Rehashing the Oscars

Unlike the telecast itself, and specifically, the acceptance speeches, I am going to try to be brief in my rehash of last night's Academy Awards presentations. 

What was good about them:

• The setting.  Having he ceremony in a beautiful building like the Union train station in Los Angeles  was different, and quite cool.
• Emerald Fennell, pictured above, winning the Original Screenplay Oscar for "Promising Young Woman," the only award that that terrific movie won.
• Acceptance speeches.  For make-up, people, designers, lighting people, editors, and other such technical folks, this is the only time they ever get recognition, so let 'em bloviate, I say.  (More on this later.)
• Chloe Zhao wearing sneakers to go with her formal gown.
• The acceptance speech of Supporting Actress winner Yuh-Jung Youn.  Totally charming.
• Tyler Perry's speech in accepting the Humanitarian Award.
• Amanda Seyfried's dress.
• No long drawn out performances of the five nominated songs, which led to...
• ....the show being over by 11:15, which led to.....
• ...no stale jokes along the line of "okay, we're halfway through now" at about two and one-half hours into the telecast.  Bob Hope was telling that old chestnut back in the 1940's.
• Frances McDormand's acceptance speech, which took about twenty seconds.
• My predictions.  I hit on six of ten (60%), including Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and Supporting Actor.
• Texting back and forth with pal Barbara Vancheri, retired Movie Critic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, during the show.

What was not good about them:

• No video clips of the performances of the nominated actors.
• Acceptance speeches.  Despite what I said above, they really do go on too long.  The people who made that documentary about the octopus, a movie that about twelve people will actually see, talked seemingly forever.  I mean, C'MON MAN.  You made a movie about an octopus!
• That stupid "music trivia" game that came at the exact time in the show when everyone was just waiting for the whole thing to end.
• The obviously staged piece of schtick that had Glenn Close twerking during that music trivia bit.
• "Nomadland" winning.  No, this was not a surprise, and yes, I predicted it, and yes, it was a beautifully made movie, but, to me at least, it was not entertaining, which is what a movie should be.  I know lots of will disagree with me there.
• Chadwick Boseman and Carey Mulligan not winning the Lead Acting Awards.
• My predictions.  I missed on three of the four acting awards.
• The final "what was not good" bullet point deserves it's own paragraph, so.....

The Academy pulled a switch-a-roo, by having the Best Picture Award presented before the Lead Acting awards.  This was obviously done with the thought that Chadwick Boseman would be posthumously named Best Actor, and the show would end with an emotional tribute to him.  When he did not win, and when winner Anthony Hopkins was neither in LA nor London (one of the remote sites) to accept his award, the show ended with all of the aplomb of a round of extreme flatulance in church.

As the headline in Variety  might put it, "ACADEMY LAYS EGG."

I'll close with one more picture of Ms Fennell and her Oscar.  She wore sneakers, too!