10:50 pm: Sinners got the most nominations ever (16) and suffered the most losses ever (12).
Friendo: “I also have to ask what genius thought it was a good idea to have Bill Pullman and his nepo baby kid to present an Oscar? They weren’t funny and had no chemistry. People are still pushing Lewis Pullman like he’s some great actor. He’s bland.”
10:35 pm: One Battle After Another defeats Sinners for the Best Picture Oscars. Jordan’s win aside, the so-called Sinners surge didn’t amount to much, did it? The Oscar telecast ran for three hours and 38 minutes.
10:32 pm: Jessie Buckley deservedly wins Best Actress for her Hamnet performance. What more is there to say at this stage? Buckley seemed surprised…shocked…taken aback. Why I can’t imagine. Good for her. The Oscar was hers because of the last seven minutes of Hamnet…plain and simple.
10:20 pm: Don’t stab me in the heart by giving the Best Actor Oscar to Michael B. Jordan for playing Smoke and Stack! Don’t do it…aaaarrrgghhh! This is sooo effing painful. My personal anguish aside, this is a totally laughable, bone-headed call. The fucking SAG members are to blame, and particularly the female contingent. Timothee Chalamet and Ethan Hawke delivered the real goods…you know this. But women didn’t approve of the sociopathic Marty Supreme character and so Jordan won. I’m very upset about this. It’s just fucking wrong. A bullshit call.
10:16 pm: Paul Thomas Anderson wins Best Director Oscar for One Battle After Another….no surprise, good job. HE approves on a craft level.
10:10 pm: “Golden”, the KPop Demon Hunters song, has won Best Original Song Oscar. Sinners loses. The “Golden” team is played off.
10:03 pm: HE is hoping that Sentimental Value will win Best International Feature, and it’s won! Hallelujah! Director/co-writer Joachim Trier, paraphrasing James Baldwin: “All adults are responsible for all children, and let’s not vote for anyone who doesn’t take this principle seriously.”
10 pm: Sinners will probably win the Best Original Song Oscar. The show is now three hours old. But first Javier Bardem says “no to war, and free Palestine.”
9:47 pm: One Battle After Another wins for Best Editing. And the Oscar for Best Cinematography…good God, the winner is Sinners, the one film that you couldn’t even see half of! Basically a woo-woo gender-ideneity award won by Autumn Durald Arkapaw. Rod Lurie and Kyra are undoubtedly cheering and hopping around. This is a bit like The Hurt Locker‘s Kathryn Bigelow winning the Best Director Oscar back in 2011. I strongly disgaree, but fine. Friendo: “Sinners winning Best Cinematography over Train Dreams is a fucking joke.”
9:31 pm: As expected, Ludwig Goransson and Sinners win for Best Score. The Oscar for Best Achievement in Sound goes to…hey, give an Oscar to F1! They got it! F1 takes one home!
9:17 pm: The Best Documentary Short Film Oscar goes to All The Empty Rooms. The Best Documentary Feature goes to Mr. Nobody Against Putin…yes! Very moving acceptance speeches.
9:05 pm: Best Production Design oscar goes to GDT’s Frankenstein, and the Best Visual Effects Oscar goes to Avatar: Fire and Water. Sinners loses in both categories, although it will probably win for Best Score and Best Song.
9:02 pm: Confirmed….Delroy Lindo didn’t clap for Sean Penn.
8:46 pm: Death meditations, recollections. Billy Crystal‘s solo tribute to poor Rob and Michelle Reiner is very, very moving. Ditto Rachel McAdams‘ for Catherine O’Hara and Diane Keaton. Plus Robert Duvall, Val Kilmer, Robert Redford. All of them.
8:31 pm: Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar goes to Paul Thomas Anderson and One Battle After Another. Expected. Then again he did advance the idea of Penn’s Colonel Lockjaw being willing to murder his biological daughter in order to qualify for membership in the Christmas Adventurers Club…a ridiculous narrative conceit. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is expected to win for Best Original Screenplay. Yup…he’s got that. Coogler is a likable dude. He speaks from the heart, and right off the top of his head.
8:20 pm: Kieran Culkin announcing Best Supporting Actor winner. Rooting against likely reality for Stellan Skarsgard to win. But Sean Penn wins, of course. And Penn isn’t there to accept! Anyway, it’s over…casting plus Penn means Sinners isn’t winning Best Picture. Yes! Yes! It’ll be OBAA. A friend says Delroy Lindo didn’t clap for Penn. True?
8:15 pm: A tie for Best Live Action Short. One is for “The Singers. The other is for “Two People Exchanging Saliva.” Kumail Najiani: “Ironic that the longest segment of the show is about the winners of Best Live Action Short.”
8:05 pm: Two first-rate Burger King commercials….”we fired the king.” The first one was easily the better/best.
8:02 pm: The first-ever Oscar for Best Casting goes to Kassandra Kulukundis (sp?) for One Battle After Another. Sinners loses again!
7:51 pm: Frankenstein winning for Best Costume Design = no win for Sinners in this category! I’m sorry but this is encouraging! And Frankenstein wins for Best Makeup!
7:48 pm: Ventura Crossroads parody commercial (making all aspect ratios tall and thin) made me laugh out loud. Loved it!
7:43 pm: The big Sinners musical dance number was a total knockout….wonderfully sung, beautifully lighted, excellent choreography….grade A top to bottom.
7:38 pm: Jett and Cait are both predicting that Michael B. Jordan will take the Best Actor Oscar. HE response: Jordan defeating Timothee Chalamet or Ethan Hawke is a ludicrous notion.
7:31 pm: Sutton’s favorite film, KPop Demon Hunters, wins Best Animated Feature. I feel nothing personally, but good for Sutton and all her KPOP friendos. I don’t care about the animated short subject winner. Nobody does. Okay, that’s mean.
7:18 pm: Amy Madigan has to win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar…right? Yes!! Weapons! Love the expression on hubby Ed Harris‘s face….”what have I been tellin’ ya?”
7:06 pm: Conan O’Brien‘s Weapons opener (chased by angry kids) through the sets of all the Best Picture nominees….fantastic! Great Ted Sarandos joke…”it’s his first time in a theatre!” Great Timothee Chalamet dig at the ballet & opera thing. “Too real for ya, hah?” Leonardo DiCaprio’s moustache is his look for a new, currently rolling Martin Scorsese film (costarring Jennifer Lawrence).
6:40 pm: I’m sorry but Timothee Chalamet‘s all-white, peak-lapel tux is atrocious. I will defend TC’s right to speak hard truths about opera and ballet all he wants, but he deserves serious pushback for the tux.
6:40 pm: Too many actress nominees (Rose Byrne, etc.) are wearing their hair in tight buns. HE is especially disappointed that Sentimental Value‘s Renate Reinsve is bunning it. Kate Hudson and Nicole Kidman‘s hair is not bunned, and they look really great.
6:25 pm: Probably the most inspiring halftime speech ever given by any actor in any sports film, bar none…a speech that makes my eyes dampen each and every time: “We can stay here and get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight out way back….into the light…we can climb outta hell.”
Red carpet [6:10 pm]: I love how the tech crew supporting the ABC red carpet interviewers can’t manage to post the names of not-famous-enough celebs being spoken to. (Pick it up, fellas!) The gown worn by Hamnet‘s Jessie Buckley (deep red sash, pink-beige dress) doesn’t make it…not really. Plus she’s cut her hair too short — should have let it grow out a bit.
Sinners‘ Wunmi Mosaku, whose supporting performance I had totally forgotten before she was nominated, is hugely pregnant and dressed in an intense green gown. She’s not winning so forget it. Melissa McCarthy looks great…transformed by Ozempic! Spike Lee‘s white-beige cuffed pants look awful…way too much ankle-sock.