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Hi, I'm Amanda Davens. And this is the Big Picture, a conversation show about the 96th Academy Awards. And if it sounds like I have an unusual pep in my steps because we have just completed a very good Academy Awards, which you agree Amanda? You agree Amanda?
They nailed it. What happened? I have absolutely no idea. You and I will try to parse it, but I think Kimmel did a great job as a host.
Great monologue, great kind of moving the show along. Pacing was great. The production choices were for the most part good. We obviously have some notes.
We always have notes. This is the Big Picture. But a lot more things right than were wrong. Great speeches.
You know, just great, great musical number, obviously. At least one. Great musical number. So everything just kind of lined up.
Great winners too. A few surprises. Not everything was as chalk as we expected. I'm kind of blown away by how quality this Academy Awards was.
I've made a point of grouzing about the show for the last five or six years. And this felt unusual. I don't want to say it felt like 1997 or whatever we romanticized about the past. But it felt like a show very much in control and under control.
And even if we knew that this was all leading towards the Oppenheimer Win for Best Picture, the Christopher Nolan Win for Best Director, the fact that Oppenheimer was going to win seven awards tonight, there's still something kind of light on its foot about the production in general, kind of good sense of fun, but nothing as overindulgent and kind of drawn out in self-serious as we expect from the show. Even though there were serious moments. So I came away just incredibly satisfied with the telecast. It did feel in keeping with the year in movies, last year in movies, which was great, right?
And like a way better than average group of nominees, Best Picture nominees, also Big Picture nominees. And obviously it's just a huge year at the movies The Strike notwithstanding and movies are back. And it had that energy and there was something that everybody could grab onto at the ceremony and get invested in. So I don't know.
It was unusual, you know, we talked a little bit about how the show was meant to start at 7pm Eastern, 4pm Pacific this year, which is an hour earlier. It's also daylight savings time here in America. So a bit of an unusual thing. I was a little skeptical.
You were very skeptical. I think now having seen a telecast was three hours and 17 or 18 minutes roughly because the show started a little late. This seemed like a very smart choice. I feel like people on the East Coast who were able to go to bed by 1030 and see the entire Academy Awards they must be showing great.
I think that's great. Everyone getting to go to bed, great, A+, keeping the show on time, great A+, we don't know how many people saw the first hour. We do not currently have those numbers as of recording. I was talking to a friend yesterday who had great plans to go watch the Academy Awards with her grandparents as she does every year.
And I was like, by the way, they started 4. And she was like, oh, I won't be there till 530. So we don't know whether everyone caught up and Kim will even have some jokes to that bit around 530 PST, 830 EST. But in terms of the last hour, and they saved a lot for the last hour, I think I'm just like, Kim was like a perfect prime time.
What is it? 630 PST, 930 EST. You knew everyone was there and then rolling in to Emomoriam and the big awards. They got most of it.
So whether or not everyone saw the monologue, I hope they did. I thought the monologue was very funny. I thought so too. Jimmy Kimmel, as we said last week on the show, probably the most reliable hand in hosting and all of television right now did a very good job.
I think actually his tradition of lightly mocking all of the movies played well in a year like this where there was just a lot of sincere passion for the movies and there was a lot of positivity around it that actually made it very, very balanced show. And there's also something about the way that he comes out and does the kind of interstitial bits that makes it just feel like you're at a party. And that's like a big part of the hosting job and that's something that's been missing in the years where there were no hosters, when there were multiple hosts in the past, you know, these last couple of years, the show has started to feel more like how it did in the pre-COVID times when it was, it was a show. It had somebody who was kind of holding our hand as we went through it and it felt particularly helpful in a show that was moving so quickly.
It felt like at the end of the show actually, Kimmel was kind of surprised that they were done. You know, he got to vamp for a minute or two near the end, which you never see from host. Yes. And also they did start five minutes late, which he noted and you in particular were quite perturbed about that.
Well, it's just not making such a big deal about starting early and then starting late and like the red carpet is running into a nine minute commercial. Right. It's like a lot of like and like and facey fees. Yeah, it was really it was like the five commercials between the red carpet and when the show actually started, we're just like a very tough referendum on what ABC thinks it's Oscars audiences, at least in that first hour.
A little scary. That's okay. Yeah. We were also part of that.
I'm closer to the geriatrics set now than I was when I first started. Then I am to where I am now when I was first watching. Yeah. So like, you know, that is that is the audience increasingly.
Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. Anyway, to the point about the pacing, I think they made a lot of decisions that you and I were like yelling at each other across the room through the show. One of the main things to me that worked really well, you mentioned Kimmel head interstitial bits and they were smart and short and pre written and but the presenter bits were well chosen, I would say.
And so they grouped a lot of categories. So you would present both best documentary short and best documentary together or I believe costume design and production design were grouped together. Well, no, actually, I think costume design was by itself because that was John Cena, you know, and when you got the goods literally in that case, like you should go with it. But for the most part, they there was like efficiency and how they were doing the below the line categories and then they only let the presenters who could actually do comedy try to do comedy, you know, and things like just didn't roam on and on and on as they sometimes can do in these situations.
Yeah. So it made for an unusually brisk and fun show and a handful of critical surprises, you know, as I said, I've been tied to invest picture for months and months and months, same for Nolan, no surprises there. Something started happening at the beginning of the show that I think is really interesting. You know, I think the biggest quote unquote surprise of the night was Emma Stone beating really gladstone for a best actress, which is wasn't stunning per se since they've been splitting most of the way across the very close race.
That was a very close race. And we didn't know what was going to happen and we tried to read the tea leaves, but it could have gone by the way. So we saw, for example, that Lily Gladstone won a tag and Emma Stone won at the BAFTA's. That's interesting to me because when we were watching the show, something started happening in terms of the below the line awards.
The first one that happened that really jumped out to me was best makeup and hairstyleing going to poor things. Mystero was favored for months, Kazuhiro has already been awarded twice in that category. The work that he did in that movie is amazing. Mystero might not be able to recognize any other category if they don't win there.
In fact, I would want to pour things, which not a lot of people had in the predictions game. And it started. Neither you nor I had it. Neither you nor I had it.
In our predictions, I think 18 to 17, I have 23 to say. However, I did defeat you. I lost the vid bet. So we'll get into the details of that later on.
But hey, a night for democracy, we can share these victories. I really want to prefer to win the vid bet. Oh, interesting. Well, now I really have to make it onerous on you.
But nevertheless, when that makeup and hairstyleing award happened, I said it to you in the room. I was like, that's weird. I wonder what that means for Emma Stone versus Lily Gladstone. And then a few other awards happened in production design and costume design.
Some people thought maybe Barbie could be awarded in those categories. We didn't. We didn't. But some people did.
And in fact, it went to poor things. Best sound when best sound went to this own of interest, which is a very unusual. And I thought a very smart and worthy choice for an award like that. I think it confirmed a sense of internationalism in the Academy now that feels very, very strong.
You forgot one, which was also boy in the hair and over Spider-Man versus Spider-Man across the Spider-Man. There we go. And you and I, even when doing the predictions, you did pick the own of interest for sound. I had it written in my document and then went and deleted it and wrote Oppenheimer instead, which I have been thinking about since that happened.
You can now. I mean, that predictions podcast, which I hope people listen to rather than just copying our sheets on the day of. Okay, we work hard. We identified that that was like one of the flex votes.
And I even remember you saying like I'm being inconsistent. If I'm going to do zone of interest in sound, I should also do boy in the hair and in animated feature. Well, it's okay. Yeah, but it does really, you're right to say that all of those awards kind of signaled, okay, the much discussed international voting body is once again just flexing its muscles.
It's a very complicated thing. On the one hand, I think it's been amazing for the Academy Awards to become more international to shine a light on international filmmakers. We saw it probably most profoundly when Paris said one best picture in 2019. That was a great moment.
I think Miyazaki winning his second Academy Award and not showing up again. Fantastic moment. I do think that there's something interesting going on where the Academy may quietly in a way that they would never admit may have over corrected slightly in the way that they've changed their voting body. Maybe this is ultimately what they wanted to happen, but now the award show is recognizing world cinema, which is great, but it is recognizing Hollywood a little bit less and a little bit less.
For example, my stroke shut out this year, killers of the farm and also shut out this year. Now, Oppenheimer, what could be a bigger Hollywood movie than Oppenheimer, which ran the table, but also Christopher Nolan is also a British filmmaker in addition to being American filmmaker. And so when you look at the slate of winners, non-acting category, it's a lot of international films. It's a lot of films that are filmmakers who are not born in America.
Maybe this was a necessary evolution as the world became tighter together as it became everything became more accessible. It's easier to watch older foreign films now. It's easier to connect to other film fans around the world. So there's something interesting about the fact that it now feels a little bit like if there was a rules change in a sport and the Hall of Fame changed somehow.
The Academy has not historically adequately recognized world cinema. Sometimes it does in spits and starts and sets, but now when you look at what they're doing, which is great. Anatomy of a fall is only an interest. These are amazing films.
It now feels like there's an inconsistency across its history, which I guess is relevant because every decade gets a new feeling and a new evolution. But I can't help but notice that the Emma Stone Wing, which is of course an American actor, but you're a slant-a-most European filmmaker, just feels like an official setting of this new era of the Academy Awards. Yeah, we've been living in it for a while. I mean, certainly at least since parasite in 2018.
And I think both as the world gets larger and smaller, simultaneously, but it is easier to see all of these films and they have become more of popular culture and American popular culture even as the Academy becomes more international. We were talking with our video producer. Corey, what's your official title? Mystro.
Mystro. Corey, who is here with us tonight? And he was like, Anatomy of the Fall is one of the, he hadn't seen all of them. He was definitely my favorite of the one that I've seen.
And that, you know, Messi, the dog from Anatomy of the Fall became like the major Oscar scandal, which was really funny. And you know what's a good Oscar season when the thing that people are most upset about is that a dog got invited to a lunch and other people were mad? You know, we're thriving if those are the only concerns. So, you know, maybe, maybe there are some people at Warner Brothers or Netflix who are like a little miffed because the aperture is getting wider, but like otherwise for the rest of us, it's great.
Who really cares? Yeah, I think it's great. I think it puts a new emphasis, a fascinating emphasis on things like the Cannes Festival. You know, like this year, the way that it will be scouted and it'll be scouted with more international films because of the strikes that happened last year, the bulk of the films that play a can this, this May will be international films and will have a better chance to compete at the Academy Awards than they ever have.
So it's just a fascinating kind of like objective wrinkle. So let's talk about Emma Stone's win. We both picked Lily Gladstone. We both fought with the SAG win would indicate that she would pull it off.
She's been explaining to us for weeks and weeks. This has been one of the tightest Oscar races in many years. I'm a fan of both performances. Emma Stone, of course, already won.
I thought that was very funny when Jimmy Kimmel noted after she won that they should rip up that envelope. Nice call back to the moonlight. Do we play to people who don't actually remember? So obviously you do remember that La La Land was announced as the best picture winner when it was actually Moonlight.
And but what happened was eventually explained that Fade Donaway and Warren Beatty were given the best actress envelope again instead of because there are two envelopes to every category instead of best picture. So what they were seeing was Emma Stone's name, which is why they said La La Land. So what do you think about her win? She's wonderful.
And I have not been shy about saying I love La La Land, I've been rooting for her from the beginning. And you know, it would have been like a historically important win. And so there is always that moment in the room where you go, oh, you know, and you could even see Emma Stone do it just like just lightly because she is like a savvy and conscientious person. But Emma Stone is wonderful in that movie.
I really like her great speech made me cry at the end because she shouted out the three-year-old daughter, happy birthday to her daughter who turns three in three days. So yeah, what are you going to do? Emma Stone is one of the great movie stars of our lifetime. Yeah, it's interesting.
I'm not sure what it means. I can't help but feel like the consistent relative disinterest from the Academy in the Work of Martins Orsazy continues to resonate. No, he does not have very many acting wins for his films. He's been nominated for Best Director North of Ten Times.
It's only one once. This is the third time one of his films has gone over ten at the Academy Awards, which is really quite something. No, Martins Orsazy always identified as an East Coast filmmaker, a New Yorker, someone who's slightly outside of or beyond or above the fray. And he was there last night, but there was not really much energy put towards Killst the farm.
And there was a great performance of Waz as I say that we saw one Jimmy Kimmel joke about its length, which I thought was a real growner. We've heard that joke a million times. There was the really glad Stone bit about the murder hornets. That was funny.
You know, what's the latest on murder hornets? You took her job, actually. She was thinking about full film. It was not being incredible.
Just like cut to Fielder horn for me and just like the giant BK-Piercure suit. BK-Pier-2, me and Jason Statham for the murder hornets. The BK-Pier-2 Colin murder hornets is an incredible idea. I love that.
Yeah. Um, but you're right. It's, people have not taken this movie seriously since it's released, which is insane. I thought it was the best movie of the year.
So did you. It's like a masterpiece. Martins Orsazy is our greatest living filmmaker, or one of them at least. You know, and people are just like, well, that's too long.
And I still haven't finished it. What more can you say? I'm not really very smart when we were watching the show too, and we noted that Maestro and Killers could go over. And even when we said that, I was like, that's probably not going to happen.
I think Lily will win. I think Maestro will make up. And then when neither of those things happen and neither of those films won any awards, you said is it like a bias against the streamers, which is something that we talked about back in the 18, 19 days. And then, you know, Apple won for CODA and it's felt like even if Netflix bias, the walls were coming down.
But this was a very, very historical movie studio-centric kind of award show. Oppenheimer's Universal Movie, you know, poor things as a Disney searchlight movie, even a nazulat-nion. I don't know what to do. I don't know if the first movie was a Disney movie, but hopefully a sign that, you know, the studio will produce those movies.
I guess MGM, Amazon produced American Fiction. So you've got a handful of places where the streamers are being recognized, but three or four years ago it felt like this was completely changed. It felt like all the streamers were in pole position, and now it doesn't feel that way after night. I know I made the streamers point, but I don't think it's as direct as people voting.
Well, that was a streamer movie. So I don't believe in it. I mean, Killers in the Flower Moon and Maestro, I think, two examples that sort of opposing ends of success of just like true blank check filmmaking, like, here. Go do what you want to do.
But notably both movies started at Paramount. They originally were Paramount productions. And then what happened is, those movies quote unquote, too expensive and then it went off to Netflix. And so there is something, and they are both very, very personal reflections of the filmmaker in their own ways.
One, I think dramatically, successfully. And one is like the fatal flaw of the film, right? But so you do wonder if something is just people aren't responding to that level of, I guess everyone is not as moved by the fact that Martin Scorsese made this incredible epic about America and also his filmmaking career. They're just like, whatever, it was really long.
They don't want indulgence or they don't want that. I don't know. I don't think it's just like, well, I don't like Netflix. No, I always think it's more subtle than that.
I think that sometimes those things bleed through. I think the other thing, obviously, going against it is that this was the Barbenheimer year, that there were several mentions of the impact of Barby and Oppenheimer being released together and what they did or did not do for each other, the way that they competed against each other at the box office and then for the Academy Awards. Obviously, Oppenheimer has been coordinated in a pretty profound way. You could make the case, I won't make this case, but you could make the case that with the I'm just Ken performance, Barby had a bigger night.
The fact that from the stage, Jimmy Kimmel, and the opening of the show noted that Greta Gerwick basically got snubbed to the people who snubbed her, that it's the movie that had the high box office. It's the movie that felt like there was just a lot of warmth towards the cast, the crew, the people who made it, despite it, because it's a Hollywood movie. It feels like a Hollywood movie. It maybe doesn't feel as important as Oppenheimer, but it's a big success story for Hollywood for a movie like that to win.
So do you want to try to take on that argument? No, I'm never going to do that. I'm always going to be sitting in the corner being like, I told you guys and you never appreciated it. And everything I said was always right from the beginning.
But I mean, I'm just kind of obviously it was a moment. And can I just say, where's my camera? To all the people adding me being like, oh, now you like an original song performance. I've been very clear about this, okay?
I'm just kind of the exception to the role as was proved during the broadcast. And by the way, Billy Eilish is an incredibly talented young musician who deserves all of her success and just stood there on stage singing a song slowly. So do with that what you will. But yeah, that- I don't mind saying that while we were watching the Telecast, me and you and Corey, you were just a tremendous brat for the Billy Eilish performance.
You were very well behaved and nice and fun to the whole show, except when she sang and you just went full brat mode. It's boring, it's boring. She's really talented. Make a better song, you know?
Or give the Oscar to a better song. I would like to note that the broadcast opened and closed with Duoliba's Dance the Night Away, which was not nominated for an Oscar, but they know that that is the banger that you need to get the energy going. Who's that? Show us producers?
Yes, and the people at large. Anyway, I'm just- But did you see the celebs gen you flexing before Billy Eilish after her performance? There were several cutaways to arm on a grande and grab the Cooper Peep already to cry. People have young children, you know?
And they're just like, well, he knows better. He knows how to say Duoliba, okay? And he hasn't heard Billy Eilish yet. Because he would be like, no, no new song, new song?
Anyway, I'm just kind of obviously just a tremendous. Like shows, I mean, it was wonderful. And it really did feel like our generation's version of the Billy Crystal 90s. Just like, we're all here together united in this like silly, but delightful pop cultural moment that is like ridiculous, but everyone's committed to it.
From Ryan Gosling all the way down, I was glad they brought all his backup kens. It was, everyone showed up. Kingsley Bend and Deer showing out, Smolou showing out. It was great.
Slash, shout out to Slash. Apparently the review from home was that Knox left Slash in his guitar and was very excited about that. Makes a lot of sense. It was, if you don't like that, you don't like the Oscars.
That was the opposite at its best. Doing a big brassy thing that was representative of the year in movies with extremely famous people. And the thing is Gosling, when he wants to be, is the chosen one. When he wants to do it and isn't too cool for it and is willing to play, he was perfect.
He was perfect as Ken. There was a lot of anxiety about the idea of someone like stealing the movie, but he does steal the movie in many ways. And he stole Oscar Knight by doing that performance. I didn't think he would do it.
I thought he was gonna play too cool. And he went a thousand percent. But he sang really well. Yeah, I hit every note.
Same life started in the audience. Multiple like altitude changes, you know, because he was going up and down because he brought Margot and Greta Gerwig and America Ferri into sing. And then he also got Amazon, his frequent post-star, to also do. It was great.
It was so delightful. And that also, like, no, Barbie didn't win the night, but that to me was a great summary of like why Barbie, the movie, it just like worked so well. And why it is like a real achievement? Because it is hard to create something that zany, that everyone is just completely won over by.
And it won the room. I think it let the show have what it needs to have to be successful, which it needs to be able to basically have it's kicking you too. It needs to be able to have Barbie be at the center of the show because people love Barbie. And like common moviegoers love to Barbie and saw it.
It also lets a grandmaster of cinema who's been waiting for a long time, who made a very serious movie about a serious subject, get celebrated for that movie. And so you get to now say literally Steven Spielberg passing the torch to Christopher Nolan when he presented Best Director. And that all the Nolan heads out there feel vindicated, that their boy is now in the hallowed halls of Best Director winners that Oppenheimer was the best film of the year. It has seemed boring to us because we've been covering it so closely for so long.
But it is ultimately what we were talking about, which is that this will be the Nolan Oppenheimer Oscars. That's in all likelihood. It's the way we remember it will be the emistone Oscars. It won't be the don't interest Oscars.
That won't be the anatomy of fall Oscars. It'll be the Oppenheimer Oscars. Which is how you know it's a mega year. As I was watching the show, I was thinking about our conversation about how many people will watch the show.
And now I'm like, how big can this show get? Could it be like 27 million people watching the show? I don't know, suddenly I feel like a lot of people are gonna tune in. It's 803 PST on Sunday night when we're recording this.
I just want that in context. You're full of hope and optimism and your belief that all it takes is popular film, a popular film and then here come. Not just a popular film being nominated. Because people reached out to me and they were like, hey, Maverick and Avatar, the way of water, we're nominated, they were not contending.
That is a very nice way of summarizing the way what people said to you. I mean, with love and respect, fuck them. What I'm saying is when a movie like that is dominating. When the Lord of the Rings return to the King, when it's Titanic, when it's, you know, gladiator.
Like movies like that. Did you realize that Leo didn't go? He did not go. He did not.
He wanted a few notable nonattentants. And I guess like I would have been very disappointed if Lily had won and he were not there. You know, I think he was shacked up with Hyomi, as Aki, and Wes Anderson. Yeah, yeah.
Just hanging out. Yeah, those three guys. What do you think that the episode of his thing? What do you think he has to say to Leo?
Do you think he's a fan? Do you think that Miyazaki is a fan of Leo? That Leo's a fan of me? I know Leo's a huge fan of his act.
He was scared of the way. He was scared of the way. Right. So Leo is just sitting there asking him, like very earnest questions.
I think that's the only time that Leo gets to unlock his, you know, his inner child. Come on the big picture. Yeah. We can talk about it anytime.
Yeah. Yeah. That is interesting that Leonardo DiCaprio did not attend. Robert DeNiro was there and he looked quite stern through the entire evening.
I don't know if the man cracked a smile one time. There were several times. There was like one tiny inch of a smile when Tim Robbins, who was like his introductory. I'd like to speak on that.
Introductory, whatever, you know, called him an Oscar, called an Oscar winning instead of an Oscar worthy performance. And there was a nice moment. And like the life was came on in his eyes, but like it wasn't a false smile. For the most part, he gloured him, everyone.
So I have one note for the show. It's not my note. This is bad. This is bad.
And so you tempered your opinions about this as the show went on. And I would like to encourage you now, before you say anything, to lead with your end of show feelings, as opposed to your best supporting actress feelings. It was a great show. In fact, here's what I'd like to say.
I thought the usage of clips in this award show was excellent. When they used clips, like when they showed us best sound and they isolated the sound so that we could hear the work that the artisans did, brilliant. I loved it. It's been done before, but the way that they did it, the same time was very, very good.
It teaches the audience in a subconscious way what the art of filmmaking is without beating you over the head. It's not like showing you a sketch. It's just in a very succinct way, explaining what filmmaking is. Yeah.
Here's the thing is, hold on, hold on. I want to see. I time out. Time out.
Because there's going to be the rare thing where I was going to say, up until you said the word acting, and you were talking about the usage of clips in this show, I was going to agree with you. OK. I thought that they had a very smart, well-chosen, efficient, but effective approach to using clips. And my problem with clips historically has been what you were about to ask for.
They've chosen this year, of course, to have former winners come out and introduce each of the nominees in the four acting categories. In general, I like this idea. I like creating this historical strand that you're following if you're a fan of movies and a fan of the Academy Awards. I like remembering, oh, did Jessica Langdish do you win for Blue Skye?
What year was that? I like seeing people that I haven't seen in a while. I liked Nicholas Cage getting on stage at the Academy Awards and being the most charismatic person in the world for 12 seconds. That was awesome.
I love Nick Cage. Cool to see him re-welcomed back into the fold. There was something nice about what they did. And they've done that before.
I think it was 2008 when they lasted this, where they had these former winners come out and introduce. I thought some of the writing, and I don't know if it was some of these mini speeches were written for the actors or whether they wrote themselves. It seemed like a mix to me based on how people spoke. And that's also very interesting about how comfortable they feel with public speaking and or writing.
So you can handle that. Right. And or who actually responded to the performance and who got filled in at the last minute. And I was like, sure, I admire that person from afar.
We'll never know the answer to that. But to not show us the actors doing anything feels like robbing not just the people who are fans of the movies and like them, but the people who've never seen the movies before and would get a chance to see Sterling K. Brown in American Fiction if they haven't seen that movie. Because a lot of people have not seen that movie or get a chance to see Sandra Hoehler in Anatomy of a Fall, which is of course one of the best performances of the year.
But that would be just one on Hulu a week ago. Most people haven't seen that movie. We were watching the show. If 25 million people watch the show, what percentage of them have seen at Anatomy of a Fall?
20%? 30%. So my point is, give them a taste. Give them a taste.
Don't give me a little montage cut together or the best picture nominees that nobody's paying attention to that they feel like they've seen on a TV commercial. Show me the acting. In some cases they actually did because Rolex just decided to advertise watches with acting. I was working in partnership with them.
That would be 35 Rolexes. I'll give you one if you're nice to me for the remainder of this pod. Call me when you get a partnership with Cartier. Anyway, I disagree with you.
Number one, because I really liked the presentations of the previous winners and the new people. It gives each person a moment. What was your favorite? I thought Sam Rockwell did a great job.
He was very spirited. I was just really excited that Mahershala Ali was there. That's just a great way to close out any sort of any kind of. I don't know.
He and Mark Ruffler were boys. That was a good news to me. Well, I thought they'd recently taken a photo together on social media. I immediately just typed in a rehearsal Ali and Mark Ruffler.
Are they homies? Anyway, I just I liked it. I went to the Are They Homies generator, by the way. Yes, they are.
You run that on your spare time while you're also maintaining your spritches. I do. I just had content of Are They Homies. I liked it.
I liked it. I liked seeing celebrities and a war show. That's kind of like my primary reason for tuning in. So the more people, the better.
I thought for the most part, they were sincere and the nominees seemed moved by it. I liked that they each got a moment. I also generally think that the clips chosen for the acting of the real are some of the worst examples of acting and Oscar bait that have ever been committed to cinema. It is like I was doing like the Julia Moore.
Like you come here. That's what it is. Like in every reel. It's called cooking.
That's what people cook. It's insane. And it's not representative of what they're doing. And they always look crazy.
So I like this better. There are also plenty of opportunities to see these people acting in all the other clips and montages that you got throughout the film. I mean, the show. I love you, but you're wrong.
You're just dead wrong. People are with me on this. More and more people are saying, show me clips. Why are we doing this?
They showed you show. They showed you. They showed you more clips. More clips.
It just would have been longer. And we would have just been there rewatching things that we have already seen. I'll tell you what I enjoyed. I enjoyed just Steven Spielberg coming on stage and just giving a word out.
I enjoyed Al Pacino showing up. A little unclear where he was. But I would say caffeinated and ready to go. What do you say, my eyes see Oppenheimer?
Which is like a really good way of a moment. I thought it was like a no liability. You know, it's like a ball. I'm not moving the ball.
It's like, here's what I see. It was great. And then as soon as they. That was honestly, we probably overlooked the importance of this moment of this.
You know, Red Oppenheimer is the winner. Because as soon as the music started playing, I think he said, what's happening? You know, Al Pacino, one of the most significant actors of the last 50s, 75 years, he's 83 years old. Also, it's a real live audience.
Put him up there. He has a young child. So we don't know about his sleep schedule. That's a good point.
You know, it's very relatable tonight. You know, what's happening? I don't know what's happening. What's happening was the P and L's the winner.
And people are coming on stage. That was just absolutely fantastic. But my point is I like when 1% does it as well. I don't need, you know, I'm a fan of the tradition of the previous winner coming out and introducing.
So whether it be Jamie Lee Curtis or Michelle Yo, or Brendan Fraser, or who I'm supporting after last year at Kibiko. Kibiko, of course. That would have also been fine by me if I could have seen the cuts. Just my personal gripe, if I didn't say anything about it, I would live through a credit.
But it's really my only major issue with the show this year. Can I give my note? I've already given one note. And I piled onto Billy Eilish unfairly because we also had Becky G singing the Flamin' Cheetos, Flamin' Hot.
Very briefly. Very briefly. Very cute children. On stage and let them have a moment at the Oscars.
I still didn't like it. I still thought that it was time we could have spent elsewhere. But that wasn't great. And then the dramatize.
I mean, that's just a ballot. You know, we don't need ballots, but whatever. The Immemorium segment? Well, I would say that that also leaned too far into the performance arts for my taste.
I see. Does this have anything to do with the fact you were trained in the performance arts? Speak honestly. I didn't grow up with that.
But you did. Did you need ballet with the montage of tributes? Do you live in a ballet household? I live with a ballerina.
It's hiring ballerina. Yeah, I know. I'm the young men and women who dance tonight. I hope they did great.
I hope they financially and professionally see. Their bodies often got in the way of the names of the people who had died and who were being honored. So that was tough. And then it turned into another rousing song performance.
I think we could have paired that back. That was my note. Any more grouzing for me about the Academy Awards tonight? That I said.
That was my note. Was I think we could have worked on it. I do have another note. I remember another one.
There was one extraneous montage in the telecast. Historically, I love when the Academy Awards does montages about like, don't you love a Western? And then just 30 images of Westerns over the last 100 years? That's one of my favorite things that they used to do that they no longer do.
It's one of the- That's fine. Kevin Costner is making two movies for yourself. Next year is going to be loaded with a Western montage. But I understand why they don't do it anymore.
It is definitely one of the things that makes the show very long because when they have multiple tributes to genres or actors or a certain decade or certain filmmaker, whatever it is they end up doing. They only did one this year. And I thought it was- their heart was in the right place, but it revealed how lame the Oscars are, which is that- Can I just say, yesterday my husband said to me, you know what, you're an Oscars pundit. So you need to find a way to like Oscars.
And I just want to say that to you right now. Well, I did like it this year. I did. But I have to say this because I know a lot of people are thinking and agree.
They did a montage tribute to Stunk choreography this year. Now, as you pointed out, like it was very clearly an advertisement for the forthcoming film, The Fall Guy, because that Stunk choreography bit was set up by Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling, the stars of The Fall Guy. But it also, I think, was a reflection of the fact that this past year was an incredible year for Stunk choreography, the John Wick chapter four, the Mission Impossible film, there were a number of the creator, there were a number of incredible films that had great stunt choreography, practical stunt choreography. And I've been crying like a baby for 10 years of the Oscars adding a stunt award.
And this year they finally announced the new award. They haven't announced the new award in years. They finally announced the new award. And it's for casting.
And it's for casting for an obviously political reason. I feel like they actually got some blowback for the Stunk thing. It's just like, Vulture just did a stunt suite for Christ's sake on their website. And then they make that stunt package.
It was a good package. Yeah, they're going to make him easy. He's so smart about that stuff. That's it.
I'm right. It's very good. But it looks lame to do a montage of all the great stunts when you're not getting out on the award. The thing to do is to, on that night, say the names of the people who did the work, not just show us a clips package of a guy flying off of a motorcycle.
I mean, you must agree with me. Of course I agree with you. I'm not like you shouldn't have shown cool stunts. Like, you know, I'm also advocating for clips.
I'm also advocating for clips. I'm kind of out of your nose. Yeah, I agree. It was lame.
It's also like clearly spun cons sort of, even though Emily Blen and Brian Gazzling did like a very charming like Barb and Hymer bit as well. That was like very funny. They are professionals. They both nailed their lines.
Maybe Fall Guy will actually be entertaining. I like I agree. They should just make a category. But don't you think this could be like one step closer to your category?
That at least they know they need to include it? I do. I do. I do.
I do. Let's be constructive. To make a stink about it on a podcast like this, just to make it clear. What was your favorite win of the night?
I guess, Kelly and Murphy was a nice beach. I thought that was good. Everyone was excited about that. There weren't that many surprises to my true answer that I was just hedging on just then was all the categories that I got right that you didn't.
Two shorts categories. And what was the other one? There was one other one. Not sound.
You got sound right. What did it might have just been the two shorts. Okay. Congratulations.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. No I thought everybody did a nice job.
Dave went to our Randolph speech. And I know it, you know, I, but like very emotional, very moving, I've loved all of her speeches. And I noticed that this was the first one that she didn't have written down. Well, that's because she's accepted roughly 300 hours.
I know, so she didn't think she was gonna take that straight. She has maintained an admirable sense of authenticity every acceptance speech. It's gonna be hard to just keep going up there. And she nailed it tonight.
And so, you know, and she talked very movingly about her career and not believing in herself and the people who did believe in her. She also had the immortal line of like, they say not to anchor publicists, but you all don't have a publicist like I do. So I'd like to thank my publicist. And then didn't actually say the publicist's name.
So Jimmy threw to her the next thing. That was great. It was just very charming. So everybody kind of had a nice moment.
I like that when in general, I like Jim Adi walking her to the stage. I like to cut away to him with a single tear after her win. They seem to have a nice bond, the two of them. Gosh, well, I thought that Justin Trea in Arthur Harari's speech and win for now to be with Fal was very good.
I mean, justine. Justine Trea. Are we sure that that's how they say that? That's something we said when we were not being recorded.
Well, when they introduced her for Best Director, like the tape over was justine Trea. That was what Stephen Spielberg said. No, he didn't have to say it. The presenters recorded separately the names of the nominees.
So here's what I'm envisioning. Stephen Spielberg in Recording Studio by himself doing this. Is it Justine or Justine? Justine?
Got it. Justine Trea. Yeah. Anyways, Justine.
Just know so that so far. Justine Trea was in a bit tonight with David Kidn. That was good. Yeah.
And he was funny. So I enjoyed that. He also was the butt of this boy from the Fablemans looks like this joke as well. Oh, yeah.
That was it. That was all right. You know, I was like, what do you've seen the movies and you're making jokes where you've actually seen the movie? It's fine with me.
I don't know if it was my favorite win that I wasn't expecting. We were pretty sure that was going to happen. But her speech was really, really good. And then Ricky Miner and the orchestra, cheering up at the IMP, Steel Drum Cover, it was really great and played really well.
I still think that they could have used the extra three minutes. We each had like an idea of what they could have done with the extra three to five minutes of the telecast. Mine was to have like an actual steel drum band like marching up and down the aisle playing PIMP. That would have been amazing.
It would have been really amazing. A little VMAs, but it would have been amazing. A bit funny. Yes.
Let me ask you something. Justine kind of occurred to me. So I was thinking about a couple of the winners, Stone, Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, Justine Triay, and Arthur Harori. You've seen!
You've just seen. All right. All right. Justine.
They're all like 37 to 45, which is, you know, that's the neighborhood that we're in. And they're all like... You just pulled out my Oscar from under the desk. Here you go.
Trust me, that's not what I'm delivering to you. There were little plastic Oscars in CBS the other day when I was there. I was like, oh, should I buy one for this? For yourself or for me?
No for this because we're recording it and it's just a video. Just a little paperweight on the center. More like I could have painted it to you at some point, but I didn't. Sorry.
That's okay. They all were talking about having little kids. You know, they're all at the similar stage of their life. You know, of course Jefferson, he's around our age.
Like all these people who are winning. I want to talk about coordinates second too. It's like the Oscars kind of came for us a little bit. Of course, they're still like the grandmasters and they're still like the Robert Danny Juniors were being recognized for a lifelong body of work.
But I'm Christopher Nolan is not that much older than us, honestly, when you think about it. And so it was the first time in a while where I felt like the Oscars were a reflection of a generation that we're participating in on. And that may have been true for Nomadland or for CODO when you think about those filmmakers, but we didn't have as big and long a relationship with some of those directors or actors. So there's something too about how this generation, this kind of like older millennial, super young Gen X is now really at the center of Hollywood, the center of the economy awards, which is a good thing, I think.
It is a good thing. It does also just mean that we're old, you know, which is sort of tough. It's like it's when all of the jokes at the major events are two things from childhood, like the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger and David Vito like presented and then Jennifer Liam won for best editing and was like, I love the movie Twins, which of course was the first thought that any one of our generation would have. So like time comes for us all and there are benefits to it.
And Jennifer Liam, a contemporary of us, you know, someone who was about right now, I wonder if 19 year olds are sitting at home and they're like, this show sucks. Do you think they've seen twins? No, no, no, I'm sure they would love twins, twins as timeless classic. No, I mean, the Academy Awards, like what they watch the show and because we have an enthusiasm for tonight show and I'm usually kind of grouchy about the talk about this.
And now I'm like, is the telecast now for me? Yes, it is. Is this my boomer moment? I know it's tough, right?
It's like when the things that you complain about finally come for you, then you have to start looking in the mirror and you're like, oh no, now I'm the problem. I've been having this experience in movies a lot in the last couple of years with needle drops as you know, where all of the needle drops are like, wow, I know you just like, right? Tastes to God. This is so emotional.
So touching that they see me so deeply, but it's just you're right. We're just getting old. Yeah. We're just getting old.
Yeah. But it's okay. There was Billy Eilish for the teens. So I know, but I felt like a lot of old people were also deeply touched by her.
They're like, she reminds me of Edith Pia for something. No, they didn't think that I don't. Maybe they did. What was the worst win of the night?
Well, that seems that generous. I'm thinking, well, it's not the worst answer. Wasn't there. That was troubling.
I mean, I'm glad that he won. I don't know. Do you think he knows? Do you think he stayed awake in Paris?
No, I think he does. He knows whether he won an Academy Award. It was like in the middle of the night in Paris where he lives and works. I have a feeling that at a minimum, someone from the Netflix Corporation called him.
Do you think he has do not deserve one? Does West Anderson have a smartphone in his sleeping vicinity? Does he have a smartphone? No, now we're cooking.