoy myself.
The reason I’m bringing all of this up is because if I was seated behind the singer Tems (shown above) at the Oscars, I would’ve lost my goddamn mind. What are you supposed to do if this white gown is blocking your view?
Do you stand the entire time? Probably not because it would lead to fisticuffs. And as someone that works very hard to avoid all possible conflict, asking her to change isn’t an option. It’s truly a Sophie’s Choice-esque dilemma, but instead of the dead children, it’s a partial view of an awards show.
IN OTHER NEWS, the rest of the Oscars happened … and they were fine.
I loved Everything Everywhere All at Once all three times I saw it in theaters, and I’m not going to begrudge it a single bit because the discourse around it has gotten so toxic and it beat out a few other things I’d prefer in random categories.
As far as the Academy Awards go, this is one of the better movies to win it all, especially when you look at forgettable recent fare like CODA and Nomadland. It’s another Best Picture win for A24 after Moonlight, and it tallied five of A24’s six wins in the major categories along with The Whale (ugh).
My only big grievances—although not totally unexpected—were the aforementioned Brendan Fraser win in Best Actor and Babylon’s loss in Best Music (Original Score), which was pushed aside for another big winner of the night, All Quiet on the Western Front.
I truly don’t understand the adoration for this middling war movie, a lesser copy of recent gems like Dunkirk and 1917, but this voting body loves to give awards to a grimy battle epic, and there’s nothing anyone can do about that.
Also, nothing against Fraser, but I just thought the movie he won for was rotten to its core. He was doing the best with what he was given and I like everything he does, but this is a lame one to win an Academy Award for.
The last big thoughts I have are that 1. Jamie Lee Curtis wouldn’t have been my pick for Best Supporting Actress—would’ve been castmate Stephanie Hsu or Banshees’ Kerry Condon—but I can’t be too upset about a fun performance winning. 2. We don’t need to give emotionally hollow Marvel cry-a-thon routines wins. Angela Bassett has been much better in so many things; she didn’t need an Oscar for this. A win for a non-biopic in any of the major categories is always a win in my book. 3. TÁR not winning a single thing will go down as very dumb Oscars stuff. It’s fine though. The very best often get passed over here.
^I know this ended up not being Jenny the donkey, but Farrell’s excitement to see a donkey is a winner in my book.
It’s funny. I love the Oscars so much, but by the time they roll around, I’m almost exhausted by the conversation around most of these films. The season is SO long, and after the confluence of awards building and building, the Oscars almost feel like an afterthought to the rest of the season. We went a month too long here, with some races stagnating and other eventual winners climbing up solely due to boredom.
I still think the Oscars should be at the end of January or early February. We’re already in the middle of March and at the start of various film festivals. Let’s get a bit ahead of the game instead of falling behind.
Okay, that’s a lot of niche content that you probably don’t care about, so here are a few trailers that I’m excited about for movies coming out relatively soon. There are certainly more, but there will be more newsletters, so why waste all of the content now?
This is a dumb rated-R comedy that we rarely get, starring an Oscar winner. I respect the hell out of Jennifer Lawrence here not getting all high and mighty and taking a gig that seems fun and out of 2004. I will be seeing this opening night and hope you all come along with me.
We saw this trailer before the new Scream the other day and the two friends I was with had to look the other way multiple times. That’s a damn good trailer. To be honest, I’ve never seen any of the Evil Dead movies, but I’m going to try to catch up before this one. It looks legitimately scarring. I can’t wait. Also, I’ll never think about a cheese grater the same way again.
It’s odd. The more I watch this trailer, the less I know what this movie will be about. That’s the best type of teaser there is. I’m an Ari Aster zealot. We all know this. And I’m ready and rarin’ to go for this one. Give me a twisted horror-comedy featuring Joaquin Phoenix, please. It’s like a month away too. As Bart Scott would say … CAN’T WAIT.
The final movie we need to shout out is Bottoms, the new comedy from Shiva Baby geniuses, Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott. The trailer hasn’t dropped just yet, but the positive vibes are already here. This Fight Club-Mean Girls mash-up is everything I want in a movie, and the above tweet is just another reason I’m rooting for everyone involved.