The Highs and Lows of the Oscars

Well, that’s a wrap on the 2017-2018 awards season. The 90th Academy Awards were presented last night at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on a blinged-out stage that was 100% over-the-top and tone deaf. As always, there were highs and lows in a ceremony defined by focused activism and pleas for equality. Here are some of our thoughts about Oscar night:

Biggest Surprise Win: Jordan Peele‘s Best Original Screenplay win for Get Out. We predicted Martin McDonagh would win for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, since McDonagh won both the Golden Globe and the Bafta for that category. True, Peele had won the Writers Guild Award for Get Out, but considering the number of nominations Three Billboards had racked up, it seemed like the likely winner. The win made Peele the first African-American to win in that category. Congratulations!

Biggest Upset: We are huge fans of The Greatest Showman. “This Is Me” was easily the most electric performance of the evening. But “Remember Me” from Coco won. Though it is a sweet, simple song that perfectly fits within the context of the film, “This Is Me” is a stirring anthem that transcends the film. In our opinion, “This Is Me” was robbed. (Excuse us as we wallow in our misery and listen to “This Is Me” on repeat for the next 24-48 hours.)

Most Predictable Win: The four acting categories went as expected last night. The most predictable win, however, was Gary Oldman, who was a lock for Best Actor for his impressive portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. He indeed took home the Oscar last night.

Best Dressed: The Oscars did not have the same all-black dress code as the Golden Globes and the Baftas in support of Time’s Up and Me Too. So, the red carpet returned to the rainbow of colors it typically is, and it’s hard to pick a favorite. Some highlights were ensembles from Lupita Nyong’o and Laura Dern, as well as Emma Stone‘s bold and sleek power suit. Recycled dresses were in this year too. Tiffany Haddish wore an old Alexander McQueen dress for the third time because she had spent $4,000 on it and fully intended to get as much mileage out of it as possible. Even more incredible, Rita Moreno wore the exact same dress that she had donned when she won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for West Side Story in 1962. And you know what? She rocked it. Nothing but respect for these two queens.

Funniest Moment: Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph killed it when they presented the award for Best Documentary Short. The two strutted on stage while clutching their heels because their feet were sore and they were over it. They then joked about “white people with clipboards” and fangirled over Meryl Streep. It was comic gold, and they basically stole the show.

Classiest Moments: As the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences looks to the future with calls for more inclusiveness in the film industry, the 90th Oscars were also all about looking to the past. There were so many lovely tips-of-the-hat to Old Hollywood. 93-year-old Eva Marie Saint looked fab and spoke eloquently as she presented the award for Best Costume Design – and even offered up a story about legendary designer Edith Head. Rita Moreno sashayed across the stage. Lovely montages of past winners introduced each category. All in all, these Oscars reminded viewers how films have inspired, wowed, and moved generations of movie-goers

The Winner of the 2018 Oscars: Empowerment. The 2018 Academy Awards may have done what they always do – anoint the chosen few with the most illustrious award in the film industry – but the ceremony crackled in a way that suggested this was not business as usual. Though other ceremonies on the awards circuit this year have addressed the elephant in the room – the activism that has swept the country and, thanks to the Me Too and Time’s Up movements this year and #OscarsSoWhite a few years ago, caused a massive cultural shift in Hollywood – demands for greater inclusion in the film industry took center stage in ways they previously had not. Host Jimmy Kimmel directly acknowledged Me Too and Time’s Up. An impassioned performance from Common and Andra Day was undeniably political and even included a collection of activists. Lupita Nyong’o and Kumail Nanjiani used their screen time to eloquently remind viewers that Hollywood – and America – has always attracted foreign dreamers, with a clear nod to debates over immigration and the contested status of DACA recipients. Frances McDormand, setting her Oscar statuette aside, invited all female nominees to stand up and be recognized; she then boldly proceeded to challenge the A-listers in the room to use their star power to invoke the “inclusion rider” in future contracts, thereby requiring films they agree to act in to be at least 50% diverse in front of and behind the camera. Hollywood may be dismissed as a bunch of out-of-touch elites by many. (Indeed, the misguided shtick where a bunch of stars crashed a screening of A Wrinkle in Time and distributed snacks to the star-struck audience, as if they were royals deigning to dole out alms to excitable peasants, certainly did nothing to counter that critique.) But the fact remains that people come to make movies in Los Angeles from all over the world and different backgrounds, some of which are decidedly un-elite. The producers of the Oscars made that clear by putting together an excellent montage about representation in film. The degree to which these demands for inclusion stick by putting more women and people of color in front of and behind the camera remains to be seen. At the same time, though the Academy wisely did not nominate James Franco for an Oscar in the aftermath of accusations of sexual misconduct, both Gary Oldman and Kobe Bryant – two men who have been accused of assault – walked away with awards last night. These wins call into question Hollywood’s commitment to Me Too and Time’s Up. But, even if this is not a sea change, it’s beginning to feel like one.

Photo Credit: ABC