The 88th Annual Academy Awards

“I is here representing all of them that's been overlooked - Will Smith. Idris Elbow. And, of course, that amazing black bloke from Star Wars...Darth Vader.” We don’t have to like it and we may consider it to be the height of Hollywood hypocrisy, but the times demand a politicised Oscars ceremony. On the other hand, the willingness to talk openly about the problems of contemporary American society (rather than the world as a whole, as was the case last year) has mainly drawn attention away from the inability to address those problems beyond writing a touching song about them (Lady Gaga) or making a high-quality film about them. Though it fit into the overall concept of “Hollywood and liberals for each other” (the words of Adam McKay, a supporter of the far-left Bernie Sanders, aimed at the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, added variety), Joe Biden’s unacceptable performance can be considered the most promising step toward the effective combining of the world of art with the world of politics. Rich white people hurled admonishments from the stage, but pretty much only in the context of friendly banter and pre-arranged bits, and they mainly took home almost all of the hardware. For me, the compromising nature of the evening is best characterised by the speech given by the Academy’s president, who expressed remorse for the lack of diversity in the decisions made by the current member of the Academy, but of course failed to promise any specific changes for the future. In any case, Chris Rock handled his hosting duties with honour, and his jabs were at least aimed in a specific direction thanks to the #OscarsSoWhite movement and were mostly thematically coherent (as opposed to Ricky Gervais’s equal-opportunity insults at the Golden Globes). Louis C.K. highlighted the issue of class differences in line with the content of his stand-up routines, and Ali G hinted at the tone that the whole event should have had (cheeky and to the point, but with a lot of humour). With the exception of the traditional in-memoriam segment, there were no pace-killing collages, the songs served only for variety rather than being performed out of an obligation to introduce everyone (since not everyone was introduced) and the only thing that slowed the evening’s relatively brisk pace was the clips of the nominated films, which were needless for the people who had seen the films and too brief to tell anything to the people who hadn't. With respect to the aspects that were (obviously) prepared in advance, I found the show satisfying. I’m not rating the quality of the Academy’s voting or the accompanying commentary and simultaneous translation of the live broadcast on ČT 2. (2016.02.29)

After many years, HBO has decided to give up on broadcasting Oscars live on TV and so last year, a lot of fans have cried watching the internet streaming of the Oscars because it was so laggy that it was practically unenjoyable. Luckily, Oscar 2016 was broadcasted on the Czech national television and I’d like to thank them via this very comment. It’s just a shame that Chris Rock started it out with exactly the kind of humor I didn’t want him to. It was all black people vs white people and I didn’t like that at all. On top of that, he didn’t really come up with anything new, interesting and outright funny that would be worth remembering. And so, the actors and actresses had to be the ones to entertain, which worked out in the end. Lady Gaga put on quite a good show befitting the song she wrote. As far as the speeches go, Leonardo DiCaprio’s was definitely the best one. Personally, I was the happiest to see Mark Rylance who has given quite the performance in Bridge of Spies. The biggest surprise was the Best Picture Award; I wouldn’t think of Spotlight, not even if I saw one of the accused with my own two eyes. Out of the presenters, Louis C.K. and Ali G were the best. That’s it about the ceremony itself. Unfortunately, as far as the fun, jokes and originality go, this year was the worst one I’ve seen yet. And as a Czech commenter, I must say It didn’t really offend me. On the other hand, it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t know already. The commercial breaks could have been filled with some movie discussion, which didn’t happen and that’s a shame. The commentary itself must have been 95% translation; hats off for that, it mustn’t have been easy, but they still could have added more interesting facts than they did. After all, these people are journalists for a living and movies are their hobbies, which is something that a lot of us could dream of, so they could have been a little bit more enthusiastic and understanding, right? Well, maybe next time. (2016.02.29)

Chris Rock took a gamble, bet it all on a single card – and if such a thing were possible, would even have lost his own pants. After the opening monologue, stitching into the black and white issues of the past weeks stopped being funny, and even potentially strong moments (Lady Gaga) sadly faded away due to collective guilt; in the worst case scenario, it even reeked of parody. Combined with the fact that the film Mad Max: Fury Road, which I personally do not like, got a chance to become the most successful film of the evening, I ended up surprisingly often being quite annoyed. Thanks at least for the well-deserved statue for Leonardo DiCaprio, my nerves will finally get some rest with each of his nominations. (2016.03.03)

If I didn't have a stake in it, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed this year's awards. The best part of the whole night for me was Lady Gaga's performance, and when the Star Wars robots appeared on stage. Chris Rock, on the other hand, did not impress me at all. He was unnatural and his attempt to be funny was one big embarrassment. Plus, the whole black and white thing got boring pretty quickly. And next year I'm definitely going to skip the red carpet and get an hour more sleep. (2016.03.01)

Thank you Czech TV for letting me watch live the most prestigious gathering of Hollywood royalty from the comfort of my own couch, with our drooling spoiled cat perpetually under my nose. I have no experience with previous years, but I felt simply too comfortable in the star-studded company to be annoyed by the one-dimensional humour of Chris Rock, the dodgy Czech commentary, the dozens of commercials or the distribution of the golden baldies, which is as debatable as usual. On the one hand, I was pleased to see so many statuettes for Mad Max, this kind of auteur-driven, distinctive big films usually lose, and as I expected, Emmanuel Lubezki, Ennio Morricone (probably the most touching Oscar this year), Leonardo DiCaprio (I will miss the hundreds of jokes about him, though) and Brie Larson were awarded. I didn't really understand the special effects for Ex Machina, but whatever. The Academy made the biggest mistake by choosing Mark Rylance as Best Supporting Actor – nothing against him, he's a very big likeable guy and a great actor, but out of all five nominees he had the least amount of space in his film and gave an emotionally monotonous performance, his win is a mockery of the precise Ruffalo and the simply brilliant Hardy, and a cruel low blow to the warm-hearted Rocky, who no doubt has already earned that shiny retirement accolade for all his previous contributions. And the best movie, well I liked Spotlight a lot, it's probably the most interestingly written and expertly directed genre film in years, but I was put off by the sudden turn to convention and certainty – after Max's initial dominance and Iñárritu's triumph, I was expecting a well-deserved battle between a frozen Hardy and a burnt Hardy even in the most important category, but the Academy, once again in the American way, chose a film of undeniable quality, but more or less ordinary, with zero potential to become the cult classics that the two aforementioned titles already are, and I simply don't get it. .. In conclusion, perhaps just an evaluation of my attentive observation poll, according to which it was the divine trio of Rachel McAdams, Reese Witherspoon and Charlize Theron with whom I would really like to knock down ten pints and show my dance moves at the after party. (2016.02.29)

Thank you Czech Television for taking on this task, even though the trio of gentlemen who simultaneously translated and moderated the evening often ruined the experience - to be honest, at times I felt like I was watching three madmen who had escaped from an asylum. Overall, the evening was quite traditional and focused heavily on the racial "issue", but it did recognize those who deserved it, except perhaps for Slye, who unfortunately did not win. Ennio Morricone deserved an Oscar a long time ago. (2016.03.01)

(I don’t factor in the results, with which I am generally satisfied). Is this supposed to be a celebration of film? A below-average effort on the part of the screenwriters and Chris Rock, the host. A response to the pseudo-controversy started by Will Smith's wife and Spike Lee was to be expected, but Chris Rock did not handle it very well. Fine, the opening monologue was okay, maybe the second or third skit, but build a whole ceremony around it? When I compare this year's Oscars with this year's Golden Globes, the difference is abysmal. Simply put, the whole show was clearly sewn with a hot needle and resulted in simplistic or even zero skits. Anyway, the American audience is always the same (which might eventually be a good thing, because otherwise, instead of artificial laughter, the night would be filled with an alarming amount of awkward silences) and will clap for practically anything that corresponds to the current liberal, politically correct American mainstream. So, in terms of bragging about saving the society, races, minorities and the world in general, the evening worked great. In terms of entertainment and a celebration of the very best of the film industry, the writers and the host failed miserably. Here’s something for those who want a taste of a completely opposite approach of the host, unrivalled as far as entertainment goes. (2016.03.02)