Viewers walking into this year’s Academy Awards knew a certain amount walking in: it was a forgone conclusion that Leonardo DiCaprio was going to take home gold, Brie Larson was walking out with a prize and Chris Rock was going to address the lack of diversity within the nominees.
The show got off to a blistering start with Rock taking the stage and diving into the controversy head-first. He stuck it to all accountable parties, sparing no one in a blisteringly funny monologue.
From his acknowledgement that Hollywood does have prejudice tendencies, to his comments about Will and Jada Smith’s boycott (Really, how can you boycott something you weren’t invited to?), to admitting he thought about quitting his hosting gig.
The rest of the night was complete with quick jabs on the topic as well mixed in with several other blows. Come to think of it, Rock joked about everything except for the films themselves.
And who were the contenders? Let’s look at it from who won….
Spotlight was the big winner of the night. Taking only the first Oscar of the night for Best Original Screenplay and the last award winner of the night, taking Best Picture, it is the retelling of the Boston Globe’s investigation into the sex abuse scandal of the archdiocese of Boston back in 2001.
Funnyman turned advocacy filmmaker Adam McKay – and co-writer Charles Randolph – took the next award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Big Short, an inside look at the financial wizards who discovered the housing bubble was about to burst.
Mark Rylance pulled off the upset, trumping favorite Sylvester Stallone’s return to the role of Rocky Balboa, as the Soviet spy at the heart of an essential tradeoff in Bridge of Spies. Rylance seemed genuinely moved and gave one of the best speeches of the night.
Rising star Alicia Vikander won Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl – director Tom Hooper’s retelling of the first person to undergo male-to-female re-assignment surgery. While I have yet to see the film, I couldn’t help but wish she were winning the same award for her stellar performance as the too-real A.I. in Ex Machina.
Alejandro G. Innaritu reclaimed the title for Best Director. Last year, he won for Birdman, this year it was for the frontier-set revenge drama The Revenant, which would also take Oscars for Best Cinematography (Emanuel Lubezki) and Best Actor (DiCaprio).
Brie Larson took home the Best Actress trophy as expected for her performance in Room, the drama about a mother and child who try to escape from captivity and adjust to the outside world.
And while all of these films walked away with big prizes, one could argue that the big winner of the night was Mad Max: Fury Road. The fourth installment in the franchise won six Oscars: Best Editing, Best Achievement in Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Hair and Makeup and Best Production Design.
With all those awards, it is worth wondering how George Miller – the man orchestrating things – didn’t snag the Best Director prize.
One other notable highlight of the night was watching Ennio Morricone, 87 years young, win his first Oscar for composing the score to Quentin Tarantino’s claustrophobic western The Hateful Eight.
Morricone spoke Italian while an interpreter mentioned his thank yous. A special shout-out went to John Williams who earned his 50th Oscar nomination for composing the score for Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.
Ridley Scott’s grossly enjoyable sci-fi dramedy The Martian and John Crowley’s Irish immigrant romance Brooklyn were the only two Best Picture nominees to walk away completely empty-handed.
One of the worst elements of the show, I must say, was the shameful presentation of the Best Original Song nominees. Now, this is not commenting on the nominees and their performances themselves, but rather the Academy’s treatment of the nominees.
Popular stars The Weekend, Lady Gaga and Sam Smith were all allowed to perform their songs, yet the operatic number “Simple Song #3” from Youth and “Manta Ray” from Racing Extinction were not allowed to perform.
To me, that flies in the face of everything the Oscars is supposed to stand for. The moment where all nominees are supposed to be equal. It’s hypocritical to let three of the five perform and not the other two.
Hmmmm….no equality amongst the nominees either.
Brian Laughran
Editor-in-Chief
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