The Big Picture - The 2023 Oscars: Everything Everywhere All the Academy Awards

Episode Date: March 13, 2023

Sean and Amanda break down the 95th Academy Awards, from Jimmy Kimmel’s take-no-prisoners monologue to the dominant performance of ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.’ Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Erica Ramirez, founder of Illy and host of What About Your Friends, a brand new show on the Ringer Podcast Network dedicated to the many lives of friendship and how it's portrayed in pop culture. Every Wednesday on the Ringer Dish Feed, I'll be talking with my best friend, Steven Othello, and your favorites from within the Ringer and beyond about friendships on TV and movies, pop culture, and our real lives. So join me every Wednesday on the Ringer Dish Feed, where we try to answer the question TLC asked back in the day. What about your friends? Get groceries delivered across the GTA from real Canadian superstore with PC

express shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC optimum points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. I'm Sean Fennessey. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the 95th Academy Awards. We did it. We survived another Oscars. Amanda, how are you feeling?

Here we are. Look at us. That good? Yeah. About thears. Amanda, how are you feeling? Here we are. Look at us. That good about tonight's events. How are you feeling? I'm feeling fascinated. A little perplexed, intrigued, confused, but also fascinated. Like I said, there's a lot to unpack here because this has been one of the most dominant Academy Awards performances we've literally ever seen tonight. You're referencing everything, everywhere, all at once is. Still a very long name. Like full sweep, pretty much, of everything. Not everything that it was nominated for, but all of its big categories.

It did not get the official top five suite because it was not eligible in Best Actor. But it won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor Original Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress. Remarkable. No film in the history of the Academy Awards, 95 ceremonies, has won five above the title categories at the Oscars ever in the history of the Oscars. So for this film,

which is a very unlikely Best Picture winner, a very unlikely bulldo winner, a very unlikely bulldozer in all of these categories, to win that many is just fascinating. It won seven overall and was the most nominated film this year and has been effectively the Goliath of this awards season. And even though we basically predicted all of this, both of us, we sort of saw all of this coming. It still is remarkable to me that it actually transpired. And at first blush,

do you think we will look back on this Oscars as anomalous, as strange, as an injustice, or as maybe even like the dawning of a new wave of filmmaking? I want to throw injustice out right now. Okay. Because that sucks, and also a lot of very

exciting and historical awards happen tonight. And I think we'll look back on it as historic in a number of ways. Obviously, just like the win count, it might be an anomaly just because it's so hard to do that. And it's so hard for any film, I think, to ever garner that many wins. So that will be strange just being like, huh, how they did it. Much like Silence of the Lambs or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Or, I mean, It Happened One Night is a classic, so we'll leave it there. But those films become, like, unique, right? I think it might be a—I don't know if I think it's a sea change.

But I think that it will certainly be something that doesn't happen again very soon. And that we're all kind of rubbing our heads being like, huh, how did that happen? And I don't mean that because the film isn't deserving or because the actors aren't deserving. I mean that just because this was an unlikely Best Picture winner. It was an unlikely like awards, like a Goliath, as you said. And I, it just, I still don't know how it happened. Like, I know they'll never release the counts.

I know they'll never do the breakdowns. But I just would like to understand how it happened because it's very unusual. It was just weird. Even in the moments when the montages were being shown for the categories, you could hear the wave of vocal support inside the auditorium tonight for the movie. It's just a movie that people fell in love with and that they have a big emotional attachment to. It's not surprising to me when I looked at every single speech that was given that almost every one from the Everything Everywhere crew was about mothers and fathers and parents and teachers.

You know, there's this big generational story being told in that film. And even though it is a multiversal sci-fi kung fu story with a very unlikely structure and a lot of gags and a kind of Loags and kind of looney tunes tonality it is ultimately a fairly sentimental family story and so i think the thing that surprises me about it is you mentioned silence of the lambs and wonderful of the cuckoo's nest the last two films to win the big five but both of those films are based on very successful literature from very seasoned filmmakers and very celebrated filmmakers.

One of them is Milos Forman, an international filmmaker who came to America and started telling American stories. And Silence of the Lambs, Jonathan Demme, someone who came up from the Roger Corman School of Filmmaking and who went on to become a very prestigious storyteller in Hollywood. Stop saying storyteller. I'm sorry. There was a lot of storyteller. It's infected my brain. Daniel Scheindert and Daniel Kwan are young. This is only their second feature film.

This story is not based on anything, although it is inspired by a lot of very famous things in movie history. And so the kind of like anti-precedential nature of this is what is kind of gobsmacking me. It's like there's just, there's really no indication, I guess with one exception, which is to say that this is an is kind of gobsmacking me. It's like, there's just, there's really no indication, I guess with one exception, which is to say that this is an A24 movie. And it's kind of, it's safe to say now

that this is really the studio of the decade. It may not be as big and influential in terms of the business as someplace like Netflix, but in terms of the kind of mainstream artistry of movies right now, this is their second best picture win. They've only been around for 10 years. They also won in the other major category

that we're not talking about yet, Best Actor, where Brendan Fraser for The Whale won. And so now it's like a studio and a series of young filmmakers, and many of the filmmakers who work for that studio are young, coming together to kind of usher in. I'm not sure that there's necessarily anything in common with the kinds of films that

have been celebrated that the studio puts out, but it does feel a bit like a sea change to me. It does feel like there's a little bit of like an out with the old feeling. And I think that even the wins for Coda and Nomadland in recent history indicate like a kind of out with the old sensation. And I think a lot of that has to do with the Academy getting bigger and taste evolving and the Academy getting younger, but even still, still kicking over seven wins I want to drill down on it so what's your theory you think it's younger people do you think it's people who are really jazzed about like is it only 24 film bros are there that many a24 film bros like out in the world like I mean that's what's so interesting is that even for people who are excited about a new direction for the academy or for movies or people who are like really moved by

this family story which is like a it's a very um broad is unfair but a lot of people can access the the essence of this story um which is about a mother and a daughter and it is its genre and it's also a movie about liking stuff, which I know is like a thing right now. I mean, you and I like a lot of stuff too, even if we're like kind of jerks about it on the podcast all the time. But so it's about like, oh, I saw this and I like this

and another thing and another thing. And in a very like young internet friendly language. So I understand all the different ways that it resonates for people. But I still even with like 10,000 members in the academy can't like one-to-one trace this many votes of this many people who are so psyched about it and who have been for the entire season because that's the other thing is that like this is a this was foregone conclusion, which we can say now because it all happened.

But, like, I think basically, certainly since, what, the PJs, the DJs, the SAG Awards, those were all the same weekend. But, like, really? Maybe Golden Globes? You've been saying it for months. Like, it never... It was always the frontrunner. And that's a lot of people just sticking with it for months and months and months.

It's, I just, how? I have a couple of theories. Yeah, who? So this film premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Right. One year ago. The South by Southwest Film Festival is happening right now. Right.

So the film was first seen by audiences a year ago. It premiered around the country the weekend before the Academy Awards, the Friday before the Academy Awards. So this movie has had a year to live in the consciousness. And we saw this even in some of the reporting from the last week. Academy members who watched the movie for the first time and didn't get it had a chance to watch it again.

And then they had a chance to watch it even again because this movie has just been around for such a long time. So one small factor might just be people kept giving it another shot and kept looking at what the message is, what the artistry is, how it differs maybe from what their expectations are of a conventional Best Picture winner. That's kind of fascinating unto itself. And then this has something that a couple of the more recent

dominant films don't have the artist had one acting win but that's it in fact i think only one acting nomination for jean du jardin this that was a film that dominated at the oscars prior to that slumdog millionaire one of the most dominant oscar films in the last 50 years also didn't have any acting nominations lord of the rings return of the king famously went 11 for 11, no acting nominations. Instead, with this film, you've actually had growing appreciation for Michelle Yeoh and growing appreciation for Jamie Lee Curtis and Kiwi Kwan, who has been the front runner for his race the entire season. And so increasingly, more and more people are seeing all of these participants in the

film get awarded. And there's this kind of like, I don't know, this kind of runaway train sense of inevitability around the race, I think. I did feel this way even back in September. I was like, the vibes on this are just so obvious that A24 runs the best campaigns. In Scheinert and Kwan, they had two very willing campaigners. They also had a couple of secret weapons. And Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis simultaneously having an It's Time narrative and Kiwi Kwan having a comeback narrative, which the Oscars also loves. So you put all that stuff in a big stew and you get a best winner. I don't know, behemoth. It's a huge thing. The campaigning stands out to me. And I feel like

whenever we say campaigning on this show, but in general, it's there's negative connotation to it. You know, a lot of jokes about she's running. And certainly, I mean, there is like a truly like a criminal and horrific history associated with Harvey Weinstein that has just kind of like stained the whole thing. But on the flip side, you just have like a whole cast of people who seem like great hangs and are so excited to be there and they worked everything like they went to every single luncheon took every single gift bag every single selfie like in a really loving way and seemed happy to be there and it does just seem like people also wanted to be around them which like

I get I again I keep going back to one when Jamie Lee Curtis did like the SAG Awards. I'm Jamie Lee Curtis and I'm an actor. I was like, oh, this is it. Like in two minutes, this explains you guys are very game. And also you have all of the narratives that everyone likes to see in an Oscar season. And it just kind of was just an easy, like an easy package. When we look back on it, unlike some of those previous juggernauts, do you think we'll say, this is right? This film should have won seven awards in the face of

TAR, The Fablemans, All Quiet on the Western Front, Top Gun Maverick? I mean, how many Oscars in history do you think were right? You know, like we never look back. We never look back and say like, yeah, this was right and this totally should have won

and this should have gotten a thing. So no, of course not. But I don't mean that to take away from like the film's accomplishments or what it means to like to many people

that this movie won all these awards, that Michelle Yeoh won this award. Like, you know, it's great. So no, we will be like, hey, Tar was pretty good. Like. Like, you know, it's great. So no, we will be like, hey, Tara was pretty good. Like, hey, you know, remember Gun Maverick. But you know, no one's ever happy. We're never happy. What do you think the effects are going to be

on the Academy Awards in general? Like, do you think that they will be kind of meaningfully younger or more genre oriented going forward? Or is this just kind of a perfect storm you want to talk about the show do you think you can separate this from the show oh that's really interesting um yeah well okay let's talk about the show because i i didn't think it was a good show um i thought it had a actually a great and game host in jimmy in Jimmy Kimmel, who in the opening moments of the show, I was afraid was going to attempt to replicate Billy Crystal Magic again because he did, in fact, do the thing that you suggested. Yeah, he did his English patient. Well, he inserted himself into things and he actually did the plane. In this case, it was a Top Gun Maverick plane.

It wasn't actually. Though there were planes flying over the auditorium, it seems. Were they practicing over our neighborhood earlier today? That seems likely. I definitely heard some low-flying planes. Anyway, they fake dropped Jimmy Kimmel off. He showed up at the parachute. I thought of that Billy Crystal, you know, montage and opening fondly.

I was like, okay, sure. Let's go back to the mid-90s. I wouldn't say that he affected a Billy Crystal manner, though, in his joke telling, which I thought was pretty no holds barred. We got the news that Tom Cruise and James Cameron were not going to be appearing at the show. Yeah. They both took a couple of shots. Will Smith took many shots.

Though his name was never said, which I thought was very clever. That was wise. The Republic of Ireland took many shots in his monologue. I thought that was a shame. Babylon took a few hits. Heated to hear that. And the crowd was with him. You know, the crowd like did that.

Like that was a low blow. Yeah, that was a sad moment for the Hive. It was fine. But he came out swinging, I thought, in a good way. I thought not quite in like a Ricky Gervais, like pen dipped in acid way. It was in good fun, but it was sharp-tailed.

And I thought it was good for the show. I thought it gave the show a little bit of vinegar, which it needs sometimes. And then when he wasn't around, I thought it was really quite drab. Yes. Very boring. Slow. Respectful to a point that meant just show death.

It was really, at some point, I didn't know where we were. You and I started counting on our fingers how many awards yet hadn't been given out. Like, you were yelling about Snapchat commercials. Like, it was very, and that's before we even get to the commercials that were embedded in the show, which we'll get to. I just want to say I agree. I thought Kimmel was very funny to the point that you and I turned to each other and we're like are we old now because we're just like the host has landed all the jokes yeah I liked the Nicole Kidman one you know they let you out of the theater that's very funny that was and the idea that they would have to celebrate people going to the theater for people who are

already in a theater um you know it was a very kind of like um it was all very competent and there was a decision made clearly I think a little little bit in the aftermath of the decision to skirt eight categories last year, to have a kind of a solemn tribute to every category. So the presenters didn't really have a lot of jokes on the teleprompter. There weren't a lot of bits. Some of the presentations of the technical awards featured kind of like explication of what it meant to do the work that was being rewarded, but others did not. Some just had like weird, like historical reenactments. That was odd. There was a little bit of a Hall of Presidents vibe going on.

It was stately, I guess. The film editing was the best one. The poor woman from old times was splicing, and then the other one was just editing Dune. What do you think the woman who is going through the old film stock, like how much money did she make for her work tonight? Like 500 bucks? Like $50,000? What do we think? This is something I have no reference on,

and I would just really love to be like given a term sheet. You know, I just want to know what the going rates are. I want to know what that is. I want to know what the going rate is for like AT&T commercials. Just let me know. I think that's more lucrative than what she did tonight. You could tell me she got like $5,000. You could tell me that was like a $20,000 gig. You could tell me that it was like free. Okay. Let me ask you this. Do you think-

You could tell me it was like Academy Museum promo and that she's there in the lobby, like every Tuesday and Thursday. What if she was a robot or an AI? But do you think she puts that on her CV? Like next audition she goes to, she's like, I was the gal who was going through old film stock on stage

when they gave out best film editing to everything, everywhere, all at once. Is she proud? I don't know. I'm reading, and I heard you were reading Oscar Wars as well, the Michael Schulman book about Oscars. And there's a whole chapter about the infamous 1989 Oscars and he interviews

the poor woman who had to play Snow White and just like and I think like after how you know almost 30 years she's more she's like ready to talk and just like about how humiliating it was and how she like ran out of the theater as soon as it was over. Anyway, no, I don't know whether people being in the show are ultimately proud of what they contributed, especially when it comes to historical reenactments. In 30 years when I write my book, The Pathetic Loser's Guide to Thinking About the Oscars, I will interview the woman who was on stage holding the film stuck. The award show itself, I thought, part of the challenge for folks like us is we spend so much time thinking about, talking about, prognosticating about the awards that there was an air of inevitability. And they made a very odd choice, I thought,

at the beginning of the show, which was to pair in the second and third awards of the night given the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress prizes. And Kiwi Kwan, of course, won and gave, as usual, a very spirited and touching speech. He's been giving great speeches for four months now. One of the highlights of the night,

looked straight to the camera, Mom, look what I have. Just like lay up, A+. Great moment. Great way to start the show. And then they gave Best Supporting Actress to Jamie Lee Curtis, which, let me just give me a moment here. Jamie Lee Curtis is incredibly important to me as a movie fan.

Because she, of course, is the star of Halloween, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. She's one of our great genre queens, and she's a part of a legendary family. Her mother, of course, was Janet Leigh, the star of Psycho. Her father is Tony Curtis, a great movie star, one of the stars of Sweet Smell of Success, also one of my favorite movies. She has consistently worked in genres that don't usually get respect from the Academy Awards.

Comedy, action, horror, thrillers. She's a very good actor and very flexible performer. I don't really get at all like how her performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once, aside from maybe some of

the physical work that she did, is like Academy Award worthy. But anyhow, they gave this award away very early. And so when she won, and we thought she would because she won the SAG Award, but when she won... She's an actor. She's an actor. I was just like, okay, so that's it. Everything Everywhere All at Once is going to win everything. And then it literally did. And I thought they kind of popped the balloon there. I mean, I agree with you knowing what we know now, but there was like 30 minutes and it could have been 6 p.m. to 6.30. It could have been 8 to 8.30. I lost all sense of time at some point. But

where we got very nervous because they went through a bunch of technical awards and All Quiet on the Western Front was won several in a row. And so we have talked a lot about how we thought that could be a potential spoiler, especially for older members of the Academy who just like did not get the everything everywhere experience. And so there was a moment where it was mounting and like we were getting a little itchy.

Did you in your heart of hearts think that that could happen? Could? Yes. I did not think it would happen. No. But, you know, it was there was just kind of a little bit of a snowball going. And we were already kind of in a bad mood.

And we were like, oh, I don't. You were. You were. You were itchy. I was in a great mood. I was watching the commercial for The Little Mermaid. Right. Oh, my God. I was thinking about the 100 years of was watching the commercial for The Little Mermaid. Right. Oh, my God.

I was thinking about the 100 years of greatness from the Warner Brothers Discovery Company. I'm not warmed up enough yet to talk about the commercials. But let's go back to the pairing. I agree with you that, you know, the flip side of starting off with a bang and, like, two big awards is that, like, a lot of momentum was gone within 20 minutes. And then you were just sort of in a sea of not very many famous people. But also that pairing was a decision that they kept for all of the categories throughout the ceremony.

And so presenters would come out and they would present two categories, which just, let me do some math for you. That's half the famous people that you normally get in an awards show because presenters come out for every category. Now, like, I don't know whether a lot of people were canceling or just didn't want to be there after last year and what happened to certain presenters. But the pairing, like, condensed, I guess, the amount of awards given out, which I know has been a source of concern for TV people and movie people but it then also just condensed why you're there and all of the famous people and so I couldn't tell you totally what they filled the time with I guess with some of

those presentations about what film editing or like animation is but you know I didn't find it particularly illuminating and I did feel the loss of you know the razzmatazz it will surprise no one to hear that Amanda Dobbins felt that there were not there was not enough star quality and star but but again that's kind of why I watch the Oscars I love movies I want to know who wins and then I want to see all the famous people in a room together. And I want to see Regina Hall just like clowning Kevin Costner, you know? Like I just, there wasn't any of that because, and I think a lot of it is because they built the ceremony in a way to maintain decorum and not have people interact, which I understand why, but major overcorrection. It's a fascinating choice because you're right.

There were 23 awards given and it was quite buttoned up. And that's an interesting choice. There were also six musical performances, the five nominated original songs, and also Lenny Kravitz performing in memoriam session. Yeah, so there was a lot of that. Frankly, Jimmy Kimmel didn't have a ton of screen time. He only really had one in-the-crowd bit in which he asked questions of a handful of people in the aisles,

which I thought was very funny. Malala and Colin Farrell and Jessica Chastain participated. But there wasn't a whole lot. Janet Yang addressed the crowd at a certain point, the president of the Academy. And they talked about the Academy Museum. And then there were the SpawnCon commercials. And you put all that stuff together and you have a, I mean, that was like a three hour and 40 minute show.

That was a very long show. It was long. Did it come under the under that you said? I think it went over. It did? Maybe it might have been right around. I thought it was like two minutes under because I thought it was 222 minutes was last year's show. And I did math

on the podcast and you made fun of me, but now it's coming back to me because three hours and 42 minutes was last year. It's incredible. That's why you won Best Original Screenplay for A Beautiful Mind. It's that ability to do numbers that quickly. I... The SponCon? Okay.

Well, no, I don't want to go there yet I'm interested in like an incredibly long show with very few memorable moments That is a choice It was not a disaster and I think that there was an attempt

to return to a simpler time in Oscar history when you could expect a kind of boring but thoughtful show Yeah And this felt like that.

It wasn't the legendary Alan Carr 1989 version of the show. It wasn't the Steven Soderbergh and Union Station version of the show. It certainly wasn't Will Smith slapping Chris Rock in the face version of the show. But the only thing to really talk about is the awards. I mean, there's just not a lot to hold on to otherwise. I thought the speeches were all lovely, pretty much. And there were no disasters, I think. Even sometimes there's like a short film acceptance speech that really goes off the rails, you know, in like maybe a fun way or maybe a cringy way. But everyone was very prepared, which they were

prepared because they had won everything else. And it was very predictable. And so you don't even get that moment of surprise and jubilation or of like, I can't believe this is finally happening. That kind of animate a lot of like the very memorable speeches. And listen, all these people won Oscars. And I like I'm happy with all four of the actor winners. I think they're all like deserving people um who like have worked very hard but I wouldn't say like I thought Michelle

Yeoh's SAG speech was it just had that that live tv moment yeah her glow speech too I will beat you up yeah exactly the um Jamie Lee Curtis's SAG speech was, I mean, a lot of that's surprise. And it's not their fault that this was all kind of written out. But that's the other thing when you don't have those like completely transcendent speech moments, which I don't totally know we got. You're like, okay, this was nice. thought was going to happen. And it happened very slowly, you know, with the very slightly solemn, like, fancy tone. I just think that the season is way too long. Yeah. And we have said, mentioned this many times, you know, last year, the show happened in the last week of March. That was far, far too long. But even this year, March 12th, if you just cut a month, let alone, I mean, God,

I would love for them to cut six or eight weeks off, but just cut a month, let alone, I mean, God, I would love for them to cut six or eight weeks off, but just cut a month off and just run the show the weekend after the Super Bowl, which is what I've always suggested that they do. Okay. You just, you call them every Monday after the Oscars and you say. I call Jimmy Oscar and I'm like, Jim, good to hear from you. I've got some thoughts. The Academy Museum, there's just a room that's like all the tapes of your voice. And Jimmy Oscar's on the other line and he's like, I'm talking to a dead man. I just, there are way too many precursors now.

And those precursors are too predictive of where things are going and hive minds form. And we saw this happen with CODA where for a solid month, it just felt like CODA. We saw this with Nomadland. For a solid three months, it just felt like Coda. We saw this with Nomadland. For a solid three months, it felt like Nomadland. Parasite was a big surprise, but not the biggest surprise of all time if you were watching the precursors closely.

So there's something happening where that exact feeling that you're talking about, that there was something sort of a more subdued nature in the speeches. If you don't have a deeply emotional big moment and with the exception of Brendan Fraser who I think was like one that was probably the most competitive race of the night and two he seemed kind of like totally blown away like totally emotionally overwhelmed and like almost awkward because he couldn't process how he was feeling everything else just felt like a smaller version of something that we had seen before that's just not good now if you if this was the first you'd heard of everything everywhere all at once you might have been like oh cool michelle yo i like her crouching tiger hidden dragon she's

great but most people who are watching at this point and i think the show in fact was even kind of made for people who really care about the awards themselves it diminishes their strength and so it's kind of a paradox of how to make a good show. You know, you want to be thoughtful and you want to be stately about the importance of recognizing great work in the field, but you want to have fun. And the fun can't all fall on Jimmy Kimmel throwing darts at famous people's eyes. You know, there has to be like something else for us to latch onto. And so I just felt like it was missing that something else. There were a handful of exceptions.

For me personally, the most successful presentation of an award was Best Cinematography, which for a couple of reasons. One, I care about that award. I think it's interesting. But more so because Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors, who are starring together

in one of the most popular movies of the year, presented the award. And Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors, who are starring together in one of the most popular movies of the year, presented the award and Michael B. Jordan directed that movie. And so you got the sense that he was authentically interested in communicating to the audience, here's something really interesting that Spike Lee did. Here's something really interesting that Orson Welles did as a filmmaker. Now, that's pretty pointy-headed, geeky stuff, but it's Michael B. Jordan telling you about it.

That's a way to get younger people interested in what actually happens with movies and also let Jonathan Majors tell a few jokes at the same time. I know it's hard to do. I know not every movie can be Creed III and come out at the exact right time for the Oscars. But I wish that the awards were just a little closer to that. Listen, historically, two movie stars who are in a movie together presenting is like how the Oscars was made, and it was great. And I guess the problem now is that they don't make enough movies with movie stars who are in a movie together presenting is like how the Oscars was made and it was great and I guess the problem now is that they don't make enough movies with movie stars it's you know

so they just can't populate it though like at this point if they wanted to send all the damn Avengers out at least I'd be like oh it's Chris Evans you know like I they were missed opportunities energy but I I liked the idea of the cinematography presentation like I it didn't totally land for me I mean they had to deal with the weird prop of, like, the giant camera that was, like, in front of them. And then, you know, the expository dialogue. It was, like, very written in a way that didn't sound— They're all written. It's in a teleprompter. I know, but some people can make it sound like banter.

And some people are, like, doing the transitions. You know when you're editing something and there's just like the transition sentence that like sticks out like a sore thumb and it's like, fix that because that's annoying. No one fixed them. And that's okay. I like that they tried. Well, whatever, you brought it up. I'm just, do you not want my notes?

No, no, no, it's you. So you preferred Elizabeth Banks and the cocaine bear. That was really the segment that you enjoyed. The one that felt a little more loose. I'll tell you, listen, I did not enjoy the foam cocaine bear. I The one that felt a little more loose. I'll tell you, listen, I did not enjoy the foam cocaine bear. I honestly thought

that bear looked better than the bear in Cocaine Bear, which is tough when like all, her whole material was about like, this is what it could have looked like.

And I was like, that would have been a better movie. Anyway, she was selling her bit, but I do think it says something about like the presenter

like stretch that they were in that the poor woman like barely had a voice you know and they couldn't get a replacement like that was it my read on that was that she was like you will pry this presentation of an oscar from my cold dead hands no matter what my voice sounds like and i don't blame her you know what we can overrule this because like we have a lot of power like it's just like we're desperate for someone with a recognizable name

to go out with this bear it's gonna be okay Elizabeth Banks will get her revenge when she wins seven Academy Awards for cocaine next year which is gonna be very exciting what else were there any other

awards presentations that you thought at least were interesting it's so funny there's like just not a lot to hold on to on this show yeah I mean I'm trying

even to remember they did makeup and hairstyling and they did costume. That was the one. The costume design was the one true surprise. And Ruth Carter won again for Black Panther film. She won previously four years ago for the first Black Panther film.

And I think we both picked her as should win. We did. And had no expectation that she would. So that was exciting. And she dedicated the award to her mother who died recently. Who just passed away. So that was lovely. Yes. Mother is award to her mother who died recently. Who just passed away. Yeah. So that was lovely.

Yes. Mother is clearly a theme of this year's show. But I mean, that was probably the only award that I was authentically surprised by, which is not great.

You know, my beloved Babylon went 0 for 3. You were really angry. What? And you like turned to me and you were like, never go with your heart.

That's literally what you said to me. Yeah. Well, I do believe that about all things. And then Bobby was like on the other end of the and you were like, never go with your heart. That's literally what you said to me. Yeah. Well, I do believe that about all things. And then Bobby was like on the other end of the couch just being like, no. Bobby was like, Justin Hurwitz is a master. And I was slowly, quietly nodding.

Yeah. Babylon didn't do well. Got made fun of by Jimmy Kimmel. Lost all of its awards. Margot Robbie had to present a commercial. It just wasn't great. The intro joke, you got to look at commercial. It just wasn't great. Listen, the intro joke, you got to look at it as like just happy to be included.

Like you're big enough to be, you know, the butt of a joke, okay? Like Steven Spielberg and his relationship with his mother was also the butt of several jokes. So like that's what you're on. That's a good level to be on. I don't know what to say about Margot Robbie introducing a Warner Brothers commercial.

Let's hold it. We're going to keep holding the commercial conversation. Two other notable things that happened. Among the most nominated films this year were The Banshees of Inisharen, Martin McDonagh's film, and Elvis. Yeah. And your beloved Austin Butler. And neither of those films won an award.

They did not. They were shut out. Yeah. Which I would not have guessed. In fact, we picked a couple of films, a couple of categories for Elvis. And I came very close to picking Carrie Condon. And a lot of pundits were going with Carrie Condon late breaking because she won the BAFTA.

And of course, she didn't win Jamie Lee Curtis one. But those are two of the more celebrated movies of the year from big studios that a lot of people agreed on. Nothing. Do you think the Elvis thing was just a plant now? Like someone planted that one thing, like Academy screening going crazy. And it's just like one,

like 2 p.m. on a Saturday, free screening of Elvis. And they just like drove all the 60 plus. So the dipshits like me can repeat that on podcasts. And then people just lost their damn mind just being like, oh. I never actually thought it was going to win best picture. I thought it, I mean,

Baz Luhrmann tends to do well below the line. He has great crafts and his films always look good, but it was not to be. So Butler, here's why I never thought that was going to happen. Very simple. Okay. The Academy Awards does not give young men in the Best Actor category its prize. His first nomination.

It does not happen. It's not how it works. So, you know, it's a year of new things. It's a year of predictable wins, but also historical surprises. So it could have happened. It didn't. Colin Farrell regrets going through all this bullshit for the last six months. I don't know.

Maybe he's enjoyed. He won nothing. He won nothing. Yeah. Maybe he enjoyed the travel. Okay. And some of the parties. He got to meet Ana de Armas.

He loved blonde. You know, so there was that. We all got to be a part of that moment. Yep, good point. He brought one of his sons to the Oscars, which is a very sweet thing to do. Are we 100% sure that wasn't just some boy? I'm not. I have not actually verified it.

And maybe he'll get nominated again. Like, I think he was a good sport. He played along. You know? He played the game. A lot of people were rooting for him. So maybe that means that he'll be back. In 100 meters, turn right.

Actually, no. Turn left. There's some awesome new breakfast wraps at McDonald's. Really? Yeah. There's the sausage bacon and egg, a crispy seasoned chicken one. Mmm. A spicy end egg. Worth the detour. They sound amazing. Bet they taste amazing, too. Wish I had a mouth.

Take your morning into a delicious new direction with McDonald's new breakfast wraps. Add a small premium roast coffee for a dollar plus tax at participating McDonald's restaurants. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba. I was going to ask you what was your favorite pairing of presenters, but I think I know. Right. Yeah, obviously Hugh Grant and Andy McDowell.

Okay, so four weddings and a funeral reunion. And Hugh Grant, after one of the most astonishing red carpet interviews that I have ever witnessed. And I had blocked it out of my mind until now. And so I'm reliving it physically. Please explain it because it was extraordinary. Hugh Grant was interviewed by Ashley Graham, the model, influencer, entrepreneur, I think.

Sure. Keep adding slashes. What else does she do? She's a mom. She's a mother. She had twin boys recently, so thoughts and prayers. She's a red carpet presenter now.

So now she's a red carpet presenter. Hugh Grant clearly has no idea who Ashley Graham is. And Ashley Graham has pre-written questions that were written by someone who has no idea who Hugh Grant is or how he interacts with people. And he was just not playing the game at all.

And things really started devolving when he was asked an anodyne question of like, what's it like to be here? And he, you know, makes, he calls it, he's like, you know, it's like a whole sea of humanity. He's like, it's like a vanity fair. And he's like making a, you know, a literary or whatever reference. And she's like, oh, yeah, Vanity Fair. That's where we have the party later on. And then.

That was blood in the water. Yeah. And then it devolves. The answer to who are you wearing was. My suit. The follow upup question was, who made it? My tailor.

It just kept going. They didn't cut away. The telecast needed more of this energy. That poor woman had an earpiece, and no one helped her. It was a true man-down situation. They needed to get Ashley Graham off the screen immediately. He was taking no prisoners.

Cut to, walks out with Andy McDdowell his co-star and i i think he must have ad-libbed it it didn't seem like it was written he definitely did um and nothing else was funny that was said by he does an incredibly charming bit about we're here for two reasons one is to talk about the value of moisturizer and he says andy m McDowell uses one, looks amazing. And I am basically a scrotum. So it was delightful. And then they presented production design and Babylon didn't win. Yeah.

You popped my balloon with that. I don't think I even really had a best presenter. I will say when Morgan Freeman and Margot Robbie came out together. Sure. I thought, oh, wow, that's an unusual pairing. I wonder what they're doing out here. What are they going to present? Because they didn't explain it ahead of time.

And then behind them, billowing on the big screen, we saw the legendary Warner Brothers logo. Yeah. And then they proceeded to talk about the studio Warner Brothers. You want to start here? You don't want to start with Disney? I don't because this one was actually

worse and weirder and I don't understand it. Okay, we can start with The Little Mermaid. Melissa McCarthy and Halle Bailey came out Halle Bailey, excuse me

came out and presented a trailer for their new film The Little Mermaid which is a live action remake of the Disney classic. This is something that Matt Bellany on his podcast suggested could be a possibility. He suggested maybe the studios could enter a lottery of some kind and they could all participate.

This show is telecast on ABC, which is, of course, owned by the Disney Corporation. The Little Mermaid is a Disney movie. It was a truly synergistic sponsored content moment. We watched the trailer of the movie, which I did not think looked very good. I thought it looked absolutely terrible. And we were like, okay, that's pretty lame. They put a trailer in the middle of the show that came directly from the company that put on the show. I wasn't appalled by that because it's like, that's biz.

That's Hollywood. They're going to sell their stuff. That's not confusing but when you and i do an ad read or i don't know when you do an ad read for ozempic are you are you fully behind it all right we're not gonna play the ozempic game on this podcast okay you can well jimmy kimmel was willing to i know that's the patreon um but in our line of work when you do sponsored content you have to label it as sponsored content. Right. And they came out and they started giving a very serious speech to the camera about the power of storytelling and, you know, worlds beyond and what community can bring you and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And then there's like this like creeping realization that they're introducing a trailer. But they never say this is a trailer for our movie, The Little Mermaid, which is made by Disney, which owns ABC, which is the network that you are watching this Oscars on. Like they didn't do any of it. Like where is the FTC? You have to label this shit on Instagram. This is how Andrea Risborough got in trouble. And now the Academy is like, no problem. Like, here you go. Whatever. I'm just saying I would be mad. There's probably some backroom politicking that is behind all this. And I'm sure we'll see some reporting. But, you know, the ABC's contract with the Oscars runs through 2028. There's been some speculation over the last year that they would try to find their way out of that deal. Also, linear television is going the way of the dodo.

Sure. We've been told over and over again, ratings don't even matter anymore. Everybody's streaming everything. There was no way to stream the Academy Awards. Is that right? So, you know, I wonder if this was like a, please stick around. Please pay us out for the remaining four years on our contract in this lucrative deal that we signed five years ago. Sean, when you post your Blu-ray player Lil Spawn cons on your Instagram, you have to post an ad on it.

You know that. And if you're subject to those rules, then so are the rest of the accounts. I don't post any Spawn. I'm only Spawned by Paul Schrader's movies,

all right? There's no Spawn going on here. That'd be incredible if you became like an influencer and started doing SponCon. For lonely men about films from the 1970s.

Yeah, that's beautiful. I take your point. Anyway, I'm just saying. I was hoping that that moment would dawn a series of trailers. Now honestly, even if it was like five Disney trailers, if it was a Star Wars trailer,

a Marvel trailer, something else, I would have been like, this is cynical as hell. But at least it's a spotlight because it's the biggest audience of movie watchers that you're going to have on television that is not sports all year long. So I would have at least understood the impetus for that. But what followed what I was talking about earlier when Morgan Freeman and Margot Robbie came out is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. And I really don't understand what happened. And I'd love to hear the story of what happened, which is that Warner

Brothers Discovery, which is not owned by the Disney Corporation and is in fact a company that is going through this like complicated identity as it transitions to this new ownership group. And, you know, there was a joke made about the cancellation of Batgirl and a lot of shows have been canceled but also is like the home of the Warner Brothers film studio and HBO,

two of the most like platinum brands in the history of entertainment. There was just a commercial about how awesome Warner Brothers movies are. It was just a montage of great films

and there's no questioning the fact that those films are great and in fact, it recalled a montage akin to what I like about the Oscars where they say like, hey, don't you like movies that are like this that are from 1946? And I usually do. But this one was in service of a studio, but no other studio got a chance to spotlight their past or future. Why?

What happened? What was that? I mean, that's another question. I was like, when is Universal going to get their moment? Apple, like Netflix. This seems like very strange. I have absolutely no idea. I don't like either of them.

Like, as I said to you, like, this is the Oscars. It's not a fan convention. I do think that there is a meaningful difference. And I do think that there's a way to celebrate movies without turning like into Comic-Con or whatever. And I was completely turned off by it. It's just like the blatant selling of it. There is even a difference to me between

showing all of your trailers during the commercials. Totally. That would be normal. And they did that however many years ago with West Side Story. I think that was during the Soderbergh Oscars. So there's precedent. But that's fine. I just... It skeeved me out. I really didn't like it.

And there was something about, it also didn't make any sense. Did you think people, like, did Warner Brothers pay for that? I assume so, but who would be paying? Who were they paying? ABC, the Academy. I find the whole thing incredibly confusing. And it runs counter to like some conventional thinking that is emerging about marketing in general around movie projects. Because, you know,

one of the reasons why Margot Robbie was there was because she's starring in Barbie. And Barbie is a big film for the studio. Barbie was in the montage for half a second. Was in the montage. Now the way that we get movie marketing communicated to us, it's more like, don't do anything until like eight weeks out because people have goldfish memories and you can't take too long. Whereas, you know, when we were growing up, we would start to see advertising campaigns for films that were coming out like nine months from then.

And so I genuinely, I don't, if it was just like brand management laundering by way of the Academy Awards, I find that deeply strange, kind of problematic. I'm a little loathe to use that word, but just kind of problematic in the ecosystem of Hollywood. Like, how did they earn the right to have that plum spot right in the middle of the show? It was like right at the hour and 20 minute mark. I'm confused.

It did have some sort of warner brothers 100 branding to it and disney ran a commercial during the commercial break about it's disney 100 but then used it's bon con time to air a trailer i like was it a historical justification i mean it didn't like i'm not justifying it i like. I thought it absolutely sucked and is weird. I mean, that might have been the explanation that the Academy would claim too, which is to say that this is one of the most celebrated studios in Oscars history.

And maybe 90 years from now, A24 will get a similar perch. But I don't know. To make it about something that is happening presently, I just found it to be very strange. Any other notable what-the-hell-was-that moments on the telecast? You want to talk about

the musical performances? I just don't think that this is a useful category at the Oscars. I'm sorry. It was very cool that Rihanna was there. She looked beautiful. I just...

I can't imagine being pregnant that soon again and then also performing in front of millions of people twice. Like, she's Rihanna. Like, of course she is. Like, she's better than all of us, but still pretty amazing. I don't know why they had to have a close-up on Lady Gaga like that.

I thought that was intense. But, you know, I like Top Gun Maverick. That was a good movie that there wasn't very much of in this awards show. Why did Lady Gaga do VH1 Storytellers at the beginning of that song? My take? Well, I mean, that's because she's Lady Gaga. I don't know. Does she usually do that?

Well, she... In the Academy Awards? Where she was like, I need to explain to you why this is a song that truly means something to me that was paid for by Jerry Bruckheimer? She always needs to tell you how whatever she's about to sell you is the most personal thing that she's ever done. It means a lot to her. That's part of the Lady Gaga magic. I mean that, but come on.

Should I do that before every pod? She did that a lot with Shallow. I want you guys to know that this podcast about Shazam Fury of the Gods means a lot to me personally. Yeah, fuck yeah, you got to see it. This is a movie podcast. I mean, I know, but you had kind of moved it down the spreadsheet and I was like, oh, it's disappearing. What what do you think you're exempt from watching shazam 2 just because zachary

levi said some dumb shit in public no okay all right let's put a pin in that um my impression of the lady gaga thing was that they tom cruise canceled and so they threw a lot of extra money or whatever her way to come do it last minute and And so she did like a dressed down, you know, a spare unplugged version of it because that was what she had time to prepare, which is fine. She, you know, took out her airpiece and was like not totally on key by the end, but whatever. She's Lady Gaga. Love her forever. I just don't think that the original song performances add anything to the ceremony. In fact, the eventual winner, Natu Natu from RRR, which is like a very deserving film and performance and in that movie is like an electrifying scene and people like lost their minds at screenings and rightly so.

But it did not really translate to live performance in the same way. And some of that is just because it's really hard to film live theater performance. And there is also, you know, as you noted, like a lot of filmmaking that goes into capturing choreography and energy like that, which is why it was so good. But it's like the only nominee that actually is a part of the movie is like the least renderable on stage at the Oscars. And the rest are just sort of like B minus Grammys performances. No offense. And I don't know. What are we doing? Do you think that a lot of people turned on the TV to watch Rihanna or do you think they'll all watch the video,

like the clip on whatever social media platform they watch? It's a really good question. I'd love to see the minute to minute ratings for these shows and see where something like that weighs in because ostensibly, this is one of the best possible outcomes for best original song. You know, with the exception of Sonia Carson,

who, Sophia Carson, I literally don't know this person's name. My apologies. Sophia. I believe so. Sophia Carson. Yes.

Who sang Applause, who I'd never heard of, and people have never seen that film. You know, the other four nominees were, you know, RRR's entry was kind of a viral sensation. And then you had a David Byrne song in the Best Picture winner. Sure. And then you had Rihanna and Lady Gaga. Like, I don't really know if you can do better than that in that category,

which is historically kind of a nightmare. Even still, like, I don't, I'm definitely not tuning in for the musical performances unless, like, it's 3-6 Mafia, in which case I'm definitely tuning in. But, like, that's very rare

that something like that happens. I do appreciate the crowd shots of Rocky just, like, beaming up at Rihanna while she performs live. Like a great meme. I accept that for 2023. He had champagne. Sometimes the only person drinking in the audience that we saw anyway. That was great.

Otherwise, I don't really know what was going on. But again, I don't think this category makes sense. This category is like invented to get famous people, famous pop stars at the Oscars who then give like kind of not, it's sort of half-baked performances that eat up time. And they're often ballads and kind of like bring down the energy of the room. I don't know. It didn't work for me. I love everyone nominated though. What do you think about the state of Netflix?

Because they actually had kind of a good night in winning Best Documentary Short for The Elephant Whisperers. And then All Quiet on the Western Front won four Academy Awards, which I think is more than The Power of the Dog, which was its big frontrunner last year. Are we going to go category by category, or should I do my Elephant Whisperers thing now? I'm not going to carve out more than 30 seconds for the elephant whispers, so go.

Okay. I mean, you just got to thank the animals. You know, when you're making a documentary about animals and you win an Oscar, you got to thank the animals. My octopus teacher

didn't thank the fucking octopus and he died. Sensing a trend here? Or she died and they didn't thank the elephant. Maybe I missed it, but I i just i think you really need to spend a lot some time thanking the animals if you win an oscar um when my daughter and i win the best documentary short category for monkey the story of alice's monkey we will thank monkey i promise you good that's beautiful uh i was

talking about net. Yeah. Do they have a good night or not a good night? Not really. I mean, they still couldn't pull it out in any of the major categories. No Amazon wins. No Apple TV wins. Yeah. I don't think it's like a referendum.

I don't think streaming's over. I don't think that you can cancel your account, Sean. I know you're psyched that people bought popcorn and saw Scream 6. I was among them. How fucking awesome was that? People were just like, people bought popcorn and saw Scream 6. I was among them. How fucking awesome was that? People were just like, I'm going to see Scream 6. Yeah. More so than the previous Scream

and more so than that Scream before it. Right. It's fantastic news. It's great. Yeah. And John Wick 4 is still three hours long,

so I'm still really mixed on the return of the actual. Get in line for another round of popcorn and run it back. Yeah. So I don't think that this means that you're never going to watch a movie on Netflix again. No. But I do wonder.

That's not what I mean. I think it's notable. No, of course it is. Like, if I were them, I might just give up. I know they can't. Like, I know that it would be hugely embarrassing, but it's. They're not going to give up. But I wonder if this year was instructive in a way.

And Amazon not even being like in the conversation at all is fascinating. And the kind of changes that they've made as a streamer. Apple, of course, had this like kind of blip moment with Coda. And I'm not sure if they'll ever be able to replicate that because it was so unusual. Right. Except they have a Martin Scorsese movie coming this year.

That's very true. It's very possible. Are you just like you're underselling that because you didn't get it in the auction? Is that what this is? No, I'm underselling it because they gave Marty his big moment already. And as we saw with Steven Spielberg tonight, the grandmaster getting his big moment doesn't usually get a second big moment 15 years later. But you're right. It will be in contention. Netflix is going to have movies in the pipeline for the next two years that are going to compete for Oscars, but it feels like the industry has shifted a lot, and it felt like the streamers were the dominant spenders and kind of purveyors of Oscar gold. And now you've got, and All Quiet did pretty well, but All Quiet was kind of Netflix's like third or fourth choice when the year started. And it turned out to be its front runner.

So I'm trying to figure out like where those companies fit in the firmament. I mean, we're celebrating 100 years of Warner Brothers on the telecast. We're not celebrating what Netflix or Amazon did for the movie business. Right. And it feels like there's a little bit of a rejection of some of that stuff right now. I think so. It does seem like a little bit year to year. And, you know, the last two years we've just been like, oh, wow, streamers and, you know, streaming movies and the 2020 obviously being the exception where

all of it was streaming because of the world at large. But I think the consistent thing is that Netflix just has not won Best Picture Oscar, despite the millions and millions and millions of dollars that it's spent. And all the different mutations that we've seen of being like, OK, well, now it's like, you know, a reactionary academy. And now it's really a forward thinking academy. And now it's young and now it's international. And like everything is different, except that people don't want to vote for Netflix movies. Sorry, but it's true. What do you think about Navalny winning Best Documentary?

I thought that was a very affecting speech. It was accepted by the director, but then by Navalny's wife and with his two children behind him. And she is obviously also like a very gifted communicator as well. And that situation is very fraught. But she just spoke directly to him. He's in solitary confinement still. So, you know, I thought, I think we both chose that. It wanted the PGAs. But I do think that was a memorable moment.

What else did we miss? You want to talk about Chow Papa? You want to sing Chow Papa again? Chow Papa, Mio Papa. This was the first award. Yeah. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio won Best Animated Feature. Congratulations to you.

He stood on ceremony and said, we must stop disrespecting animation and we must think of it as a significant art form and take it seriously. And we must also find a way to wend fascism into all of our storytelling. And he succeeded. He won, which was a huge moment.

That was a Netflix win as well. That's true. And a film that they very effectively campaigned because Guillermo del Toro went to every single event and crushed it. Because they literally named it Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. It was right there in the title. The only other prize that I really appreciated

was bested at the screenplay. We both picked Women Talking and Sarah Polly for our predictions. And she won. And she gave a very good speech. And that felt like the only win that didn't seem to be part of like a narrative. Every other win seemed to be kind of like

rejecting or celebrating something. And Women Talking, this was its, you know, one of only two nominations that it had. It had won a couple of precursors. So it's not like it was very difficult to predict. But there was certainly a part of me that was the one I think I might have even said it to you while we were watching the show.

I kind of feel like All Quiet on the Western Front is also going to get in here. And if it gets in here, there's going to be some kind of awkward, like, is this actually going to win Best Picture stuff that you were referring to earlier? And it didn't. Sarah Polly won.

Sarah Polly, of course, celebrated actress and writer-director and thought gave a very good speech. And all the fans of the film Go around the world were cheering loudly when she won, which was very exciting. Sarah Pauly's great. Do you want to talk about Tom Cruise not showing up? Yeah. What do you think happened? I think he decided that he was not going to win anything. But Top Gun Maverick won Best Sound.

That's true. But I think Tom Cruise decided that he, Tom Cruise, was not going to win anything. But Top Gun Maverick won best sound. That's true. But I think Tom Cruise decided that he, Tom Cruise, was not going to win anything and that he might take a joke or two that he did not want to take. And so he bailed. Don't you think? I do.

And I caught the L. Ron Hubba Hubba line for Jimmy Kimmel. Yeah. I thought it was disappointing that he didn't come. Kind of lame. I'm sure that the work on Mission Impossible 8 is very hard and very intensive. And will never end. And it's just like become his life.

I get it. There's a lot of commitment needed there. His work is his life. Yeah. I think you're right that he identified that he wasn't going to win Best Picture. And he wasn't nominated for Best Actor. That's certainly how it reads, you know. But he has been a participant in awards season.

He went to the PGAs. He went to the Academy Luncheon. He did some of the stuff that you do. He went on to Jimmy Kimmel Live. You know, he was present during this awards season in a way that he has not been present in Hollywood in a long, long time. And so for him to not be sitting in the front row, I just thought it was weird. You made a, one of your prop bets was,

will he be sitting in the front row? And I mean, you were like differentiating between like the front row and the third row of like whether he would be willing to put him. So you identified like that this is not a person who puts himself in uncertain or unmanaged situations. You think he heard the pod and he was like, Sean's right. We got to abort.

I don't think that he's ever heard any of our podcasts because I'm still waiting for my cake. He's a power user. We're getting to 500 million on his back. Okay. Thank you so much, Tom. There is like a very small percentage of me, like two percentage of me that is kind of like respects

him being like, fuck you. Like you're not going to give me anything and not nominate me. Like I'm not coming. Like I still have that power. You. Like, you're not going to give me anything and not nominate me. Like, I'm not coming. Like, I still have that power. You want me and I'm not going to be there. You know, I but the rest of me both wanted him there because there was very little Top Gun Maverick in this show.

And that is a really fun movie that everyone loved. Glenn Powell also wasn't there. Couldn't be there, which is just a real bummer. And I felt I felt the Top Gun absence. And then also I think that if he was like iffy with the Academy before, he will not be welcome back again.

Like they'll take this personally, don't you think? Oh, I wonder. I would think so. So then it's finished. He will die without an Oscar. You've already said it's finished he will die without an Oscar you've already said that he's gonna die

without an Oscar but then that seals the deal if what you're suggesting is true because we got a new administration here this is the first year where Kramer and Yang

are you know running the ship everything seems to have been very buttoned up and put together and coherent this year you know

all the events went well no fire alarms no weirdness we've got these young filmmakers with this wild story winning all the awards I mean they might have coherent this year. Yeah. All the events went well. No fire alarms. No weirdness. We've got these young filmmakers with this wild story winning all the awards. might have like violated federal law

with like the ads without disclosure but otherwise no issues. Okay. Some closing thoughts. Like I have to circle back to this because I think the Tom Cruise thing

sums up a lot of my feelings about where the Academy is. Which is it is just not where it was 10 years ago no tonight denzel washington and spike lee were not at the academy awards they were courtside at the lakers game or maybe it was in new york i don't even know where no they were at least what i saw on twitter was that they were at uh crypto arena is it still named crypto arena it is crypto

dot com okay yeah all right and uh how's your svb money going i was gonna say how much would it cost for us to like buy the rights to that arena you know to buy the rights to the well i'm just like wondering i'm just one of the people center yeah well several million okay you want to band together i got my i'm willing to chip in 100 bucks what do you got there was no letterboxd segment. Oh, my God. What the hell? There was no fan interaction of any kind, which is good for the speed force or whatever.

And somehow you were in the speed force during the whole telecast. Do you want to describe what your posture was like during the show? Yeah, exactly. Would you like to? Yeah, you were prone on your back just looking at your phone.

I was extremely comfortable. Yeah, I don't really like to sit. I like to yeah you were prone on your back just looking at your phone i was extremely comfortable yeah that's i don't really like to sit i like to like be lying down you know when i would do that as a kid growing up my dad would become enraged by that he'd be like sit up why are you always laying down on the couch so when you're just like at home crushing criterion at two in the morning are you sitting up i'm standing that's i'm standing in a room with no furniture watching the screen I was just comfortable it was fucking four hours can I go back to my rant

yeah Tom Cruise wasn't there Denzel Washington and Spike Lee were courtside at Crypto watching Lakers-Knicks yeah no Meryl Streep

forget about Jack Nicholson the old guard is gone yeah Steven Spielberg was there and I almost felt bad for him and he was not in the front row it was like they invited grandpa

out of the party I say that with no disrespect he's a legend and one of my favorite directors but it was like he had no chance to win Jimmy Kimmel made fun of his parents trauma

and then we never heard from him again and as a child of divorce that one was still close to me yeah I wasn't ready I was like I'm working

through this still Jimmy I didn't enjoy that Yeah, I wasn't ready. I was like, I'm working through this still, Jimmy. I didn't enjoy that. Yeah, I didn't enjoy that. It just feels like we're in a different era and that a lot of these people, and some of them are, you know, wonderful. It's like, oh, Janelle Monae and Pedro Pascal and people that I really like. And I like seeing in movies and TV. But when we have remarked upon things like that in the past where we've been like, it's missing the star power, you know, lamenting how the things have maybe moved on.

Like now it's officially clear, like it is a new generation. And in some cases it's like, you know, Barry Keoghan and Florence Pugh and Lady Gaga and Rihanna. And like these people are the academy now. But in other cases, it's like, this feels like it's missing a little bit of heft. And I don't know. Sometimes you have

a filmmaker like Chloe Zhao who's like, or Barry Jenkins, who's like very serious, very thoughtful. And you were like, this is a real voice of a generation

kind of filmmaker. And then sometimes it's like, that person's cool, I guess, you know? Like, I guess I, and even then I'm like, where was Jenna Ortega like where was an actual famous person who's under the age of 30 you know she was hosting SNL she wasn't even at

the Oscars right so like they're still missing even on that level at times so it just feels like they've moved on but they haven't found a way to fully convince the next crew it's their job to own it I think that's true? Yeah. I do think it's still it was a strange year in movies. You know, it was it was Top Gun.

It was Avatar where it's a lot of famous people who are just entirely in blue. So, you can't recognize them. Where were my Na'vi?

There was no Na'vi presentation. I mean, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver were there. Yeah. And Big Jim was not there for his visual effects award. That was painful.

Yeah. But otherwise, like a strange year and not exactly like a movie star year in that old sense. And it takes time for the new generation, especially when they all have to be superheroes.

And then also I do feel like this ceremony was just so self-conscious about last year's and just so desperate to not mess up and to put out all the fires and to walk the line and not make anyone mad. And so you can't go for any of like the big, the big splashy things. I do also wonder how many people

were just like, no, thanks. I don't really need to be a part of this anymore as a result of last year. So we, we did will win and should win as a preview conversation. So final question for you, if you could take one Academy award from one winner tonight and give it to someone else in their category, who would you take it from and who would you give it to? Oh, wow. I mean, you know the answer to this, but... Worn up for Austin Butler. You know, I don't know why you have to be so crass about it. It's because I just recognize...

It's a human body. It's desire. This is a natural feeling. I just, I feel like you are just blind to the star in our midst, you know, as was the Academy. And so I have to tell you, one of the highlights of the Oscars to me was during the Best Actor presentation. When they showed Austin Butler's clip and they cut to him and he and Angela Bassett were holding hands, but both hands. I don't know whether they've become friends on the trail or whether he and Angela Bassett. Maybe something more.

Courtney B. Vance got to look out. All right. Relax. He's on the trail or whether he and Angela Vestal. Maybe something more. Courtney B. Vance got to look out. All right. Relax. I'm just saying that he's very powerful. And also, we needed some star... We needed something.

God, we needed something. You're never more euphemistic than when discussing Austin Butler. But here's the thing. Brendan Fraser was like very moved and I was very...

So I don't want to take it away from him. So that's not fair. You want to take it from Pinocchio? And give it to Marcel? We did both laugh when Marcel showed up on the screen. I was reminded how much I like Marcel. Yeah, I really like him too.

You know what I want? I want to take the directing award away from the Daniels, and I want to give it to Todd Field. Yeah. Tar struck out. Yeah. Their loss want to give it to Todd Field. Yeah. Tar struck out. Yeah. Their loss. That's going to look bad.

Of course it is. That's going to look very bad. You know, history is full of these sorts of things. It's too bad. For me, I would take

the best score Oscar away from Volker Bertelman, who scored All Quiet on the Western Front. Yeah. Who, while I think that was an effective choice for that film, definitely just listened to a lot of PlayStation games from 2003 to compose that score. And I'm going to give it to Justin Hurwitz, who should have it for his work for the film Babylon.

Yeah. Which is a movie I enjoyed quite a bit. Any other thoughts? Are you happy that we've done this yet again? I always like watching the Oscars with you. Oh, that's nice. Why? What is it about me?

Well, because you irritate me. Oh, we never litigated the montages. And we didn't do any of our prop bets. I don't want to extend this forever, but... I think we exceeded the number of Will Smith jokes. Yes, we did. We exceeded the number of montages by proxy. Right, but you were at one point trying to claim that every single clip package that was rolled out during the Oscars was a montage. Unfortunately, you failed to realize that the

presentation of the Best Picture nominees would all be montages. Yes, but that, I don't think that you were very clear on the terms of your betting. Unfortunately, I didn't read the fine print. In Vegas, does it come with fine print? Because I actually always read fine print. The house always wins. Keep that in mind. Sure. Okay. If I set those bets. That was you at your most annoying. That was when

I was maddest to be watching it with you because that was like... I think you said stop and I said no. That was like 20 minutes in. I still had some energy and I said no. That was like 20 minutes in. And I was just... I still had some energy. I was still like, ooh, the Oscars are back.

You know, I was like full of possibility. I was pretty excited this morning and today. The sun finally came out in Los Angeles. They really beat you down with all these

below the line categories. It's not even that. It just... I just wanted some famous people to make some jokes, you know, or just like to give me a little

razzle dazzle. It's the Oscars, baby. And it just like was not really the Oscars. It was like, whose funeral is this? Come on, guys. Let's go. Pick it up. Hollywood's biggest night. Exactly. This has been the biggest night for Hollywood's biggest night's biggest podcast.

Would you say that's fair? Sure. I stopped listening halfway through that. I got confused, say that's fair? Sure. I stopped listening halfway through that. I got confused. But I had a great time. Thanks to everybody who listens all award season long.

It's a long season. We did less this year and I feel good about that. And frankly, I kind of feel like we're going to do even less next year, but that's a whole

other conversation. Wow. We're going to talk about this more later this week. We're going to do a mailbag. Send us your questions via Twitter Joanna Robinson will join us

she'll be able to weigh in on the agony of Colin Farrell losing thanks to Bobby Wagner our producer thanks to all of our folks here on the Ringer video team for capturing us

thanks guys and thanks for listening again throughout this incredible season of weirdness we'll see you soon.