Last night’s Academy Awards ceremony came at a perilous, cautiously optimistic time for Hollywood. The returning (and predictably reliable) host Jimmy Kimmel described it as a “long night after what was a long year – a hard year.” Strikes from the Writers and Actors Guilds, both of which lasted over 100 days, halted productions and shook up the entire movie business. The COVID pandemic’s sizable impact on the theatrical film business can still be felt but the simultaneous summer time releases of Barbie and Oppenheimer reignited the industry.
The latter was the night’s expected big winner, scooping up seven awards, including Best Picture, Director, and Actor. It’s the kind of star-studded, three-hour wartime historical epic that many often bemoan no longer gets made; nonetheless, it became a mammoth commercial hit racking up nearly a billion dollars at the global box office.
The future of the movies still remains a perilous question but amidst the annual self-congratulatory festivities, this year’s ceremony offered a few musical highlights – as well as a Philly winner. The Mt. Airy native and Temple University graduate Da’Vine Joy Randolph collected the night’s first trophy, Best Supporting Actress, for her performance in the retro Alexander Payne comedy The Holdovers.
Barbie
Greta Gerwig’s summer smash didn’t just outdo the wildest of box-office predictions, it generated a true cultural phenomenon by imbuing the most plastic and dated of all brands with a fresh, feminist spin. The Academy nominated the film in seven categories, yet the twin accomplishments of Gerwig’s directing and actress Margot Robbie were notably ignored. The film earned two nominations in the Best Original Song category; the eventual winners were popstar Billie Eilish and her producer/brother FINNEAS for “What Was I Made For?” It’s a slow, poignant piano ballad that showcases Eilish’s stunning, whispery vocals and features lyrics reflecting on the film’s uneasy, existential themes. Last month, it also won Song of the Year at the Grammys.
Its Oscar win cements the song as the first to win both awards since Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” in 1997. The 22-year old Eilish also became the youngest person to ever win two Oscars (she previously won for her James Bond title song “No Time to Die” in 2022). Ryan Gosling also performed his goofy musical showstopper “I’m Just Ken” with choreography that paid clever homage to Marilyn Monroe’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and a bizarre guitar-solo cameo from Slash. It was no surprise to see Eilish collect the trophy; at the Oscars, somber and sincere almost always beats out silliness and originality.