Oscar recap
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Recapping the Oscars
Ironically the buzz in Hollywood was whether or not the 2019 Academy Award presentations would rebound from 2018 which was the lowest rating in the history of the ceremony. Well thanks to performances by Queen and the addition of Lady Gaga the 2019 show surged to the enviable spot of the second worst viewership in history. Last month I didn’t really do a prediction, only mentioned the odds on favorites and even then the outcomes weren’t perfect. I guess that’s why they call it gambling. It’s hard enough, though not impossible, to handicap one fine performance against another but nearly impossible to judge mediocre ones buried under the weight of the ideology of political hacks.
Rami Malek was the odds-on favorite to win best actor even though his role was primarily lip syncing someone else’s voice. Also as opposed to the acceptance speech about an immigrant following his dream oh, Freddie was born in Tanzania part of the British Empire and was always a British citizen. I thought Christian Bale’s performance as Dick Cheney was one of the best I’ve seen in years but how many Oscars can you give the guy? I was also disappointed by the snub of John C Reilly and Steve Coogan for STAN AND OLLIE, both of whom turned in Oscar-worthy performances.
Odds on favorite for best actress, Glenn Close, fell victim to an early release of THE WIFE and the surprising fascination with THE FAVOURITE. Not that Olivia Colman didn’t do a fine job even though I hated the film.
A pleasant surprise was GREEN BOOK taking best picture when every pundit predictor and prognosticator in the world had ROMA taking the gold. I thought ROMA, a foreign language film, had no business in the best picture category and that GREEN BOOK was by far the best picture of the bunch. For once the academy agreed with me.
That’s about it, unless you love political lectures the ceremony wasn’t very entertaining. And even though I love Barbra Streisand and think she is one of the great talents of our generation her introduction of the marginally talented Spike Lee was cringe-worthy, but not nearly as bad as Lee’s sore loser response. Until next year.
See you at Sardi’s
WSS
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