Review: The Oscars

3/10: The night of a thousand think pieces

The Academy Awards could not have done worse promo for the annual show if they had tried. The failure that was Kevin Hart’s announcement as the host and the (rescinded) declaration that certain categories would have been announced at commercial breaks caused fires both in the public and within the industry itself. Hart’s role was eschewed in favour of… let me count… 51 presenters and it honestly was not a bad choice – if anything, the flurry of the too rich and too famous showed how unnecessary the role really is. But out of several choices that night, it was one of the few that will be remembered positively.

I am personally loathe to give any attention to abusers beyond what it is necessary, so I will be blunt. The choice to reward Bryan Singer with, by extension, four Oscars is a massive backstab to the victims Hollywood has purported to support since the #MeToo movement began. It is especially frustrating given the entirely forgettable quality of the movie itself. As The Onion put it: “Rami Malek deeply immersed himself in the role of a man who knows nothing about Bryan Singer’s paedophilia allegations.”

Green Book’s surprise Best Picture win, echoing the wins of Crash and Driving Miss Daisy before it, supplants Crash as the most controversial Best Picture win in our lifetimes. White saviour narratives and all that. Same old stuff.

However, Olivia Colman was great. Much love to her.