As the doomsday clock approaches midnight and wars are going in Gaza, Ukraine and elsewhere, a film about "the father of the atomic bomb" J. Robert Oppenheimer won seven Academy Awards Sunday night in Los Angeles. Among those awards: Best Picture, Christopher Nolan for directing, Cillian Murphy for lead actor, and Robert Downey Jr. for supporting actor.
Besides "Oppenheimer", other major awards went to DaVine Joy Randolph of "The Holdovers" for supporting actress, and to Emma Stone for lead actress in "Poor Things". Stone was the surprise choice given that Lily Gladstone of "Killers of the Flower Moon", as the first of her Native American heritage to be nominated for lead actress, was considered the overwhelming favorite.
"Barbie" was the box-office champion of 2023, but was doomed at these Oscars by director Greta Gerwig and actress Margot Robbie not getting nominated. But Billie Eilish did win Best Song for "What Was I Made For?" And Ryan Gosling did wow the audience with his "I'm Just Ken" production number. So there's that.
Jimmy Kimmel did well as host of these Oscars, even as he saluted the "little people" who made big contributions to keep Hollywood running, and in needling Donald Trump. He was also instrumental in getting John Cena to come out of his shell and introduce the Costumes category nearly naked.
"In Memorium" had singing and dancing onstage, but the ones being honored were filmed from so far away that you could not figure out who these people were or what they looked like. Next time, just refer viewers to your website if you're going to treat the deceased like this.
The Oscar telecast began one hour early (6 p.m. Central) and ended three and a half hours later at 9:30 Central. Long award shows are par for the course, but this one actually ended on time. This meant ABC could go ahead and show a post-Oscar edition of its hit sitcom "Abbott Elementary" This, however, will probably not stem the long slide towards ratings oblivion for the Academy. Even if the football season is over. And Taylor Swift didn't show up at your party.
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