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 home an Oscar!
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.
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8:46 pm: Death mediations, 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 he 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 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 DiCaoprio’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.