Holy sheet! Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, and Actress! Tomahawk dunk, baby. Ooops...I'd like to Apologize to the Native American Community. Very sorry, didn't mean that.
BTW, I'd like to congratulate the Asian community for winning their first Best Actress Oscar ever! This is especially gratifying since you guys aren't allowed to go to Ivy Schools anymore. Like the Jews earlier, you folks are doing too well in school and standardized tests...unfair. Your ass is getting canceled...but not on Oscar night!
BTW, a small detail I forgot to mention. The movie "Everything everywhere..." is an unwatchable POS. Think I'm kidding; I dare you to watch. It's like the director of the Matrix tried a reboot after ingesting a medicine cabinet full of amphetamines and psychedelics. I always thought the Oscars were incredibly dull, but at least they'd select a movie that didn't suck to high heaven. Oh well.
‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ went into the night as the favorite to win with 11 nominations.
By Ellen Gamerman, John Jurgensen and Ashley Wong, WSJ
Updated March 13, 2023 6:30 am ET
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” rode its indie-movie energy all the way to the best-picture Oscar.
The movie set across multiple universes won seven total awards, including three of the four acting awards. It won the trophies for original screenplay, film editing, directing and best picture.
The film tells the story of Evelyn Wang, played by Michelle Yeoh, who became the first Asian woman to win best actress. Her character is a laundromat owner beset by tension and misery as she juggles her family and the IRS audit of her business. Her husband, played by Ke Huy Quan, takes her across different realities to stop a villain version of their daughter, played by Stephanie Hsu.
Who Was the Night’s Overall Biggest Winner?
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” went into the night as the favorite to win with 11 nominations, the most of any film. “All Quiet on the Western Front,” the World War I epic from Netflix that came seemingly out of nowhere and nabbed nine Oscar nominations, won four awards including best international feature, score and cinematography.
“Everything Everywhere” became synonymous with a forward-looking Hollywood rather than a movie industry obsessed with remakes and sequels, and crowned directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (known as Daniels) as breakout filmmakers. Mr. Kwan addressed the movie’s modern sensibility in his acceptance speech for best picture. “The world is changing rapidly, and I fear that our stories are not keeping pace,” he said.
In the beginning of the night, Ke Huy Quan won best supporting actor for his role as a universe-jumping, personality-shifting laundromat owner in the movie. Jamie Lee Curtis won the award for best supporting actress as a weird and menacing IRS auditor. Both actors have been in the business for decades and were first-time nominees.
“They say stories like this only happen in the movies,” said Mr. Quan, a child star of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies” who left acting to work behind the camera as a stunt coordinator and assistant director after failing to find roles for an Asian-American actor. “I cannot believe it’s happening to me. This, this is the American dream.”
Ms. Curtis, the daughter of the late movie stars Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, spent more than four decades working in show business without much recognition from the awards establishment.
In accepting her trophy, the actress thanked all the people she has worked with over her long career. “I look like I’m standing up here by myself—I am not,” said Ms. Curtis, who got her big break in “Halloween” in 1978. She devoted the award to “all the people who have supported the genre movies that I have made for all these years.”
Which Other Films Went Home Highly Decorated?
“All Quiet on the Western Front,” director Edward Berger’s German-language adaptation of the classic Erich Maria Remarque novel, follows a German teenager who joins the army with his friends in pursuit of adventure at war. Among the film’s winners were James Friend, who won the Oscar for cinematography by striving for realism and historical accuracy, while Volker Bertelmann won for best original score. The composer set an emotional tone for the grand-scale tragedy of World War I by starting with just three notes.
Edward Berger’s German-language film ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ won best foreign film, among other awards.
PHOTO: PATRICK T. FALLON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Brendan Fraser won best actor for his role in “The Whale,” making his career comeback in the role of a 600-pound man trying to make peace with his life as the clock runs out on it. The film, which also won the Oscar for makeup and hairstyling, created divisions among viewers, some of whom saw the film turning a human character into a special effect.
“I started in this business 30 years ago, and things—they didn’t come easily to me, but there was a facility that I didn’t appreciate at the time until it stopped,” Mr. Fraser said, thanking his teammates using whale-related metaphors for their kindness.
“I’m grateful to Darren Aronofsky for throwing the creative lifeline and hauling me aboard the good ship ‘The Whale,’” he said.
His win for “The Whale” was just one of the many awards the film studio A24 collected that night, taking home a grand total of nine awards. The studio garnered an award in every single acting category this year.
What Were the Biggest Surprises—and Most Memorable Jokes?
The snubs were notable: Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical tale “The Fabelmans” didn’t win any awards; neither did Baz Luhrmann’s boisterous biopic “Elvis.” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” which was the second-most nominated film (in a tie with “All Quiet on the Western Front”) also ended the evening with no trophies.
The night ran with workmanlike smoothness. Last year’s Oscars will be remembered mostly for Will Smith’s leap to the stage to slap comedian Chris Rock. Sunday night, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was brought on to host the awards ceremony, his third time overseeing the ceremony as host. At the start of the show, he plopped onto the stage of the 95th Academy Awards from a faux parachute to kick off the ceremony on an earnest note, celebrating a year in which audiences went back to the movies where they were “intended to be seen: in a theater.”
At the start of the show, host Jimmy Kimmel plopped onto the stage from a faux parachute.
CHRIS PIZZELLO/ASSOCIATED PRESS; AL SEIB/A.M.P.A.S./REUTERS
After some gentle celebrity ribbing, however, he got to the “slap” jokes everyone was anticipating.
“We want you to feel safe,” Mr. Kimmel told the audience. “So if anyone in this theater commits an act of violence… you will be awarded the Oscar for best actor and allowed to give a 19-minute speech.” He then reeled off the names of the celebrities that stood in the way of him and any would-be assailants, including “Creed” lead Michael B. Jordan, “Everything Everywhere” martial-arts heroine Michelle Yeoh, Spider-Man (aka Andrew Garfield), the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and Mr. Kimmel’s longtime late-night sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez.
How About Songs, Animation & Docs?
Best original song went to the rollicking number “Naatu Naatu” from India’s Telugu-language action movie “RRR.” The song was performed with gusto on the Oscars stage.
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” won the Oscar for best animated feature. The victory is noteworthy in part because the film, which was produced by Netflix, represents Mr. del Toro, the film’s co-director, beating Disney with a story that is core to the company’s origins. Disney has also dominated the best animated feature category since it was first recognized by the Academy in 2001: 18 of the 21 winners have been produced or distributed by studios owned by Disney.
Rihanna performed her song from the ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ soundtrack, ‘Lift Me Up.’
PHOTO: KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES
“Navalny,” a documentary about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s biggest political foe Alexei Navalny, who is now in prison, won the award for best documentary. Director Daniel Roher’s Oscar moment was more urgent than celebratory. “He remains in solitary confinement for what he call’s Vladimir Putin’s unjust war of oppression in Ukraine,” he said. Mr. Navalny’s wife, Yulia, also sent a direct message to her husband: “I dream of the day when you will be free and our country will be free. Stay strong, my love.”
Did Rihanna Top Her Super Bowl Performance?
The pop superstar performed her song from the “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” soundtrack “Lift Me Up,” one of only two solo songs that she’s released since her 2016 album “Anti.” For the performance, Rihanna was backed by strings and a choir and made dramatic flourishes throughout, clutching herself while singing the lyric, “Hold me” to a standing ovation.
“Wakanda Forever” also won for best costume design. It was the second win for the film’s costume designer, Ruth Carter, who also won the costume design award in 2019 for her work on the first “Black Panther” film.