The Oscars Were Actually Fun To Watch!︱Movies
By JackOnReality
In recent years, the Oscars have been boring, filled with bad jokes, awkwardness, and preachy rich people winning awards they don’t deserve. This year was surprisingly different. I have no complaints about the 2024 Oscars except that Sandra Huller (Anatomy of a Fall) should have won best actress, and Poor Things won too much (4 awards!). Besides that, I agreed with all the Academy’s decisions, although they were relatively safe (Oppenheimer won 7 times, who saw that coming?).
Most importantly, this year’s Oscars actually gave me hope for the future of the movie industry. When the big awards came on in the end, I was shocked to find myself stuck as to who to root for. For the past three years, the amount of good films has been so For best actor, I could not decide whether to root for Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction), Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers), or Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer). For best film, I was stuck between American Fiction, The Holdovers, and Oppenheimer. In the end, Oppenheimer won both awards. But that’s not the point. The point is, this was a good Oscars.
The best moment of the Oscars had to be writer and director Cord Jefferson’s (American Fiction) speech. He perfectly captured one of modern Hollywood’s fatal flaws-the budgets-and how to fix it. “Instead of making one 200 million dollar movie,” he said, “try making 10 20 million dollar movies.” Someone said it! Finally someone said it! Of course, I don’t think the executives are just going to listen to one speech by one writer, but Jefferson’s words are a sign that writers do know that the industry is struggling. Hopefully this is the beginning of some form of positive change.
Another victory for the little guys came with Godzilla: Minus One’s snagging of the award for best special effects. The movie’s budget was only between 10 and 15 million dollars! What are the chances- Cord Jefferson argues for smaller budgets, and then Godzilla: Minus One wins an Oscar for special effects. The truth is as clear as day.
I think that this year’s Oscars are an indication of just that- positive change. There are more good movies now, and more smart people being recognized. That has to be a good sign.