The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – The 2022 Oscars Recap

April 1, 2022

What a minute….WTF just happened?

After what could be generously described as a lackluster 2021 Oscar ceremony which celebrated a list of good (but not landmark) films, the Academy was looking to rebound with a return to normalcy in the movie world and get the world talking about the Oscars again.  Well, this probably wasn’t what they imagined…

If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know I planned an extended break after my 100^th post last week.  And thanks to all of you for the kind words following that post – it’s nice to hear that you’ve enjoyed what I consider to be kind of a crazy hobby.  As I was planning out my last posts before the break, I liked stopping at #100 (being a numbers guy and all) and I figured that I would share everything I needed to say about the Oscars in my preview.  I thought we’d see a lackluster ceremony, a few surprises here and there in the awards, but nothing I would feel compelled to write about.  I read a lot of the coverage earlier this week, listened to a few podcasts, kept thinking about my own opinions and got a nice Facebook message from a friend from high school who asked for one more piece to share my thoughts.  And as I pondered everything rattling through my brain, I realized I actually did have some things to say and here we are.

I’ve organized this into the traditional format of the good, the bad, and the ugly of what we saw.  And we’re going to go from worst to best, so we can end on a high note.  Let’s get the obvious topic out of the way.

The Ugly

Five years ago, many of us film nerds who stuck around to watch the end of the Oscars were stunned when there was an envelope mix-up that resulted in my beloved La La Land being incorrectly announced as Best Picture.  We all remember the moment which went viral immediately and resulted in way too many jokes about accountants.  Being a recovering accountant, I kind of felt for the firm until I realized the guy in question was distracted after taking a selfie with Emma Stone – insert facepalm emoji.  Regardless of what you thought, that was deemed the craziest Oscar moment in history and would likely never be topped.  Who would have thought we’d see it surpassed five short years later?

Look, by now you’ve heard every take under the sun, read every opinion possible, with some angles being espoused making my head turn sideways – I guess people will do anything to come up with a hot take.  With all of that in mind, I’m not going to add anything new to the discussion by examining the motivations of those involved, or what it says about any of the myriad of issues you could think of.  Suffice it to say, it was an ugly display all around.  I’m not going to try to pick sides on who was right or wrong, because there were no winners, just a lot of losers.  Time will tell what happens to the reputations of Smith and Rock, what the Academy does to reprimand Smith, and what will happen at next year’s ceremony.  Tradition has it that the acting winners present their gender counterpart the following year, so we will see if Smith is invited back to present Best Actress in 2023 (I would guess that he will not be there).  Maybe it’s the film nerd in me, but I’d rather focus on the movie aspect and less on the celebrity aspect.  So, let’s move on.

The Bad

In the runup to the ceremony, there was a lot of press about the Academy’s decision to hand out eight awards before the official ceremony and not during the official telecast in an effort to speed up the ceremony and finish on time.  The awards impacted were some technical awards (including sound, score, editing) and short films.  The initial press described it as the awards being “cut,” but the producers insisted that they would be including the full speeches in the ceremony but editing them into the live ceremony.  The goal was to streamline the telecast and not have to waste time with unnecessary banter between the presenters and waiting for the winners to come to the stage.  I didn’t cover this topic in my Oscars preview for two reasons – first, I already had a lot of ground to cover and more importantly, I didn’t expect them to go through with it after significant backlash from some big names in the film industry. 

Well, they did go through with it and it was a mess.  The editing was awkward and unnatural – I swore they put in clips of celebrities laughing at a joke made by the winner of Film Editing, before he actually made the joke.  It was disrespectful to some really important categories (if the score, sound or editing are bad, movies don’t work) and didn’t help the broadcast finish on time – it ran over 30 minutes long.  I just wish the Academy would make up its mind – if you have awards to hand out, hand them out.  Or have a separate ceremony like the Emmys and Grammys.  Just decide what you want this ceremony to be.  Which brings me to my next point…

I wrote in my Oscar preview that there has been a media obsession the last ten years about the declining ratings of the telecast.  Everyone is eager to be the first one to declare the Oscars dead.  In reality, the television ratings of everything (except NFL games) have declined dramatically over the last decade, with the advent of streaming services, cord cutting and general disinterest in network television programs.  The most relevant dramas and comedies are not on networks anymore – just look at what gets the most buzz on social media and attention from critics and award bodies.  It’s not what is being churned out by ABC, NBC, and CBS.  It’s HBO, Netflix, Hulu, Apple, Amazon, and other streamers gaining traction in the market. 

But ABC owns the broadcast rights to the Oscars based on their contract with the Academy, and being a broadcast network, they need advertising, and that means they need ratings.  It turns out that ABC was the party that insisted a change be made to the awards in question, and decided to try to lure in younger viewers with some tactics that were obvious pandering.  They created two “fan favorite” awards to try to manufacture something to give to Spider Man: No Way Home after it only received one minor nomination, but the voting polls were on Twitter and once the trolls got involved, you got ridiculous winners like Army of the Dead, a laughably bad movie.  They created a performance of a popular song (We Don’t Talk About Bruno, from Encanto), even though it wasn’t nominated.  And they continued ill-advised comedy bits that just didn’t work. 

One of the more popular media pieces every year around this time is “How to fix the Oscars.”  Now, I could probably spend a lot of time analyzing what works and what doesn’t and come up with an ideal ceremony for someone like me.  Don’t worry – I won’t bore you with much more on this topic.  I think the fundamental issue is that the Academy doesn’t know what it wants.  The Oscars are commonly referred to as the “Super Bowl for Movies.”  That’s nice in theory, but with our changing culture the last twenty years, particularly with the rise of social media, it’s not the culture event that it once was.  Is there a way to accommodate film lovers and the general public?  Perhaps. 

You could move the ceremony to a streaming service (or multiple ones), so there isn’t an advertising demand hanging over creative decisions.  Or, you could do what I read online a few weeks ago, which I think could be fun.  The person who suggested it asked “We have a four hour pregame before the Super Bowl – why couldn’t we do the same with the Oscars?”  Wait – a longer ceremony?  Is that crazy?  Well… the proposal was to have a late afternoon ceremony to cover some of the technical awards, and go deeper on what it actually takes to make movies.  For nerds like me, you could see footage of an editor, cinematographer, or composer describing how they contributed to their films.  You could highlight anniversaries of classic or forgotten films.  We should watch that portion of the program and be reminded of several great movies to rewatch or see for the first time – a true celebration of cinema.

Then you could have a musical component (think halftime show), highlighting some of the nominated songs and other historic movie songs.  Then you could move on to the main event – a crisp two hour presentation that covers the major awards.  Film nerds like me could watch the whole thing, just like the football junkies who consume Super Bowl coverage all day.  Casual movie fans could tune in for the main event, or even the music component too.  Now, this is my ideal scenario, because I love and care about movies and geek out about this stuff.  Could it happen?  Maybe.  Will it?  Unlikely anytime soon, but we’ll see what improvements can be made for next year.  Ok, enough complaining.

The Good

The Hosts

I let out an audible groan when I saw the announcement of the hosts for the ceremony.  After much speculation about ABC trying to find big names (even some rumors of Tom Holland and Zendaya), they settled on Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Regina Hall.  I have little knowledge of Hall, only seeing a few of her movies, and I was not a fan of Sykes and Schumer.  But I have to say, I think they all did a good job, especially Schumer.  Her jokes were funny, she had a good attitude about the ceremony and her place in Hollywood relative to the super-duper-stars, and the way she handled the aftermath of the Smith-Rock fiasco was perfect.  I could have done without the Sykes trip to the Academy museum (a blatant commercial that fell flat) or Hall’s way-too-long COVID testing bit, but overall, they exceeded my expectations.

The Acting Awards

You know what else was good?  The movies, the awards, and (most of) the speeches.  As I covered in my Oscar preview, I was pretty happy with most of the nominations and other than one minor quibble, I was happy with the winners.  In the early portion of the ceremony, we saw inspiring speeches by Troy Kotsur, Supporting Actor winner for CODA, and Ariana DeBose for West Side Story, two very deserving winners.  Despite being heavy favorites after winning most of the other awards this season, they both seemed genuinely moved by the honor. 

With Will Smith winning Best Actor less than an hour after his altercation with Chris Rock, it was incredibly awkward watching his speech, which was moving at times, but overall pretty bizarre.  I’m not going to stand in judgment about what he said, as it was probably like an out-of-body experience after the events earlier in the evening.  This is not the first time we’ve had to separate the art from the artist.  In fact, the Academy (unfortunately) has a long history of dealing with this issue.  Just look at who won for Best Director in 2003.  We just never had to separate the art from the artist in such a “real-time” way like we did on Sunday night.  If I could separate my brain into what I know about the role and performance, I’m happy that he won.  But it was truly bizarre to watch the entire event unfold.  I was on the fence about Jessica Chastain’s win for Best Actress.  I don’t necessarily think that her performance in The Eyes of Tammy Faye was the best of the nominees (I think Penélope Cruz was better in Parallel Mothers), but Chastain is a great actress and I’m glad she has an Oscar on her resume.

Director and Screenplay

While the four acting awards resulted in very little surprise (aside from the incident), the big question was what would happen with Best Picture.  But leading up to that were a few awards that seemed to indicate which way the wind would be blowing.  Most of the technical awards went to Dune (as expected), but there seemed to be very little momentum heading into the ceremony that Dune would win Best Picture.  The film would go on to win six awards (the most of any movie that night), but not any of the major awards.  It’s still crazy to me that Denis Villeneuve was not nominated for Best Director.  That award went to Jane Campion, a very deserving winner for The Power of the Dog.  The fact that Campion won was not a shock – she was a heavy favorite going into the ceremony.  What was stunning was that the film only won for one of its twelve nominations.  There was talk that it could win for Best Cinematography (which went to Dune) or Best Adapted Screenplay (which went to CODA).  In fact, Campion’s win was the first time since 1967 that a picture won the Best Director Oscar, and nothing else.  For my fellow film nerds, that director was Mike Nichols, who won for The Graduate. 

Before we get to the big award, let’s pause on the screenplay awards.  The one minor disappointment for me that night was seeing Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast win for Best Original Screenplay instead of Licorice Pizza, written by one of my favorite directors, Paul Thomas Anderson.  I was quite disappointed when this was announced, but that was short-lived as CODA’s writer-director Sian Heder was awarded the Best Adapted Screenplay a few minutes later and that’s when I knew that what was unthinkable a few months ago was now likely to happen.  But before I get there, a few words about Anderson.  On the one hand, I was kind of bummed he didn’t get his Oscar, but on the other hand, I don’t want a token prize for him.  He is such a master at the craft of writing and directing, I want his Oscar moment to be grand.  He has been long recognized by the Academy, with eleven nominations across six films, including three Best Picture nominations.  Licorice Pizza was excellent, but not on par with his best work.  I’m hoping his next film is a grand movie that resonates with critics and audiences as a masterpiece and he gets his moment in the sun with wins for Picture, Director and Screenplay.  Sometimes, it’s worth waiting for the best in life.

Best Picture

For several months, it seemed like The Power of the Dog was the frontrunner to take home the big prize but that changed in recent weeks as CODA gained momentum.  Heading into the ceremony, this was described as the big showdown between Netflix vs. Apple.  This was the fourth straight year that Netflix had a major film in play for Best Picture, but just like Roma, The Irishman, and Mank before it, The Power of the Dog came up short.  Now, it’s kind of strange to call one of the largest companies in the world an “underdog” in a battle between two mammoth technology companies, but CODA was an underdog, even if Apple isn’t.  Technically the movie is an Apple property, but it was truly an independent film that Apple acquired out of Sundance for a record $25 million.  It should also be pointed out that the Oscar winner for Best Documentary was also acquired out of Sundance.  If you haven’t seen Summer of Soul (whose director, Questlove, had his speech marred by the incident), check it out on Hulu – it’s fantastic.  So, in this battle for the first streaming service to win Best Picture, Apple came out on top.  It looks like Netflix will have to try again next year, but will likely be facing another Apple battle – this time in the form of a movie they actually financed, Killers of the Flower Moon from director Martin Scorsese, my most anticipated film of 2022.

So, how did CODA go from indie festival darling to Best Picture winner?  Well, Apple ran a brilliant marketing campaign to voters and it seems like there were two things that helped turn the tide.  First, the cast of CODA won the Best Ensemble Award at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in late February.  It’s kind of a “Best Picture equivalent” award and the film’s co-star Marlee Matlin gave an inspiring speech about the movie and the award.  The second thing that happened was it seems like more of the Academy’s voting members actually watched the movie.  AppleTV+ is still an emerging streaming service and the film wasn’t widely released in theaters, and even though members had easy access to see CODA, it seems like many didn’t until late in the voting process.  There were many reports about how people just loved the movie and how nice it was to watch something that made you feel good.  While many people “admired” The Power of the Dog, they “loved” CODA, and they voted with their heart.  As I wrote last week, I think after a pretty shitty two years, people liked feeling good again and this movie did that.    

Now, at the risk of breaking my arm patting myself on the back, I was at the front of the CODA train after I watched it 14 months ago at the Sundance (virtual) Film Festival.  I gushed about how much I loved it here, in a caption I called “This is why I love movies.”  If you had told me then that it would win Best Picture, I would have thought you were crazy.  But that’s exactly what happened and I couldn’t be happier.  It makes me just as excited for another great movie year to come. 

Thanks to Keri for the encouragement to write this post and thanks to all of you for reading.  See you down the road.