By Keith Walther | Rose Law Group Reporter
The 95th Academy Awards held on Sunday, March 12th was a celebration of 2022’s best in film and represented a return to Hollywood’s class and glamour. Thankfully, all the violence remained on the screen and not on the stage. Host Jimmy Kimmel did make some funny references to that infamous slap of Chris Rock from Will Smith last year throughout the broadcast to hammer home the ridiculousness of that situation. As with any Oscar award show, there were triumphant moments of affirmation as well as missed opportunities.
The biggest winner of the night was undoubtedly “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which took home 7 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress. This is the first film since 2007’s “No Country for Old Men” to win Best Picture that actually deserved it. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is a beautifully imaginative film with powerful messages that is quite unlike any other movie ever made. It is so unique and fantastical that it becomes polarizing. Typically, people who don’t like the fantasy genre will hate this movie, but the people who appreciate imagination will adore it.
Having ten Best Picture nominees has the benefit of being wonderfully inclusive, but it also allows for recognition of films that don’t even belong in the conversation. The most obvious wrongful inclusion was “Elvis.” The only category it should have been in contention for was the worst film of the year. “Triangle of Sadness” is a very good dark comedy, but “The Menu” would have been a better representative of that genre. “Tár” features an Oscar worthy performance from Cate Blanchett, but the sleep-inducing delivery of the story makes it unworthy of a Best Picture nomination. The omission of both “The Woman King” and “Till” from the Best Picture nominees is downright negligent. Even host Jimmy Kimmel made a comment about these films being snubbed.
It would have been easy and understandable for the Academy to give the Best Director Oscar to the masterful Steven Spielberg for his most personal film, “The Fablemans,” but they honored the directors of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, instead. While they should be applauded for getting this right, there was a missed opportunity to not have nominated director Sarah Polley for “Women Talking,” who did rightfully get a golden statue for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Another great moment during the awards show occurred when Brendan Fraser won his first Best Actor Oscar for his powerfully riveting performance in “The Whale.” This was a no-brainer; he was the only obvious choice, and no other performance came close to his last year.
The Best Actress category was a bit more complicated. Out of the actresses who were nominated, Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) was the most deserving, becoming the first Asian woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress. However, nominating Ana de Armas for “Blonde,” which recently won the Razzie for worst film of the year, is absurd and irresponsible. On top of this, Andrea Riseborough being nominated for “To Leslie” is highly suspect, considering the film received just over $31,000 at the box office. In fact, it prompted an internal investigation regarding the campaigning of her nomination. Viola Davis (“The Woman King”) and Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”) should have both been nominated instead for their dynamic and emotionally charged performances with Deadwyler taking home the award.
For the most part, the Oscars got it right all the way down to the technical awards like “All Quiet on the Western Front” winning for Best Cinematography, “Avatar: The Way of Water” winning for Best Visual Effects, and “Top Gun: Maverick” winning for Best Sound. Jimmy Kimmel was a solid host, keeping things classy yet humorous. The In Memorium portion of the show was touching with John Travolta introducing it, getting choked up when thinking about his former “Grease” co-star Olivia Newton John, and Lenny Kravitz supplying a heartfelt song as the names and pictures of those who had passed away last year faded in and out. Yes, there were names missing from the list but they understandably wanted to keep the run time under 4 hours. Keeping it under 4 hours will certainly be a challenge at next year’s Oscars with an exciting slate of movies being released this year.
