My Oscar Telecast Decompression
Overall, I thought it was a pretty good show. Last year they went without a host by necessity and it worked very well and this time they went with it by choice and again, I think things went as well as can be expected. Those of you who went with my Oscar predictions for best picture, director, and the 2 screenplays, I offer my apologies. I did change my mind on the screenplays later in the week, but that doesn’t help you now. Who knew that the Academy would have such a boner for “Parasite”. Well, I kinda suspected as the week went on that we may see an upset and after finally seeing the movie, I can’t fault the choice. “Parasite” is a pretty terrific film. I commend the Academy for being a little creative with their best pic winner after choosing “Green Book” last year. A nice, but safe choice.
I didn’t care for the opening musical number. It felt a little weird and disjointed. It was probably terrific in the theater, but on TV, I felt it didn’t transfer well. Poor direction didn’t help. It just seemed all over the place. The rest of the musical numbers were fine, but nothing to write home about. The Elton John song seemed to excite me the most out of the 5 songs. There was an Oscar moment that I thought was one of the highlights of the evening and that was the surprise appearance of Eminem’s rousing performance of “Lose Yourself” after 17 years of it winning best song. The was preceded by a very good montage of songs in movies.
The speeches were pretty good. I loved Brad Pitt’s and Laura Dern’s. I knew that they’d be pretty special. I didn’t know what to expect from Jouquin Phoenix, but I didn’t expect him to tell everybody not to drink milk. Kidding aside, he did say some good things and it was from the heart. I especially liked that he ended with a quote from his late brother River. As for Renee’s speech, I think she’s still talking. Holy shit. She also said some nice things, but she kept saying them over and over and I actually went to take a piss and when I came back from another level of the house she was still yammering.
The clothes didn’t impress me but I liked a few of them including Laura Dern, Rebel Wilson, Mindy Kaling and Brie Larson. I also enjoyed Spike Lee’s tux.
There were some funny moments with the presenters, I loved the montages introducing some of the categories and the show did seem to flow very well. They can due away with stars introducing stars as presenters. Just not necessary. I liked seeing the stars from the little scene “Peanut Butter Falcon” as presenters. That was a nice moment.
Oh my goodness Eric, are you done yet? Yes, I am. I picked 22 out of 24 categories correct in one of my Oscar pools and 17/24 in the other. Not too shabby. Now that the 2019 movie campaign is over, I look forward to seeing what’s at the show in 2020.
Eric at the Movies 