CODA Wins Big in a Strange Oscar Night

Well that was certainly an unusual night. In what should have been a coronation for CODA, the little film that could, it ended up being about Will Smith not being able to control his anger and assaulting Chris Rock. So let’s get that out of the way first. Smith, not being able to stand a G.I. Jane joke at his wife’s expense, came on stage and clocked Chris Rock mid-presentation (what is it with people getting so mad at Rock specifically? I still remember how mad Sean Penn got at his 20 years ago over a joke about Jude Law). The fact is, Smith was right to be mad at the joke, but how he handled it was obscene and really put him in a terrible light. The fact that he was not kicked out right then (even if we all knew he was about to win, they could have mailed him that trophy) indicates an incredible lack of judgment on the part of the producers. A pall fell over the rest of the show, especially poor Qwestlove, who didn’t deserve to have his moment ruined like that. It really was one of the worst moments in Oscar history, not just the slap, but the way it was handled the rest of the night.

But what else happened? Well, like I said, CODA went three for three and made a clean sweep of its nominations. It is a swing towards populism after a few years of more challenging films. It might not be very well regarded as a Best Picture years from now, especially when it won over a clear masterpiece, but it is by no means a terrible choice. It seems clear now that not enough people saw the film before the nominations came out, resulting in it only getting three total nominations, but once it was nominated a lot more people did watch it and it became the clear frontrunner. It was a perfect combination of a feel good story combined with the chance to reward a specific community of people that doesn’t usually get to be at the center of Hollywood. I was quite happy for Troy Kotsur, who I genuinely thought would have to be pushed hard to even get a nomination when I saw the film, so it was a delight to see him go all the way to the win. 

Overall I was pretty happy with who won. I don’t love that Jessica Chastain performance, but I’m glad she has an Oscar. Same with Kenneth Branagh, I don’t like Belfast and wish Paul Thomas Anderson had an Oscar,  but I can’t deny that Branagh feels like he should have one at this point. Jane Campion winning Director was wonderful (even if Power of the Dog was otherwise snubbed, making it the first lone Director winning film since The Graduate). And Dune winning six Oscars was great, and had the show been produced correctly it would have felt like a Fury Road culmination and not an afterthought. Which reminds me, let’s talk about the show itself.

So the producers lied when they said that we watching at home wouldn’t even notice the eight categories that were given out preshow. They were chopped so shoddily that it felt insulting to see how they were handled. Dune swept those categories, and yet it was impossible to feel any momentum for the film. On top of that, the winners were announced on Twitter prior to the show, killing any sort of excitement for any category. And to top it off, the show ran 40 minutes over, making it one of the longer shows in recent memory. So they completely failed to achieve anything but anger by doing this. The hosts were fine. I liked Amy Schumer more than I expected, Regina Hall seemed underused, and Wanda Sykes was of course the best of the three. I’m glad we have hosts back and liked the idea of multiple hosts. Hopefully they try to lock down a host(s) early for next year so they have a bigger talent pool to choose from.

Final Thoughts

• I went 16/23 on my predictions. Had I not tried to be clever and went with th consensus favorite in every category I might have done perfectly. This was a rare year in which there were zero surprises, even in the tech and short categories.
• That in memorium segement was truly awful. Poor music choices, and the dancing? Not a fan. It felt disrespectful and tacky.
• The clips were back! What a difference they make, that was my single biggest issue with last year’s show, so it was nice for them to return.
• The fan favorite Twitter polls went about as poorly as expected. Two Snyder films won, because of course they did. Those moments were quickly rushed through with no real fanfare, as the Oscars were clearly embarrassed by what was selected.
• Not every decision the producers made was bad. I like the tributes to previous older films, franchises, and casts. The anniversary celebrations felt a little arbitrary (White Men Can’t Jump? Pulp Fiction at 28 year? But the idea behind it was really nice, more of that please.
• We now have two back to back years of a female Best Director, and two years in which a film directed by a woman won Picture. It’s inter sting that the top two films this year were directed by women, which is likely also true for last year with Nomadland and Promising Young Woman. Makes me hope this is a trend and not a blip.

So another year done. I really hope the producers next year learn from the many mistakes made this year and make a classier show. This wasn’t the worst Oscar ceremony, but it was pretty distasteful. I can’t imagine what kind of ideas ABC has for them for next year if the ratings are still down this year.