Hudson Honeybone, '26
The Show:
Let’s get the bad out of the way: Jimmy Kimmel was unbearable. I’m sick of this loser being the default option for event hosting. His jokes are outdated and overused, and his sarcasm never lands. Usually, he stoops to degrading other people as the basis for his “comedy”. He needs to be blacklisted for all awards shows.
Onto the positives- Ryan Gosling’s performance of “I'm Just Ken” was hilarious and one of the better Oscar performances in recent memory. Slash also made a much-welcomed guest appearance in the song to shred some chords.
I also appreciated the route the Academy took for introducing the nominees for Best Lead Actor and Actress. Seasoned previous winners took to the stage to deliver some uplifting comments about each candidate, which I thought was a nice addition to the show.
Now onto the main event: the Awards Ceremony.
The Awards:
Oppenheimer
In short, this film explores the life and times of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the lead developer of the atomic bomb, the single most destructive discovery of the last century. The film isn’t afraid to expose the scandalous side of J Robert Oppenheimer, who was involved in multiple affairs and even drove his ex wife to suicide. The film captures Oppenheimer the scientist, the womanizer, the politician, and the martyr. By focusing on more than just Oppenheimer’s groundbreaking discovery, Christopher Nolan adds another layer of complexity to the film and reveals a side of Oppenheimer many aren’t familiar with.
This year, Oppenheimer rightfully notched 7 Oscar wins, including the coveted Best Picture Award and Best Directing. This marks Christopher Nolan’s first ever directing win– a long overdue achievement.
Speaking of first-time winners, Robert Downey Jr. and Cillian Murphy both claimed their first Oscar Win for best supporting and lead actor. Murphy’s performance in the film was certainly deserving of an Academy Award. As Director Nolan put it, “The whole movie played out on Cillian’s face.” Murphy did a fantastic job conveying the moral repercussions of Oppenheimer’s discovery, which claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese civilians. Cillian’s performance even provides a window into Oppenheimer’s God complex, who seems to have relished in dangling the fate of the world from his fingertips. Robert Downey Jr. played the aspiring politician, Lewis Strauss, the man who tried to engineer the downfall of Robert Oppenheimer. The tension between these two characters, although they rarely appear in the same scene, is certainly felt by the audience through RDJ’s performance.
Oppenheimer also roped in the award for Best Cinematography. The film’s camera work was certainly far and above its fellow nominees. One of my personal favorite shots from the movie happens during the inaugural test of the atomic bomb – Trinity. The camera focuses on Oppenheimer's face as the timer nears zero, and once the bomb explodes, a blinding flash of light envelopes his face. In that moment, he witnesses the sheer destructive capacity of his weapon, which he tried to ignore as best he could up until this point. It's a turning point in the film, and the camerawork certainly shows it.
Finally, Oppenheimer was awarded the Oscar for Best Original Score. Ludwig Goransson, the composer of the movie, created an atmospheric, goose-bump inducing score that elevates the moments of tension and discovery throughout the film. The larger-than-life soundtrack makes the moments of silence hit even harder. That scene I mentioned in the paragraph above is completely silent, giving the audience time to reconcile with the gravity of the bomb.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Cord Jefferson’s satirical comedy American Fiction was awarded the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film follows an African-American novelist who is frustrated with the state of his industry. Publishers only sign with “black books”, accounts of black suffering in America written by African-American authors. Monk can’t stand these stories, as he believes they are inhibiting black progress in America by reinforcing demoralizing stereotypes. In protest, he writes a satirical black book with all the tropes he despises: the gang violence, the missing father, and the jail time. To top it all off, the book is straight up titled F*ck.
But after his book garners unparalleled success, Monk is tossed into the spotlight, where he tries to reverse this industry trend.
The film delivers some powerful social commentary, which I really enjoyed sorting through. It challenges the racial norms of progressive society. In the process of redressing racial inequity, we have made certain things inextricably tied to race that shouldn’t be. And maybe always factoring race into the equation is only setting us back from a racially harmonious society. We shouldn’t always be race conscious: some things should simply exist as they are, nothing more, nothing less.
This was the first award I had a few qualms with. The first and second act of the film are very enjoyable. The social commentary is solid and the comedy is on point. However, I disagree with the way Jefferson chose to end the film. In the final scenes, Monk signs a contract allowing a film producer to adapt his book F*ck. By further solidifying negative black stereotypes in the media, this ending essentially contradicts the entire message Monk stood for; the film lost all its conviction in the conclusion. In my opinion, this ending spoiled the rest of the film for me, and I found it difficult to leave feeling satisfied. I would have preferred Zone of Interest or Barbie take home this award, but overall not a complete blunder, which is what I’m accustomed to.
Best International Film / Best Sound Design
*What's the difference between sound design and original score?
Sound design refers to creating and manipulating the non-musical elements of a film, like footsteps, gunshots, birds chirping, dialogue, etc. Sound design deals with real, natural sounds instead of musical composition. Purpose of sound design to immerse the audience in a scene, whereas musical score is used to amplify some sort of emotion.
The Dutch film Zone of Interest won both these Oscars this year. The movie follows the family of the Nazi Commandant supervising the Auschwitz concentration camp. I was thrilled to see Zone of Interest take home these two Oscars. It’s a brilliantly disturbing portrayal of apathy. The ambient sound, or background noise elevates the realism of the scenes. Simple sounds like background chatter or distant dog barks immersed me in the world. This realistic immersion makes the concentration camp scenes that more terrifying. When inside Auschwitz, the producers rely on sound (instead of visuals) to convey the sheer chaos and depravity of the camps. We hear the chilling shrills of children and firing squads blasting rounds into defenseless Jews, all while our protagonist calmly watches with a black face, with the camera pointed upwards toward the sky.
My favorite piece of sound design in the movie occurs early on in the plot. While the Nazi family lounges in the sprawling house garden, the camera focuses in on the blooming flowers of the estate, which is contrasted against the gunshots and faint screams of dying Jews we hear in the background. This is a common technique used throughout the film: a contradiction between sound and sight that conveys two very different realities.
My only complaint was the dang babies. They wouldn't stop wailing.
Poor Things
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things won Best Costumes, Best Makeup/Hairstyling, and Best Production Design. Emma Stone also won Best Lead Actress for her role in the movie.
The film follows Bella Baxter, a 19th century woman who committed suicide, but was miraculously revived by an unorthodox surgeon via a brain transplant. Bella is reborn with the mind of an infant, encased in an adult body. She then embarks on a quest to retrain her mind and rediscover her identity.
The film definitely deserved best Makeup/Hairstyling– just take a look at William DaFoe’s character.
However, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design rightfully belonged to Barbie, whose vision of Barbieland was so vivid and vibrant.
Now, onto Emma Stone’s award for Best Lead Actress. Emma Stone does a fantastic job portraying her character's stages of development and growing awareness, especially so with her ever evolving relationships. Impressive as Emma Stone’s performance was, the movie was just too outlandish for me to enjoy her character. I would have preferred Lily Gladstone from Killers of the Flower Moon take this one, but I totally understand their choice.
Best Supporting Actress
Da’Vine Joy Randolph was awarded this Oscar for her role in the Holdovers, a tale of elderly bitterness and youthful rebelliousness in a Northeastern prep school. In the film, Randolph plays the broken hearted mother Mary Lamb, who lost her son to the Vietnam War. She has this grief stricken sense of spite towards the entitled kids at the prep school: why should they be swaddled in warm cozy beds while her son lays dead in the cold ground? But eventually, she breaks out of her spiteful, grieving shell and finds new ways to appreciate life in the absence of her son. Across the board, she deserved this win.
Best Original Screenplay
The French film Anatomy of a Fall won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
In the film, a widow is accused of killing her husband with their blind son as the sole witness. The movie follows the widow as she attempts to prove her innocence by the convincing the world her own husband committed suicide.
The writing of the film highlights the frustration of the legal process and the toll it takes on the accused. Abruptly losing a loved one is tough enough, but being forced to defend your innocence in that death is even more painful. Lawyers and law enforcement are bombarding her with questions that she just wants to permanently bury in the back of her mind. It’s almost as if he dies a hundred times over, each and every time she retraces his fall. When speaking with her lawyer, the protagonist, frustrated by the investigators' scrutiny, asserts that, “I did not kill him.” The investigator responds with, “That’s not the point.” That sums up the irony of the justice system. Whether she actually killed him or not is of no importance, rather it’s only whether others think she killed him. The justice system isn’t about justice— it’s about which lawyer is the better orator.
Conclusion
That sums up the notable awards from this year’s Oscars Ceremony. And although they were some choices I disagreed with, all the winners were legit contenders and deserving of their Oscars. This marks a two year streak of solid Oscar Ceremonies– the Academy is on a hot streak right now. And with Hollywood in full swing, I’m excited to see what this coming year has in store for us film-wise.
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