‘ La La Land ’ ‘ Moonlight’
Politics, diversity and awkward moments
By Li Jingjing
Just when everyone thought that jokes about US President Donald Trump would be the highlight of this year’s Oscar, an awkward mix- up at the end of the show in which the Best Picture Award was accidentally awarded to La La Land and not the true winner Moonlight stole the spotlight.
The memorable mix- up occurred when Best Picture presenter Warren Beatty was accidentally given the card for the Best Actress Award, which listed Emma Stone for La La Land. The confused 79- year- old actor showed the card to fellow presenter Faye Dunaway, who, thinking Beatty was playing around, read the name of the film without realizing that the card was for another category and not Best Picture.
While the cast and crew of La La Land began their acceptance speech, Oscar organizers rushed in to reveal that a mistake had been made and that Moonlight was the true winner. The reveal came as a complete surprise to the audience and even the cast and crew of Moonlight, as nothing like this had ever happened in the Academy Awards’ nearly nine decades- long history.
The correction came too late for many in the media, as outlets, including many in China, posted this “fake news” on their websites and social media platforms immediately after La La Land was announced the winner. Naturally this led to numerous followup corrections a few minutes later.
As the evening came to an end, Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel joked, “I know I would screw up the show.”
Slamming Trump
Prior to the big mix- up, politics seemed to be one of the major topics of the night. The digs at Trump kicked off with Kimmel’s opening monologue, “I want to say thank you to President Trump,” Kimmel said.
“Last year, it seemed like the Oscars were racist.”
Kimmel was clearly referring to 2016’ s awards, when the Academy was criticized for not nominating any black actors or actresses, triggering a social media movement lead by the hashtag # OscarSoWhite on Twitter.
Kimmel also tweeted to Trump twice on stage during the live show.
“Hey @ realDonaldTrump, u up?” reads the first tweet, and minutes later he tweet “@ realDonaldTrump # Merylsayshi.”
A month earlier at the Golden Globes, Meryl Streep took aim at Trump in her acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Trump later responded on Twitter calling her “one of the most over- rated actresses in Hollywood.”
The strongest shot at Trump at the Oscars came from Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, whose film The Salesman won the Best Foreign Language Film Award.
Protesting Trump’s travel ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries including Iran, Farhadi boycotted this year’s ceremony. In his place, Iranian- American engineer Anousheh Ansari, the first Iranian to go to space, read a statement from Farhadi, “My absence is out of respect for the people of my country, and those of other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the US.”
Celebrating diversity
While 2016’ s all- white acting nominee list caused controversy, this year’s Academy Awards saw increased diversity.
African- American actor Mahershala Ali won Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Moonlight, a drama that follows a young black man’s troubled life journey growing up in a rough neighborhood.
The film, which also won a Golden Globe for best drama, debuted to critical acclaim. On review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes, Moonlight holds a 98 percent freshness ratings while the Critics Consensus reads, “Moonlight uses one man’s story to offer a remarkable and brilliantly crafted look at lives too rarely seen in cinema.”
Despite the critical acclaim and awards, some audiences have proposed that Moonlight’s Oscar win was a reaction to last year’s controversy and an attempt by the Academy to be politically correct.
Chinese film critic Yuan Dengyu disagrees with this viewpoint.
“This film is not deliberately making use of politics and social issues but rather following the life journey of a young boy. The storyline and cinematography are both excellent,” Yuan told the Global Times. “It is just a very good film.”
African- American actress Viola Davis won Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in Fences. Directed by renowned actor Denzel Washington, Fences depicts the story of an African- American father struggling to raise a family in the 1950s, a tough time for race relations in the US.
Big winners
La La Land was absolutely the biggest winner of the night, even though it lost Best Picture to Moonlight. In fact, it probably is the biggest winner of all the films last year since it already swept several major film festivals including the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes.
It won six awards – Best Director, Actress in a Leading Role, Production Design, Cinematography, Original Song and Original Score – out of 14 nominations, the most nominations in the history of the Oscars.
This film has a 93 percent freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes with the Critic Consensus reading “La La Land breathes new life into a bygone genre with thrilling assured direction, powerful performances and irresistible excess of heart.”
Despite this, many moviegoers still don’t understand how the film, which features a Hollywood love story, won so many awards.
“The music is awesome, but besides the muusic, there aren’t t many surprisess in terms of thee story,” Hao Yilei, a film graduate student at the University College London, told the he Global Times on Monday. nday.
Yuan weighedhed in saying that La La Land’s story is “not all that outstanding” but it has all the elements that audiences, especially young audiences, like. “A young and talented director, attractive and popular performers and great use of color and structure.”
Another big winner that t evening was Casey Affleck, , who won the award for Actor in a Leading Role for his performance rmance in Manchester by the Sea. Ironionically, his brother Ben Affleckck just won an award for worst actor for his performance as Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice one day before his younger brother won his Oscar.
If the elder Affleck was jealous he didn’t show it. When Casey’s name was announced, Ben stood up and immediately hugged and kissed his little brother.