What Really Just Happened Inside the Dolby
A good show, yes, but . . . now the three choices facing the future of film's big night. Plus: My annual who's who photo roll
I was there at the Dolby and this year’s show was as good a test case as you’re going to get for what this era’s Oscars can be.
It was a pretty seamless show. We had a great host who knew exactly where to land on the poking fun scale. The comedy and bits were uniformly solid. The producers made attempts to make the show bigger, mostly with musical performances. There were likable winners with inspiring stories and only one notable blowhard speech.
Of those winners — and of all the nominees — I have not a bad word to say. The group this year showed off a great spectrum of contemporary storytelling. Anora and The Brutalist are both terrific films that you can’t help but be happy for.
Coming at a moment when the world feels sick at heart, the night provided some needed counter-programming to the Sturm und Drang out there. I was actually kind of shocked on site at the Dolby by how little The Events of the Day — or even the chaos of this industry — were in the air. People seemed very determined to enjoy the night (a good decision!), and that showed on screen.
There is a world where Sunday’s show could have been The Dawn of the Resistance, and I’m glad Hollywood learned enough from its political efforts in the last year to resist that impulse, which would have cast opposition to Trump as an elite Hollywood affectation for all to see. It would have been terrible for the show, for the industry — and for the resistance, such as it is.
Of all the night’s speeches, Sean Baker’s plea to support moviegoing were words to live by, and it’s kind of shocking how rarely those sentiments are expressed on the Oscar stage, for obvious but totally cowardly reasons.
So excepting some very minor quibbles, last night was basically your template for a successful Oscar telecast in this era of Oscar voting. Which is to say, its format works for a show that at its core is about handing out 23 awards and hearing 23 speeches, honoring films that for the most part have been seen by very few people.
This all brings me to what feels like some inescapable math. As I see it, Oscar has three choices: