I am annoyed and disappointed that the Academy Awards, long a much-anticipated review of the year's most notable achievements in film, has ended up as a political soapbox for the Hollywood Glitterati.
The show was poorly conceived, as if they never expected it to go ahead until the last minute, and then had to rush the concept to an over-ripe fruition. Award recipients were allowed to ramble on in their speeches, thanking family, friends, associates, agents, managers, fellow nominees and their second-grade school teacher - well, maybe not the latter, but almost. Then there were the "filler" pieces, like the "Name That Tune" ramble through the audience - not really part of a normal Oscars show, even though it had one of the most amusing moments in the whole evening.
These "fillers" seemed to be an effort to stretch out a show that was missing the usual songs, dances, movie clips and jokes, and yet the Tribute segment seemed rushed, with many of the departed on the screen so briefly that I had difficulty reading their names and roles before they zapped off to the next person. And there was no mention whatsoever of the Technical awards, which used to get at least a passing reference among the "main" awards.
A few years ago we had the "Oscars So White" phenomenon, where people pointed out that people of colour were basically ignored in the nominations. Certainly this is no longer the case, but these Oscars were notable for ignoring entertainment as part of the show - an even more egregious omission for this industry to make.
The show was poorly conceived, as if they never expected it to go ahead until the last minute, and then had to rush the concept to an over-ripe fruition. Award recipients were allowed to ramble on in their speeches, thanking family, friends, associates, agents, managers, fellow nominees and their second-grade school teacher - well, maybe not the latter, but almost. Then there were the "filler" pieces, like the "Name That Tune" ramble through the audience - not really part of a normal Oscars show, even though it had one of the most amusing moments in the whole evening.
These "fillers" seemed to be an effort to stretch out a show that was missing the usual songs, dances, movie clips and jokes, and yet the Tribute segment seemed rushed, with many of the departed on the screen so briefly that I had difficulty reading their names and roles before they zapped off to the next person. And there was no mention whatsoever of the Technical awards, which used to get at least a passing reference among the "main" awards.
A few years ago we had the "Oscars So White" phenomenon, where people pointed out that people of colour were basically ignored in the nominations. Certainly this is no longer the case, but these Oscars were notable for ignoring entertainment as part of the show - an even more egregious omission for this industry to make.