While not nearly as fun as the telecast hosted by Ellen DeGeneres two years ago and rising significantly higher than last year's disastrous telecast hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, the 88th Academy Awards ceremony as hosted by Chris Rock found itself somewhere in the middle-ground, yet not conservatively so by any means. On the contrary, this year's Oscar telecast was decidedly sharper, pricklier, more turbulent and undeniably more sobering and rightfully politically charged, jointly due to the content of the nominated films themselves (and that even includes Director George Miller's highly celebrated and awarded "Mad Max: Fury Road") but also due to the controversy surrounding the awards themselves as the Academy's infamous exclusion of African-American nominees for the second year in a row prompted the #OscarsSoWhite protests.
The tenor of the evening in full arrived immediately as everything truly came down to Rock and how he would handle the proceedings during his opening monologue and for 10 blistering minutes, he did not disappoint in the least. Fearlessly, Chris Rock, whom I wondered was subversively dressed in a white tuxedo, went there, over and again, and often to the obvious discomfort of the audience, he nailed every aspect of the Oscar controversy with truth and soul and an unrepentant satirical bite that would have made the likes of George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce extremely proud.
Chris Rock's opening monologue was wide ranging yet intensely focused. Whether referring to the Oscars as the "White People's Choice Awards" or roasting Jada Pinkett Smith for boycotting an event she was never invited to attend, or speaking to a variety of aspects concerning Hollywood's lack of diversity to its more "sorority racist" attitudes to whether the lack of Black nominees is even a topic worthy of protest, especially considering that out of 88 years of Oscar, quite possibly there were "71 other times" Black actors were never nominated, Rock's jokes were more than funny. They drew blood.
None moreso than two bodyslammers in particular. One, during which he barbed that this year's In Memoriam section of the show would feature images of "black people that were shot by the cops on their way to the movies" and secondly and most savagely, the reason that there were no Oscar protests in the 1960's was because "We had real things to protest, you know? We're too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won Best Cinematographer. When your Grandmother's swinging from a tree, it's really hard to care about Best Documentary Foreign Short." Chris Rock carpet bombed the stage all with his trademark smile and confidence that only seemed to build and become even more emboldened the more dangerous the material revealed itself to be. It was truly a provocative beginning to an evening that was filled with provocative moments, some more playful than others, but always thought provoking and often sobering.
Rock continued his specialized brand of comical socio-political commentary with some great pre-taped segments, including his interviews with patrons from a Compton, California movie theater, all of whom had all seen "Straight Outta Compton" but were unfamiliar with any other motion pictures, presumably due t the complete lack of prominent Black actors within those films (save for one young woman who enjoyed Angelina Jolie-Pitt's "By The Sea," to which Rock riffed that neither Jolie-Pitt nor her co-star/husband Brad Pitt had even seen that film themselves). And then, I enjoyed the segment during which the likes of Rock, Tracy Morgan and Leslie Jones were magically inserted into scenes from "The Martian," "The Danish Girl" and "The Revenant" to illustrate the lack of opportunities Black actors receive in major Hollywood and independent prestige films.
Beyond Rock, other comedic presenters added to the satirical mix like Kevin Hart and especially Louis CK, who brilliantly showcased the economic disparity between Oscar nominees seated within the same room by sharply exclaiming that a figure like Leonardo DiCaprio would still be a millionaire whether he won or lost but the winner of the Best Documentary Short Feature category would inevitably be driving home in a Honda Civic. No, not every moment worked, but the ones that did stuck terrifically and stung powerfully.
I do realize that for many viewers, they are fully put off when celebrities take what is essentially an entertainment show and utilize the platform to proselytize over one cause or another and I am certain those feelings have been echoed again. But for me, I have never had a problem with those moments as being actors, performers and creative artists does n tin any way detract from any of those individuals being human citizens of the world. Last night's telecast felt to be especially paramount to speeches and moments of a more political slant as the nominated films themselves all carried their own political agendas (once again, even "Mad Max: Fury Road"), so why shouldn't the actors expound upon their positions and beliefs? And honestly, how could one not be affected by the moment during Lady Gaga's vehemently emotional performance of the Oscar nominated song "'Til It Happens To You" from the campus rape documentary "The Hunting Ground," during which she was surrounded by survivors of sexual assault? Just unforgettable.
And yet for every moment of impassioned sincerity, there were several moments that felt so disingenuous and downright false, they threatened to negate all of the surrounding displays of honesty. Take the broadcast's opening montage of the films of 2015, which heavily featured clips from "Creed" starring the non-nominated Michael B. Jordan and most egregiously, clips from "Straight Outta Compton" starring the cast, all of whom were not even invited to attend the ceremony, was insulting to say the least. The house band's performance of Public Enemy's "Fight The Power" at the evening's conclusion was laughable. But, it was Academy President Cheryl Bone Isaacs' speech about the necessary changes Oscar is compelled to make from this point going forwards that rubbed me the wrong way. Invoking the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is almost a cliche regardless of the intent, a certain "Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free" card which is ultimately meaningless until results are actually seen--something which may not actually play out for a few years now due to when films were placed into production and then finally released. So, let's see where we are one year from now...
Even so, this is the Academy Awards and moments of fluff and levity were more than welcome, such as Chris Rock's shakedown of the audience to purchase his daughter's Girl Scout cookies (clearly an update of DeGeneres' pizza moment from her show) and I just fund it charming to see young Jacob Tremblay from "Room" nearly leap out of his seat to see C-3PO, R2D2 and BB-8 amble onto the stage for some Oscar banter.
As for my predictions...well...I made out quite well overall. While I did not write an official prediction posting this year, mostly out of protest, I had some ideas in my head and I mostly had them picked out aside from Kate Winslet not winning for "Steve Jobs" in the Best Supporting Actress category and unquestionably the stunning surprise of Sylvester Stallone not receiving the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for "Creed," something everyone felt was to be a shoo-in, especially considering that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the original "Rocky." While I would have loved for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" to have taken just one award, it was indeed wonderfully justified to see "Mad Max: Fury Road" essentially sweep the night with its heavy and extremely deserved award tally. And finally, "Spotlight" wining Best Picture of the year just does not sit well with me. Yes, it is a good film, a very good, solid film but I contend that it is indeed heavily over-rated and furthermore, I can easily name 10-20 films I saw in 2015 that I felt were even better and more deserving of this high level recognition.
And good Lord, doesn't Sam Smith's song from "Spectre" just suck!
But the show's greatest crime, each and every year, is the mammoth broadcast length to which they can never seem to trim the fat. Did we really need to see the Minions or better yet Woody and Buzz? The "pop-up" actor stats and the "Thank You Ticker Scroll" were decent ideas in theory but proved themselves to be distracting and certainly useless in keeping the show moving quickly. And didn't any of you also find it to be tasteless that the house band repeatedly used Wagner's "Ride Of The Valkyries" (!) as the music to usher Oscar winners from the podium????
This year, dear readers, I was actually not terribly enthused to watch the Oscar telecast due to the controversy as well as the nominations themselves generally. But as the show concluded with Chris Rock's open invitation for everyone to attend the BET Awards this summer and followed by a triumphant "Black Lives Matter!" I realized just how glad I was that I did watch.
With 2015 behind us, I look forward to what cinematic gifts 2016 will hopefully bring to me and to all of us!
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