Review and Analysis of the 95th Academy Awards

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Review and Analysis of the 95th Academy Awards

The 95^th Academy Awards were a straightforward, forgettable affair lacking in controversies or any memorable moments during the ceremony. As for the winners, there were a few surprises in here, but for the most part the one movie that was supposed to sweep the awards ended up doing just that, which was expected. A couple of choices here I was quite fine with, but for the most part this will not be remembered as a good Oscar year for sure.

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THE CEREMONY

The entire ceremony played out as we all expected it would – in an uneventful and straightforward fashion. Jimmy Kimmel as a host wasn’t all that bad, but he wasn’t good either. He was just passable as I expected he would be. He was a boring choice to host from the start. He did get a couple of mild chuckles from me and I did appreciate that he wasn’t as political this time around. The same goes for the entire ceremony with one glaring exception, but more on that later.

Most of the speeches were forgettable with a few exceptions. I really did enjoy Michelle Yeoh’s speech and the moment when she won was wonderful as Jamie Lee’s reaction was so endearing. I fail to see, though, why everybody loves Ke Huy Quan so much as he to me seemed like an overgrown child in his mannerisms. The Daniels were all about feeling like imposters on that stage, which they in actuality are.

I did appreciate the In Memoriam section. It was both moving and elegantly executed. The props from the movies showcased on the stage during the technical wins was also a nice touch and the musical numbers were actually very well performed for a change. I just wished for something truly memorable to happen as that kind of moment never came.

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BEST PICTURE

In what is one of the worst Best Picture slates in the history of the Oscars, the Academy really made so many poor choices this year, especially with nominating the mediocre Elvis and the dumb blockbuster Maverick. Of the ten nominees, we got only two truly great ones with the masterful Tar and the best movie of the year Banshees. All Quiet on the Western Front was all style and no substance while The Fabelmans was just there thanks to the man behind it. The eventual winner was Everything Everywhere All At Once, which was expected to happen, but it still was hard to stomach. This is the rare genre winner in this category, one of the rare comedies to win and the only science fiction winner in the history of the award. This would have all been great had the movie not been so chaotic and mediocre. It got seven awards overall, which will undoubtedly eventually make it one of the most overrated winners in history. You can read my full ranking of the nominees here.

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BEST DIRECTOR

Unfortunately, The Daniels ended up taking this one. These are the guys who until this point have only made one movie, which was the ridiculous Swiss Army Man. Are you telling me that these guys are worthy of this statue? I would have been fine even with the BP win, but the director win was the most egregious one for me as their direction was anything but outstanding. Literally everybody else would have been more deserving with the exception of Spielberg. McDonagh and Field were the best nominees, both having done a masterful job for their respective films.

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BEST ACTOR

2022 was simply not a good year for male actors and I am definitely saddened that Colin Farrell did not get his Oscar for his career-best turn in Banshees. He was both the best performer of the year and the most overdue one to win. Brendan Fraser ended up taking it for The Whale, which was an Oscar-bait performance, but at least it was a solid one and he at least had some body of work behind him. Austin Butler losing for Elvis was the best moment that happened at this year’s ceremony.

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BEST ACTRESS

This category was a difficult one. Andrea Riseborough should have been more of a contender for her outstanding work in To Leslie, but eventually it all came down between Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh. Cate was the better of the two as her turn in Tar just might be the best one in her entire career. It’s a shame that she lost this year when she would have won in most other years, but I am not too sad for her as she already has two Oscars. Michelle Yeoh winning was great for her career as she is an iconic actress who finally had to shine in a lead role. Her movie was quite bad, but she was the only great thing about it, so this choice was fine with me.

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BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Ke Huy Quan literally swept this entire awards season, winning every single award possible, which led to the most predictable win in this Oscar season. Every other actor besides Judd Hirsch would have been more deserving of the five nominees. The fact that Brendan Gleeson lost is a travesty to me. Quan disappeared from Hollywood for decades and he returned to win, but a much better narrative would have been to award Gleeson for his infinitely more substantial body of work.

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BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

I predicted that Jamie Lee Curtis would win and that did happen and I have mixed feelings about. My pick would be Kerry Condon as she was easily the best of the five nominees, but it was always between Angela Bassett and Curtis. Both were in the lead for their body of work and you can make an argument for why either of two should have won. Bassett lost because she was in a Marvel movie, which was one of the biggest factors. Her performance was much better and Curtis’ role was quite atrocious actually, but it is hard to be mad at this choice as Curtis is a legend and I was ultimately quite happy with the actress finally getting her moment of recognition.

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BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Just because something is original doesn’t mean it’s good. Case in point, Everything Everywhere. This movie is a total mess in almost every area, so its win here was ludicrous as it was also the film that lacked in strong themes and/or dialogue. Either Banshees or Tar should have taken this one for their much more sophisticated and tighter scripts.

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BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Women Talking won this one as basically a consolation price for that film not winning anything else. This was a pretty terrible slate overall with the likes of insufferably self-important Fabelmans and extremely slight Maverick getting in for bewildering reasons to me. Of the nominees, I would have only been fine with Living winning, but the entire slate is just bad.

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BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

This was a lock, but I was still immensely thrilled that Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio won. He gave a great speech and it was important to honor the most artistic and accomplished animated movie of the year. This also makes it the second stop-motion winner in this category and the first Netflix feature to win, which was quite earned as the streaming service is responsible for a lot of strong animated content in recent years. My only contention here is that this masterful film was snubbed in every other category, but oh well. You can read my full ranking of the nominees here.

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BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

I actually preferred every other film on this list over All Quiet on the Western Front. It was always bound to win here as it was nominated for other big awards besides this one, but it still doesn’t make it right as it has the weakest script of the five nominees. The best was Belgian Close as that movie was both heartfelt and quite complex in its ambiguities. They snubbed the best foreign films of the year as both You Won’t Be Alone and Hit the Road weren’t here.

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BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM

This was that one unfortunate political moment of the evening. While it was expected that Navalny would win, I was still disappointed that American politics would play a hand at the Oscars and the speeches that we got were quite annoying. The sheer existence of that movie is political, so that’s why I decided not to even bother watching it. I was looking forward for Fire of Love to win here, but unfortunately they had to be political in their choice.

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BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

This was one of the best winners of the evening in my opinion. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse was clearly the only truly great short nominated in this category as it was both deeply moving and wonderfully crafted. Most of the other nominees represented the case of style over substance. You can read my full ranking of the nominees here.

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BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

All Quiet took this one, which was somewhat deserved as that score was thrilling and suitably disturbing given the subject matter at hand, but my choice would have to be Babylon for its truly impeccable recreation of the 20s sound and various musical tastes hailing from that decade. It was an eclectic, powerful score that unfortunately lost.

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BEST ORIGINAL SONG

I cannot blame this choice as Naatu Naatu from RRR is definitely the most fun and the only energetic number of the five that were nominated. The song itself was weak, but the dance choreography was incredible. My choice would have been Lift Me Up by Rihanna as that song is so moving, but I cannot be too angry at the Academy’s choice either.

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BEST SOUND

Maverick won here due to having the most sound basically, and even though that movie was clearly not a good one, it is hard to argue with this decision, so I am fine with it.

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BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

It is such a shame to me that the Academy tends to favor one movie sweeping the technical awards over the lesser-respected films when in reality each category should be viewed separately. Babylon clearly had the best and most accomplished sets this year and that movie was literally all about production design, so it losing to All Quiet was a very baffling choice.

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BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Most of the best-looking films of the year like Hit the Road and The Batman weren’t even nominated here, so of course it was always going to be All Quiet. Of the nominees, Tar was easily the best shot film and it was shamefully ignored here.

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BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

The Whale does have strong makeup as the prosthetics on Brendan Fraser were quite commendable. This was the one that I expected Elvis to win and I was so happy to see that mediocre movie failing to win anything. The Batman was another strong contender here.

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BEST COSTUME DESIGN

This was one of the most pleasant surprises of the evening as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ended up taking the award for its gorgeous costumes that represent Afrofuturism in its full glory. It was great seeing a movie that favors creativity over recreation (Elvis) actually winning.

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BEST FILM EDITING

A travesty of a choice, Everything Everywhere was the most disorganized movie of the nominees, so it had no business winning here. Every other movie would have been more deserving.

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BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

There is no question about it – Avatar: The Way of Water featured the best and most groundbreaking VFX of the year, so it winning here was of course the only valid choice that the Academy could have made.

 

These Oscars were historic in a way. It is rare for a movie to sweep the awards like this, especially rare in the last decade or so. But what does this mean? Everything Everywhere winning so much means a couple of things. First, 2022 was a weak year for movies. Also, the preferential ballot needs to go away as serious, truly sophisticated and powerfully crafted movies like Tar and Banshees will never stand a chance against populist entertainment if this type of voting continues.

But most importantly, Everything Everywhere represents that you can sell just about anything to American audiences if you throw into the mix the big heartfelt speeches, a story about minorities, dumb action comedy and originality for the sake of originality. Most people failing to recognize the messiness of this movie just goes to show that they would only value originality, even if it involves a ridiculous scene with people fighting each other with dildos.

This is a multiverse story that makes no sense and where its message is lost in all the mayhem and stupidity. Is this supposed to be cinema? I shudder at the idea that this type of movie will be considered important someday. It’s the most limited in appeal film to win in quite some time as you can hardly imagine anyone under the age of 35 and who isn’t American to like, let alone love this foolish mediocrity. But history will hopefully catch up with this movie eventually, so let’s just hope it’s sooner rather than later.