In 2021, it felt like the Oscars had stumbled onto something profound. Limited by COVID restrictions — and not wanting to flash opulence in the midst of an ongoing pandemic — the Academy gave us an Oscars that felt intimate, candid, and fun. So, naturally, this year’s producers elected to create the complete opposite experience, with, uh, mixed results.
READ MORE: Oscars 2022: ‘CODA’ Wins Best Picture, ‘Dune’ Takes 6 Awards [Full Winners List]
There were some great moments at the 2022 Oscars, many of which were provided by the winners who accepted their awards with kindness and grace. There were also some critical mistakes and miscalculations. In trying to make the Oscars more accessible, the Academy managed to alienate industry, diehards, and casual fans alike. And hovering above it all — unshakable — was Will Smith’s slap of Chris Rock, a moment that will take us days to unpack.
Worst: Just Everything About the Pre-Ceremony Award Announcements
Listen. We knew going into Sunday that the Academy’s decision to move several key awards pre-broadcast was a bad one. But actually watching those awards play out in real-time ended up being so much worse than we expected. As many pointed out on social media, the four wins for “Dune” could have grounded the populist narrative the Academy wanted for 2022, and highlighted a degree of overt craftsmanship — the “Dune” production and sound design — that even industry laypeople would recognize. Instead, those announcements came out, sporadically, on Twitter.
Oh, and it gets worse. The Academy’s official Twitter account did not even start sharing the winners until the first three or four categories had been announced — crediting the film, not the individuals who won each award. And once the broadcast started, the Academy intercut those clips with the live broadcast, giving no indication that any of that material was pre-recorded. What a nightmare. (Matthew Monagle)
Best: Ariana DeBose’s Acceptance Speech
If you start handing out Oscars while most of your talent is still on the red carpet, a lot of folks are gonna be uncomfortable with the energy you’ve created in the studio. Since the ceremony was on uneven footing almost from the jump, Ariana DeBose was the best thing that could’ve happened to the producers. While her win had been all but guaranteed for months — she’s a force of nature in “West Side Story” — her speech reintroduced a human element to the broadcast.
Instead of someone telling us how much these movies should mean to us, this was DeBose telling us how much one movie meant to her. And in a night with dozens of speeches, it was her closing comments that were phrased to perfection: “To anybody who has ever questioned your identity — ever, ever, ever — or finds yourself living in the gray spaces, I promise you this: there is indeed a place for us.” (MM)
Worst: Cheer-Worthy Moments
One of the truisms of the Academy Awards is that they are endlessly unsure of how to connect with popular audiences. That fear was clearly the driver for their Cheer-Worthy Moments countdown, which highlighted recent — and, inexplicably, not-so-recent— moments from big-budget Hollywood films. The winner was “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” a film that did not appear in theaters — an odd decision for a broadcast otherwise meant to celebrate the magic of the moviegoing experience.
But no matter how you feel about the category’s selections, the clips themselves seemed disconnected – divorced from any in-show context. Much like the James Bond montage, which could’ve tied into the Best Original Song performance, this clip show seemed to exist merely to provide social media engagement post-show. Who lost a spot on the podium because of this? (MM)
Best: Troy Kotsur’s Acceptance Speech
As the conversations around Best Picture — turning into something of a horse race between the frontrunners — it’s hard not to feel like the conversation around “CODA” has taken on a life of its own. So it was nice to take a moment and center back on the film itself, with Troy Kotsur reminding us of the reason “CODA” was such a festival favorite in 2021.
And in a program so often defined by artifice, it is the moments of sincerity that stand out. Kotsur’s speech was full of them. Youn Yuh-jung gently taking his Oscar to free his hands; Kotsur speaking to the theaters whose accessibility helped him have an acting career; Kotsur’s interpreter getting choked up in the middle of his speech. Each of these actions brought a moment of human connection to the show, and Kotsur’s speech — and performance — seems destined to live on in Oscar history. (MM)
Best: Beyonce
It wasn’t a traditional Oscar opening, but it was Beyonce so, as usual, it was spectacular. The music icon performed her Best Original Song nominee, “Be Alive” from “King Richard,” on the Compton tennis court where Serena and Venus Williams trained before becoming sports legends. Backed by dancers, a horn section, a strings ensemble, and backup singers, Beyonce delivered a captivating performance with everyone wearing muted yellow costumes against a completely yellow court and walls. It was a fantastic opening, and the type of performance the Oscars could use more of in the future. (Gregory Ellwood)
Worst: Crypto Philanthropy
I suppose if you have nothing meaningful to say about the war in Ukraine, letting a cryptocurrency website pay you to market off your moment of silence is certainly one choice. (MM)
Best: Billie Eilish
Strangely separate from what turned out to be a weak James Bond tribute (a clip package? that was it?) Billie Eilish and Finneas performed the title track from “No Time To Die” inside the Dolby Theater. Eilish has performed the song live before, but the Academy show designers found a way to use laser lights to make it her most captivating live performance yet. And, for a theater that is known to have sound issues during the Oscars, Eilish killed it vocally and likely reminded most of the members why they voted for the song in the first place. Our one complaint? The song was cut to just a little over 2 minutes from its usual 4-minute length. Was that cut really necessary? (GE)
Worst: In Memoriam
We’re not sure where to start with this. Beginning in 2009, the Oscars began having live performances to accompany its traditional In Memoriam tribute. This year, producer Will Packer brought in a gospel choir instead of one singular musician. Listen, we love gospel music, but this seemed inappropriate? The choir was simply too upbeat. And then, surprisingly, there were three special tributes during the segment, something Oscar producers have avoided in the past as to not make one passing seem more important than another. The spotlights went to Sidney Poitier, Betty White, and Ivan Reitman. We understood starting it off with the history-making Poitier, but White and Reitman? White deserves this moment at the Emmys, not the Oscars. And Reitman? When Richard Donner and/or Jean-Marc Vallée arguably contributed more? Strange choices overall to say the least. (GE)
Worst: Three bands
Why? Why have DJ D-Nice, then an all-star band, and then a larger, traditional orchestra for each individual hour? They barely seemed part of the telecast. What was the point exactly? (GE)
Best: Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes
Listen, the writers didn’t always provide them with the best material and they disappeared for hours (in Schumer’s case) on end, but when the three emcees were on stage they often elevated their material. Schumer and Hall, in particular, had great individual bits (Hall’s COVID testing bit was quite funny) and while some of Sykes’ bits fell flat, she worked particularly well bouncing off her co-stars. Schumer also was the only one who seemed to acknowledge the Will Smith event by deftly asking, “Did I miss something? There’s like, a different vibe in here…” It was an attempt to bring the show back in focus that seemed to work slightly better for the television audience than those in the Dolby Theater, but it was smart. (GE)
Everyone Loses: Will Smith vs. Chris Rock
The slap. It was an instant viral moment, an unscripted jolt we haven’t seen at the Oscars since “Moonlight” won Best Picture. It is also a terrible moment for everyone involved. Chris Rock crossed a line by making fun of Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia. Whether he knew or not is secondary; it’s his job as a host to go into that situation prepared. Even worse was Will Smith’s reaction – there is no way of spinning an act of violence on Hollywood’s biggest stage, and knowing that Smith was the favorite to win Best Actor cast a pall over the rest of the proceedings.
When Smith did win the Oscar for Best Actor, he gave a speech that wove between his award-winning role and what had just happened, speaking of the need to protect his family and the challenges he faced in his life. It leaves more questions unanswered than answered – and it centers everything that happened on him, not on the pain that might’ve been experienced by his wife. Ultimately, it was a brutal act that sent out shockwaves of hurt and confusion for the other nominees and winners. The show did go on, but it left many of us behind. (MM)
