Looking Back on Oscars 2024

“Would I have done that? Hell yeah!”

-Nicolas Cage

Picked up thoughts from the Oscars as I pull myself from a Stone Temple Pilots listening sesh…

• Well that ceremony and telecast was more than Kenough. The whole evening had a nice flow to it, from the leisurely early start time, a crisp Jimmy Kimmel opening monologue, past winners coming back and presenting (can we just make this an every 5 years or so thing?), some good presenting bits (although we were saved from John Cena’s), awards for movies I liked. Maybe I missed it, but if you blinked you probably wouldn’t have known much about Past Lives- wasn’t this a Best Picture nominee? Maybe it will win in another lifetime, but at least…
• I went 22/23 in my picks, finally winning my family and friends pool after nearly a quarter century of heartbreak. My only miss came from:
• the battle of the ‘Stones, which has mercifully ended and from the relentless onslaught given us the one Stone to rule them all, Emma Stone. Audible groans including yours truly were released upon her name’s announcement, but preferences aside it is still a more-than-worthy-enough performance to go down in history, and makes Stone an impressive two-time Oscar winning actress, joining the ranks of 44 other actors who have more than one acting win. And at only 35, she has a legitimate shot to join the even more inclusive club of 7 thesps with 3 or more wins (and if she wins in the next 9 years would break Walter Brennan’s record of youngest actor to win 3 Oscars).
• Who would have thought we’d be given another iconic Al Pacino performance? I hope they bring him back next year, and every year thereafter (even if they have to use his AI avatar).
• Well sorry Natalie, but the man has spoken and apparently he has christened someone who I had somehow neglected to even nominate! Congratulations Paul Giamatti, Oscar may have eluded you, but the Nicolas Cage award for Actor Best Expressing the Qualities of Nouveau Shamanic is yours! I’d give you something but this heartfelt recognition will have to do (I’d get you an In-N-Out burger but I’m guessing that would be easier for you to procure for me at the moment and yet I digress).
• John Mulaney needs to host next year and get things going with a Billy Crystal-esque montage to start the festivities.
• “I am…Oscar. Man.” Neat seeing RDJ finally get his due as best supporting actor for Oppenheimer. Upon first listen, I was a little underwhelmed with his speech, but feel like it fits him just the same and has a funny dryness that you usually don’t see at ye olde Academy Awards. Whatever the case, Downey Jr. seemed genuinely happy with his award in the post-show pictures, so maybe that’s all that really matters here.
• With 4 wins on the night, including Best Actress, was Poor Things the presumptive runner-up this year? The Zone of Interest may have been in the mix as well, with its surprise win for Best Sound.
• It was not quite a Dark Knight for Christopher Nolan, with his Oppenheimer collecting 7 awards, including Best Picture, Actor, and Director. Glad he got his due. I was rewatching Oppenheimer the other night and loved thinking how his idiosyncratic style was deemed the best from the Academy collective this year–call it dark sci fi opera, poetry, or pop auteurism what have you, just don’t call him late to the Oscars.
• Lily Gladstone, Annette Bening, Paul Giamatti, Mark Ruffalo, Sterling K. Brown, Danielle Brooks, Carey Mulligan, Sandra Huller, Bradley Cooper, Jeffrey Wright, Emily Blunt, America Ferrara, and Ryan Gosling will have to wait till next year as they say, but maybe, for the Gos, he’s a winner enough. Until the Dune 2 Oscars (get your popcorn buckets)…