Wow. Well, I think we’ll all remember where we were when we saw the Great Oscar Error of 2017. My love for films was at war with my love of an early bedtime down to the last minutes of the night.
By the time Best Picture rolled around my roommate had joined me and I was ready for the end. I was spending commercial breaks tidying my room, brushing my teeth, washing my face, feeding my cat, basically throwing in the towel.
So when La La Land ‘inevitably’ won, my roommate left and I shut my laptop in unsurprised disappointment (I had been rooting for Moonlight) without bothering to listen to the speeches. And then just minutes later my Lily (my roommate) shouted to me from the next room that IT WAS A MISTAKE AND MOONLIGHT WON?!
I think I may have whispered “Holy Shit” to myself a few times in bed in the dark before drifting off in a deep sleep.
And today I’m reminded of why I don’t usually go to bed the same day I wake up (my eyes are so tired!) but I’m gratified to admit that most of my predictions were on point, and, had I had an office and had my office had a pool, I would have made some bank.
I also correctly guessed that Ruth Negga’s dress was Valentino, but I want to talk about the clothes separately so as to eke out my triumphs and enjoyment of them. 😉
So how did my predictions hold up?
Best Picture: Moonlight
My Vote: Moonlight
My Prediction: La La Land
Lead Actor: Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
My Vote: Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
My Prediction: Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Lead Actress: Emma Stone, La La Land
My Vote: Isabelle Huppert, Elle
My Prediction: Emma Stone, La La Land
Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
My Vote: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
My Prediction: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, Fences
My Vote: Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures
My Prediction: Viola Davis, Fences
Cinematography: La La Land
My Vote: La La Land
My Prediction: La La Land
Costume: Fantastic Beasts
My Vote: Jackie
My Prediction: Jackie
Director: Damien Chazelle, La La Land
My Vote: Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
My Prediction: Damien Chazelle, La La Land
Animated: Zootopia
My Vote: Moana
My prediction: Zootopia
Original Song: City of Stars, La La Land
My Vote: How Far I’ll Go, Moana
My Prediction: City of Stars, La La Land
So my predictions are 8 for 10, and one (Best Picture) I’m perfectly happy to have gotten wrong, since it went to my personally preferred movie- Yay Moonlight. The other one I stand by. I don’t think Fantastic Beasts should have won best costume design. The costumes, for the most part, do not make sense from the perspective of storytelling. It’s set in 1920’s New York, I don’t think the clothes are particularly indicative of the 1920’s (particularly in the attention paid to the blond sister’s breasts), but hey, it’s Hollywood. More importantly, Scamander is a wizard in the muggle world with no idea how to avoid detection. Why is he dressed so easily muggle-like? It’s this huge thing with wizards in the books that they have no idea how to dress in muggle settings. And I know these are nerd quibbles but I just feel that while the costumes were beautiful they should have been truer to the subject material. And come on, how much more true to the original material can you get than the Jackie costumes?! Chanel asked for one for its archives because it so closely approximated their design for the First Lady!
Other bullet-pointed thoughts:
- Loving all of the politics, ACLU ribbons, and solidarity.
- Major credit to the Iranian winner of Foreign Language Film who boycotted the celebration due to the disrespect that is the Immigration Ban. So much respect to Asghar Farhadi.
- Jimmy Kimmel did fine, but like a true Bostonian I liked the Matt Damon bits the best.
- But there were some uncomfortable moments, as when those poor tourists were walked through like animals at a zoo and when Kimmel lifted the adorable Sunny Pawar in the air to ‘The Circle of Life’. Kind of weird?
- Casey Affleck is creepy. If he wants to put more distance between him and the sexual harassment charges, he should have given a more gracious acceptance speech and worked on his stereotypical creepy guy hair and beard.
- I predicted that the sexual assault allegations wouldn’t slow him down on the road to the win, but it’s disappointing and concerning… and it sends a bad message to survivors of sexual assault. If you come forward you shouldn’t expect any results. Your assaulter can still turn around to when an Oscar. or, you know, the presidency.
- Also, winning best actor for being a sad white guy who plays a sad white guy. Makes me feel bad for Leo DiCaprio, who ate raw animal and… what, cauterized his own neck? I mean, jesus.
- They tweeted Donald Trump! 😀
- And introduced Meryl as the most-overrated, so funny.
- Congrats to Mel Gibson on his ‘comeback’?
- Viola Davis’ acceptance speech for Supporting Actress is the one you need to listen to. Something like “All of the people with the most potential are together, in the grave.” Damn.
- And one of the real women from Hidden Figures was there! (Katherine?). Pretty amazing moment.
- Jimmy Kimmel, stop making fun of people’s names! Frankly, it’s racist. Lol, people have different names. I mean, unless you’re a talk show host named Jimmy/James.
- The performances were lovely, my favorite was predictably How Far I’ll Go. Both Auli’i and Lin are cute as anything. Although I don’t know that I loved his prelude-rap.
- The rapport between the Moonlight cast is lovely to see.
- Oscar winner Suicide Squad? To be fair the cosmetic effects were very good.
- Nicole Kidman doesn’t clap like a normal person.
- Jackie Chan’s stuffed panda dates, I think I’m in love.
- Credit to the La La Land people for being so gracious in turning the Oscar over to the Moonlight folks.
- I feel bad for them and I feel bad for the Moonlight winners… their moment was way overshadowed.
List Mimsy 