The controversy involving the eight crafts categories threatened to overshadow Sunday’s Oscars, but the 3 hour, 39-minute kudosfest on ABC still managed to do what it does best: uplift us before letting us down hard. Here are the best and worst moments from the 94th Academy Awards.
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The Best
After an introduction by the Williams sisters, Beyoncé opened the telecast by appearing in a explosion of chartreuse (or was it simply the color of tennis balls?) from a Compton locale to perform “Be Alive” from King Richard.
Ariana DeBose winning the Oscar for playing Anita 60 years after Rita Moreno won for playing the same role. “I’m so grateful your Anita paved the way for tons of Anitas like me,” DeBose said to Moreno onstage.
Before presenting the Oscar for Outstanding Supporting Actor, an adorable Youn Yuh-jung expressed regret that she complained too much about people mispronouncing her name when she won last year for Minari, and now had to pronounce all the names from the men’s category. “My mother always said you reap what you sow,” she admitted. Her singular charm almost upstaged the win by CODA‘s Troy Kotsur, who made an excellent crack about wanting to teach President Biden some “dirty sign language” during a White House visit this week but was stopped (and scolded!) by his co-star Marlee Matlin.
Wanda Sykes taking a too-short tour of the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures with “tour guide” Tim Begley (Grace and Frankie) and mistaking Cher’s infamous Bob Mackie gown for something once worn by Little Richard. She also confused the amphibious creator from The Shape of Water with Jason Momoa from Aquaman. Sure, I’ll pony up $15 for a membership. Why not?
The Juno reunion with Jennifer Garner, Elliot Page and J.K. Simmons, who awarded Original Screenplay to Kenneth Branagh (Belfast).
An “overwhelmed” and clearly moved Questlove struggling to accept the Documentary Feature Oscar for Summer of Soul. “This is about marginalized people in Harlem who needed to heal from pain,” he said, before asking for grace after his disjointed speech.
An In Memoriam segment was made even more uplifting by a joyful chorus and a fun appearance by Bill Murray, who paid tribute to the late Ivan Reitman.
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Billie Eilish’s win for Original Song. Finally, a truly jubilant winner! Her brother, on the other hand, got the memo to keep it chill but remembered to honor their parents by loving them “as real people, too.”
Liza Minnelli giving away the Best Picture award (and Lady Gaga whispering “I got you” to her). God love her and the surprised look on her face when the crowd roared for CODA.
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The Worst
Hans Zimmer had it right when he decided not to attend the Oscars to collect his Original Score prize in the preshow for Dune. The preshow inserts were impersonal, heavily edited and just plain wrong.
No offense to random host Vanessa Hudgens, but the insipid ABC red carpet coverage was just a sore reminder that the network was totally fine to include a fourth hour of Oscar coverage as long as it didn’t involve the people who were busy winning them during the non-televised “Golden Hour.”
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Regina Hall calling Bradley Cooper, Timothée Chalamet, Tyler Perry and Simu Liu onstage for a Covid-testing gag that involved her swabbing “the back of your mouth with my tongue.” She then gave a pat-down to Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa as part of the so-called safety protocol. Hey Regina: Watching, say, Al Pacino, make lascivious jokes about actresses and then giving a pat-down to Nicole Kidman and Jessica Chastain would never fly, so why should your gag?
Fans, come on: how is the Flash entering the speed force in Zack Snyder’s Justice League a more “cheerworthy” moment that when the Avengers assembled to fight Thanos in Avengers: Endgame? I demand a recount.
Will Smith’s extraordinary acceptance speech. Maybe the tears came from his win, maybe they came from the embarrassment he felt after blowing up on national television and behaving like a fool. No matter the reason, the King Richard star definitely made these Oscars one for the history books. Observed Grey’s Anatomy EP Krista Vernoff on Twitter after the show: “This really felt like childhood for a lot of us. Someone we love abruptly became violent and then just as abruptly acted like everything was okay and we all were supposed to act like everything was okay and this was the birth of our anxiety disorder.”
And on that note, ABC’s decision to bleep out most of what happened between Rock and Smith, the latter of whom took a swing at the comedian after he made an insensitive yuk about Jada Pinkett. (“GI Jane 2, can’t wait to see it!”). We know, we know — no expletives are ever allowed in the family hour. But the Oscar telecast is so devoid of surprises these days. Can’t we just have this one?
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#Oscars | Will Smith Slaps Chris Rock In The Face On Oscars Stage After Jab At Wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s Appearance https://t.co/6TZkI48QNh pic.twitter.com/ibpffmh2Mc
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) March 28, 2022
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