Reaction Shots: Everybody’s Winning All At Once
An Oscars Post Mortem, plus a review of Pearl.
One rationale for paying attention to the Academy Awards is that it’s like seeing a friend getting honoured, which I’ve heard from several film critics over the years on social media. While it sounds self-serving coming from them, it is still part of human nature to see someone who seems average rise to the effort. Even better is when they are back at the top, finally getting the recognition they deserve, after years of career wilderness. But I’d say the reason why someone should watch the Oscars isn’t simply that they are happy for them, but that the movies they represent are about as worthy. But that seems secondary to the parasocial connections that we make with these actors, directors and writers, while an industry driven by PR mavens is maintaining the show.
Enter Key Hu Qan, a Vietnamese man who was a prominent child star in The Temple of Doom as Short Round and appeared in the 80s nostalgia fest The Goonies. After that, he had difficulty navigating the ins and outs of Hollywood, succumbing to production assistance like stunt work and helping the director. But then Everything Everywhere All At Once. A blatant mess of a film, it was the key to Qan’s comeback and his winning Best Supporting Actor. The speech was authentic and heartwarming as he thanked his mother and the lawyer who once appeared in The Goonies as Chunk, reuniting with Harrison Ford as the film ultimately received Best Picture. Qan winning was not the only genuinely great moment of its kind. Brendan Fraser winning Best Actor for The Whale (as well as locked in A24’s sweep of every major category, except for Best Adapted Screenplay) is not something that I preferred, but considering that he had been sexually abused during his heyday in Hollywood, it is something that I’m not against. Even I’m not against Michelle Yeoh winning over Cate Blanchett for Tar or Jamie Lee Curtis winning Best Supporting Actress and giving a shoutout to ‘genre cinema’. Beyond that, there’s a sweet acceptance speech for the Best Live Action Short where we see a man with Down Syndrome being sung Happy Birthday, so it seems like there is no shortage of instances where everyone was feeling jovial, because the show can finally allow themselves to take advantage of that emotion.
Having been following the Oscars for many years, politics being imbued in the show is an expectation, rather than a given. Politics in entertainment and art are a bit like salt. Put a sprinkle in it, the flavours pop up and the art becomes fascinating. More than that, it is shallow poison. In previous years, winners make speeches, often referencing how much the Republican President sucks (or in Brad Pitt’s case, when he won Best Supporting Actor for Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, gives a shoutout to John Bolton of all people) while berating the audience and the Academy for not nominating a female director with a live show. This year, even while the politicking is still there - one of the Daniels managed to sneak in his experience being a drag kid, in his speech winning Best Director, possibly erupting the conniptions of the woman behind Libs of TikTok - much of it was quelled, because everyone - from the viewer watching at home to the crowds - like these people and think they deserve to be the victors. No one’s playing the victim. They are very happy to be here.
Absent from last year’s ceremony was a few technical categories like Best Production Design and Best Original Score. Michael B Jordan and Jonathan Majors came on stage to bring the award for Best Cinematography, and it was remarkable that they presented the fact that Citizen Kane was shot on the stage below, or John Cho and Mindy Kaling demonstrating how the Best Original Score is applicable in their daily routine. It’s a notch above actors joking about the nominees in previous years, because however the execution, at least shows that they are taking the smaller categories seriously.
For once, I do not want the host to be the face of the Oscars, and this has been plaguing the Academy in figuring out how to make themselves relevant, and this was finally achieved this year. Jimmy Kimmel is not funny, but there are some jokes he delivered that got a chuckle me. But he didn’t overstay his welcome, compared to Anne Hathaway, James Franco, Seth Macfarlane, Neil Patrick Harris, Amy Schumer, or anybody on an even longer list.
This is way better than last year’s ceremony, but it seems like taking baby steps. The In Memoriam segment is controversial for all the right reasons, omitting the likes of Chalbi Dean, who appeared in Triangle of Sadness, Tony Sirico and Paul Sorvino, seen in the Oscars adorably crying in front of Mira Sorvino winning Best Supporting Actress in 1996. It’s the kind of thing where it could have been easily solved by a Google search of people who died throughout the past year.
Nevertheless, it reminded me of why I liked watching the Oscars and was interesting in the first place. If it’s not about the films being chosen as some of the best, whether or not anyone has seen them, then it’s the people being nominated and how much you want them to succeed. However I feel about any of them winning or losing, these movies will stand on their own. Tar, The Fabelmans and The Banshees of Inishirin did not win anything, but these movies are good enough to be recognised by anybody else. And I think that if there’s a reason why the Academy Awards won’t matter, it’s this one.
Lagged Releases: Pearl (2022)
This is a new section in which I review movies that were given delayed releases in Australia.
I was pleasantly surprised that Pearl, a prequel to Ti West’s X, was a big improvement over the generic original. I think Mia Goth’s character Pearl is far more interesting compared to Maxxine, a wannabe adult star who shares the same ambitions. Pearl comes off as a carefully focused, Technicolor-filtered character study of a woman, who has tainted dreams of becoming a movie star, much like Maxxine. The visual flourishes from Ti West help enhance the lampooning of her artificiality, stemming from Douglas Sirk and Victor Fleming or the movies that Pearl has seen at the local theatre. This doesn’t build any tension to Pearl’s anxieties that were typical in X, so much as to push away from her. This may temper any expectations of it being a straight-up slasher, but it is carried by Goth’s close commitment to this character, whose prospects come across as delusional, but are otherwise human when you consider the excessive boundaries made by her traditional German family and their fears of a deadly disease overriding any layer of her idealism. The most significant aspect of Goth’s performance is her wrathful facial expressions. One particular stare is further emphasized by the end credits, and as that rolls, it cements how unsettling Pearl is to everyone.
You Must Memorize This: When Did The Oscars Stop Respecting Animation?
One underrated aspect of the Oscars is its neglect of animation. The Best Animated Feature has always been one of the first categories presented, and for some reason, it’s often presented by children for children. Look at how it was presented last year, by Lily James, Halle Bailey and Naomi Scott, all of whom play live versions of Cinderella, Ariel and Jasmine, three of Disney’s most classic characters. That the nominees are conflated as movies exclusive to kids is deeply insulting, and played out as one of the main problems of the previous ceremony.
A video investigation by the YouTube channel Schafrillas Productions explores why animation had a brief renaissance with the Oscars, being nominated for some of the major categories, and beyond Best Original Score and Song, which has often been dominated by Disney. The Best Animated Feature somehow ghettoizes the genre, resting upon a few major releases - usually with Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks - and small movies from across the world.
This may make you feel angry, watching it, but I still think there is hope. This year’s winner is Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, which I find to be really touching. Even more hopeful is Del Toro saying in his acceptance speech that animation is not a genre, but a cinema. I think that these comments will rest upon the state of animation perceived by the Academy, which is perceived to be part and parcel with the Disney monopoly. Unfortunately, that monopoly has brought major efforts that are homogenized slop and have little to offer with originality.
The Kino Around The Corner: Fire of Love (2022)
The Best Documentary Feature Oscar was given to Navalny, which centres on Russia’s exiled opposition leader Alexei Navalny. However, I prefer it was won by Fire of Love, a documentary that largely consists of archival footage utilized by volcanologist couple Katia and Maurice Krafft. It is utterly beautiful, and I regret not seeing it in a movie theatre, where its grand scope would be largely complemented. I was a bit sceptical about whether the film’s whole can survive through Miranda July’s droll narration, a personality aspect that I find to be a massive turn-off. Thankfully, July grows on you, particularly during moments when the Kraffts have to confront the chaotic happenings of the volcanos they are happening. These are really charming people, with a large interest in their field, although I do wish that romantic chemistry is emphasized more. If documentaries have more cinematic ambition, I think it would bring the genre forward with bigger leaps.