Oscars 2022: Plenty Of Punch And Spice

By Erin Free

The 2022 Academy Awards had one massive thing going in their favour: there was no possible way that they could be any worse than the utterly execrable Oscars ceremony of 2021. Sure, COVID was a factor in the cruelling of last year’s show, but there was no real excuse (considering the talent involved) for how truly terrible that experience was. There looked to be something of a COVID hangover at the beginning of The 2022 Academy Awards, which kicked off with, um, basically a music video of Beyoncé performing her Best Song nominee from King Richard. Why no live performance, Bey?

After that show-stopping (literally, and not in a good way) opening, however, things got back on track beautifully, as Oscars hosts Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall delivered a hilarious opening monologue filled with potent zingers (“You know what’s in the In Memorium this year? The Golden Globes”) and a very funny assessment of Samuel L. Jackson’s honorary award, which was presented before the ceremony. “Eck,” Wanda Sykes said. “I see a few gaps in his resume. Where’s the Samuel L. Jackson rom-com?” The trio continued to drop in throughout the ceremony with a series of amusing moments, including a very funny tour of the new Oscars museum from Wanda Sykes. “Oooh, Harvey Weinstein,” she cracked while passing a cabinet featuring an Orc mask from The Lord Of The Rings.

From the kick-off, it was obvious that the Oscars were looking to well and truly obliterate the issues that have plagued the ceremony for the past few years. The producers have been working hard for the past few years to address the #oscarssowhite controversy by including far more presenters of colour, as well as encouraging voters to look further afield in terms of films and performers. That has certainly been paying off, with the Oscars recently taking on a far more diverse and culturally rich appearance. Though some may complain about the whole deal becoming too woke, the Oscars have certainly become an earthier and less rarefied affair.

The other big thing plaguing the Oscars in recent years has been, well, the fact that people have pretty much stopped caring. The ratings have been rapidly declining (hitting an all-time low last year), and the producers have been attempting to tamp the bleeding for years. There have been various methods employed to cut the run time, and this year various “minor” awards were presented prior to the actual ceremony. Amusingly, this actually presented a few problems on the red carpet, with many actors wanting to get inside to throw their support behind techies and short and documentary filmmakers.

There were also efforts to lighten up the traditionally stuffy vibe of the Oscars, with a DJ and band (including Sheila E on percussion!) in place along with the orchestra, and the injection of a twitter voted, show-stopping “fan favourite” moment award (or something like that), which was not actually an Oscar, and went to a wholly inappropriate scene from Zack Snyder’s Justice League of The Flash running into an electrical storm, or something. A profoundly hilarious backfire, this “award” merely showed how unhip the Oscars are in that they weren’t able to pre-empt and prevent this obvious act of fan-mobilisation. Presumably (and hopefully), this lame attempt at updating the Oscars will be instantly dropped, and we will never see it again.

The presenters were happily and surprisingly on-point, with the you-didn’t-know-you-needed-it one-two of the thirtieth anniversary reunion of Woody Harrelson, Wesley Snipes and Rosie Perez from White Men Can’t Jump (Woody admitting to taking a bong hit in the car beforehand was a highlight – there’s never enough talk of being high at the Oscars – as was his line, “I’ve been nominated three times and I’ve never spoken this much…presenting is where it’s at”) and Tony Hawk, Kelly Slater and Shaun White presenting a package on James Bond providing very amusing moments.

Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa engagingly endured Regina Hall’s highly embarrassing I-have-to-frisk-you-for COVID bit (geez, imagine if Bill Crystal had tried that on two female presenters back in the day), while the teaming of three live-action Disney leading ladies (Halle Bailey, Lily James, Naomi Scott) was a nice moment. The reunions of the stars of Juno, Pulp Fiction and The Godfather (series), meanwhile, were also little slices of film nerd heaven, especially the one for the Quentin Tarantino masterpiece, in which Uma Thurman and John Travolta danced together again.

The strangest moment, however, unquestionably came when presenter Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith’s bald head. The actress has spoken publicly about having a hair loss condition, and Will Smith threw down in her defence, first taking to the low-slung, easily accessible stage to literally take a swing at Rock, and then hurling a few choice words at the comedian when he returned to his seat. “Leave my wife’s name out of your motherfuckin’ mouth,” he barked at Rock, and then repeated it for good measure.

Rock was frazzled, everyone in the audience seemed to ponder whether it was all some kind of stitch-up, and the punters at home probably hit Google to determine what had just gone down. The weirdness factor was then upped by the bizarrely up-beat In Memoriam section, which turned this usually sombre and moving moment into a church revival, complete with chorus and dancing. Very strange indeed…

The winners’ speeches were fun and thankfully not-too-long, with lots of praise for Denis Villeneuve during Dune’s domination of all technical categories, and powerful, deeply moving, funny and highly representative speeches from Best Supporting Actress Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) and Best Supporting Actor Troy Kotsur (Coda). Billie Eilish and brother and songwriting partner Finneas O’Connell (who staked a well-deserved win for Best Song for No Time To Die) were entertainingly giddy and good natured, while Jane Campion (Best Director for The Power Of The Dog), Kenneth Branagh (Best Original Screenplay for Belfast) and Sian Hader (Best Adapted Screenplay for Coda) were all grace, intelligence, warmth, emotion and composure in their superb acceptances.

Best Actress winner Jessica Chastain (The Eyes Of Tammy Faye) spoke movingly of the LGBTQI community, who her eponymous real-life character had such an affinity for. After his bizarre altercation with Chris Rock, many in the audience were obviously curious about what hot favourite Will Smith would do if he won the Best Actor gong for his bravura work in King Richard.

A visibly moved and highly emotional Smith accepted his award and spoke of being a protector and a vessel for love and pondered whether the Oscars would ever have him back. It was a bizarre capper to a run of events that would surely have to rate as one of the weirdest in Oscars history, right up there with the Warren Beatty-Faye Dunaway Moonlight fiasco, Sacheen Littlefeather accepting Marlon Brando’s Oscar, James Franco in drag, and Rob Lowe dancing with Snow White.

It was salved nicely, however, by the too-cool coupling of Lady Gaga and Liza Minelli awarding Best Picture to the heart-warming Coda, a popular choice due to its honesty, message of inclusivity, quiet beauty and abundance of earthy charm. After one of the Coda producers was rudely played off before adding to the speeches (can they please stop doing that?), Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall reappeared in their pyjamas to bring the evening to a close.

A fresh, fast-moving ceremony dotted with nostalgic moments of charm, incisive gags, excellent presenters, well-deserved winners, no notable snubs, a couple of odd spots, and one moment of pulse-pounding controversy and confusion, this year’s Oscars were a rollicking, back-in-the-flesh delight that happily erased those awful memories of last year. And while the slimmed down ceremony might not appropriately mark all the winners, it does work well for viewers. But to the Academy, please – knock it off with the Twitter awards things, please!

For a full list of winners, click here.