One of my favorite nights of the year came around Sunday night, and for once nobody complained about the host of the Oscars.
That’s because, of course, there was no host. And you know what? The show was fine without one. Sure, some of the skits the host does every year are funny, but mostly they’re a waste of time.
I have to say, even though I saw so few of the movies nominated (life with two small kids doesn’t allow much time for adult flick theater-going), I enjoyed this year’s Oscars. No one movie dominated, the show didn’t drag, and I actually saw and liked the movie that won.
Now a lot of people on social media Sunday night were hating on “Green Book,” because of its historical inaccuracies (the friendship between Dr. Shirley and Tony Vallelonga was nowhere near as close as the movie made it, and the family of Dr. Shirley is very unhappy with the portrayal, and there is a bit of a “white hero saves the day” theme of the film), but I have to say, I enjoyed it a lot. Is it a perfect movie? No. But I thought the acting and writing was terrific. I’m happy it won.
— Other things I was super-happy about: Mahershala Ali winning for “Green Book,” Spike Lee finally getting a long-overdue Oscar (you knew his speech would be something epic in scope, and it was), and Lady Gaga winning for best song for “Shallow.”
— Speaking of which… Gaga. Cooper. “Shallow.” Freaking mesmerizing performance. One of the two highlights of the night for me. And Gaga gave a terrific speech, too. I’m rapidly becoming more and more of a fan of hers.
— Haven’t seen it yet but I hear “Bohemian Rhapsody” was fantastic, and it was very, very cool having the “Wayne’s World” stars Mike Myers and Dana Carvey introduce the film. If only we could’ve gotten a “schwwwinnnggg!” out of them.
–It was a night without too many great speeches, but Olivia Colman winning for best actress had the speech of the night. She was adorable, charming, thanking everyone, telling her kids “This won’t happen again” and practically apologizing to Glenn Close for winning, telling her “You’ve been my idol for so long, this is not how I wanted this to be.”
Really sweet, special stuff.
— The other speech I found awesome was from Melissa Berton, co-director of the Best Documentary Short winner, “Period. End of Sentence,” who opened her remarks with “I’m not crying because I’m on my period. I can’t believe a film about menstruation won an Oscar!”
Truer words may never have been spoken from that stage.
— Just a general question: Is there no end to the movies that are made about queens, kings, monarchs, and royals? I mean, haven’t they been exhausted as a subject matter? Please can they be exhausted as a subject matter?
— So there was no host, but Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Mya Rudolph did the closest thing to an opening monologue, being funny and charming and I once again please, why can’t Tina and Amy host every awards show, ever? Please???
–OK, most importantly, the best and worst dressed categories, as judged in the Lewis house, as always, by my wife. On the women’s side, to the good we loved Angela Bassett’s gorgeous dress (above), Julia Roberts is 51 years old and looks amazing, and wow wow wow, again, on Jennifer Lopez, who fulfilled my No. 1 rule for women: You can never, ever be too sparkly. Big points also for Gaga’s dress. The men who dressed great were Chadwick Boseman, Daniel Craig (hey, he’s 007), and Mahershala Ali, who always looks good.
On the bad side, oof, Stephan James and that red tuxedo, my wife was really not a fan. And Kacey Musgraves looked like the cotton candy display at the county fair.
— Enjoyed the Death Montage as always, really thought Penny Marshall should’ve been the Hammer at the end, but hey, Albert Finney was fabulous too, so no beef.
— So Alfonso Cuaron won for Best Director, the 5th time the last six years a Mexican-born filmmaker has taken that prize.
So the beautiful people from the New York Times Twitter feed made this to celebrate, and of course mock the idiot in Chief:
— Can we get a buddy road trip movie starring Spike Lee and Barbra Streisand, please? Like you WOULDN’T go see that? Two kids from Brooklyn who made it big, driving from New York to L.A., and having adventures along the way. I’ll buy my ticket for that now.
— This is hilarious: Apparently Trevor Noah, while discussing “Black Panther,” mentioned a phrase in the Xhosa language, “‘Abelungu abazi ubu ndiyaxoka’- which means, ‘In times like these, we are stronger when we fight together than when we try to fight apart.”
But in reality, many Africans on Twitter pointed out, that phrase he spoke actually translates to “White people don’t know I’m lying.”
Brilliant. Maybe Trevor should host the show next year.
Wide World of Stuff 