97th Academy Awards Response
By: Adam Freed
At long last we can put 2024 to bed. Whether you dusted off your Sunday best and attended a formal soiree, or slipped on your coziest sweats and ordered a pizza, we have all satiated ourselves on a memorable year in film that presented myriad offerings for those who entered the year hungry. From mid-century epics to musical biopics, foreign films to foreign substances, the 97th Academy Awards were a celebration of (most) of the very best that the year had to offer in film. Below are the moments in which The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rendered judgements that were predictable, surprisingly accurate and downright baffling.
ALL TOO PREDICTABLE:
Supporting Actor -
Kieran Culkan, whose supporting performance in A Real Pain isn’t really a supporting performance at all. Through his character the film finds its dramatic traction as well as its most notable dynamic arc. Culkin’s award season dominance was so pronounced, winning the Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Critic’s Choice Awards, that this Oscar felt more like a coronation than the result of ranked choice voting.
Costume Design-
Wicked ignited the box office unlike any other nominated film this year. Outside of its outstanding production design and transcendent vocal performances, what hit the highest notes in the return to Oz were the exquisite costumes designed by Paul Tazewell. From Elphaba’s onyx infused ensembles to the endless pastel adorned array of Shiz University students, every stitch and thread of Tazewell’s work felt almost too good to be true.
Supporting Actress-
Zoe Saldaña was the most recognizably brilliant aspect of the most nominated and flawed film of 2024. Emilia Perez is about as divisive as a film can become, given its controversial female lead Carla Sophia Gascon and the offensive liberties the film takes with representation of Mexican characters as well as the trans community. Saldaña cut through the controversy with a memorable musical performance but more importantly by instilling Emilia Perez’s embattled awards campaign with a stoic professionalism. Zoe Saldaña is a wonderful actress, deserving of the Oscar’s golden glow, a glow that many people saw coming for months.
BOLD, BUT ACCURATE CHOICES:
Makeup / Hair Design -
The runaway favorite for cult film of the year was the French produced body horror spin into madness known as The Substance. Body horror cannot exist without the practical makeup magicians who bring grotesquerie to life. In the case of The Substance, outside of a career defining performance from Demi Moore, the staggering makeup work that transformed her from middle aged stunner into witchlike monster is nothing short of miraculous.
Documentary Feature-
No Other Land paints a nightmarish picture of the realities of life on the Gaza Strip for the Palestinian people. The jarring documentary is made by filmmakers from both Palestine and Israel who team to share with the world the misery endured by the people of Palestine on a daily basis. No Other Land bravely burns into memory atrocities that news reports can never possibly do justice. In a sea of nominated 2024 films, No Other Land may be the most memorable and necessary.
Actor-
Timothée Chalamet will have his moment in the sun. As great as the 29 year old was in his portrayal as Bob Dylan, he was only second best in 2024. Adrien Brody was once the Hollywood wunderkind when he was awarded best actor in 2003 for the film The Pianist. More than two decades later, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist propels Brody into peak career form as he portrays a Holocaust survivor and American immigrant whose life unfolds in gut-wrenching and artistically beautiful fashion in the best film of the year.
Actress-
It was supposed to be Demi Moore’s year. Finally, after decades of memorable roles and close calls, the iconic actress who had somehow never earned a single nomination, entered the 97th Oscars as the odds on favorite. And then a funny thing happened, Sean Baker’s Anora, winner of the top prize at Cannes, flexed its indie movie muscle. Not only did Anora capture best picture, but made a star out of its diminutive leading lady Mikey Madison. Behind her megawatt smile, Madison embodied an embattled New York sex worker, who despite her lofty aspirations, is forced to stare the realities of upward financial mobility in the face. Although the groundswell of support was behind Moore, Madison carried nearly every scene of a film that won best original screenplay, editing, director and picture. The pieces of the puzzle fit together for Mikey Madison in what is sure to the beginning of a wonderful career.
DOWNRIGHT CONFUSING:
Animated Feature-
Latvian silent animated film Flow took on the giants from Dreamworks and Pixar and walked away victorious. The only problem is that for all of the hype and momentum that it carried into the awards season, Flow never comes close to striking the humanistic heartstrings or musical triumphs of The Wild Robot. Overlooking animation legend Chris Sanders’ gorgeous tale of motherly instinct and compassionate survival is one of the decisions from the 97th Academy Awards that is all but guaranteed to age poorly.
Original Song-
“El Mal” is easily the best song in Emilia Perez, a musical film full of brutally unremarkable music. Some of the most acidic criticism of the film questioned whether or not it should even be considered a musical at all. The real crime here, outside of the other three films that were nominated not winning, is that the best song from any film moment of 2024 was Maren Morris’ “Kiss the Sky” from The Wild Robot, which went without nomination after two songs were awarded to Emilia Perez. There is not one single moment in Emilia Perez or in “El Mal” that comes even remotely close to earning Oscar immortality.
Coverage of the 97th Academy Awards care of MovieArcher.com