The Bests, Worsts, Mosts, and Leasts of the Oscars
Plus a deeply scientific poll.
Friends, our Season of Seasons officially concluded last night with an Oscars ceremony that, as is tradition, dragged a bit in the middle and ran long by about half an hour. But it also did a bang-up job of being, well, Oscars-y, in the right ways, after a few years of deviations.
We had no folks at weird banks of cocktail tables or in overlarge armchairs, as with last year. No one accepting via Zoom, a la 2020, and no steeply pared-down guests in an echo-y room that felt repurposed, because it was, like 2021 (although the pandemic venue, Los Angeles’s Union Station, looked gorgeous; shout-out to a landmark!). Jimmy Kimmel was relaxed and congenial, making assured jokes about Matt Damon in front of an audience of people in regular old amphitheater you-can’t-slap-anyone-without-clambering-over-Michelle-Yeoh-first-style seating. No one said anything markedly terrible, and one of the winners sang his acceptance speech to the tune of a Carpenters…