A slapping time at the Oscars (Sabong News)
Author
Philip Cu Unjieng
Date
MARCH 28 2022
Beyond the Will Smith – Chris Rock incident, and the slap heard around the world; it really was an eventful, history-making night at the Oscars.
And it is unfortunate if it’ll only be remembered for that slap. Will Smith wins his first Best Actor Academy Award for his work in King Richard, but with the slap having gone viral; more people will have seen and commented on the one-sided altercation than have watched the film, or can comment on a film sequence that snagged him the deserved statuette. Such is the unavoidable truth of how social media and history will remember this year’s Oscars.
And so even the fact that CODA – a film that AppleTV+ acquired after Sundance, and gave the token theatrical release in August – took home the Best Picture Oscar, will be relegated to the second tier of stories emanating from the event. Such a shame, as CODA is a feel-good Oscars story; an English language remake of the 2014 French film La Famille Bélier, it also took home the Best Supporting Actor for Troy Kotsur (who is deaf, and was hilarious in the film), and Best Adapted Screenplay – a perfect three wins for three nominations.
That’s history-making, that a streaming service-distributed film wins Best Picture – and that it’s not from Netflix. There’s even a stage musical adaptation in development, so this Oscar win will come in handy in the promoting and marketing of this possible Broadway iteration. I personally enjoyed this touching, heartfelt film, and thought it to be one of the best ‘small’ films of 2021.
But to win Best Picture does come as a surprise; and I’m just wondering if it’ll go the way of such films as Crash, The Artist, and Nomadland; films that garnered Best Picture, but are re-evaluated, or will even be forgotten, after a couple of years. I loved CODA, but even I can accept its nowhere in the league of past winners of the first two decades of this century such as Parasite, The King’s Speech, or Slumdog Millionaire. Those are memorable films that will stand the test of time.
Another history making moment for Oscar happened when Jane Campion took home the Best Director for The Power of the Dog. With Chloe Zhao having won this award last year for Nomadland, it’s the first time women directors have won in back to back years. And Jane Campion now holds the honor of being the only Woman Director to have been nominated twice – the first time was for The Piano, in 1993, where she did win an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, but lost out as Best Director to Steven Spielberg for Schindler’s List.
Much was also made of Ariana DeBose winning Best Supporting Actress for her Anita in Spielberg’s West Side Story, and her being the first openly queer Actress to win the Award. Personally, I find the storyline of Rita Moreno having won this same trophy in 1962 for the first West Side Story film adaptation, as the more interesting one to highlight. That’s something unique; that the same role, sixty years apart, will take home the Best Supporting Actress statuette.
I have nothing against the LGBTQ angle of Ariana’s win, but that’s as much a function of the times; and how thankfully, we’re all more open about gender identification and diversity. I’m certain past winners in both the Actor & Actress categories were gay or queer, but it was just something they couldn’t proclaim publicly for fear of alienating Middle America, and the conservative factions. Acting talent is talent, whether straight or gay; and if Ariana’s win will mean something, I just hope it results in more open casting and less stereo-typing.
Every year, since I joined the Manila Bulletin, I’ve made my Oscar predictions; with a listing of ‘Who Will Win’, and ‘Who Should Win’. And I’ve been ready to disclose how well… or bad, I did with my crystal-ball gazing. And this year was a big year of surprises, and I did pretty badly.
I made predictions in 16 major categories – the Acting, Directing, Documentary, Musical, and some of the Technical categories. And this year I have the low score of 6 out of 16 in the Who Will Win table, and actually hit 4 of 16 via the Who Should Win table. But I’m not going to claim 10 of 16, as I really didn’t see CODA taking Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay, or that Kenneth Branagh would snatch the Best Original Screenplay for Belfast. Please see other MB Oscar coverage for the full list of winners.
In retrospect, it was a soft year for the Movies, and even if they decided to honor 10 films with Best Picture nominations, I found the listing to be such an uneven one, with so many picks leaving me puzzled as to why they were even included. CODA I actually approved for inclusion, as it was well-made for its very modest ambition. That it actually takes home Best Picture is as much a reflection of the weakness of the other contenders, as it is a reflection of the strength of the film. I know not all will agree with me, but there’s my two cents worth of commentary on this year’s slap-happy Oscars.
And one last thing, did you notice that Will Smith was actually playing the game, and laughing at the GI Jane joke of Chris Rock, until he saw how Jada had reacted to the joke?
