OK, am I wrong, or were the Oscars kind of sweet this year?
Yes, there were the usual excessive number of jokes about the ceremony being too long (which, of course, made it longer), and a bit too much shtick from host Jimmy Kimmel, but for the most part, the Academy Awards telecast Sunday felt pleasantly old school. Unlike last year, every category was presented live; unlike last year, nobody got slapped. Many of the winners were predicted, particularly the strong showing by “Everything Everywhere All at Once”; but there were some surprises, notably multiple awards to the German war film “All Quiet on the Western Front.”
“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the trippy multiverse film from writer/directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, won seven Oscars to lead the evening. The Daniels, coming to the podium three times (for original screenplay, directing and best picture), seemed pleasantly gobsmacked — a couple of indie filmmakers stunned and amused to be in the big leagues.
And the most pleasant surprise was the evening’s many moments of actual charm and emotion. It seemed a foregone conclusion that former child star Ke Huy Quan would win best supporting actor for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” — to everyone, apparently, except Quan, who wept at the podium accepting his award. If you were able to keep a dry eye when he said, “Dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. To all of you out there, please keep your dreams alive,” well, you are made of stronger stuff than I.
Brendan Fraser, winning best actor for “The Whale” after a career full of ups and downs, looked genuinely stunned and tearful while accepting his award, thanking his director Darren Aronofsky for “throwing me a creative lifeline and hauling me aboard the good ship The Whale.”
And the great Michelle Yeoh, resplendent in a white feathered gown, became the first performer of Asian descent to win best actress, a culmination of a nearly 40-year career. “For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope, and possibilities,” she said. The 60-year-old added slyly, “Ladies, don’t let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime.”
Quan, who spoke to his 84-year-old mother, was among many winners who movingly singled out their parents. Jamie Lee Curtis, winning best supporting actress for “Everything Everywhere,” saluted her mother and father, Oscar nominees Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. Ruth Carter, who became the first Black woman to win two Oscars with her second costume design award, for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” dedicated her award to her 101-year-old mother. “This past week, Mabel Carter became an ancestor. This film prepared me for this moment,” she said, asking late “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman, to “please take care of Mom.” The Daniels, collecting their award for director, thanked their parents, with Kwan singling out his immigrant father, who “fell in love with movies because he needed to escape the world.”
Other moments of pleasure: The filmmakers of “An Irish Goodbye,” winners of the live-action short film Oscar, devoted the last of their speech time to leading the entire audience in singing “Happy Birthday” to a thrilled-looking James Martin, the film’s lead actor. Hugh Grant, somehow managing to make his pronunciation of the word “scrotum” ridiculously charming. (Just let him — or make him — host next year.) Presenter Kate Hudson helping co-presenter Janelle Monáe wrangle the train of her skirt. The googly eyes on the bow tie of James Hong, the veteran actor who was part of the “Everything Everywhere” cast. Indian composer/songwriter M.M. Keeravani, winning best song for “Naatu Naatu” from “RRR,” singing his acceptance speech to the tune of The Carpenter’s “Top of the World.”
Sarah Polley, a surprise winner of the adapted screenplay Oscar for “Women Talking” (stopping what looked like a real winning streak for “All Quiet on the Western Front”), jokingly thanked the Academy for “not being mortally offended by the words ‘women’ and ‘talking’ so close together like that.” The original screenplay award went, as expected, to “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” with co-writers Daniel Kwan ending by saluting his co-writer Daniel Scheinert, “the person who told me that I was a storyteller.”
Not every decision was good: Kimmel, alas, did not follow through on his early promise to have a troupe of performers from “RRR” Bollywood-dance off winners who went past their speech-time limits (and how amazing would that have been?). And his cringey joke about Robert Blake marred the intro to what was otherwise a graceful and moving In Memoriam segment, with Lenny Kravitz at the piano singing “Calling All Angels.”
But this Oscars showed more respect than years past for the actual arts that it celebrates. Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors, introducing the cinematography category, gave an informative brief history of the art. Costumes from the nominated films were on display on stage during the costume design award presentation, and the editing award featured two performers upstage, one working at an old-school editing machine and one at a computer. This was an Oscars that took the time to celebrate movies — and, for the most part, it worked
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