The 2015 Academy Awards put the
“guilt” back in guilty pleasure. If
Chris Rock didn’t make you feel ashamed for watching a broadcast (and
supporting an industry) which actively promotes discrimination and racism, then
Lady Gaga made you feel bad for turning a blind eye to the epidemic of rape on
college campuses. If Leo didn’t make you
feel bad for polluting our planet, then Sam Smith made you feel bad for
following a ceremony that had never previously awarded an openly gay recipient
(never mind the historical accuracy
of that claim).
Then there were the moments when you
really should have felt bad: Alexandro G. Inarritu, the first director to win
back-to-back Oscars since the Truman Administration, giving what was clearly
the night’s most impassioned and sincere speech, void of any vanity or
insincerity . . . only to be abruptly cut off by Wagner’s “March of the
Valkyries” (Wagner, Max!). By contrast, Lady Gaga got a warm
introduction from her “friend” Vice-President Biden, and five minutes for a
song that didn’t even win. Does anyone
even remember the name of the film her song was from? But I suppose it could be worse; you could
have been one of the two Song nominees (“Manta Ray” or “Simple Song #3”) that
wasn’t even invited to perform onstage.
It felt reminiscent of Rock’s witty joke about sorority racism – “we
like you, but not that much.”
And then there’s the moment that
everyone is (or should be) talking about: Stacey Dash. If you had Stacey Dash on your betting slip
for person most likely to be talked about after the Oscars, congratulations and
I would like to borrow some of your millions.
In keeping with the passive aggressive spirit of this year’s awards,
many have said that if you didn’t understand the Stacey Dash joke, it’s because
you’re an ignorant opponent of #BlackLivesMatter. My response is that I didn’t understand the
joke because Stacey Dash actually is
an ignorant opponent of #BlackLivesMatter.
In theory, it may be funny to suggest that she could serve as a director
of minority outreach – but when Dash actually strutted on stage and gave a
diabolical laugh like Elle Driver in Kill
Bill, the joke became uncomfortable confusion. Was she satirizing herself? Was she in on the joke, making the audience
feel like dupes? At a time which Donald
Trump’s parody of himself is one of the two people that will be elected
President, uncomfortable self-reflexive meta humor has become the norm.
Finally, there was the thing that no
one really talked or cared about: the movies themselves, crudely disregarded by
the Compton audiences polled on the street by Chris Rock in a sketch which somehow managed to feel
mean-spirited toward both black lives as well as the nominated films. Mad Max
set some kind of record by winning six Oscars in the first 75 minutes of
the broadcast, while the colorful acceptance speeches went a long way in
further cementing the unlikely diplomatic ties between Australia and Namibia.
Then, a series of surprising upsets woke up the few audience members who
actually cared about the identities of the recipients: First, the Mad Max: Fury Road train was abruptly halted when Ex Machina upset it in the category of
Visual Effects (eliminating the chance of anyone filling out a perfect Oscar
ballot). Then, Oscar voters decided that
Creed wasn’t a serious enough film
and gave Best Supporting Actor to Mark Rylance as the avuncular, friendly, cute
old Soviet spy onscreen for ten minutes in Bridge
of Spies. Finally, Lady Gaga didn’t
get another platform to talk for five minutes about giving consent when the
unmemorable song from Spectre upset
it.
The rest of the night followed in
predictable fashion: Inarritu’s small fraction of a speech, Brie Larson, Leo,
and Morgan Freeman announcing that The
Revenant had taken Best Picture.
Just like we all thought it would.
Except, OH WAIT. Out of nowhere, Spotlight – a film which had only won
one prior award, a film with no special effects, historical backdrop or
over-the-top acting, a film grossing under $40 million and produced by Open
Road – was the name read by a stunned Freeman.
Huh? Going into the night, Spotlight certainly had a shot of
winning Best Picture . . . but The Big
Short was the film fresh off key wins in award season, Mad Max was the film that was dominating the evening, and The Revenant was the heavy overall
favorite.
Needless to say, I, along with
everyone else (except Terry), was in complete shock.
Nothing in the evening had prepared anyone for Spotlight taking the top prize; Mark Ruffalo had lost to Mark
Rylance, Rachel McAdams had lost to Alicia Vikander-Saltz, Tom McCarthy had lost
to Inarritu, and Spotlight failed to
pick up Best Editing (which in the last few decades has become a key predictor
of Best Picture). I believe that Spotlight was the right choice, although
Mad Max and The Revenant were excellent films in their own right. But it didn’t win the Golden Globe, the
Director’s Guild, the Producer’s Guild, or the BAFTA.
The only question left to ask: How
shocking was Spotlight’s win? I’ve been watching the Oscars the last two
decades and have seen plenty of upsets. So
let’s break down Spotlight’s Best
Picture win in the context of the biggest Oscar upsets of the last 25 years:
10. 1999 Best Actress: Hilary Swank over
Annette Bening
Perhaps
it’s not as shocking in retrospect, but it’s worth remembering that American Beauty was the overwhelming
favorite in 1999 and for the most part, it absolutely delivered on awards
night. Bening was a high-profile actress
who, by all accounts, did the best work of her career. Swank was an unknown whose film (Boys Don’t Cry) was made for $2 million
and almost wasn’t released. Furthermore,
while American Beauty was an
uplifting, polished and constantly witty throughout, Boys Don’t Cry was a stark, depressing true story set in a Nebraska
trailer park and released in a time when honest depictions of LGBT issues were
taboo. Most critics knew that Swank was
the more deserving choice, but they had said the same thing about Emily Watson
in 1996, Linda Fiorentino in 1994, and Ellen Burstyn the next year in 2000. In other words, the critic’s favorite is
usually not the winner at the Oscars.
But Swank’s win was a rare bucking in the trend.
9. 2006 Best Foreign Film: The Lives of Others over Pan’s Labyrinth
Foreign
Film isn’t exactly the sexiest of categories, and is in fact often really
difficult to predict, but Pan’s Labyrinth
appeared to be the clear favorite in 2006.
It was made by a director who was well-known in the United States
(Guillermo Del Toro); it had already won three awards for the evening, and was
even nominated for its screenplay; it was a huge hit with critics (see this if you don’t
believe me) and fans loved its mixture of lowbrow fantasy and highbrow
historical and cultural memory. If it
had a “lock” on any category, it was Best Foreign Language Film; but out of
nowhere, it was upset by The Lives of
Others, a little-known film not yet released in America. Furthermore, it was a German historical drama
that wasn’t about the Holocaust. I mean,
look at Cate Blanchett’s
reaction when she reads the envelope – it is total and complete shock. Today, the award makes a little more sense; The Lives of Others turned out to be
just as great as Pan’s Labyrinth. For those who really pay attention to the
Oscars, this upset should perhaps rank higher, but again, Foreign Film is a
relatively obscure category where upsets aren’t too uncommon or significant.
8. 2002 Best Actor and Director: Adrien
Brody over Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicolas Cage, Jack Nicholson, and Michael Caine;
Roman Polanski over Rob Marshall.
Yes,
I’m cheating a little here but very few people predicted The Pianist to perform as well as it did in the major awards. Best Actor was wide open, with Day-Lewis as
perhaps the slight favorite (in Gangs of
New York), so perhaps Brody winning was not so much of an upset as much as
it was a surprise that he beat the other four actors, each of whom was a
towering previous winner. Polanski was a
major shock. It’s important to remember
that Chicago was a Miramax-backed
spectacle in an era right after Moulin
Rouge when musicals were hot again.
It was nominated for 13 Oscars. The Pianist was financed in Europe,
featured an unknown lead actor, and was released in the United States the last
week of December. The only reason it
wasn’t a bigger shock? Polanski was long
overdue for an Oscar (with his scandalous past a distant memory for many voters)
and most everyone knew that The Pianist was
a better film than Chicago. But ultimately, the voters chose to award
style over substance.
7. 2001 Best Actor: Denzel Washington over
Russell Crowe
A
little like Annette Bening losing to Hilary Swank, except Crowe seemed like
even more of a shoo-in than Bening.
Coming off a rather undeserving victory the year before for Gladiator, winning Best Actor for the
second consecutive year would cement his legacy as the best performer working
in Hollywood. Furthermore, his
performance in A Beautiful Mind was
spellbinding; he’s in 95% of the movie and is unquestionably the biggest reason
why the film ultimately won Best Picture.
But an ugly little thing called “Oscar politics” began to sneak into the
race in January 2002; Crowe received negative publicity for his gruff attitude and unfriendly
family image. It didn’t help that A Beautiful Mind got some backlash for
deceptively cleaning up the life of an adulterer and communist
sympathizer. Enter the all-American
Denzel Washington, whose performance in Training
Day gave no bones about him being a villain. Training
Day had just enough 30-second clips of Washington screaming to satisfy
Oscar voters and in a stunning and unjust upset, one of the best performances
of the decade was denied an Oscar victory. And nothing against Washington, who
is of course a great actor, but Training
Day set the benchmark for better performances of his after 2001.
6. 1993 Best Supporting Actress: Anna
Paquin over Rosie Perez and Winona Rider
Like
2002 Best Actor, this race was as wide open as any in Oscar history. Perez and Rider were mostly the favorites,
since they were well-known young actresses who were on the brink of major
stardom. Both Fearless and The Age of
Innocence were high-profile, well-reviewed films. The
Piano had received more nominations than either film, but Paquin was an
unknown first-time performer from New Zealand and was only 11 years old. Her win is generally considered one of the
most shocking in Oscar history, but it’s worth remembering that The Piano performed very well at the
1993 Oscars (with additional wins for Best Actress and Original
Screenplay). Additionally, Paquin had
more screen time in The Piano than
anyone else in both her film and her category, and although Supporting Actress
was wide open in 1993, none of the performances were that memorable except
Paquin’s. It’s always shocking when the
Academy honors someone that young, but in this circumstance, the stars aligned
perfectly to enable one of the more memorable and entertaining of recent Oscar
upsets.
5. 1996 Best Supporting Actress: Juliette
Binoche over Lauren Bacall.
This
is the first thing that pops in many people’s minds when the words “Oscar
upset” are uttered. Let’s run down a few
reasons why it wasn’t really all that shocking, albeit with the luxury of
hindsight. First, Binoche’s film (The English Patient) was the
overwhelming favorite at the 1996 Oscars, and ended the evening with nine
wins. It was a historical drama based on
a best-selling book that had been praised by critics and audiences all around
the world. Bacall’s film (The Mirror Has Two Faces) was a minor
romantic comedy (minor even by Barbra Streisand’s standards) which got mixed
responses from critics and received only one other nomination, for Best
Song. Binoche’s role was a pivotal one
in the story, while Bacall’s role was mostly for the purposes of bitchy
one-liners and perfectly-timed comebacks.
The English Patient was
produced by the Weinsteins, while Barbra Streisand’s films had always been
well-documented for their repeated failure to receive considerable Academy
Award attention (justified or not). Still,
it seemed apparent to everyone in the room that night that Bacall would win
what was generally tantamount to a lifetime achievement award; instead, the
Academy honored Binoche, a well-known actress in the European art house circuit
and someone who wasn’t exactly tough to stare at either.
4. 2006 Best Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin
over Eddie Murphy
This
was a shocker. Dreamgirls was Eddie Murphy’s triumphant comeback, a perfect blend
of comedic timing and powerful onscreen presence. The film was well-received (although not
overwhelmingly so), but perhaps even more importantly, it was heralded as a
breakthrough – the first film to receive considerable award attention with an
all-black cast. It was also a musical
made in the heyday of the Moulin
Rouge/Chicago musical resurgence. It
was shocking when Dreamgirls didn’t
receive a Best Picture nomination, but the prevailing logic was that acting
awards for Murphy and Jennifer Hudson – each of who won practically everything
during award season – would compensate. Instead,
Hudson won while Murphy lost to Arkin’s rather vulgar and embarrassing turn as
the dirty grandpa in Little Miss Sunshine. Maybe Oscar voters didn’t like that the
February 2007 ceremony coincided with the theatrical release of Murphy’s
follow-up to Dreamgirls, the abominable
Norbit.
Maybe the writing was on the wall for Dreamgirls when it failed to secure a
Best Picture nomination. Maybe they just
liked the sight of Arkin swearing. Whatever the case, this was an inexplicable
and surprising outcome.
3. 2005 Best Picture: Crash over Brokeback Mountain
The
2005 Academy Awards ended like the infamous Seahawks-Packers “Fail Mary” game: It was
extremely controversial and everyone had an opinion about it, one way or
another. Looking back on it today, the
consensus is that it was a poor decision by the Academy – Crash is remembered as a TV-like diatribe on race relations, with
poorly-developed characters getting involved in obvious situations resolved by
an overly simplistic liberal message.
Meanwhile, Brokeback is
revered as the great love story of this generation, with the second-best
performance from the most tragic actor of this generation (Heath Ledger). Not awarding it Best Picture was just another
example of homophobia destroying what is pure and true in the world. The reality, however, is different and somewhere
in the middle. Both are good films, with
Crash slightly underrated and Brokeback slightly overrated as a result
of the Academy’s vote. It was genuinely surprising
– especially considering that Crash was
a low-budget film with no A-list talent that had been released in March and had
received virtually no prior awards – but critics like Roger Ebert championed it, and the film had momentum heading into the night. There was no single dominant film that year (Crash and Brokeback won three Oscars each, tied for the most). But judging by Jack Nicholson’s timeless expression, a
win for Crash was unexpected to say
the least.
2. 1998 Best Actor: Roberto Benigni over
Tom Hanks, Edward Norton, Ian McKellan, and Nick Nolte.
Here’s
the category everyone forgets. Even when
people remember the 1998 Oscars, they tend to only remember one thing – Shakespeare in Love upsetting Saving Private Ryan. I didn’t even include that on this list
because (A) Shakespeare in Love was
backed by Miramax, (B) It had more nominations and wins than Saving Private Ryan, and (C) Saving Private Ryan was released in July
while Shakespeare was released in
December. No, the great surprise of 1998 was Roberto Benigni beating the likes
of Tom Hanks, Edward Norton, Ian McKellan, and Nick Nolte. It remains the only time a
non-English-speaking role won Best Actor.
So what happened? Nolte was
overshadowed in his own film (Affliction)
by James Coburn, who won Best Supporting Actor; McKellan’s film (Gods and Monsters) was too small; Norton’s
film (American History X) was too
violent and threatening for conservative Oscar voters; and Hanks was
overshadowed by the visual effects spectacle of Private Ryan. In addition,
there were a handful of Best Actor snubs, the most notable of which were Jim
Carrey (The Truman Show), John
Travolta (Primary Colors) and Warren
Beatty (Bulworth). I suppose this meant that the race was up in
the air, and even though Life is
Beautiful was a hit with audiences and critics as well as a Best Picture
nominee, Benigni’s performance was rarely mentioned. On top of that, Best Actor is typically the least
conducive category to comedic roles. My
theory about this race is that if today’s voters decided the outcome, Norton
would be the winner. But at the time, American History X was considered too
low-budget, too grisly, too in-your-face.
Norton played a profoundly unlikeable character and the movie barely
grossed $20 million. But both at the
time, as well as in this very moment today, it has to be considered the most
shocking upset in Oscar history, until . . .
1. 2015 Best Picture: Spotlight over The Revenant,
Mad Max and The Big Short
Spotlight didn’t come out of
the blue like Benigni, Paquin, or Arkin.
In fact, it was the front-runner for Best Picture for at least a month
or two and had all the chops to back it up: Great reviews, depicting not just
one but two Important Topics (the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal as well as
the collapse of investigative journalism), A-list cast, a shoo-in for Original
Screenplay. But once the 2016 award
circuit commenced, it was clear that Spotlight
had serious shortcomings as a Best Picture contender. Tom McCarthy was not an A-list director (and
he was coming off The Cobbler); it
was a quiet, talky film with no explosions, sex scenes, or characters who
scream (minus one oft-repeated award-bait moment); it was financed
by a low-profile studio (Open Road) which couldn’t afford a major campaign
blitz; and it became pretty clear that The
Revenant and Mad Max would
dominate most of awards. Both it and The Big Short were in a similar
third-place position heading into last night – topical films with a few big
stars that were talky and probably wouldn’t win much. Even with that said, The Big Short had Brad Pitt producing, portrayed a more recent
Important Topic (the economic collapse), and won the most predictive of all
pre-Oscar awards (the Producer’s Guild Award for Best Picture).
So why did Spotlight prevail? It may
have to do with the relatively new balloting system installed by the Academy, a preferential system which
benefits films with wide appeal over films which receive the most first-place
ballots. In other words, a film like The Revenant may have garnered
considerable first-place votes, but it may have also turned off voters who didn’t
like the violence or the somewhat preachy and superficial message about
colonialism and encounters between settlers and natives. Mad Max surely got many first-place votes, but perhaps also as many
lower-place votes as a result of being a summer action movie which was (technically)
a sequel. Both Spotlight and The Big Short had
excellent reviews, and probably many 2nd and 3rd place
votes.
But it still doesn’t answer the
question of why it beat The Big Short. And did The
Revenant truly contain more uncompromising or potentially divisive content
than Inarritu’s previous film, the 2014 Best Picture winner Birdman? Furthermore, Spotlight was having a poor showing for almost the entire night; it’s
a wonder that its producers and cast hadn’t bailed out and preemptively exited
for the after-parties. Kenneth Turan
wrote a good piece today
which contends that of the three or four major Best Picture nominees, Spotlight was the most emotionally
satisfying. The economy is still in
recovery, indigenous people (and the earth’s temperature) are still suffering,
and summer action movies still have no place winning Best Picture. But in Spotlight,
Goliath (the Catholic church) was defeated by David (ragtag journalists) and at
the end of the day, Academy voters prefer emotional uplift and a happy ending. And although I enjoyed Spotlight thoroughly and would have gladly awarded it my first
place vote, the shocking conclusion of the 2015 Academy Awards may go down as
less Frank Capra and more M. Night Shyamalan.
What were your thoughts? Were there any other moments or awards that deserve
attention? Let me know below!
