This year’s Oscars felt like it lasted forever. It was, to put it mildly, the worst of times: an unhinged award ceremony that could not have ended sooner.
Imagine, a high-school reunion that thinks it has entered the speed force when it is really filled with awkward silences, suppressed tension, questionable vessels of love, bizarre fan voted-awards, and a violent, climactic showdown between two overgrown men fighting over a woman. The difference here is that all of the cringe-inducing drama was broadcasted on national television.
The Oscars are meant to be a full-throttled celebration of the movies. That the award ceremony is prone to being a trainwreck is well-known information. But the Oscars this year went a step ahead to underline just how much it does not care about the movies.
It goes without saying that in the coming years, the distinctive memory of the night will revolve around a slap (which makes the Best Picture fiasco of 2017 seem like a minor inconvenience in hindsight). Will Smith — nominated for Best Actor for King Richard — had what can only be described as the ugliest meltdown in the 94-year-long history of the Academy Awards.
During the presentation of the Best Documentary feature, the actor walked up on stage to smack Chris Rock on the face for cracking a joke at the expense of his wife Jada Pinkett Smith (“Jada, I love you. GI Jane 2, can’t wait to see it”). A shocked Rock tried handling the tense situation by telling Smith that it was only a joke (although it is unlikely that he was not aware that Pinkett-Smith suffers from alopecia, a condition that causes hair-loss). But the actor would not have any of it, and instead kept cussing at the comedian from his seat, repeatedly shouting “Keep my wife’s name out of your f*cking mouth.”
At first, there were whispers over whether the moment was scripted but then again, the display of toxic male ego does not exactly play by the written word. Pinkett-Smith, on the other hand, remained in her seat throughout this whole exchange. It struck me as undeniable proof of the difference in how men and women define “civility.” If Will Smith proved one thing, it is that lashing out is a man’s birthright, something that can rarely sully their reputation. But for women, silence is a mother tongue.
The Oscars continued as per normal, as if nothing had happened, making the whole affair that much more disgraceful. Smith’s outburst ended up taking away the limelight from the eventual Documentary Feature winner — Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Summer of Soul (...Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), stripping him of his moment to celebrate and drowning out his thoughtful speech.
In many ways, that was the theme of the night — a cascade of microaggressions that overshadowed the strides that were witnessed during the ceremony.
The chaotic nature of the Oscars this year began even before Smith lost his mind. It was embedded in a series of unexplainable decisions presumably taken to “spice up” the proceedings. That included awarding the scene where Ezra Miller’s Flash “Enters the Speed Force” in Zack Snyder’s Justice League for the most “cheer-worthy” moment in movie history. The movie that was essentially recut from another movie beat out the likes of The Matrix and Avengers: Endgame, marking the most delusional moment in award-history.
This year, the Academy also chose to pre-tape eight of the craft awards in a bid to cut down the length of the whole ceremony. The decision to not telecast these awards naturally drew ire but more importantly, reflected the Academy’s stance: awkward gags and song-and-dance performances matter more to them than the actual awards itself. It felt painful to watch Amy Schumer land a tasteless joke on Kirsten Dunst, an experience made more painful by the realisation that this is exactly what the Academy thinks the awards should look like.
That was evident once again in other segments, notably when the Academy paid tributes to the James Bond franchise and The Godfather. I wish I was making this up but the Academy tapped in on three athletes — pro-skater Tony Hawk, pro-surfer Kelly Slater, and pro-snowboarder Shaun White — who have nothing to do with the 007 franchise to celebrate 60 years of the James Bond Films. Imagine having the power to call upon any of the living actors who have played Bond over the years for the tribute and willingly looking the other way. In fact, Skyfall actors Javier Bardem and Judi Dench were sitting right in front of the stage. Then again, it is not as if they fared better when they did call upon celebrities on stage: The 50-year-anniversary tribute of The Godfather reunited Francis Ford Coppola, Robert DeNiro (who appeared in The Godfather Part II), and Al Pacino on stage. Except in a bizarre turn of events, neither DeNiro or Pacino were allowed to talk. Maybe they would have had better luck if they were into skating or surfing.
The severity of these miscalculations weighed heavily on the moments that defined the Oscars this year. It was a year of many firsts. Ariana DeBose’s win for Best Supporting Actress for West Side Story marked the first time an openly queer woman of colour won an Oscar. Jane Campion’s Best Director win for The Power of the Dog marked two back-to-back wins for female filmmakers. CODA’s Best Picture win also meant two back-to-back wins for films helmed by female directors. Troy Kotsur winning Best Supporting Actor for CODA is a landmark moment in Oscar history, an acknowledgement that reaffirms the dignity of deaf actors whose contributions are often reduced to token nominations or neglected in favour of elitist prestige cinema.
In a male-dominated movie landscape that places women and disabled actors at a disadvantage, these wins are capable of forging a Hollywood future that is alive to diversity and talent. All of them delivered speeches that truly captured the power of the movies to educate, transform minds, and liberate. And yet, there will be little place in our memories for them, for it will be overshadowed by the memory of men being men. If given an option between the Oscars and an awkward high-school reunion next year, I am gonna stick with going back to school.
Poulomi Das is a film and culture writer, critic, and programmer. Follow more of her writing on Twitter.
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