Chris Rock, Leo, surprise wins and the top ten moments from the 2016 Academy Awards
Surprise, surprise, surprise. The 88th Academy Awards have come to a close and they were actually really good. Chris Rock was on point and the movies hit it out of the park. My six favorite films all won at least one Oscar tonight, which reinforced my faith in the Academy who nearly got everything right. It’s hard not to like a night where I liked all the films and I like all the winners and Chris Rock made us laugh at a controversial topic. These are what I thought were the top ten most notable moments from a very surprisingly good Academy Awards.
Dishonorable Mention: Sam Smith, “Writings On The Wall from SPECTRE – Not only did he poorly perform a forgettable song in a rather bland Bond entry. But when he incomprehensibly won, Smith wrongfully took partial credit for being the first openly gay man to win an Oscar. The fact that we witnessed Lady Gaga bring the house down with her emotional performance moments before the award, made this the most egregious error of the night in an otherwise excellent show.
10: Lady Gaga, “Til It Happens To You” from THE HUNTING GROUND – As I said, her performance was impressively powerful. After an introduction by Vice President Joe Biden and being accompanied by several victims, the song brought attention to sexual assault and domestic violence through a very moving performance. While I still hate the song portion of the Oscars, they seem to always have one great moment of the night. During rehearsal they should just decide, which song is the most impactful and then scrap the rest. Then maybe we could finish at a decent hour. Dave Grohl’s performance during the Memoriam was also terrific.
9. Ryan & Russell or Where The Gosling Crowes – Get these guys in a buddy cop movie or dueling lawyer or medical practice TV show stat. As presenters, Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe had the funniest back and forth of the night.
8. Would you like to buy some cookies? – In a somewhat groan inducing moment, Chris Rock took time to sell girl scout cookies for his daughter’s troop. Needless to say, they did all right – wealthy and presumably hungry Academy members bought fairly well when put on the spot. However, the best moment came when Rock refused to sell to Louis Gossett Jr. “You got diabetes, you can’t have these.”
[fbcomments]