I have never been the biggest Oscars fan. Never was one of those people who marathoned the movies before the awards show, participated in squares or even watched the award show past an hour.
Besides the Oscars, I am a HUGE award show watcher, live tweeter, and a pop culture junkie in general. Anything pop culture related I can give my opinion on was good in my book. This year, I gave the 2018 Oscars a fair shot, watched a good amount of it and learned who won what from my Twitter timeline (like many others).
Starting off with Jimmy Kimmel, I’ve never had much of a stance on how I feel about his comedy from his show and in general, and hosting abilities. This year has been politically tense, and in recent months has been centered around the “Times Up” Movement. Since Weinstein was removed from The Academy, I was expecting Kimmel to at least make a point to say something around that situation in his monologues, but was surprised instead. Kimmel has had months to gather material but chose to not address those situations at all. Kimmel was absence for most of the show, which to me is a positive. Not meant to be a jab at Kimmel, but award show hosts can be too overwhelming at times but popping up every five seconds. So, it was nice to have a break and let other celebrities get a moment to present.
Oscars hosts I will only accept from now on would without a doubt be Maya Rudolph and Tiffany Haddish. The two took the stage together to present Oscars for animated and live action short films, and had some of the best chemistry onstage the whole night. Touching on the recent #OscarSoWhite controversy from the past few years, Haddish and Rudolph reassured the audience that more white people will be shown throughout the evening.
“So many! We just came from backstage and there are tons of them back there!” Haddish said. “And not just movie stars—there are white people walking around with headsets, white people with clipboards. Now, I’m personally not a fan of white people with clipboards, because I’m always wondering what are they writing down about me?”
“Oh yeah, when they’re like, ‘I’m sorry you’re not on the list, and they didn’t check all the pages,'” Rudolph added. “I’m like, ‘Hey, white dude with the clipboard, check all the pages.”
Rita Moreno gave me life with her Oscars apperance. Moreno wore the same dress she wore in 1962 during her acceptance speech for West Side Story. Moreno is truly a gem, and if you haven't binged Netflix's One Day At A Time, you are truly missing out on Moreno's incredible performance.
Natalie Portman also had her shining moment during her presentation for Best Director by calling out the “all male” nominees. Sandra Bullock and Emma Stone had their moment as well, when they references their presence instead of their absence when Bullock announced Best Cinematography by referencing it as, “four men and one trailblazing woman” and Stone, presenting Best Director, stated it as“these four men and Greta Gerwig.”
History was made that night with the winners. Jordan Peele made history by being the first African-American man to win an Academy Award for Original Screenplay for Get Out. Peele reassured the writers of the world with his speech by saying, "I stopped writing this movie about 20 times because I thought it was impossible. I thought it wasn't going to work. I thought no one would ever make this movie. I kept coming back to it because I knew if someone let me make this movie, people would hear it and people would see it."
Other historic wins that night was Guillermo del Toro winning Best Director, becoming the third Mexican man to do so. Daniela Vega also made an appearance and became the first transgender actor to present an award.
Regarding the winners, I was pretty pleased with most of them. Lady Bird was robbed and Get Out in my opinion, deserved Best Picture, but I have not seen The Shape of Water, so take that with what you will.
Overall, the Oscars have changed in recent years, with having more inclusivity and not being so behind the times. With that being said, there is always room for improvement. In the coming years, I would love to see more females host the show. It would prove that Hollywood cares about women and want to have the greatest comedians talents shine. With the current climate, having Haddish for instance, run around the Oscar stage will help lighten moods and give the Oscars a bigger reboot.
