Review and Analysis of the 92nd Academy Awards
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Review and Analysis of the 92nd Academy Awards
The 92nd Academy Awards ended up being rather predictable in the end. It was certainly better in the winners than the last year, but still I personally dislike the big winner, though I do recognize this momentous development and the importance of its win for the Academy and the entire Hollywood.
THE CEREMONY
Like last year, they once again decided to not have a host, and once again it shows. The end result was one truly boring evening that really needed some energy or humor to liven things up. The humor that they included was absolutely horrendous. There wasn’t as much politics thankfully, but the political correctness angle was per usual tiresome.
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Again, annoyingly so, the many actors and actresses joked about inclusion, racism and sexism. And none of it was even remotely funny, but rather painfully unfunny and even annoying. The segment with Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph probably fared best, but most of these speeches and jokes felt very miscalculated and simply not amusing in any shape or form. I did like the opening segment with Chris Rock and Steve Martin, it was solid, though again overly concerned with racism. But James Corden and Rebel Wilson were both fantastic as they truly owned their infamous failure of a movie.
I did appreciate the segment about the famous film scores, that one was awesome, and I wish more of these film celebration videos were included. I also liked Eminem’s performance of Lose Yourself quite a bit, and how everybody was loving it, but I did wonder why it was included in the first place, and I had no answer unfortunately. I also loved the rendition of Erivo’s song as well as a terrific choice to include many different languages in the rendition of Into the Unknown.
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BEST PICTURE
I was not the biggest fan of this year’s slate myself, but there is no denying that they picked the most liked and respected films of the year, excluding Ford v Ferrari which had no business being here. I loved Little Women and I was sad that it was only relegated to one award, and of course my favorite was 1917, which to me is a WWI masterpiece that is actually incredibly moving despite many bafflingly claiming otherwise is the case. In the end, the big award went to Parasite, and I have a lot of opinions about this development. On the one hand, I truly disliked this film, I found it to be very mediocre actually and a failure on all fronts and genres. But on the other hand, even I have to admit that this choice is brave and cool. It’s a momentous, historic decision as the first ever foreign winner in this category, and of course it does signify a new, more diverse era for Hollywood in general. I just wish they were as diverse in genres themselves, and I wish that they had chosen to honor countless other much better foreign movies over the years, but oh well… You can read my full ranking of the nominees here.
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BEST DIRECTOR
This is actually one of the seven categories where I missed entirely, and most did too for sure as it was the biggest surprise of the evening. Bong Joon-ho ended up winning for Parasite, and again my opinion is twofold. I hate the film, I find his entire opus very overrated actually and what Mendes did on 1917 being disregarded is horrible. However, he already won an Oscar in 2000, and Bong is the first Korean to win such a big award, and he was just so ecstatic for it, so how could I not appreciate this development as well?
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BEST ACTOR
I just found these four acting categories all bland, boring and predictable unfortunately. And none deserved whatsoever, though I am not really mad with either one of them as I can see why they all won. Joaquin Phoenix finally won for Joker so all fanboys can now rejoice, I guess. I personally did like his performance, but I found it very baity and overly calculated, and of course they fell for it. I personally would have gone with either Banderas or Driver.
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BEST ACTRESS
This one is the least unfortunate of the four, the most infuriating for me as literally every single woman nominated for this category was better than Renee, who was fine in Judy, don’t get me wrong, but it was your regular Oscar-bait performance in again an awfully calculated, careful manner. I personally would have gone with Scarlett Johansson who was just magnificent in Marriage Story or Saoirse Ronan who was simply phenomenal in underappreciated Little Women.
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BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
This was probably the most predictable choice as Brad Pitt won this award so many times before, and was praised so much. This is the perfect example of somebody winning an Oscar for a horrible role, and me still being fine with it. Yes, his turn in OUATIH is magnetic and exuding star quality, but it’s nothing deep or complex; it’s such a slight, bland role. However, I was happy for him as this was his first ever Oscar, and he did earn it in my head for killing it in Ad Astra this same year.
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BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The same applies for this one, literally everything is exactly the same. Laura Dern got such a regular, not that impressive role in Marriage Story, and she won because of her connections and because she was due, but she had another stronger role in Little Women this year, so I was okay with her winning it. But unlike the above slate, this one is quite strong, and in particular Florence Pugh was robbed for her truly impressive, revelatory performance.
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BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
I am just so glad that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood did not get this award as that story is hella messy. I personally would have gone with Knives Out for this award as that thing is so deftly written and crafted, but Parasite ended up winning, signifying its eventual sweep. I found the themes in that film of course relevant, but the script was so mediocre and the film is indecisive in what’s it’s trying to accomplish.
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BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
This one is even worse because clearly the best adapted screenplay of the year belongs to Greta Gerwig’s Little Women who made this source material relevant and engaging to watch again after so many years. Her work on that film is fantastic. She was robbed, and I do like Taika Waititi, but his Jojo Rabbit script is just so bad, so pointless, and so misjudged in so many areas.
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BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
This one did hurt, I’m not gonna lie. Actually, it was the only choice that really angered me. That’s because up to this point almost every animated award was won by either Klaus or Missing Link. And then comes the Academy and announces their regular Disney/Pixar pick. It only further cements the fact that they are clueless or that they do not care about this entire category, and that most do not even bother watching the nominees. Both of those aforementioned flicks would have been much better choices than this tiresome sequel that ranks among Pixar’s worst offerings so far.
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BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
Parasite obviously won this award, it was the biggest lock probably of the entire night. To me personally, it was the weakest of the nominees, and Honeyland should have won in my opinion. The best foreign film of the year was not even sent to the Academy so that was a big bummer.
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BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM
I did like American Factory quite a bit, but I did not love it. It was a safe movie and a safe American choice for this quite international slate. I again would have gone with Honeyland for this one as that Macedonian flick is so wonderful. The documentary of the year, however, was One Child Nation, and it was not even nominated, shamelessly so.
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BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
I never expected The Neighbors’ Window to actually win in this category, but it did happen, and I was thrilled. It is the only movie from this slate that I watched, and I really liked how emotional and interesting in concept it was.
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BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
This one went to the biggest crowd-pleaser of the bunch, and I myself have no qualms about it. Hair Love is truly a wonderful film full of love and charm and good old-fashioned traditional animation, so it deserved to win.
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BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
This is another very well deserved award, the one with which I also align personally. There were a couple of other worthy scores from this year, but the Joker one is so disturbing, so fitting for the action on screen, and the mind of the protagonist, and just instantly memorable overall.
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BEST ORIGINAL SONG
But this one I really disliked. (I’m Gonna) Love Me Again from Rocketman ain’t all that great of a number. I would have gone either with Into the Unknown from Frozen II, a song that I listened to many times so far, or Stand Up from Harriet, a very uplifting, powerful number. Both were so well utilized on the show itself, and both undeservedly lost to an inferior song.
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BEST SOUND EDITING
Ford v Ferrari unfortunately took this one instead of my pick which is of course the stupendously sounding 1917. However, if there is one thing this bad movie was great at, it’s the sound of course, so I am not too annoyed by it winning.
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BEST SOUND MIXING
1917 took this one actually. The split in the sound category happened this year, and it was an interesting choice for sure. 1917 hands down deserved this one. I just wish the movie got more love overall instead of being relegated only to the technical stuff.
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BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is such a mediocre movie, but it did have some terrific, evocative sets. Still though, I would have gone with either 1917, which was tremendously crafted in all of its sets, or Parasite, which features some truly brilliant, unforgettable architecture. But the Academy almost always prefers the period pieces for these awards.
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BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
This was also one of the most predictable outcomes, and I wholeheartedly agree with it. I would also vote for The Lighthouse, but 1917 was so impressively mounted by Roger Deakins that it rightfully won him his second Oscar. The one shot here is truly legendary.
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BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
I would have personally gone with Joker, but Bombshell did have terrific makeup, especially the one on Theron’s face. It was another somewhat predictable category.
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BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Again, the Academy loves their period pieces for these tech awards, and I agree with this choice and thankfully Little Women did not go home empty-handed, but it deserved to get so much more.
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BEST FILM EDITING
This one category is quite off entirely, the winner is terrible and I do not know for whom I would vote myself either. It’s the one wholly indifferent category to me.
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BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
I find this choice not great. I do adore 1917 to pieces, but still going for invisible effects over the majesty that is The Lion King just felt wrong to me. That movie is the worst film of the year, but it had undeniably staggering VFX, and it should have won unquestionably.
All in all, I liked some categories’ winners a lot from this year, I’m not gonna lie. And I did not truly hate any winner with only the animated feature choice being horrendous to me. It is a year where I felt quite apathetic toward most of the winners whom I deemed solid, but not the best choices. But it is a groundbreaking awards show and the overall awards season, so I did appreciate that about it quite a bit.
