What we liked about the telecast: Good vibes, human touches, and wrapping up at 10:30
It almost didn’t matter who you were rooting for during Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony. Awards-wise, the night went largely as predicted, with one or two surprises, especially Emma Stone’s win for best actress for “Poor Things,” which left her breathless and sweetly flustered. These days, with all the months of advance chatter and campaigning, it’s increasingly hard for an awards show like the Oscars not to arrive as a fait accompli.
The enjoyment was in the overall sense of warmth. Vibe-wise, the night was a mostly winning affair, with enough good cheer and smart production decisions to make for a pleasing telecast. The ceremony included its necessary share of broadly entertaining bits, notably Ryan Gosling’s rendition of “I’m Just Ken,” which started with Gosling in the audience and expanded to include a full cast of tuxedoed Kens on stage, an appearance by Slash of Guns N’ Roses, and a dancing, singing audience featuring director Greta Gerwig and star Margot Robbie. The song gave the “Barbie” people — in the audience and at home — their big pink moment in the sun.
But the event was flexible enough to include more intimate moments that worked well, softer ones than the John Cena streaker business, in which the nude actor declined to re-create the moment when a naked runner interrupted the Oscars in 1974. There was the pin-drop moment when Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell held the audience in their hands as they performed a plaintive version of “What Was I Made For?,” which won best original song.
And the acting award presentations brought a sense of quiet focus, even authenticity, to a night that can easily overwhelm any bit that turns down the volume. For each category, the producers brought five past winners onto the stage to pay tribute to this year’s five nominees. Then each past winner addressed one of the nominees directly — Lupita Nyong’o spoke to Da’Vine Joy Randolph, for example — bringing everyone into what seemed like heartfelt one-on-one messages of respect, support, and admiration. It was the kind of Oscar-history referencing that, unlike the usual barrage of clips, had a human touch.
As host for a fourth time, Jimmy Kimmel was just fine — which, sad to say, is usually the best any awards-show host can be. His monologue material was nothing special, but, wisely, he didn’t try to sell it hard. He had an amusing interaction with a game Robert Downey Jr., when he said, “This is the highest point of Robert Downey Jr.’s long and illustrious career, or one of the highest points.” When the audience clapped loudly after he said it was too bad Gerwig had not been nominated for best director, he quipped, “Don’t act like you had nothing to do with this.”
But none of his jokes resonated like his tribute to the union members who participated in the strikes last year, during which he brought crew members onstage. “Before we celebrate ourselves,” he said, “let’s have a very welldeserved round of applause for the people who work behind the scenes.” The audience quickly rose to their feet. Late in the night, Kimmel read from a review of his hosting job that had just been posted on social media by Donald Trump. “Has there ever been a worse host than Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars?” Trump wrote. “Isn’t it past your jail time?” Kimmel responded.
The night included the usual range of acceptance speeches, from the poignant to the frenetic, with references to everything from Randolph’s publicist to troubling international issues. Downey, a winner for best supporting actor for “Oppenheimer,” delivered what may be my new favorite expression of gratitude from the Oscar stage: “I’d like to thank my terrible childhood,” he said. And Jonathan Glazer, the director of “The Zone of Interest,” grieved events in Israel and Gaza. “Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza,” he said, “all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?” Mstyslav Chernov, the director of “20 Days in Mariupol,” said he wished he never had to make the film about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
So the Oscars weren’t so bad? It can’t be discounted that the night started an hour earlier than usual — a change I’m hoping catches on. Yes, the telecast was too long — it’s always too long, that’s part of the Oscar brand — but it didn’t sting as much when the 3½-hour-long ceremony ended at 10:30 p.m.
And there was a reward for those still watching after the “Oppenheimer” folks accepted their best picture statue: A clip of Messi, the dog from “Anatomy of a Fall,” lifting a leg and urinating on Kimmel arch-enemy Matt Damon’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star.