The 94th Annual Academy Awards
That's a wrap on award season!
Tonight was the biggest night in Hollywood and also the end to almost a year long Barbie press tour. I’m mourning the latter quite heavily. It’s been such a wonderful year of Margot Robbie wearing pink!
And tonight…Barbie showed up in black. At first I was disappointed but then the look grew on me. Barbie wears black sequins from time to time! And I think it made a strong statement, signaling the end of the Barbie tour.
In terms of other fashions, there were so many gorgeous dresses! I don’t think there was anyone who I didn’t like. My standouts were: Emily Blunt, Jennifer Lawrence, Lupita Nyong'o, Carey Mulligan, Ariana Grande, Hailee Steinfeld and America Ferrara.
Now, in terms of the award show…Jimmy Kimmel is a safe choice for host and I always appreciate his stage work. He is not my favorite late night host and I find him irritating at times, but during an award show you know exactly what you’re going to get. He’s going to make jokes, some good, some bad, he’s going to toe the line but never cross it and he’ll be slightly self depreciating along the way. He made a few rough jokes, including s nod to RDJ’s drug addicted past, and a joke that pissed Emma Stone off, but otherwise it was ok.
One thing to note about this year’s Oscars is that they went back to the incredibly emotional format of past actor winners presenting the awards, and speaking directly to the nominees. The first award was ‘Best Supporting Actress’; Rita Moreno, Jamie Lee Curtis, Lupita Nyong'o, Mary Steenburgen, and Regina King presented and gave beautiful tributes to this year’s nominees. Da'vine Joy Randolph ultimately took home the statue and she immediately bursted into tears. It was heart warming, touching, and simply beautiful. When you can tell that winning means so much to someone, it makes it sweeter and more deserving.
I knew going into this award show that Barbie wasn’t going to win anything but it still hurt seeing Greta lose for ‘Adapted Screenplay’ and have them lose on all the costume, production design, and makeup categories. Production design? They lost on design? They built a life size Barbie dream house! They barely used CGI — it was realistic, beautiful and pink. I’m afraid that The Academy has gotten too pretentious. I feel like movies are only made to be Oscar worthy — they’re too dramatic, too out there and it feels pandering. Barbie was THE name on everyone’s lips, and to be robbed on recognition hurts. It’s upsetting that a movie so grounded in women and girlhood didn’t get the recognition it deserved.
The first ‘Best Song’ nominee to be performed was “What Was I Made For” and I will never get sick of this song. Yes, it’s a beautiful song in terms of melody and lyrics, and it was essential to the Barbie movie but it just means so much to me, and I can’t even really explain it. I immediately start crying whenever I hear the first few chords.
After Billie was done singing, the camera pans to the entire Barbie cast and they were crying! Margot, America, Greta, Kate Mckinnon…and then Ariana Grande who was also crying and it all just made me explode into tears.
Poor Things won some awards, Anatomy of a Fall and other movies I didn’t see but the next notable moment was when Jimmy Kimmel tried to get John Cena to streak across the stage. I’m not a huge fan of John Cena but my goodness, the man’s body is like a sculpture.
My favorite moment of the night was definitely Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling beefing on stage while giving a tribute to stunt coordinators. The back and forth about the Barbie & Oppenheimer ‘feud’ was hilarious and kind of hit on all aspects of the faux rivalry. Emily said there was no rivalry since Oppenheimer has been cleaning up during award season; Ryan said that Oppenheimer rode Barbie’s coat tails. Stones were thrown and it was a true standout moment.
Robert Downey Jr. took home the award for Best Supporting Actor and his acceptance speech was incredible, as they have been all award season long. He’s come such a long way, his story is inspirational, and he is dam worthy of an Oscar… plus, he looks really good with it.
What I waited for all night…and what seems like my entire life was the iconic ‘I’m Just Ken’ performance from Ryan Gosling. Billie and Margot could not keep it together, Ryan was dressed in an all pink outfit, he brought Slash out on stage alongside all the Kens, sang a little with Greta, Margot, America and Emma Stone, and was lifted into the crowds, surrounded by spinning vintage Barbie heads. It was perfection in more ways than one.
As suspected, the only award that Barbie took home was for Best Song. Billie Ellish and Finneas won their second Oscar for ‘What Was I Made For’ and it was incredibly deserving, for all the reasons I listed above.
Something I was not expecting was Andre and Matteo Boccelli kicking off The In Memoriam section by singing Con te Partirò. That song needs a big warning!
The last four awards were presented within the last half hour of the show, and while three of them were as suspected: Cillian Murphy, Christopher Nolan and Oppenheimer (presented by Al Pacino which is incredible) but the biggest surprise, at least to me, was Emma Stone winning for Best Actress in Poor Things.
In all her awkward, Jennifer Lawrence adjacent, relatable glory, she stumbled over her words, addressed her broken dress, acknowledged her lost voice, and delved into a beautiful acceptance speech with tears in her eyes. She even called out her friend Taylor Swift by referencing the song “Bigger Than the Whole Sky” when speaking about her daughter.
And with the final Oppenheimer acceptance speech, award season ended…
As I was about to say that we ended the night without a Matt Damon reference, the camera cuts to Messi the song peeing on Matt Damon’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star. That decades long feud is my favorite thing in Hollywood.
Until next year, everyone!