The 89th Annual Academy Awards

The 89th Annual Academy Awards

The 89^th Annual Academy Awards

Lisa’s Oscar Commentary

La La Landslide?  Oops.  Nope.  In case you fell asleep early expecting La La Land to continue racking up awards and win the final award of the night, Best Picture, you would have been right….at least for a couple of minutes.  And then, you would have been, um, mistaken.  In a historic Oscar moment, a blunder happened at the end of the show that would leave the live audience and viewing audience completely stunned.  You may have thought Warren Beatty is getting old and acting a little odd, but his odd behavior was for good reason.  As he explained, when he opened the envelope for Best Picture, he had the card for Best Actress that said “Emma Stone, La La Land.”  He didn’t know what to do and showed the card to Faye Dunaway who only glanced at the card and saw “La La Land” so that’s what she announced.  After several acceptance speeches by the producers of La La Land, the real envelope was delivered and the winner was not “La La Land,” but the surprise winner “Moonlight.”  Everyone seemed to handle it graciously.  Host Jimmy Kimmel blamed himself, and Steve Harvey, but the producers of “Moonlight” got to enjoy their moment even more stunned than if they had been announced as the winner in a normal fashion.  A lot of people seemed thrilled.  Although there were a lot of great achievements in La La Land, many believed it was not the best picture of 2016.  The year was one of the best years in film the industry has seen in several years.  Several films could have taken home the Oscar and all would have seemed worthy.  Hidden Figures, Lion, Manchester by the Sea all had outstanding performances, writing and direction…all contenders.  But “Moonlight,” a poignant story from boyhood to manhood that insightfully touches on race, culture, sexual identity, and criminal justice.  The film is a powerful portrayal of issues that resonate strongly in the current social and political climate.  Hopefully, more people will see “Moonlight” as a result.

With the exception of the Best Picture award, no other award was a surprise for anyone following the award season.  Viola Davis gave a more impassioned version of the acceptance speech she’s been giving all season, as did Emma Stone.  Casey Affleck seemed genuinely surprised to win the Best Actor award even though Denzel Washington seemed confident that Casey would win.  Mahershala Ali was a favorite all awards season for Best Supporting Actor, and like many previous supporting actress winners seems to be the darling of the awards season – we’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the next few years.

JustinTimberlake opened the show with a fabulous song and dance of his nominated song “Can’t Stop the Feeling” from “Trolls” – such a perfect way to start the show, why haven’t they done that before?  The host doesn’t need to sing and dance.  The host doesn’t even need to open the show.  The host just has to be funny, stay engaging, and poke fun at himself, Hollywood, and the easiest target of all, our country’s 45^th president.  And that’s exactly what Jimmy Kimmel did.  As he said, he received a “sitting ovation” and the audience laughed and kept on laughing.  He hit some easy targets – like the president’s insane twitter rants, particularly about the legendary “undeserving and overrated” Meryl Streep.  Jimmy also took a play right out of Ellen Degeneres’ playbook – get down off the stage and interact with the audience.  Where Ellen’s ordering pizza and taking a group selfie broke the Internet, Jimmy dropped candy and donuts from the rafters (the most some of those actresses have eaten in a month) and brought in a tour bus of unsuspecting tourists who may have thought they were at Madame Tussauds.

Highlights of the show included the musical performances of Sting, John Legend and the 16 year old actress from Moana, Auli’I Cravalho, the mean tweets about the nominees, and 8 year old Sunny Pawar, the star of Lion who should have won Best Actor.

Oddly, this year, people seemed to be looking forward to the In Memoriam portion of the show.  So many exceptional artists died in 2016 that people wanted to make sure they were not forgotten at this year’s awards.  Mary Tyler Moor, Gene Wilder, Patty Duke, Michael Cimino, Ken Howard, John Hurt, Garry Marshall, Prince, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Nancy Reagan, and more.  A rough year.

The red carpet was somewhat less surprising than the Best Picture, but more captivating than many of the speeches.  The trends on the carpet were velvet, long sleeves, asymmetrical and shorter lengths, sheer fabrics, beads and appliques, and tousled bobs. 

Ruth Negga, Isabelle Hubert, Chrissy Tiegen, Jessica Biel, Dakota Johnson, Amy Adams, and Meryl Streep all wore long sleeves.  For most, the look worked.  Isabelle, Amy and Chrissy all looked draped in flowing silk shimmering in delicate beading from head to toe.  Jessica Biel chose a body hugging gold Kaufmanfranco long dress with a train and a gold-feathered statement necklace from Tiffany.  Jessica’s body could rock any dress, but with long sleeves and high neck, the necklace and train were overkill.  Ruth Negga also missed the target in a long Valentino lace gown with sheer accents, high neck and Victorian sleeves.  Though the dress was a great color and captured a lot of the fashion trends, the overall look was too costumey and overpowering on her slight frame.  But she was not the worst….

Felicity Jones wore a chiffon and tulle ballerina dress that was on trend in the shorter length, the lack of color completely washed her out.  Kirsten Dunst looked stunning in a black, asymmetrical length dress, shorter in the front that beautifully accentuated her tiny waist and ample bosom.  Alicia Vikander was also a vision in romantic black lace with an asymmetrical hemline – the dress was just a tad too short in the front and tapered into a long train in the back.  Her criss-cross strappy shoes pulled the whole look together perfectly.  Naomi Harris, on the other hand, didn’t quite get it right.  Her white sequined dress appeared sporty from a distance with a swimsuit styled bodice and the short, mid-calf length in the front. 

Hayley Steinfeld and Scarlett Johansson embraced the sheer trend.  Hayley’s was romantic and tasteful with appliques in sufficient places, while ScarJo looked more like Rainbow Bright.  The dress was just too much – too many colors, too sheer, the sides seemed to not connect and revealed a short slip under a long dress that always looks strange.  Her funky short hair looked chic and her makeup was beautiful but she would have looked better in a tuxedo like Evan Rachel Wood wore all award season.

Taraji P. Henson rocked an Alberta Ferretti black velvet off the shoulder gown with a high slit.  This dress might appear simple, but when Taraji wears it to perfection, and it’s styled with a diamond statement necklace, emerald cocktail ring, and tousled bobbed hair, she’s tough to beat.  Her look will probably produce the most knock-off dresses of the night.  Other Best Dressed nominees were Michelle Williams in Louis Vuitton – the plunge halter in black with the eggshell beaded long skirt suited her pixie hair to perfection.  This dress will also be one we will see on the knock-off racks (in fact, Emma Roberts wore something similar, but not quite as on trend).  Nicole Kidman rarely disappoints; this year was no exception.  She wore Armani Prive nude, Indian inspired sheath with beaded appliques, styled to perfection with drop earrings and red lipstick.

Two other red carpet stunners who never disappoint – Charlize Theron and Halle Berry.  Charlize slayed in a pewter Dior gown with a plunge neckline and full skirt while Halle stunned in a body hugging one-shoulder Versace.  But no fashion commentary would be complete without a comment about Halle’s hair.  We are all used to seeing her in short haircuts (like ScarJo and Charlize) so the departure itself was shocking.  Halle could look amazing in curls and big hair but this hair looked like a wig she picked it up in the Halloween store.  It sat so high on her head, it looked like you could pull it off her head with two fingers.  The color was terribly unnatural and wrong for her gorgeous skin tone.  It’s hard for anyone as beautiful as Halle to look bad, so I can’t say she looked bad because the dress was stunning and her skin glowed…but there are a thousand hairstyles that would all look better on her than that one.

Viola Davis stunned in a shocking red gown and stylish bob, and Emma Stone followed the golden rule – if you want to win an Oscar, dress like one.  Emma stole the show in a Givenchy Haute Couture beaded, fringed, gown that captured old Hollywood and current fashion.  Emma not only took home the Oscar, she was the best dressed of the night – head to toe.

So, who was the worst dressed?  Even though Scarlett Johanssen missed the boat, as did Ruth Negga, they were not Worst Dressed.  Janelle Monae was a contender.  She is so adorable it’s upsetting to see her in dresses that are trying too hard.  Points for not playing it safe, but she’s like the little girl playing dress up that puts on all of the costumes in her closet at once.  Too much.  And yet, she was not the worst.  The great honor of Worst Dressed goes to Dakota Johnson.  She tried to be on trend in long sleeves, but the dress looked old fashioned and not retro chic.  One might think she found her grandmother’s dress in the attic, but her grandmother was Tippy Hedron, and she would never have worn that dowdy dress.  Sometimes really stunning young women can wear dowdy dresses or stringy hair and still look beautiful but Dakota is not one of those girls.  That Marcia Brady hairstyle is for weekends at Starbucks only, and that dress needs to be returned to the Salvation Army.  Miss Fifty Shades of Grey was more like Fifty Shades of Beige.  Blah.

The men really stepped it up this year.  Blue tuxedos still trending this year, and white dinner jackets, but the newest trend for the men was blue velvet.  Samuel Jackson, Dwayne ”The Rock” Johnson, and even Michael Strahan rocked the blue velvet tuxedos.  But the Best Dressed of all the men was the one who took the risk that paid – Ryan Gossling.  His blue shawl collared tuxedo fit him perfectly with a tapered leg and slim fit, but he kicked it all up a notch with the blue tipped ruffled shirt.  It could have been 1970’s prom tux awful, but it wasn’t.  Just enough ruffle and just enough blue.  Elegant and cool, just like him.  Ryan may not have beaten Casey Affleck for the Oscar, but he sure out-dressed him.

The red carpet commentary this year would not be complete without a nod to the all the stunning couples who walked together – Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel, John Legend and Chrissy Tiegen, Lin Manuel Miranda and his Mom, Emma Stone and her brother, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Denzel and Pauletta, Michelle Williams and her “bestie” Busy Phillips, Mel Gibson and his Babysitter, um, wife?.

Jimmy Kimmel said this is the last (and first) year he’s hosting the Oscars, but let’s hope not.  We need more laughs.  We need to feed those starving actresses more junior mints.  And we need more big blunders.