Round-up Week 3: Oscars Review

Well, I guess I got what I wanted. From The Academy, that is. Anora was the undisputed winner of the night last week, taking home the coveted best picture, actress, director, original screenplay, editing, and supporting actor. Extremely well deserved, specifically for Mikey Madison, as I found her performance to be easily the most captivating of the year. I try my best to reserve the adjective "electric" for such experiences, and I do believe Anora has earned such praise.

I have nothing but love for Zoe Saldana, she's a sensational actor, but good Lord why did the Academy have to give her best supporting actress? Emilia Perez needed to crash and burn! And despite my many issues with the fandom around Wicked, that was a blatant snub giving best song to "El Mal". Go look up that song/scene, it is objectively terrible. I suppose since they brought everyone there they had to give them something, but still, I felt for the Wicked supporters who got slighted. It's the one thing the Academy is consistent about.

My other big hit and win of the night was The Brutalist, which took the best actor, score, and cinematography. Go see my full review of The Brutalist for my detailed notes. Still, controversy aside, Adrian Brody fully deserved the award, his authentic and enthralling portrayal of the 1900s immigrant experience is top shelf work. His ability to display so much emotion and the themes of the story without saying many words at all is not only skillful but melds well with the pacing and structure of the story. Best cinematography was the no brainer in my eyes, absolutely stunning visuals that truly demanded to be seen on the big screen. Secretly hoping it comes back into theaters at some point in the future.

Besides the big awards, I was really really enthused with Conan O'Brien's performance as host. A welcome change after the last couple years of garbage pandering to A-listers, Conan brought his trademark family-friendly goofiness to the stage, but wasn't afraid to get a little PG-13 at times to keep the edge on. The Kendrick Lamar/Drake beef reference being my favorite quip. His ability to toggle from physical comedy bits to intelligent sarcastic references is uncanny, more hosts should study this format.

Other than that, I haven't gotten to watch a whole lot regrettably. As I mentioned in weeks past, being in the trenches of the latter era of my bachelor's degree, I've been mostly studying up. The big highlight was watching The Brutalist, which I spent a whole afternoon and evening getting through a few days ago, absolutely no regrets there (an intermission is crazy though). I did rewatch Memento as a semi-prep-work for it, being that Guy Pearce was in it. I think this is one of Chris Nolan's better works, and it's regretful that the later films in his portfolio have taken precedence in conversation. He's always loved playing with structure in not just creative, but very technical ways, Memento is a prime example of such efforts.

Still keeping on the new episodes of Severance as well. If you didn't catch last week's episode, Chikhai Bardo, you missed one of the best editions of artful cinematography on television in recent memory. This most recent episode, Sweet Vitriol, has been brutally accused of being yet another "filler" episode. The average rating for the episode is a shockingly low 6.7/10, the weakest for the show so far. It was not that bad! It was definitely slow, but the lore dumps in such a short time frame combined with some really sexy set design (on par!) was very welcome to me. In my humble opinion, this show continues to up the ante on all fronts, and I already know I will be floored by the time the season finale rolls around. Considering doing a full article on spoiler talk for the show when that day comes.

I want to conclude with this: I've been noticing some of the content trickling down from the top is still rooted in the pandemic format. There's been a changing tide in Hollywood over the past few years, I've commented briefly on it, but want to once more, as there is a reckoning coming for those ignoring common consensus. The meaningless activism aimed at critical approval is dying, the masses have turned against it, we're waking up. Emilia Perez was the second major domino after the recent Disney slump, and yet I predict the lesson hasn't been fully learnt. One can hope I'm wrong, but a brief glance at the comments and reviews from the real population versus the critics on Perez is heavy proof I'm right. Time will tell.

Not sure what this coming week will bring in terms of content. I've been rereading Robert Greene's The 48 Laws of Power, always a good one, but am really craving a narrative of some kind. Was powering through the Dune series, had reached God Emperor before taking a leave, might go back to that. Always open to suggestions. On the movie front, if you're not following me on Letterboxd already, go ahead and do that if you're looking for live updates on what I'm watching. Without the Oscars, I'll have to get into some more controversial topics next week.