The Academy Awards are usually a crap shoot for me. On the one hand, I love movies and love seeing people have serious discussions about what are the best films of the year. On the other hand, they are often extremely political, both in terms of what wins and in terms of the speeches of the winners (both things that I think should be minimized, these are things that I believe have their place in popular discourse but if an Award wants to be taken seriously by me when they award the best achievements in film then they better factor things like that far lower than what is typical).
So as a cinephile who usually prizes the craft of film over the politics, what are some highlights from last night?
5. Eminem’s performance of “Lose Yourself”
As I sat watching the Oscars with the Film Gang I chill with for such events, I was glad that their Academy History is better than mine especially when the highlight reel of “Songs which Transformed Their Films” played. Clips of various musical moments played on the big screen but when a clip from “8 Mile” made an appearance an incredulous half-laugh groan along with the statement “What!? He didn’t even show up to accept his Oscar for that movie.”
I didn’t know that up until that moment but it sure made the moment when the stage lifted up the band and EMINEM himself as they waded into a poorly mixed but totally live performance of his most iconic song for movie watchers. Sure it was a mixed reaction from the younger audience members but those of the right age were all lip-syncing along with him as he symbolically healed any rift there might have been between him and the Cinematic Community. Also, I just love that song.
4. LAURA DERN (A Marriage Story) - Supporting Performance by an Actress
Laura Dern’s win has been a long time coming and her performance in “Marriage Story” is certainly worthy of the award but the highlight was her speech. A wonderful tribute that brought tears to the eyes of her parents as she paid tribute to the great Dianne Ladd and Bruce Dern. Seeing her celebrate the gift she was given as an actress to have acting heroes that the whole world looks up to as your parents and champions. A truly heartwarming and beautiful moment between a daughter and her mother & father.
3. JOAQUIN PHOENIX (Joker) - Leading Performance by an Actor
There will be a lot of discussion and debate around this award. I will say that I thought this was a tough category within which I had few qualms with anyone who happened to win, including Joaquin Phoenix. It was the speech that got me as we rarely see such raw and heartfelt emotion even when a celebrity grand-stands a bit. In fact, that’s usually why we call it grand-stranding. This was anything but that. It was the plea of a man with a very genuine heart pleading for us to reach out to each other and remember that which unites us in a year where America feels so divided. I didn’t pull the classic Michael-move and cry but I was definitely fighting back those tears a bit as he waxed on extemporaneously on many things which had obviously been weighing on his heart and needed expression.
2. LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WARZONE (if you’re a girl) - Documentary Short
I haven’t seen this film yet, but I will. In fact, in my little Film Gang, none of us had, but as we all sat in near silence filling out our Oscar Ballots (the cinephile equivalent of a March Madness Bracket) and then compared we all found that we had independently picked the same film simply because we found the title so intriguing. When “Learning to Skateboard” won, a cry went up from our screening room that I didn’t think could be topped. I believe my personal exclamation was “This country may be divided but there is something we can all agree on: That movie has an awesome title and we all have to see it.” A rare moment when something wins simply because it is so Bad A$$, it is a great example of the power for an award like the Oscars to highlight small yet interesting films and put them on people’s radar when they normally would never have even heard of it.
1. PARASITE (Bong Joon Ho, Jin Won Han ) - Original Screenplay, International Film, Director, and Best Picture
Part of why “Parasite” winning 4 awards is my top highlight is because of the fact that it is amazing but another is because of the interesting way that the night played out. Because of the order that these awards were given, a real story developed. Many people in America may have been surprised, when Bong Joon-ho stood up to accept his award for best original screenplay, to find out, via translator, that it is the first Academy Award ever given to a film from Korea. The joy on his face as he held his awards was as brilliant as a child opening the present he hadn’t even dared to ask for on Christmas morning.
As the night continued and the film continued to win awards we learn several delightful facts. First, that the title of “Best Foreign Language Film” is being abandoned for the less offensive “Best International Feature” and that Korea is the first recipient of the award with that name even as they celebrate their first Oscar Win.
The second revelation, is how humorous Bong Joon-ho is on stage. Even through the language barrier, that his fantastic translator helped us cross, his humor and genuine gracious attitude was apparent and smile inducing in all of us as he kept us all apprised of how his night of celebration (drinks included) was progressing and how he had not prepared to have so much speaking time over the course of the evening.
Having now won three awards, whispers in the room now began as we realized we might see a huge sweep form “Parasite” with a win for Best Picture. Had a film not in English ever won Best Picture? No. Could we be watching history right now? Is the dream of all Cinephiles, the idea that film awards should be based on quality and not things like what language it was in, what celebrity happened to star in it, or a strange king-making split of votes, coming true?
It was. They broke the Language-Barrier.
As someone who has long complained that the films that best picture wins are many times simply popular fare (and I understand the criticism that some will have that this is just more of the same), I was thrilled to see a film, that by all my usual measures of the popular sentiment of the general movie going public, whose definition of what movie is good seems highly suspect to me, of genuine vision, quality, spectacle, and human spirit come out on top. It seems a statement directed at the sameness of American films today to say “You know what? The best movie this year didn’t come from Disney, Warner Brothers, Marvel, or even A24. It came from Korea and if you want to see the best films out there you better get your head out of America once in a while and learn to read.
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