Jay Berg's CINEMA DIARY: 2019 POST AA-RAMBLINGS

Tuesday March 12, 2019

THE SHOW (** out of 4)

Pre-show rumors were swirling that Whoopie Goldberg would appear as a surprise host since she was mysteriously missing from her normal duties on ABC's "The View". In actuality, she was recovering from double pneumonia and sepsis - which almost ended her existence. For me, this telecast had ME nearly "dying" - from boredom. Oh, there were a smattering of bright spots but, overall, the absence of a top-notch host, elaborate productions numbers, and the usual sprinkling of movie clips had me yearning for the good 'ol days. The end result: dull intros, tedious speeches, and, except for one major award surprise, fairly predictable results. I was actually praying for a visual pratfall such as when Jennifer Lawrence tripped up the podium steps during the 2017 telecast.

I hereby propose that future Oscars come up with one or more persons that can host and be the focal point of the usual narcissism and provide a certain cohesiveness and levity to the proceedings. If so, my overall rating might just actually improve to 2 1/2 stars.

My annual apologies to Sergio Leone, as this breakdown will pretty much sum up the event through this reviewer's eyes:

THE GOOD

- The rousing opening of "We Will Rock You" &"We Are The Champions" by Queen fronted by ex-"American Idol" runner-up alumnus Adam Lambert was not, unfortunately, a harbinger of what followed - except for . . .

- The performance of "Shallow" from A Star Is Born by Lady Ga Ga and her co-star Bradley Cooper which might go down as one of the most electrifying moments in Oscar History. That alone raised by star rating for the show from 1 1/2 to 2.

- The producers might be wise to consider having the first presenters after Queen's opening serve as hosts. Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph were top-notch. And long-time friends Fey & Poehler have tremendous experience after doing the hosting duties for three years (2013-2015) at the Golden Globes. Or maybe try again next year with Kevin Hart if the current PC insanity gripping the country lets up even a little bit.

- The second best presenters were two other SNL alumni Dana Carvey and Mike Myers who hilariously recreated their Wayne's World bit. It didn't hurt that a mainstay of their SNL classic skit was their characters' inspirational love of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and Myers's supporting role in the movie with the same namesake.

- Although the organizers tried to keep the broadcast under three hours, they were relatively close at 3 hours and 17 minutes (3 hours and 13 minutes before the closing credits). A far cry from the all-time 2002 record of 4 hours and 23 minutes when Whoopi hosted. (Last year the running time was 3 hours and 53 minutes.) No doubt eliminating lame inane time-consuming bits by previous hosts (for example in 2014 when host Ellen DeGeneres took audience members across the street to surprise a movie audience) helped considerably shorten the running time. Now if they could make the overall Oscars production less dull!

- The beautiful tribute music played by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra of a rendition of a John Williams' composition during the "In Memoriam" segment.

- There were only a few scattered instances of hearing the annoying cue from the orchestra signaling to the minor awardees to get the f*** off the stage after 90 seconds. Most of those speeches were thankfully brief.

- The official end of #OscarsSoWhite diversity debate in the major and tech awards. Three of the four acting awards went to people of color (Regina King, Mahershala Ali and Rami Malek), Alfonso Cuarón (Best Director & Cinematography), winners of Best Documentary as well as Best Animated Feature and Short. Added to the list were the first African-American women (Ruth E. Carter & Hannah Beachler) to win Best Costume and Production Design (for Black Panther) and Spike Lee for Best Adapted Screenplay to complement his honorary Oscar in 2016.

- I did fairly well with my predictions (see my Pre-AA Ramblings column below). Although I hit on 11 of my 17 picks (64%), I had correctly predicted the long shot winner for 5 of the 6 misses. The only total disaster pick is the one that I would wager very few had: Free Solo beating out RBG for Best Documentary. For some reason, the Academy has a difficult time with this category. Films that clearly should be nominated and that end up winning multiple pre-Oscar awards are ignored and miss the final cut time and time again. And predicting the winner is often a head-scratcher. Not that Free Solo was totally undeserving; however, the film about the elder Supreme Court Justice had already won eight critic and festival awards. Keep that in mind when betting your precious ducats in this category next year.

- The final numbers improved to 29.6 million viewers with a 7.7 rating of adults 18-49. That was a gain of 3.1 million from last year. However . . .

THE BAD

- Those numbers were the second worse of all-time from last years record lows, marking four years of stark declines.

- Despite helping to keep down the running time, the absence of a host to maintain a certain sense of continuance was ultimately missed.

- One of the reasons for the continuation of relatively low viewership numbers has to be the public's disdain for the unrelenting political negativity spewed by the Hollywood left-which only serves to turn off approximately half of their audience who are only looking to be entertained by the "snowflakes".

- As usual, the "In Memoriam" segment had several baffling omissions, despite the announcement that not all departed artists could be included. Among the most notable: Carol Channing (who was an Oscar nominee for 1967's Thoroughly Modern Millie), Sandra Locke (another nominee for her first film, 1968's The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, and who was a long-time corroborator with Clint Eastwood), character actor Dick Miller (who appeared in over 100 movies), John Mahoney, and, despite his passing three days before the broadcast, acclaimed On the Town and Singin' in the Rain director Stanley Donen. (For a complete list of who were and who weren't included, click here.)

THE UGLY

- True ugly moments were hard to enumerate in the generally placid production. However, the one repugnant incident that truly defined the term "sour grapes" was the off-camera action of one of the nominees for Best Picture that was reported after the fact by numerous media outlets. After finally winning a non-honorary Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, it seemed Spike Lee wasn't content and instead decided to show his disgust when his film wasn't announced for Best Picture at the end of the show. It was reported that Lee stood up and started to walk out and returned after the winners' acceptance speeches concluded.

AND NOW. . . THE ANNUAL JAY B CINEMA DIARY OSCAR SHOW AWARDS.THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE. . .

THE 1st BIGGEST SURPRISE LOSER - Glenn Close (losing to Olivia Colman for Best Actress).

THE 2nd BIGGEST SURPRISE LOSER - Roma for Best Picture. Although I correctly predicted the eventual winner (Green Book), Roma was the odds-on favorite to win.

THE LEAST SURPRISING WINNER - Lady Ga Ga (Best Original Song).

THE 2ND LEAST SURPRISING WINNER - Alfonso Cuarón (Best Cinematography).

THE BEST PRESENTERS WHO SHOULD BE CONSIDERED HOSTS IN 2020 - Ex-Saturday Night alums Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph.

THE 2nd BEST PRESENTERS WHO SHOULD BE HOSTS IN 2020 - Ex-Saturday Night Live alums Mike Myers and Dana Carvey.

THE 3rd BEST PRESENTERS WHO SHOULD BE HOSTS IN 2020 - Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians) and comedian John Mulaney.

BEST HEARTFELT ACCEPTANCE SPEECH - Best Actress winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite) who was as shocked as the rest of the viewing audience when she beat out Glenn Close. Spontaneously funny and genuine, teary-eyed Colman's acceptance speech was appropriately humble and memorable.

2nd BEST HEARTFELT ACCEPTANCE SPEECH - Lady Ga Ga winning for "Shallow". Tearful to the end she gave maximum credit to co-writer of the song to Bradley Cooper and passionately related what it took for her to get to this point in her career.

FUNNIEST ACCEPTANCE SPEECH - Best Documentary Short winners for Period. End Of Sentence about the effort to educate young girls on menstruation in rural India. Co-winner Rayka Zehtabchi, after being handed the award, gleefully exclaimed, "I'm not crying because I'm on my period" and then followed that by saying "I can't believe a film about menstruation just won an Oscar!".

BEST REASON FOR HANDING OUT THE MINOR AWARDS LIVE - Rayka Zehtabchi's hilarious acceptance speech.

WORST ACCEPTANCE SPEECH - Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe and Patricia Dehaney, winners of Best Makeup (for Vice) who appeared totally unprepared of what to say and who to thank. Never was the orchestra cue and microphone cut-off more welcomed.

BEST REASON FOR HANDING OUT MINOR AWARDS DURING COMMERCIALS- Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe and Patricia Dehaney who acceptances were a disaster.

BEST VISUAL JOKE - Best Costume Design presenters Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry whose garb "channeled" The Favourite, Mary Queen Of Scots, Mary Poppins Returns and Black Panther replete with McCarthy sporting a bunny hand-puppet and a whole bunch of stuffed bunnies sewed onto her dress (see photo below). (If you haven't seen The Favourite you wouldn't get that joke.)

WORST VISUAL JOKE - Kegan-Michael Key's gimmick as he floated down from the ceiling holding an umbrella (a nod to Mary Poppins Returns) before presenting Bette Midler's performance of "The Place Where Lost Things Go".

BEST ACTING CON JOB THAT HAD TWITTER ALL AFLUTTER - Lady Ga Ga & Bradley Cooper whose sizzling performance of "Shallow" had the country muttering that the two should get a hotel room. Ga Ga later revealed that it was all planned after rehearsing all week to reenact their torrid cinematic love affair from A Star Is Born. With Cooper's main squeeze watching from the audience, it would have been totally inappropriate of him for this to be anything for what it was: ACTING.

BEST REACTION TO WINNING AN OSCAR - Spike Lee who, after ascending the Dolby Theater stage, immediately jumped into the arms of presenter Samuel L. Jackson.

THE #1 WTF PRESENTER MOMENT - Tennis player Serena Williams (HUH?) presenting the nominated film A Star Is Born.

THE #2 WTF PRESENTER MOMENT - Civil rights advocate Rep. John Lewis (HUH??) presenting the nominated film Green Book.

THE #3 WTF PRESENTER MOMENT - Chef Jose Andres (HUH???) presenting the nominated film Roma. (I get it that Williams, Lewis and Andres have a peripheral connection to the themes of these films but couldn't they keep the proceedings strictly Hollywood?)

WINNER OF THE MOST OSCARS - Although The Favourite and Roma garnered the most noms (10 each), it was Bohemian Rhapsody that won the night with four: Best Actor (Rami Malek) and three technical awards.

THE TWITTER TAGLINE THAT WAS FINALLY PUT TO REST - #OscarsSoWhite. Awards to people of color went to winners of three of the four acting awards, to several filmmakers, to a number of tech award winners, as well as to two African-Americans women who won for the first-time in the best costume and production design categories (Black Panther).

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN AWARD - Goes to comedian Kevin Hart who was uninvited to host. When the only film montage of the evening was shown, they included a snippet of Hart in his film Night Trip.

THE BIGGEST ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM AWARD - Goes to director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men) whose film, Bohemian Rhapsody, won the most awards. Nobody accepting their four awards mentioned the disgraced director who, amid recent allegations of sexual abuse, was fired with less than three weeks of filming remaining for missing from the set for days at a time.

MOST PREPARED FOR HIS/HER ACCEPTANCE SPEECH(ES) - Alfonso Cuarón, who easily won this award after accepting three separate times for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography, and Best Director for Roma. The talented director Mexican director, who wrote, produced, directed, edited and shot the acclaimed Netflix film, managed to make each speech unique, relevant and interesting.

BEST FREDDIE MERCURY IMPRESSION - I cannot think of another person who would have fittingly filled the deceased Queen front man's shoes better than the 2009 ex-American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert, whose electrifying performance opened the show.

OSCAR TELECAST PICS