Every year, I feel like there is some sort of issue with how the Academy chooses to proceed with their broadcast and their efforts to try to cut down on time.
In recent years, we've seen multiple categories get shafted for airtime on the broadcast while in 2020, all the Best Song performances were pushed off onto the pre-show broadcast.
One thing that stood out to me in a negative way this year was how they seemed quit on the trigger to cut off a lot of the tech winners before they even had a chance to speak...and in some years, with persistence, they would be allowed to continue.
Not this time!
Granted, one thing about the Oscars broadcast this year is that it managed to end at 11:39pm.
I grew up watching the Oscars at a time when they would easily last until after midnight and even beyond 12:30am...and there was no need for this.
Over the years, the producers have cut out various staples from the broadcast such as the cheesy opening numbers or the montage of the guests arriving for the evening.
And speaking of montages, I feel like these were a little more minimal this year which helps greatly with the time...but I do think that maybe they should be a little more considerate to those in the tech categories.
The ceremony itself was fine...not overly eventful and Kimmel did a solid job...maybe a couple of weird jokes here and there, like the Robert Blake bit...but I guess I will let that slide considering it is Robert Blake.
The evening did provide us with some historical events...and I have to admit, I would never have guessed that a movie like Everything Everywhere All at Once would be the one to break some pretty big stats.
Let's start with THE TECH CATEGORIES:
I feel like some of these tech categories were in a similar position as most of the acting categories in that 2 or 3 films were in a prime position to take it.
I think one of the bigger surprises...though one that I certainly feel fine with...is that Elvis got shut-out and usually at the expense of All Quiet on the Western Front.
I think the major tell that Elvis was in trouble was when it lost Makeup/Hairstyling to The Whale, which signaled that maybe Butler wouldn't be taking Best Actor after all.
Some wondered if the passion for EEAAO would translate into it sweeping more by winning Costumes and Score...but I never bought into that.
Although here is a crazy/amazing/kind of sad statistic.
Ruth Carter won for her Black Panther costumes again. With that win, she has become the first African-American woman to have more than one Oscar.
Hmmmm...it took 95 years....
At any rate, that is all I have to say about the tech categories, so let's move on to the Big 8.
THE BIG EIGHT:
You have to go back to 2009 when Slumdog Millionaire won 8 Oscars to find a film that had as much of a strong pull on Oscar night. That was the last year that the Academy had a 5-film Best Picture roster which then lead to 10 films the following year and then the whole preferential ballot system.
In the last 13 years, we've managed to get films that won 5 Oscars (The Artist) or 6 Oscars (La La Land), but it seems as though most years have become about the idea of "spreading the wealth".
Most of the Best Picture winners of the last decade have only won 3 or 4 Oscars for the whole evening...and in the case of Spotlight, only TWO.
Everything Everywhere All at Once managed to pull off SEVEN wins last night...and I would say that it honestly wasn't a surprise.
I had predicted (or rather I "hopedicted) that maybe The Banshees of Inisherin would somehow take Original Screenplay and had felt that Kerry Condon might be able to eek out the Supporting Actress win due to how BAFTA often predicts the winner in extremely divided races.
The truth is something about that win still didn't feel quite right...even if I felt she was the best choice and had been the critical darling of the season.
I sort of had the feeling that the last minute surge of support for Jamie Lee Curtis after her SAG win two weeks ago could translate to a career win...so with that, let's discuss:
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
A lot of film forums and FilmTwitter have posters who are livid right now about this win.
When it comes to performers who know how to play the game, Jamie Lee Curtis has been campaigning to such a level that there is no other way to describe it except she was VERY. THIRSTY.
On the forum GoldDerby, one poster said that the win is going to "age like milk" while another postured that the win was already spoiled by the end of the ceremony.
Keep in mind...I have made it clear that I am one of the few people who wasn't exactly enamored with Everything Everywhere All at Once.
When I saw the film, I honestly enjoyed Curtis' performance. It was brief, but I felt like she was very entertaining and funny, plus her moments in the "Hot Dog Universe" were some of my favorite scenes in the film.
Do I think she deserved to win? Bluntly, no.
Do I think this is the worst win ever? Not at all.
For those who follow my blog, I just recently finished a ranking of all the Best Supporting Actress winners and I will tell you know that Curtis certainly wouldn't be in my bottom 10...or even my bottom 20.
I WILL be updating that list (along with the Best Actress list) to include Curtis soon, and I will make my decision then...but I still think that Curtis created an interesting character...and her win makes a tad more sense to me than, perhaps, Laura Dern's win in Marriage Story.
I would've voted for Kerry Condon, but I do think Angela Bassett (who looked SALTY AS ALL GET OUT to lose last night) would've been a better and more viable candidate if they were looking to give someone a career Oscar disguised as a Best Supporting Actress win.
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BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Ke Huy Kuan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
This was a foregone conclusion and while I did very much love the work of all the men in the category (not that I would've nominated Hirsch in the end), I think there was no way to deny the love and passion that has been felt for the major comeback of Ke Huy Kuan.
What a story and what a wonderful human being he seems to be.
Frankly, I am happy to see this win....and once I do tackle the Supporting Actor ranking, I am sure he will rank on the higher end of the list.
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BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY and BEST DIRECTOR: The Daniels, Everything Everywhere All at Once
I knew this was going to be the outcome in regards to Screenplay, but I still tried to stick in Banshees corner anyways. A lot of people liked to point out the key word of "original" when describing EEAAO but I also think that Banshees had one of those scripts that was just overflowing with amazing dialogue.
I really truly think that they could've spared the runaway train for just one stop to reward McDonagh here...and judging by the pre-Oscars tweets of Daniel Kwan, it seemed like he didn't even want to sweep the awards.
At the very least, I do think The Daniels seem absolutely delightful as human beings and I would be intrigued to see what their next project is.
Their DIRECTOR win was another one of those foregone conclusions, even if the film had somehow lost Best Picture. I think that is the award where they were more worthy to have their moment in the sun.
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BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Sarah Polley, Women Talking
One of the best wins of the night...possibly my favorite win of the night...was Sarah Polley finally getting her due after her film and herself and her performers had mostly been paid in dust all awards season long.
Early on, it seemed as if Women Talking was the clear favorite for this prize...but then the film just kept getting snubbed everywhere.
I think it winning here is a key example of them just being unable to ignore the greatness of a script that was filled with great dialogue (a lot of it taken from the Toews novel)...and if McDonagh was going to get snubbed in Original Screenplay, I am glad we at least got this win for Polley.
I did love her first snarky comment where she said she was glad the Academy didn't ignore a film that had a title that put the words WOMEN and TALKING together.
I mean...aside from this Screenplay nod and a BP nom...they still ignored all of the performances and Polley for Director.
I guess all I can do is take the win that Polley got as it was richly deserved.
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BEST ACTOR: Brendan Fraser, The Whale
This was a case where I felt like Fraser could easily pull it off but I was too swayed by the idea of Butler being in a biopic role in a Best Picture nominee and then you had Farrell who, despite being a longshot, had done well on the anonymous ballot polls and (in my opinion) gave the best performance of the five...granted the last opinion doesn't often translate into Oscar wins.
Fraser winning here isn't surprising but it does break a key stat where it seemed like Best Actor winners strongly co-aligned with Best Picture nominees at the expense of those who weren't in a Best Picture nominee.
I had made a point of the eerily similar 2009 case where Mickey Rourke starred in his own comeback vehicle which didn't end up getting Picture, Director, or Screenplay noms that happened to be directed by Darren Aronofsky. Rourke won a Globe and BAFTA for his efforts while Sean Penn starred in a biopic role, won CC and SAG, and happened to be in a Best Picture nominee.
Penn won the same awards Fraser did this year...but Fraser didn't have the Picture stat behind him. Instead, his rapturous comeback narrative worked and while it is refreshing that a non-biopic role has won the award, it still taps into the whole "actor transforms under a ton of makeup" trope that is often apparent with Oscar wins...or any acting award win.
I don't hate Fraser winning this as much as some do. He wasn't my choice, but I don't think he did a bad job in the film...which I wasn't overly fond of.
I did like it a little more than the bombastic and chaotic Elvis, however.
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BEST ACTRESS: Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
With Yeoh's win, we get a couple of big moments.
On the lighter side, SAG ended up being 4/4 on acting wins while BAFTA went 0/4...though it was apparent they were far less enthused with EEAAO as it only won for its Editing at that ceremony.
I think being the last major award show helped the SAG winners maintain a higher profile, which is often how its gone for BAFTA in recent years. It'll be curious to see if the schedule next year will remain as such or if it will flip back (I don't know if its been announced yet).
Yeoh's win also makes EEAAO only the third film to win three acting Oscars in one night which puts in a group with two very prestigious films: A Streetcar Named Desire and Network.
But I will address that more when I discuss the Best Picture win.
Lastly, Yeoh becomes not only the first Asian woman to win the Oscar for Lead Actress, but only the second woman of color to win the prize...which seems like the Academy's decision to have the first person to do so (Halle Berry) be present to hand it over paid off...unlike the rather bold decision in 2021 to make Best Actor the last award of the night when many suspected Chadwick Boseman would win a posthumous Oscar.
I will admit that I did prefer Blanchett here, but Yeoh was my second favorite and her performance was certainly the heart of EEAAO. I think she makes for a worthy winner and I will be updating my Best Actress ranking soon to include her amongst the group!
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BEST PICTURE: Everything Everywhere All at Once
With its seven wins, which included the very key tech win of Editing, Everything Everything All at Once becomes the first film since Network to win 3 Acting Oscars and also winning the most "above the line" categories.
The previous films to do this didn't end up winning Director or Picture to go along with the tally:
Streetcar only took Art Direction to go along with the wins for Leigh, Malden, and Hunter.
Network took Original Screenplay along with the wins for Dunaway, Finch, and Straight.
Everything took the three acting wins, Director, Screenplay, Editing, and Picture.
It may not be as big of a sweep as films like The English Patient, Titanic, or The Return of the King, but it is a very potent one.
In the end, I think that a film like Everything Everywhere All at Once taking this prize and sweeping in the manner it did shows that perhaps there will be hope for more films that aren't considered "typical Oscar fare" will actually be able to breakthrough.
Then again, it is hard to say.
Sure, we've had the groundbreaking wins of Parasite or a sci-fi/romance film like The Shape of Water pulling it off...but we've also gotten Green Book and Coda.
And with acting, we may have gotten the win for Yeoh tonight but it took just over 20 years after Halle Berry to get another actress of color to win a Lead Oscar.
Seeing more genre films break into the Best Picture race would be amazing...in addition to Animated films.
I also think it would be truly amazing if we can get horror films in the running for the top prize. We very seldom get nominations for them, and really only The Silence of the Lambs comes the closest as being a horror to take the prize.
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CONCLUSION:
I do wish I had the same reaction to EEAAO that most other people did as it probably would've made last night a lot more enjoyable.
I am sort of pensive as to how 2023 will fare in terms of its film output after having been fairly disappointed with 2022 more than any other year in a while.
At any rate, thanks for reading!
I will be updating my Actress, Supporting Actress, and Best Picture rankings soon and I do still intend to do rankings for Best Actor and Supporting Actor as well.
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