The Academy Award Telecast - 3/27/22
Apart from the grotesque closing spectacle, no real surprise here......
As everyone expected, it was a pre-ordained inevitable shit show......an off the rails embarrassment to almost all the participants sucked into it.
Some of the disasters were already locked in and pre-planned ahead of time......the ruinous, toxic and insulting decision to disrespect some major craft and creative categories by not airing their wins live. The bizarre choice of hosts including funny comic Amy Schumer, the gratingly unfunny Wanda Sykes and inexplicably, actress Regina Hall.
A guest list loaded up with people who have no connection whatsoever to films and filmmaking.......oh yeah.
And as always, you knew the Academy and the show's producers would come up with some new creative way to make the "In Memoriam"" segment an incompetent mess.....they did not disappoint.
Sure enough, all those boxes duly checked off......
But in that endless, 3 hour and 45 minute evening, never underestimate the Oscars telecast to unleash a miserable parade of moments you wish you could un-see and un-hear....
This year, the Oscar trainwreck will go down forever in history......and infamy.
Let the autopsy commence......
Beyonce and the tennis ball rockettes.....though we realize it is every American's sacred requirement to bow down to Queen B, this went on so long, we thought we'd tuned in to the Billboard Music Awards by mistake......
The "Regina Hall's horny as hell for Hottie Hunks" bit......the Cringe-O-Meter dial went up to 11 as the nation thrilled to the sight of Hall feeling up Jason Mamoa......glorious.
The James Bond 60th Anniversary tribute presented by three....athletes? Meanwhile Dame Judi Dench, who played Bond's boss M in seven films and Remi Malek, who played Bond's nemesis in the latest one, stayed seated. Brilliant planning....genius.
Wanda Sykes' tour of the Academy museum, Amy Schumer dangling in mid-air as Spiderman and the performance of the non-nominated "We don't talk about Bruno" from 'Encanto'.......we bring this stuff up as examples of what the telecast decided to include instead of letting the winners of the banished categories receive their awards on live TV......dead-on-arrival comedy skits and the inclusion of a song that not only wasn't nominated, but makes no sense taken outside the context of the movie it came from.
And now. last (and all time worst)......the Smith-Rock Smackdown......For psychoanalysis of the Will Smith-Chris Rock incident, we'll refer you to the 10 million tweets and 30 million blogger and pundit observations already floating through the cloud......
Our simple take.......what an ugly, strange carnival went on display here.....a snapshot of Hollywood with its carefully tended public relations masks ripped off for us to gape at like a gory traffic accident......and a perfect snapshot of our current culture, a nation fairly reveling in division, resentment and public eruptions of rage at the slightest provocation.
We thoroughly enjoyed and admired Will Smith's Oacar-worthy performance in "King Richard", but he eclipsed it and not in a good way, with the schizophrenic performance of his acceptance speech. He crazily veered from entitled arrogance to a simpering, groveling modern day Uriah Heep, claiming he's a conduit for love when the world just watched him bitch-slap a comedian who made a dumb cheap joke at his wife's expense.
For this, the Hollywood crowd gave him a standing ovation.....which still leaves us at a loss for words.......other than to point out the Grand Canyon divide that now exists between the showbiz community and the rest of us everyday folk who live with the consequences of our actions.
What a terrible strange night it was.......but for us, finishing with at least this one happy ray of sunshine........
'Coda' wins Best Picture, beating out "The Power Of The Dog" Joy, joy, joy and hallelujah that a heartfelt, audience friendly film took the Numero Uno award from the the frontrunner, a pretentious, unwatchable piece of culture-vulture film festival sludge unfit for human consumption.
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