This year’s Oscars were a slap in the face | Blog | Way of life

The Oscars this year were very interesting…

Not necessarily because of the prizes awarded. In fact, I was unhappy with a lot of movies that won awards.

There are a few that I liked. Troy Kotsur won Best Supporting Actor for “CODA,” Ariana DeBose won Best Supporting Actress for “West Side Story,” and of course, Will Smith for “King Richard.”

But I’ll join him in a second.

“Dune” took home the most awards of the night, taking home six (Best Sound, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Score). While I thought he deserved a lot of them, there were a few that I think he shouldn’t have won.

Prices for visual effects, sound and editing were good. He excelled in all of those categories and deserved to win. However, the awards for Production Design, Cinematography, and Score should have gone to another film.

For cinematography and production design, I thought “The Tragedy of Macbeth” should have won. I talked about both aspects in my review of this movie earlier this year. You can read more here, but it’s really awesome.

Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel and production designer Stefan Dechant did a phenomenal job creating a distinct look for the film, and they should have been rewarded for it.

The best original score should have gone to Jonny Greenwood for “The Power of the Dog”. Don’t get me wrong, Hans Zimmer made an excellent score for “Dune”. I just think Greenwood was better. Plus, he’s never won an Oscar. Greenwood wrote scores for movies like “Phantom Thread” and “There Will Be Blood,” which also failed to earn anything. I felt it was expected this year.

I was really unhappy with the script prices. “Belfast” and “CODA” had decent storylines, but nothing impressed me in either. “Licorice Pizza” definitely should have won Best Original Screenplay. Paul Thomas Anderson wrote the best film of the year. It was unique and unlike any other movie I have ever seen. Even though I knew he was unlikely to win, I still really wanted him to win. It was way better than “Belfast”.

“Drive My Car” should have won Best Adapted Screenplay over “CODA.” Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe wrote an amazing script that touched on some very serious themes. It was far superior to “CODA”, which I thought had kind of a boring script.

I can’t really complain that Jane Campion won Best Director for ‘The Power of the Dog’. It was a great all-around movie that was done well. Campion had an interesting vision for a new Western movie, and it turned out really well. I thought Anderson for “Licorice Pizza” and Hamaguchi for “Drive My Car” were slightly better for their respective films, but I don’t care.

“CODA” was not the best film of the year. Not even close. You can read my short review of the film here, and while I enjoyed the film’s performances, it was near the bottom of my Best Picture nominee ranking.

While “Licorice Pizza” was my favorite movie of the year, I knew it was highly unlikely to win Best Picture because its subject matter wasn’t necessarily “Oscar-worthy.” However, other films that I thought were in the running, like “The Power of the Dog”, “Drive My Car” and “West Side Story”, should have won “CODA”. I was not satisfied with this.

And then there’s Will Smith. Smith won Best Actor for his performance as Richard Williams, Venus and Serena Williams’ father and trainer, in “King Richard,” which I thought he really deserved. He really gave his all for this performance, and you could tell he was committed to the role. I would have liked to see Denzel Washington win for “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, but I was happy to see Smith win for it.

Oh, and he also slapped Chris Rock in the face.

Yes, I can’t write this article without mentioning it. On a night when I thought a lot of award-winning films were pretty boring and unworthy, this singular incident made this year’s Oscars one of the most talked about events in recent memory. Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and his haircut, prompting Smith to come on stage and slap him.

As a journalist with integrity, I don’t think it’s fair to talk about it. I prefer to concentrate on the discussion of cinema and art. This article is no place for that kind of talk.

But I will do it anyway.

I’m not going to say who’s right and who’s wrong, because it’s been talked about till death (it’s not even been two days, and everyone on Earth is talking about it.) I just think it’s hilarious that this happened at the 2022 Oscars. This year’s Oscars were really bad. None of the jokes were that funny, and the movies that won weren’t memorable, with a few exceptions.

However, it will be one of the most well-known Oscar ceremonies since “La La Land” was falsely announced as the Best Picture winner in 2017.

It really shows the current state of the Oscars. No one really cares about which movies win or which hosts anymore — it’s all about the unscripted antics.

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