Academy Awards 2016: Highlights and Analysis
Melena Ryzik
Every journalist watching this is at least a little bit gladdened that “Spotlight” took home best pic.
Wesley Morris
To start with, I’m
happy for this movie — and not because I worked at The Boston Globe for
almost a dozen years. Every single thing about the movie is sneaky-good,
except Mark Ruffalo’s meltdown, which is sneaky-bad. I like a movie
that makes me mad but is so well-acted that what every actor does feels
like something beyond acting. Sidney Lumet’s movies did that, too. This
was the most important movie of the bunch — and it’s hard to give an
Oscar to two savages stab-fighting in the snow, when there’s
international crime being reported.
Melena Ryzik
The academy did well
enough by its mission to present the best side of Hollywood to the rest
of the world, at least with the available nominees. And the telecast
producers took care of the rest by ending the show with Public Enemy’s
“Fight the Power” — and ignoring, on the same album, “Burn Hollywood
Burn.”
Wesley Morris
And with that, we’re
off to our respective pillows. Thanks for reading, everybody. We’ll see
you next year, when #OscarsSoSomethingElse.
Leonardo DiCaprio won
the Oscar for best actor for his work in “The Revenant.” This is his
sixth Oscar nomination, but first win. Read our review of “The Revenant.”
Wesley Morris
Finally, Melena, our long national nightmare is over! Leonardo DiCaprio can appear in “Fast 8 Furious.”
Melena Ryzik
As one of the cars.
Wesley Morris
Electric, of course!
Melena Ryzik
I await the first
backstage pic of Leo and Vice President Biden. He gave an almost
politically polished speech, but he delivered it with the right note of
authenticity.
Wesley Morris
True. And as on-brand
as Jenny Beavan’s outfit. The “it’s his time” conversation really drove
me nuts. He was great in a headache-inducing movie. Grunting, impaling
and all. “Wolf of Wall Street” will be the one that got away, far as I’m
concerned.
Best Actress: Brie Larson for ‘Room’
Brie Larson won the Oscar for best actress for her work in “Room.” This is her first Oscar nomination. Read our review of “Room.”
Melena Ryzik
As expected, Brie
Larson wins. I like her composure. This is the confidence on stage that
comes from surviving being a child actor. And a would-be teen singing
star.
Wesley Morris
During a commercial
break, it looked like she was tearfully hugging the survivors from Lady
Gaga’s performance. Her likability might soon surpass the Jennifer
Lawrence zone.
Melena Ryzik
I’m seeing on Twitter
some people who wanted more emotion from her speech but come on, at this
point in the night, all my points go to brisk.
Wesley Morris
I must say, though, I
feel bad for Charlotte Rampling. She gave my favorite of those five
performances. I don’t like fearlessness as an attribute of actors, but
sometimes it’s apt. And the way Ms. Rampling has been embracing the
iciness and hauteur of the women she plays — for decades — is a rare,
confident strength. She knows the camera will find what she’s doing. The
way she says “still” in “45 Years” is worth two paragraphs of pain. Of
course, what makes her a very good actress also, this year, made her a
regrettable spokesperson regarding the pain of others. Crazy to say her
ungenerous comments on non-white actors hurt her chances to be where Ms.
Larson is standing. But the risk of practicing froideur is that it can
leave you in the cold.
Backstage: The ‘Amy’ Filmmakers
The
director and writer of “Amy,” which just won best documentary feature,
were asked how they felt about Amy Winehouse’s father taking sharp aim
at their film.
“At the end of the
day, the film is about Amy, and she became a bit of a punching bag, a
bit of a bad gag in the press at the end,” said James Gay-Rees, the
film’s producer. “Our job wasn’t to blame anybody, our job was to tell
people how great Amy Winehouse was. And that should be enough.”
The director, Asif
Kapadia, said he hoped that the film would give people pause before they
attacked troubled celebrities, the way the press, and the public, went
after Ms. Winehouse. He said he hoped that next time, someone would stop
and think before sending “the horrible nasty tweet.”
Asked about diversity, Mr. Kapadia said the problem wasn’t limited to Hollywood.
“How many brown people
in this room?” he asked the hundreds of largely white reporters
assembled. “A few people here, a few people there. I think that’s the
question for everyone.”
Best Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu for ‘The Revenant’
Alejandro G. Iñárritu won the Oscar for best director for “The Revenant.” This is his his second best-director win in a row. Read our review of “The Revenant.”
Wesley Morris
Well there’s no shock
there. Alejandro G. Iñárritu does it again. He’s the new Spielberg. Or
something. I mean, he’s now powerful enough to stop the band from
playing him off with “Flight of the Valkyries.” Apocalypse later,
apparently.
Melena Ryzik
And he did it with a
speech about ending racism, which was well-intentioned if not entirely
emotionally fulfilling. (Which is also how I felt about “The Revenant.”)
Anatomy of a Scene | ‘The Revenant’
Alejandro G. Inarritu narrates a scene from “The Revenant,” featuring Leonardo DiCaprio.
The Ennio Morricone Sound
The
composer Ennio Morricone, who won an Oscar tonight for the “Hateful
Eight” score, has been nominated plenty of times, for his work for “The
Mission,” “The Untouchables” and several other films. He even won an
honorary Academy Award in 2006. But he may be best known for his
spaghetti western compositions, especially the music for “The Good, the
Bad and the Ugly.” Wah wah waaah.
Vice President Joe Biden Takes the Stage, Lady Gaga Performs
Vice President Biden took to the stage to introduce Lady Gaga, and the crowd went wild.
“I’m trying to find the teleprompter,” Mr. Biden as members of the audience got to their feet.
He waved them away: “I’m the least qualified man here tonight.”
Mr. Biden introduced
Lady Gaga, who was performing the song “Til It Happens to You,” which is
about sexual assault. He addressed the crowd and asked viewers to take a
pledge: “I will intervene in situations when consent has not or cannot be given.
Let’s change the culture,” he added.
Melena Ryzik
Vice President Biden
helped write the original Violence Against Women Act. And the people who
stood surrounding Lady Gaga are apparently real-life survivors of
sexual assault. Who would’ve predicted, a few months ago, that the most
political, socially powerful moments of Oscar night would belong to Vice
President Joe Biden and his “good friend” Lady Gaga?
Wesley Morris
I know. He just gives a
rousingly Bidenesque speech in support of justice for sexual assault
survivors then throws it to Lady Gaga who gives a rousingly Gagaesque
performance of “Til It Happens to You.” It’s been some month for her as a
paragon of emotionalism. At the end, she clutches hands with the
survivors who surround her big white, Elton John machine and the room
stands and applauds. Another bowl of tears from me.
Melena Ryzik
Even though she didn’t win, she can take some solace in the fact that she had one of the show’s few indelible moments.
Wesley Morris
No, she didn’t! That
perfectly flavorless, embarrassingly deployed Sam Smith song did. And
while he was at it, he tried to take credit for being the first openly
gay winner. Nice try! But he did dedicate it to the L.G.B.T. community.
Which was pretty Gaga of him.
The Oscar for original song goes to “Writing’s On The Wall” from “Spectre,” by Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith.
Pete
Docter, who won the Oscar for best-animated feature, for “Inside Out,”
which he wrote and directed, said the most rewarding feedback has come
from teachers and parents, especially those who had special-needs kids.
“We’ve heard from a
lot of folks who have said this has given them a vocabulary to speak
about emotions for the first time,” Mr. Docter said. “We’re so thankful
that we’re able to contribute in that way.”
And Jonas Rivera, who
produced the film, said his favorite moment in the awards campaign was
meeting the guys from “Straight Outta Compton,” especially Ice Cube.
“I introduced myself
to him as the producer of ‘Inside Out,’ not knowing what I’d get,’” Mr.
Rivera said. “And he said, “Oh man, that movie was dope.’ And that was a
pretty good moment for me.”
The Oscar for original score goes to “The Hateful Eight.”
When the stage great
and “Bridge of Spies” spy Mark Rylance won the Oscar for best supporting
actor, an audible gasp went up from the Dolby Theater. Backstage, he
was asked how he felt about having “outpunched Rocky.”
“The thing about
competing as actors, and I know it’s necessary to make a show out of it,
but all of those actors are so good,” Mr. Rylance said. “I feel I’m
more a spokesman when I win than somebody better than all the nominees. I
don’t take it too seriously.”
Not only were his
fellow nominees so good, he said, but others who had not been nominated,
too; among them, he said, Idris Elba (“Beasts of No Nation”) and Paul
Dano (“Love & Mercy”).
On the subject of
diversity, Mr. Rylance said, he thought Chris Rock had made a positive
impact on the conversation. “Recent revelations have shown us just how
dominated this storytelling form of our culture are by men,” he said. “I
hope that this awareness that’s been raised very humorously by Chris
tonight, and angrily by other people, justifiably so, continues on. I
hope that this will do a little bit more to tell the story and diversify
the stories that we listen to and watch.”
The Oscar for foreign language film goes to “Son of Saul.” Read our review.
In ‘Son of Saul,’ Laszlo Nemes Expands the Language of Holocaust Films
Mr. Nemes, the movie’s director, says
that in telling his death-camp story, he rejected the conventional
method of finding an uplifting tale amid the horror.
It looks like Chris
Rock’s effort to turn the Oscars into a giant platform for the bulk sale
of junior mints has paid off: On behalf of his two daughters, he sent a
Girl Scout troop through the aisles, and shook down Tina Fey, Charlize
Theron and others for some cash pledges. Mindy Kaling was one of the
celebrities who indulged.
Last year, the troop
made $600 and finished second in its Girl Scout cookie sales
competition, Mr. Rock said. This year, the group apparently did a little
better: Mr. Rock revealed that $65,243 worth of cookies were sold.
Anna M. Chávez, the chief executive of Girl Scouts of the USA, seemed pleased.
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