After one of the more unsettled Oscar seasons in recent memory, tonight’s ceremony aimed for an old-fashioned return to form, glamour, and, crucially, fun. With the boisterous fanboy Conan O’Brien at the helm, the show leaned into the kind of excess the production tended to avoid during the snarkier rein of Jimmy Kimmel. O’Brien expressed genuine enthusiasm for the movies nominated and giddy delight in the chance to embrace goofs for goofs sake, including recurring cutaways to John Lithgow, a sand worm in a bow tie, and an extended musical number about how he wasn’t going to waste anyone’s time. But underneath that, O’Brien managed to take the job of cheerleading for the industry seriously, giving weight to the impact of the forest fires in Los Angeles, having speakers go long about the work of under-heralded craftspeople, and advocating, even in a tongue-in-cheek way, for the value of going to an actual movie theater. Political commentary, on the other hand, was all but ignored by O’Brien and the others onstage — aside from a few notable exceptions — as was the scandal surrounding Emilia Pérez. Its star Karla Sofía Gascón was present in the audience, though as Netflix seemed to ensure, she never actually said anything. So much of the ceremony was effusive to the point of breathlessness, and it did indeed run long and chaotic, with a wild ride of upsets, a big Anora sweep, and attendees that seemed as eager to skate over awkwardness as they were to get on their feet and celebrate.
HIGH: That Wizard of Oz/Wicked opening.
Building on the idea that “there’s no place like home,” a montage of L.A.-based films kicked off the 97th Academy Awards. The ceremony began with imagery of Dorothy’s ruby slippers in The Wizard of Oz and the sound of Judy Garland’s voice saying, “There’s no place like home,” a touch that thematically connected the clips to the outstanding live performance that followed. Wicked star Ariana Grande began with “Over the Rainbow” in a dress the color of ruby slippers, then Cynthia Erivo sang “Home” from The Wiz in a regal white gown. Finally, the pair performed Wicked’s “Defying Gravity.” The segment was beautifully executed and choreographed, and when Erivo sent the final note all the way into the stratosphere, she induced tears and goosebumps, which are called tearbumps. It was an incredible start for the night.
WHOA: Why is Michael Mann’s L.A. legacy being erased?
Look, I understand the point of these L.A. montages at awards shows in the aftermath of the city’s devastating wildfires, and I am moved by each of them because I’ve been conditioned by movies and TV, all my life, to respond emotionally to the mythology and iconography of Hollywood. Griffith Observatory, you will always be famous! Let’s come together in support of the city, donate if you can, etc. I just have one question: Where is Heat? Where is Collateral? Where is Michael Mann’s Los Angeles in these collages of the city? So much La La Land, not ONE shot of the best coyote in all of pop culture???
HIGH: Adam Sandler’s Chalamet bit gets a grand awards-season payoff.
Back at the Golden Globes in January, Nikki Glaser introduced the brilliant idea that “Timothée Chalamet” would be a hilarious thing for Adam Sandler to pronounce — and indeed it was, when Glaser got Sandler to shout everyone’s favorite nom française from the audience. Now, cut to the Oscars, where Sandler showed up in basketball shorts and a sweatshirt to heckle Conan and ended the bit by running over to Timmy and shouting Chalamet! Set up in one awards show at the beginning of this crazy season, delivered upon at the end of it. That’s some beautiful joke structure.
HIGH: Literally everything Conan O’Brien chose to do.
I hope Conan O’Brien is feeling pretty damn good about himself tonight. He was a natural as host, confident but with no sense of ego. O’Brien genuinely loves movies, and he loves to entertain live audiences, and you could feel that in his performance; he seemed to be having an incredible time. He also got to display the dry wit — “I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian,” he said of Anora’s popularity — and outright silliness that are deeply embedded in his comedy DNA. During the cutaway to commercial following the Best Animated Feature win for Flow, O’Brien appeared with a pipe in his mouth, pointing at Latvia, Flow’s country of origin, on a map while Deadpool and a couple of onlookers watched. The tableau made it look like O’Brien was starring in a Wes Anderson movie backstage while hosting the Oscars onstage. It was so random, so absurd, and so Conan. It was perfect.
HIGH: The recurring presence of John Lithgow.
Conan suggested he’d cut to Lithgow looking disappointed if people ran over time in their speeches, and then proceeded to cut to a very game Lithgow looking disappointed several times over the course of the monologue.
WHOA: Kieran Culkin’s acceptance speech callback.
While accepting the Oscar for his (allegedly) supporting performance in A Real Pain, Culkin pulled off an acceptance-speech hat trick. He did a callback to his 2023 Golden Globes speech, when he put his wife, Jazz, on the spot by announcing that he wants her to give him more children. He apologized for doing that, then he undid whatever goodwill he generated with that apology by telling a very funny story about how Jazz said she would give him two more children if he ever won an Oscar, then pointed out that he actually has one of those now, so let’s maybe make some babies? It was off-the-cuff, funny, possibly a little ill-advised, and perfectly Kieran Culkin.
LOW: Sing Sing loses Best Adapted Screenplay.
It was a long shot, but after blanking Clarence Maclin on a Best Supporting Actor nod — even though he gave the beating-heart performance of Sing Sng — and somehow not nominating the movie for Best Picture, this is just more insults! More injury! Anyway, watch Sing Sing when it hits Max on March 21.
LOW: Not getting Isabella Rossellini onstage to reprise her cunty Conclave curtsy.
The nepo-baby content we want, dammit!
HIGH: Fun use of the stage while Ben Stiller presented for Best Production Design.
It’s rare for the Oscars to actually use the stage itself as part of a bit. Yes, we often get song-and-dance numbers that span its expanse, and sometimes fun stuff with projections, like the Best Costume Design sketches shown behind the presenters for that category. But actual engineering coming into play? Not so much. Leave it to Ben Stiller, the man who’s heading up the very practical production of Severance, to star in a bit about getting stuck on a misbehaving lift on the stage floor to point out the need for precision in production design. Too bad, though, that the moment led to …
LOW: Wicked for Production Design???
We don’t mean to be evil witches or whatever, but … every other nominee deserved it more. Shocking that The Brutalist, a movie literally about the power of designing spaces, lost this one.
LOW: One of the least exciting years for Oscar original songs in decades.
The decision to not have them performed during the ceremony actually made sense this year, because no one knew any of these songs nor did they really want to hear them. The fact that one of the subpar tracks from Emilia Pérez won felt right, especially since it was called “El Mal.” When two of the writers of the song, Clément Ducol and Camille, burst into insufferable song at the end of their acceptance speech — after neglecting to say anything about trans rights — it really made you wish the Academy had finally given this award to Diane Warren, nominated this year for the 16th time without a win.
HIGH: Shai-Hulud’s many appearances over the telecast.
The sandworm doing a little soft-shoe and playing the harp are the only times I’ve liked anything affiliated with Denis Villeneuve Dune movies — thank you, Conan!
HIGH: The No Other Land directors bravely face the moment.
Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra, two of the filmmakers behind the documentary about a collective of Palestinian villages in the West Bank ordered for eviction so that Israel could build a training base, won an Oscar despite their film not having American distribution. Then, they dedicated their speech to the conflict in Gaza and the disenfranchisement of Palestinians under martial law. Abraham told the audience that American foreign policy is blocking the path to equality in Israel, while Adra said, “We call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.” In a night when most people onstage spoke only elliptically about politics, this was a rare case of winners taking a moment to be clear, specific, and rousing in speaking truth to power.
HIGH: Men’s brooches.
Adrien Brody, Dave Bautista, Joe Alwyn. Big fan of men finally discovering accessories. (Not that many Artists4Ceasefire pins this time around, though, which might have something to do with this.)
WHOA: Using the “Lacrimosa” from Mozart’s requiem for the In Memoriam.
I mean, sure, the thing has weight, but it did feel a little bit like we were sitting in judgment of each dead person’s eternal soul.
HIGH: Mohammad Rasoulof hugging Walter Salles after the former’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig lost to the latter’s I’m Still Here for Best International Feature Film.
My socially minded international dads are supportive friends! I love that for them.
WHOA: Who in the writers’ room really loves The Wiz?
In addition to Cynthia Erivo’s performance of “Home,” production also brought out Queen Latifah to sing “Ease on Down the Road” as part of a Quincy Jones tribute. It was both a delightful and a baffling performance to throw in, timing-wise, as the show headed into its last few big awards. And yet, no room to shoehorn in “No Bad News” somewhere too?
LOW: The conspicuous way the presenters did not say something nice about the lead-acting nominees the way they did for the supporting categories.
It was going to be super awkward to ask Emma Stone to spit out florid, praise-heavy prose about Karla Sofía Gascón, the Emilia Pérez star whose old bigoted tweets caused a massive awards-season controversy, which explains why the producers decided to scrap that approach for both Best Actor and Best Actress. But the whole idea of having the presenter salute each actor should have been scrapped across the board! Doing it this way certainly didn’t make viewers forget the whole Gascón debacle, especially after O’Brien reminded everybody about it in his monologue.
WHOA: Mikey Madison winning Best Actress over Demi Moore.
It seemed like it was going to be Demi Moore’s night. She had already won the Golden Globe, the SAG, and the Critics’ Choice Award in this category, and every acceptance speech she gave was so on point it was like they were paving the road to her inevitable Oscar. But when it was time for Emma Stone to say the winner’s name, what came out of her mouth was Mikey Madison, the young ingenue, and not Demi Moore, the veteran the industry was finally taking seriously.
LOW: The Hulu feed cutting out just as Best Actress was announced.
It’s almost like streaming has been bad for our communal appreciation of cinema!
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the circumstances of the Best Actress presentation. This story has also been updated to add more context for Conan O’Brien’s map joke.
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