Skip to main content

New top story from Time: The Best, Worst and Strangest Moments of the 2021 Oscars

https://ift.tt/2QSXOyu

For the second time in five years, the Oscars ended in mass confusion. When Joaquin Phoenix showed up to present the award for Best Actor, it was widely expected to go to the late Chadwick Boseman for his explosive role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Instead, it went to The Father’s Anthony Hopkins—who wasn’t in attendance. The camera then cut to a visibly disappointed Questlove, manning his DJ booth, who gave a short speech, and then it was over.
Twitter immediately alighted with alarm and jokes. “That’s the worst TV ending since ‘Game of Thrones,’” wrote Matt Brennan, the TV editor of the LA Times.
It was a strange ending to a well-composed but mostly sleepy show that proved to be a hybrid of the past pandemic year and the in-person future. Nomadland took home three of the top prizes, including Best Picture, Best Director (for Chloé Zhao) and Best Actress (for Frances McDormand). The rest of the awards were spread fairly evenly among the other main contenders, including Minari, Sound of Metal, Mank and The Father. Here are the best and worst moments of the night.

Best: Regina King’s opening

ABC's Coverage Of The 93rd Annual Academy Awards – Show
ABC via Getty Images—2021 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.Regina King opening the 2021 Oscars
Over the Oscars’ three-hour runtime, little matched the dynamism or visual punch of the show’s first two minutes, in which Regina King swaggered down a long hallway in a knockout baby blue butterfly gown as Oscars producer Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s-influenced title sequence rolled. And if anyone hoped to watch the Oscars for escapism, King offered them no such option: “If things had gone differently this past week in Minneapolis, I might have traded in my heels for marching boots,” she said, referring to the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. “I know many of you want to reach for your remote when you feel Hollywood is preaching to you, but as the mother of a Black son who fears for his safety, no fame or fortune changes that.”

Worst: Lack of comedy

While King’s speech was powerful, it also set the tone for a seriously unfunny night. Going hostless doesn’t have to mean omitting all of the jokes: last year, producers brought up a parade of A-List comedians to inject levity and break up the monotony of speeches. Obviously, the Oscars have an uneven record when it comes to creating top tier comedy, but at least they were trying to create a fun atmosphere. This year, the groan-inducing punchlines during nominee presentations were instead replaced by earnest vignettes about the artists’ origin stories and Love of Cinema. While these tidbits were humanizing and an interesting change of pace, they soon wore out their welcome, turning into a slew of interchangeable information dumps. In fact, there was only one comedic bit in the entire show: a music trivia game, led by Lil Rel Howery (more on him later), that somehow devolved into Glenn Close dancing to the 1988 E.U. hit Da Butt. That the moment was far and away the funniest of the show speaks volumes to both Close’s many talents and her lack of competition.

Best: Lil Rel Howery’s pre-show hosting duties

93rd Annual Academy Awards - Arrivals
Getty Images—2021 Getty ImagesLil Rel Howery at the 93rd Annual Academy Awards at Union Station on April 25, 2021

If the Oscars ever go back to having a host, Lil Rel Howery should be near the top of the list. The comedian and actor—who previously hosted MTV’s Acting Out and is set to host NBC’s game show Small Fortune next month—lent a shaggy, laid-back charm to an Oscars pre-show typically filled with excruciatingly strained red carpet interviews. His fellow stars, from Questlove to Andra Day, looked completely at ease beside him; he got Angela Bassett to both bust a move and open up about what she missed about Chadwick Boseman. He even handled his small mistakes—like when Chloe Zhao had to gently nudge him that they were rolling—with easy aplomb.

Best: Daniel Kaluuya’s acceptance speech

93rd Annual Academy Awards - Show
A.M.P.A.S. via Getty Images—2021 A.M.P.A.S.Daniel Kaluuya accepts the Oscar for Actor in a Supporting Role for ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ during the 93rd Annual Academy Awards on April 25, 2021
Oscar speeches can be notoriously long-winded and dull. This year, producer Soderbergh, instead of trying to corral them like every previous showrunner, instead took the opposite tack, telling the winners to stretch out: “We’ve encouraged them to tell a story, and to say something personal,” he told Reuters this month.
The counterintuitive approach sometimes worked: winners, unburdened from rapidly blurting a laundry list of names, told personal stories, shared life philosophies and overall made an effort to be entertaining as opposed to just dutiful. (Frances McDormand delivered hers short and sweet, as always.) But the best of the bunch came from Daniel Kaluuya, who started off a bit shaky—literally—as he accepted the award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah. But Kaluuya steadied himself and gained strength to create a poignant and far-ranging speech. He talked about how Chairman Fred and the rest of the Black Panthers “showed me how to love myself” and challenged everyone in the room to continue their struggle. And then, in marveling at the wonders of life, he blurted out, “My mum and dad, they had sex!” while the camera turned on his mortified mother in London, making for one of the best moments of the night:

Best: Yuh-Jung Youn’s acceptance speech

ABC's Coverage Of The 93rd Annual Academy Awards – Show
ABC via Getty Images—2021 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.Yuh-Jung Youn accepting the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for ‘Minari’

Just like in Minari, Yuh-Jung Youn’s onscreen arrival immediately sent a jolt of wicked charisma and unpredictability into a monotonous landscape. By winning Best Supporting Actress, Youn became the first Korean actor to win an Oscar—and she made sure to make the most of her historic moment. “Mr. Brad Pitt, finally, nice to meet you,” she crowed to her presenter. “Come closer!” (Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment produced Minari.) She paid homage to Glenn Close (“How can I win over Glenn Close!“) and made Amanda Seyfried swoon by telling her and the other nominated actresses, “We cannot compete with each other.” But right after, she admitted to them, with a chuckle, “I’m luckier than you.”

In backstage interviews, she maintained her energy and startling honesty, saying the first few days on set for Minari were a “terrible thing.” And when asked about her interaction with Brad Pitt and what he smelled like, Yoon retorted with a laugh: “”I didn’t smell him. I’m not dog.”
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FOX NEWS: Canine influenza outbreak: What dog owners need to know A canine influenza outbreak in Los Angeles is drawing up concern among pet owners on the West Coast.

Canine influenza outbreak: What dog owners need to know A canine influenza outbreak in Los Angeles is drawing up concern among pet owners on the West Coast. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/lTOH3qM
Post a Comment
Read more

New top story from Time: McDonald’s Announces New Meal Collab with Rapper Saweetie, Building on Wildly Successful Musician Collabs

https://ift.tt/3BTUwhw Ten crispy chicken nuggets, medium fries and a Coke: a classic McDonald’s order. But add sides of cajun and sweet chili sauces and a collectible purple box and you’ve just placed an order for the BTS Meal, this summer’s collaboration between the seven-member Korean pop sensation and the fast food giant. It was a small addition, yet on a quarterly earnings call this week, McDonald’s partially credited a 25% sales increase in the U.S. to the collaboration. Launched in late May and officially concluded on June 20, the BTS Meal followed a history of big-ticket star collaborations between McDonald’s and buzzy parts of pop culture. And on July 29, McDonald’s announced the next celebrity to receive a meal treatment: 28-year-old Californian rapper Saweetie , whose song “Best Friend” with Doja Cat went platinum this year. Her meal: a Big Mac, 4-piece chicken nuggets, fries, Sprite and sides of bbq and “Saweetie-N-Sour” sauce. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true...
Post a Comment
Read more

New top story from Time: Bill Clinton and James Patterson on Their New Presidential Thriller, Political Tribalism and Advice for Trump

https://ift.tt/3bXnVfe Three years after writing a bestselling novel together , former President Bill Clinton and author James Patterson are back with their second: The President’s Daughter , published jointly by Knopf and Little, Brown and Company on June 7. The novel follows a former president and onetime Navy SEAL who must rescue his kidnapped daughter. Using Clinton’s intimate knowledge of the workings of the presidency and Patterson’s proven methods for plotting suspense, the two men have written a book that takes readers swiftly from political machinations in Washington to shocking violence in New Hampshire to terrorist hideouts in Libya. They’re betting that a page-turner presidential thriller is just the kind of book readers are craving right now: “I think they’re hungry for it,” says Clinton, who is himself a longtime fan of Patterson’s. Clinton and Patterson spoke to TIME by phone on May 20. (When he joined the call, Clinton said he had just finished talking with U...
Post a Comment
Read more

India to play critical role in providing coronavirus vaccine to the world: Anthony Fauci https://ift.tt/2DOTRV5

Senior advisor to US President Donald Trump and top US infectious disease specialist, Anthony Fauci has claimed that India has a critical role to play in providing the world with an effective coronavirus vaccine. At a web conference organised by ICMR, Fauci stated that despite COVID-19 threat being grave, it was not essential now to conduct human challenge trials to expedite vaccine development.
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch San Francisco’s Bike Network Bloom

Watch San Francisco’s Bike Network Bloom By Eillie Anzilotti From just a few stretches of scattered lanes in 2013, San Francisco’s protected bike network now stretches like a green web connecting more and more of the city. See how much has changed over the last eight years:   In just the blink of an eye, San Francisco has become one of the most bike-friendly cities in the U.S. To date, San Francisco has 464 miles of bikeways, including: 42 miles of protected bike lanes 78 miles of off-street paths and trails 21 miles of buffered bike lanes 139 miles of striped bike lanes As we’ve expanded the network of safer bicycle routes through San Francisco, more people are choosing to ride bicycles for recreation and transportation every year. Since 2006, travel by bicycle has grown by 184 percent citywide. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, bike counts hit an all-time high: in 2019, approximately 52,000 bicyclists were observed at 37 locations during peak periods, a 14 percent incre...
Post a Comment
Read more

FOX NEWS: Nathan's hot dog eating contest returns July Fourth — outdoors and with a crowd America’s most delicious wiener war returns to Coney Island on the Fourth of July – outdoors, under the sun and open to the public.

Nathan's hot dog eating contest returns July Fourth — outdoors and with a crowd America’s most delicious wiener war returns to Coney Island on the Fourth of July – outdoors, under the sun and open to the public. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3p35tr1
Post a Comment
Read more

New top story from Time: Germany Has Officially Recognized Colonial-Era Atrocities in Namibia. But For Some, Reconciliation Is a Long Way Off

https://ift.tt/3fVRkaO The German government formally recognized colonial-era atrocities against the Herero and Nama people in modern-day Namibia for the first time, referring to the early 20th century massacres as “genocide” on Friday and pledging to pay a “ gesture to recognize the immense suffering inflicted.” “In light of the historical and moral responsibility of Germany, we will ask Namibia and the descendants of the victims for forgiveness,” said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in a statement , adding that the German government will fund projects related to “reconstruction and the development” of Namibia amounting to €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion). The sum will be paid out over 30 years and must primarily benefit the descendants of the Herero and Nama, Agence France-Presse reported . [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Although it’s a significant step for a once colonial power to agree such a deal with a former colony, there’s skepticism among some experts and ob...
Post a Comment
Read more

Farmers' Protest: Situation normal at Ghazipur border, 'excess force' removed after midnight https://ift.tt/39qemEK

Hundreds of Bharatiya Kisan Union members stayed put on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway early on Friday, notwithstanding the Ghaziabad administration’s ultimatum to vacate the UP Gate protest site. A confrontation was building up at the UP Gate in Ghazipur even as frequent power cuts were witnessed in the evening at the protest site, where BKU members, led by Rakesh Tikait, are staying put since November 28.
Post a Comment
Read more

FOX NEWS: College student sheds 100 pounds after years of dedication: 'The greatest accomplishment' Lori Odegaard, 24, from Fargo, North Dakota, tells Fox News about her incredible weight loss journey.

College student sheds 100 pounds after years of dedication: 'The greatest accomplishment' Lori Odegaard, 24, from Fargo, North Dakota, tells Fox News about her incredible weight loss journey. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/4Ccj9TY
Post a Comment
Read more

New top story from Time: The 5 Best New Shows Our TV Critic Watched in March 2021

https://ift.tt/3sHZ3ia If my memories of 2019 are correct, March tends to be a month of anticipation even in relatively normal times. The snow has melted, but the trees are still bare. The temperature’s rising, but not consistently enough to put your winter coat in storage. All of that nervous early-spring energy is heightened this year, as we wait our turns in the vaccination queue and cross our fingers that the variants won’t halt our progress toward herd immunity. My favorite new TV shows of the month—a detective story set in Northern Ireland, a pulpy Spanish thriller, a mouthwatering kids’ show, a docudrama filled with ecstatic musical numbers and a nostalgic blast from reality TV’s primordial past—probably say a lot about how I’m dealing with that impatience: through the pursuit of big, bright, unapologetically entertaining distractions. Maybe you’d like to do the same? Bloodlands (Acorn TV) Although they officially ended in 1998, the decades of political conf...
Post a Comment
Read more