Oscars superlatives: The best and worst of the 2024 Academy Awards
Oppenheimer, Ryan Gosling, Messi the dog, and bad jokes are all winners tonight!
Aux News Academy Awards
It was Hollywood’s biggest night. The 96th annual Academy Awards have come and gone, bestowing upon us a new crop of winners we’ll question in the future. These were the movies of 2023, and for the first time in the Oscars’ near-century of existence, all the nominees were worthy of inclusion. Sure, there were snubs (Lily Gladstone), some flubs (Tim Robbins), but no Tubbs (we didn’t see Jamie Foxx or EGOT creator Philip Michael Thomas anywhere during tonight’s broadcast).
Overall, it was a smooth show. What can we say? Jimmy Kimmel is running these events with precision, executing a three-and-a-half-hour award show with nary a slap or a streaker—well, maybe one streaker, but he was encouraged to do so. Kimmel kept the jokes light, the stage filled, and the awards moving as he managed another successful night of gold-handing.
We’re sure people will find things to complain about, so to get ahead of that, we’ve compiled some of the best and worst moments from the telecast.
109 Comments
The Batman skit and Ryan Gosling’s performance of I’m Just Ken were the two highlights of the night for me. Al Pacino’s moment was painful – he’s clearly not entirely with us anymore, and bringing him out was a bad choice.
When he began I immediately thought, He’s 89, right?
Pacino turns 84 in April.
and his new kid turns 2 in June!
It was exciting to see a big scale production of a Best Song nominee again. It seems like it’s been nothing but small performances ever since the Rob Lowe/Snow White opening number fiasco.
No, there have been plenty of big ones since (that incident happened over 30 years ago)!
What do you mean “happened”? Are we absolutely sure it ever ended?!
hey now he just became a father!
Tell that to his newborn child…
Oppenheimer was pretty pointedly not nominated for Best Visual Effects.
And yet it was nominated for Sound, traditionally the worst technical aspect of a Nolan film.
Haven’t seen the film, but the voices seemed audible in the trailers. Tsk, tsk, Nolan. That’s not what the fans expect.
There was a little bit of mumbling early on, but generally the dialogue was just fine.
This was definitely the best sound in a Nolan film, for what that’s worth. Also, didn’t sound used to be divided into two categories? Editing and design or something? Because it should be.
It used to be, yes. IndieWire suggested that they merged it partly because the nominees & winners for the two categories were almost always the same, and partly because in modern filmmaking the two fields overlap a lot more than they used to: https://www.indiewire.com/awards/industry/best-sound-oscar-category-combining-mixing-editing-1202228175/
I don’t know how they define this category, but could it be that Nolan used mostly practical (in-camera) techniques for this movie? Could it be the category now is considered a best CGI award?
I would imagine trying very hard to use practical effects as much as possible in that film, only to have an explosion that couldn’t have looked LESS atomic… after all of that build up? Didn’t help.
They could have mentioned that Cillian Murphy also tried to kill Batman.
Different era Batman. There’s pre-Nolan, then there’s Nolan-verse Batman.
Like in Brave New World, which dated its calendar Before and After Ford, so too shall we name our era After Nolan, and weep for the poor souls who had to live in the Before times.
But it also wasn’t Michael Keaton that defeated Mr Freeze. I guess I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that Val Kilmer wasn’t there.
Clooney.
And yes, they did miss an opportunity by not having Arnold say, “Wait, that’s not my guy…” and then pan to Clooney. Maybe George wasn’t game.
It was George Clooney defeating Freeze though.
Clooney was Arnold’s co-star.
That would have to be Clooney’s era.
Kilmer didn’t defeat Freeze either. 🙂
Oh come on, I know we all have tried to forget George Clooney played Batman, but alas, he did! And he was the one defeating Arnold’s Mr. Freeze.
Clooney likely was, though!
George Clooney defeated Freeze, not Kilmer. Just nit-pickin’.
Entourage was certainly not the best show but it did manage to nail Hollywood.Warner Brothers studio head: “Remember, this is the studio that did Batman.”Vince: “What are we talking about, Burton’s Batman or Schumacher’s?”
Now it’s the studio that’ll kill off Batman for a tax write-off.
Then why did everyone pretend Arnold and Keaton were in the same movie?
But so was DeVito’s from Schwartzenegger’s — Tim Burton-verse and the post (Schumacher) era.
Also would have been fun for Arnold simply not to recognize Keaton.
You can look at it as Arnold honoring George Clooney’s desire never to be reminded of Batman & Robin. (Yes, I know, he was in The Flash, but that’s on him).
I mean it was Batman’s night, Batman director won best Director, Scarecrow won best Actor, wannabe Bruce Wayne won best supporting actor 😉 Danny and Arnie going after Bats himself. What a night for Batman! Still Godzilla > Batman! So a great night!
Eventual Poison Ivy in the Pattison version won Best Actress.
And Harley Quinn was all over the show as well yesterday! What a Batman day (Gordon did lose best actor to Scarecrow).
Yeah, but who amongst us hasn’t tried to kill Batman at one time or another?
The joke with Keaton didn’t really even work to begin with, since Arnie battled the Clooney version.
Sure, there were snubs (Lily Gladstone)Gladstone wasn’t snubbed. She and Stone had been both cited as favorites for weeks and prognosticators had them running neck-and-neck right until the end. Hell, even this low-rent blog itself said the Best Actress category “has come down to two very strong competitors in the final stretch”, praised both performances, and while predicting a Gladstone win, acknowledged that “If Stone wins we wouldn’t call it an upset”. That was just 3 fucking days ago:https://www.avclub.com/oscars-2024-will-win-should-win-predictions-1851317057In her acceptance speech, Stone graciously said that Gladstone was equally deserving of the award. You could take a lesson from her.
Sure but using the word “snubbed” gets clicks.
Stone certainly has the leg up (pun!) over Gladstone by being a tour de force in Poor Thing, she carries the movie front and center. While Gladstone was a great revelation, she also part of the large ansemble of esteemed actors doing great acting in that movie. That dimmed the spotlight on her a bit.
Also, she showed beaver.
Men go special needs.
Women get full naked.
Key to winning Oscars.
Leave it to the beaver. *shrugged off*
Well, Oppenheimer had a huge ‘ansemble’ of a cast and pretty well cleaned up. I agree with the gist of your comment, but just sayin’.
Can’t wait for Robo Fuck and Multitudes to tell me to kill myself.
Emma Stone gave a brilliant, deserving performance. It’s very shitty that The AV Club made an article for all of the major category winners except for Stone.
Emma Stone is white
Yes, but then the “flubs, snubs and Tubbs” joke doesn’t work and without that, why are we even here?
Godzilla swimming behind the boat and taking machine gun fire to the face is the scene that locked it up. That whole sequence was fantastic. There were other good bits, and some bits that (though great) were still Godzilla Movie boxes that needed to be checked. But the consistency of Minus One’s fx held throughout.
And they had fuck-all budget, too. That little behind-the-scenes as to how they did it all is amazing. 35 people, almost no budget. Of course, being Japanese, they went full Kaizen and came up with a better way than the Hollywood bloatfest way of SFX.
“Godzilla swimming behind the boat and taking machine gun fire to the face is the scene that locked it up.”I actually posted about this on my FB page yesterday, the boat scene is the(rightfully) the most talked about. But to me the scene at the end, after they’ve submerged him and then dragged him back to the surface, and he’s suffering from decompression and literally falling apart, the camera pans around him as he’s building up his energy for an atomic blast. That sequence is so well done and so terrifying, it might be the scariest scene in any Godzilla movie ever made. Just incredible FX combined with the soundtrack really burn that image into my head.I sat on my couch with tears in my eyes last night when Akira Ifukubes score started playing as they walked up to accept their win. 45 years I’ve loved this franchise and for it to finally get recognized for not(always) being schlocky B movie nonsense was a really nice thing.
I actually posted about this on my FB page yesterdayis that supposed to mean anything?
Have some respect, I thought about this very subject while pooping yesterday.
killshot.
How dare he not provide a link to his post!
You’re still on Facebook? Ok boomer!
Just kidding, I am too.
So, I’m very much a Minus One supporter. Brilliant movie that transcended everything a Godzilla movie normally is. I think it deserve a Best Picture nod or at least Best Foreign Film. I’m glad it one for VFX, and the work they did was great on their budget.However, I think what Gareth Edwards did in The Creator was still more impressive. I could see the cracks in Minus One’s VFX, as solid as they were no matter the budget, but The Creator looked like $300M blockbuster on a comparatively small budget. It looked better than the most expensive films of our day. No complaints, though, and I’m very happy for Minus One’s team.
Best Commercial: Sparkling Ice.
The Oscars may not really mean very much but I am still over the moon that a Godzilla movie won one. Well deserved.
Same here, such an incredible moment.
I thought the show was fine overall. Kimmel was just what you’d expect, pure vanilla.
Absolutely disgusting reporting. Calling Jonathan Glazer’s speech the best of the night is bringing shame on this publication. Does the AV Club refute Jewishness too? Do they also hate Jews like every other Pro-Palestine idiot? Disgusted with this praise. The AV Club “reporters” hate Jews, and anyone who let this writer post this should be ashamed of themselves. Unbelievable. Get your political opinions (antisemitic opinions) out of this site that is supposed to report on ENTERTAINMENT. The AV Club supports terrorism and the destruction of the only Jewish state in the entire world. SHAMEFUL.
Shut up, Zionist.
One thing about us JEWS (its ok, you can say it you bigot) is that we will not shut up. We aren’t going anywhere, no matter how much you want us dead. Shame on you, antisemite. Learn what ZIONISM is. And while you’re at it, look up what a real genocide is. Go suck your favorite terrorists dicks.
Shut up, Zionist.
I think the Batman bit was possibly made even better by that ascot Michael Keaton wore, which just made him look like ‘60s-era Bruce Wayne.
Good point, old chum.
Guys, Jimmy Kimmel’s joke about movies being too long is really not that serious.
Plus, it’s pretty well crafted. I’ve always had a soft spot for a good comedic exaggeration.
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A movie that lasts for three and a half hours is objectively fucking long. And Jesus Christ, the joke wasn’t even at the expense of the actual story, just how long the movie was. You aren’t defending native Americans, just having a poor take on a joke that you didn’t like.
But making fun of Killers of the Flower Moon in any way is Violence.
The author’s pissy attitude about a joke about Killers of the Flower Moon being long is dumb and self-defeating. Particularly his grouchiness that we need to devote more time to movies about the “long, painful trail of genocide that runs throughout the world.”Movies are an entertainment product. Even movies about really sad subjects are entertainment products. Schindler’s List is an entertainment product. Killers of the Flower Moon is an entertainment product. It’s not homework. it’s not brushing your teeth. Not wanting to see it is a perfectly good reason not to.I really liked Killers of the Flower Moon, and think it justified its length (in that it was interesting and entertaining). But it’s really long. And while its subject is, to some extent, the genocide of Native people, the immediate subject is a relatively discrete one with only a few major characters. Lots of directors have managed to make really moving films about challenging subjects in a lot less time.
Honestly, I think Killers of the Flower Moon should have been longer. I actually think it would have worked better to do as a miniseries and really plunge us into the world of the Osage at that time before jumping right into the crimes committed against them. It would have helped flesh out more of the Native characters and also improve the emotional impact if we got to spend more time among the community’s joy.
A consistent pattern with The Zombie AV Club is that they love talking about what jokes they consider to be off-limits, even if it’s one as tame as this. “Kimmel overstepped the boundaries of good taste last night with his flagrant runtime-shaming!”
Why do so many people conflate pointing out hacky jokes as hacky with calling them offensive or over the line?
Yeah. If there’s anything the Oscars don’t need, it’s more solemnity about how important what they’re all doing is. Killers of the Flower Moon was one of the major movies nominated this year, and a joke about its length is about the mildest possible joke anyone could make about it.
Thanks for lengthsplaining, Kimmel!
The last time I commented on this site, a user told me how unhelpful and unimaginative I was for stating much the same thing. Thanks.
I can take or leave the format where past winners gush about current nominees, but I do wish they would show clips of the nominated performances. If the whole point is to celebrate the movies, let’s see some movies!
Yes! I might actually rent or buy these movies if the clip is intriguing enough.
guy who waits for the clip at the oscars to decide whether he’s going to rent or buy a movie.
I really liked the new acting awards format, at least when the presenters seemed to care. The whole group for supporting actress gave such beautiful, personal tributes, and it was really lovely. The best actress bunch, on the other hand, felt stiff and not at all connected.
charlize gave a beautiful tribute tho to benning
Being tieless is not disrespectful. It’s a welcome sight.
The best moment of the Oscars was John Mulaney recapping Field of Dreams. Is that even in dispute?
It was cute, but also basically just him adapting his existing “The Fugitive” joke.
YES, it was belabored and lazy and long, lol.
“Killers Of The Flower Moon was so long, in the time it takes you to watch it, you could drive to Oklahoma and solve the murders yourself.” Sorry, Jimmy. The murders were solved.
Oh, were the murders solved? Thank you, Professor Comedy, you’ve cleared this up for me, I was confused about whether or not the murders had been solved by this point, you buzzkill.
Surely you meant best and not worst about McKinnon and Spielberg. That whole bit was a delight.
Won’t happen, but she’d do well as a host.
I hesitate to say it, but I do think length plays a role and I don’t think it’s entirely unfair. Increasingly, as free time becomes more and more precious, there has been at least a couple of occasions where my wife and I have done the mental calculus of X free time – Y hours stuck in the theater = 🙁 . That’s not speaking to the actual worth of any given project, but when you include probably average drive time to and from a theater, a 3.5 hour movie means carving almost 5 hours out of your day, which can be a pretty big ask for some.
I think that calling out movie length is reasonable. There are stories that absolutely need more than 1.5-2 hours to be told well, but I think there’s a run-time inflation kind of thing happening now, where directors see that someone else has blown past 120 minutes, and think to themselves that their story deserves at least that much time, and even more. If the story really needs it (and I don’t think that KotFM really needed so much time), then the director needs to plan for an intermission. Scorsese (via the studio) calling out theaters that tried adding one on their own was incredible hubris. Great directors in the past recognized the value of intermissions, and planned the final edit accordingly. It can, and should be, done again.
Agreed. I feel like there was a similar sort of inflation happening around 30 or so years ago, around the time Dances With Wolves and its 3 hour runtime happened; and a sort of correction afterwards, where we started seeing a lot more hour-and-a-half, two-hours tops features being released. That’s all anecdotal though, I haven’t actually looked into it to any great degree to see if that holds up as anything other than memory.
“as free time becomes more and more precious”Is free time becoming more precious for society as a whole? Or just you?
If the former, I’d like to see some receipts. If the latter… valid, but it doesn’t really speak to why long movies are a problem generally. And yes, other people your age may be going through similar things… but did past generations NOT get more demanding jobs or have kids as they got older?
I mean, you can ask to “see receipts”, I suppose, but I’m not in a position to provide them. Can only say that speaking anecdotally, I see more and more people in my general age group, presumably still a target demographic for many of these films, games, etc, talking often about how they feel like they have less and less time to themselves for those things. And it isn’t to say past generations didn’t feel a similar squeeze to one debatable degree or another, depending especially on how far back we’re talking about.
And again, I feel I should clarify that this isn’t an assessment on whether or not this makes a given product ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but that a lot of people, myself included, do start including time spent as part of the cost management when choosing entertainment.
The other thing is that historically the audience is not rewarded for that extra time. The length doesn’t increase the quality and there are almost always pieces of bloat that could be cut. The reviewer here is incorrect, I think, to confuse the more length a movie has with how important the subject is.
As much as I like Matt Reeve’s The Batman like 15-20 minutes could’ve been cut from it and it would’ve still worked and not felt like it dragged.
For many people, my parents included, more than 3 hours is an immediate no-go for them, and they say they’ll catch it on streaming a couple of months after if it’s that good. I’m tending to agree with them more as I get older
Basically the same. We were debating whether to see Barbie vs Oppenheimer first in theaters, went with Barbie because it was the less imposing time prospect and then never got around to Oppenheimer while it was still in theaters at all, which was a bummer.
so it does matter!!!
It doesn’t solve the “see it in a theatre” issue but I always prefer to digest films of that length over the course of two evenings in a home viewing. If that is a suggestion that perhaps works for you and your wife.
It’s actually a misconception that free time is becoming “more and more precious.” Most studies show that Americans have more free time than earlier generations.
I enjoyed “I’m Just Ken” as much as the next guy but saying that it’s “much more popular” than “What Was I Made For” is ludicrous. The latter has almost 7x as many plays on Spotify, hit 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and went platinum in the US and UK.
Nothing about Kimmel’s tone deaf roast of RD Jr.’s drug past?
Is there a good comment thread where we can call out Jim Spanfeller for dismantling G/O Media piece by piece and selling the entire organization for scraps like the vulture capital piece of shit that he is?
It almost annoys me how good John Cena’s comic delivery is.
Who knows why madmen do what they do?