Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020) review

On September 5^th, 1992, Batman: The Animated Series made its official debut on the Fox Kids programming block and would go on to span 85 episodes throughout four seasons that would later pave the way for various spin-offs set in the same universe. Since then, the show has gone on to become one of the most beloved interpretations of the Dark Knight, garnering much acclaim for its dark and mature writing, noir-inspired animation, and strongly layered characters. This, of course, includes the show’s iconic interpretations of Batman’s legendary Rogues gallery headlined as always by his archnemesis, the Joker (voiced by Mark Hamill). However, this series would also see the debut of a villain who quickly turned out to be a fan favorite, Harley Quinn, a former psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum who fell in love with the Clown Prince of Crime and promptly became his fiercely loyal second-in-command. The character was largely inspired by her original voice actress Arleen Sorkin, a college friend of the series’ co-creator Paul Dini who once appeared in a jester outfit on the classic soap opera Days of Our Lives, which would influence Harley’s iconic harlequin look. After making her official debut in Episode 22 of the series, “Joker’s Favor”, Harley became such a popular character amongst fans of the show that she was then properly implemented into the comics. And in 2016, she would make her live-action cinematic debut in the DC Extended Universe’s Suicide Squad, where she was played by Margot Robbie. While the film proved to be a dud with critics, Robbie’s portrayal of the iconic villainess turned occasional antihero was considered one of its biggest highlights.

Because of this, plans were then set into motion for several potential spin-offs featuring Robbie’s take on the character, including one that focused solely on her and the Joker and another that would be based around the squad of her, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman known as the Gotham City Sirens. Ultimately, though, the first official Harley Quinn spin-off would end up being one proposed by Robbie herself based on a different all-female squad known as the Birds of Prey. The Birds of Prey were originally introduced in the mid-’90s by writer Chuck Dixon and former DC Comics editor Jordan B. Gorfinkel and, in the context of the DC Universe, was spawned from a partnership between Black Canary and former Batgirl Barbara Gordon who, at the time, had become known as ‘Oracle’ following the controversial events of The Killing Joke. Since then, other superheroines have been featured on the group’s roster over the years including Batwoman, Hawkgirl, and Power Girl. Outside of the comics, there was a Birds of Prey TV series that aired on the WB from 2002-2003 but sadly only lasted one season due to poor ratings (said series also notably featured a version of Harley Quinn played by Mia Sara). But now the Birds of Prey have been given their own film which, as alluded to earlier, primarily came to fruition thanks to Margot Robbie, who initially proposed it during the production of Suicide Squad. Along with headlining the film in her second official outing as Harley Quinn, Robbie is its primary producer via her production company, LuckyChap Entertainment, and prioritized a female-led crew that includes screenwriter Christina Hodson and director Cathy Yan. Thus, we now have a film that boasts the legendary title of Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), and sure enough, that elaborate title gives you an exact idea of the unabashedly chaotic and highly entertaining comic book flick that it ultimately is.

(Disclaimer: To avoid having to constantly repeat that long title, any future use of it in this review will consist solely of the Birds of Prey part of it and not the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn subtitle)

Sometime after the events of Suicide Squad, former Arkham Asylum psychiatrist turned crazed henchwoman Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) breaks off her relationship with her longtime boss/lover, the Joker. But while Harley is more than ready to move on with her life, she quickly learns that this now puts her on the hit list of every criminal in Gotham City that she had previously wronged but was always protected from due to her ties with the Joker. At the top of that list is crime boss Roman Sionis AKA Black Mask (Ewan McGregor), who is currently after a diamond that’s embedded with information regarding the elusive fortune of the former Bertinelli crime family. But while he and his right-hand man Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina) end up finding the diamond, it’s then promptly stolen from them by young pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). To save herself from his wrath, Harley offers to retrieve the diamond for Roman but ultimately ends up taking the young girl under her wing instead. In the process, the two also end up crossing paths with a bunch of other women who are tied to their current predicament. This includes Dinah Lance AKA Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Roman’s club singer turned driver who can project hypersonic screams, Gotham City police detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), who’s looking to build a case against Roman, and Helena Bertinelli AKA Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the sole survivor of the Bertinelli family who grew up to become a crossbow-wielding vigilante. Recognizing that they all share a common enemy, Harley proposes that they work together to protect Cassandra from the army of goons that are headed their way.

Much has been said about how Suicide Squad ended up being yet another example of the DCEU’s early installments being hindered tremendously by executive meddling, thus paving the way for its mediocre reception. One of the biggest criticisms directed towards it was that despite its marketing campaign’s promise of being one of the flashiest installments of the superhero genre, a lot of the final film was downright ugly when it came to its visuals. Thankfully, that is not the case with Birds of Prey as director Cathy Yan never shies away from the bright visual aesthetic that has commonly defined the character of Harley Quinn. And instead of the arguably quite cynical tone that defined much of Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey achieves a great mix of wacky hi-jinx and solid emotional drama. This is, after all, a film where Harley Quinn finally breaks off her long-standing relationship with the Joker which, despite being one of the most famous relationships in all of comics… is also one of the most toxic relationships in the history of media. In other words, Birds of Prey deserves a lot of credit for being thoroughly committed to producing a female-led superhero film that takes a full-on sledgehammer to toxic masculinity, and if you ask me, it handles this all very well. Sure, the plot can be a little jumbled at times due to all the story elements that it’s trying to juggle alongside the primary storyline with Harley (more on that in a little bit), but the film still flows at a very nice pace throughout. Plus, it also sports some excellent action sequences, with any sequence that was done during reshoots notably being handled by none other than John Wick director Chad Stahelski.   

Prior to the film’s release, there was some concern from fans that despite being titled Birds of Prey, it would end up being more focused on Harley Quinn given that the marketing primarily revolved around her, and to be perfectly blunt… that’s exactly what the film is. Birds of Prey is very much a Harley Quinn film and the titular squad doesn’t properly come together until the final act. However, I wouldn’t necessarily call this a bad thing in this instance since the film properly follows in the footsteps of Wonder Woman and Aquaman by giving its main character quality material that fully matches her commitment to the role. Margot Robbie was already a fantastic pick for Harley Quinn as evident by her performance in Suicide Squad, but just like Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa before her, it’s ultimately Harley’s ‘solo film’ (even though I do use that term loosely in this case) where she’s truly allowed to shine. And while this does mean that the other female leads in the film don’t get as much focus compared to Robbie, they’re all just as phenomenal in their respective roles. Jurnee Smollett-Bell brings a lot of humanity to the role of Black Canary (who’s arguably the most grounded of the group despite her metahuman abilities), Rosie Perez brings the right fiery tenacity to the role of Renee Montoya, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Huntress is a great combination of badass action heroics and solid humor that pokes fun at her overly serious persona. And as for newcomer Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain, she has wonderful camaraderie with Margot Robbie, whom she primarily shares the screen with given everything that goes down plot-wise. Finally, to close out this film’s excellent ensemble, we have our main antagonists Black Mask and Victor Zsasz. Ewan McGregor kills it in the role of Black Mask, fully succeeding at making him a down-right sleazebag of a villain (with some solid dark humor mixed in as well). And while Chris Messina doesn’t exactly get as much to work with as Zsasz, the partner dynamic that he forms with McGregor is top-notch.

Back when Suicide Squad came out in 2016, I was amongst those who thought that it wasn’t too bad; heck, I even gave it a 4/5 in my initial review of it. It wasn’t until recently, however, when I finally re-watched it, and while I will admit that I’m not exactly as positive towards it as I was back then, I don’t ‘dislike’ it. It is, however, still a prime example of an era of the DC Extended Universe that is thankfully over. Thanks to films like Wonder Woman and Shazam, it’s clear that this franchise has now realized that it’s better to develop its characters first before putting them all together in one film, and sure enough, Birds of Prey nobly continues that trend. Sure, at the end of the day, it’s a Harley Quinn film first and a Birds of Prey film second, but the clearly dedicated effort from producer/star Margot Robbie to highlight some lesser-known heroines in the DC Universe is incredibly admirable. In other words, one of the best things about this film is that it shows the incredible potential for future adventures with the squad of superheroines that it sets up. At the same time, it allows Margot Robbie the chance to firmly establish herself as the definitive live-action interpretation of one of DC’s most popular characters, and if that wasn’t enough, this won’t be the last we see of Harley in the DCEU as Robbie is already set to return in next year’s Suicide Squad sequel. And while I know that there are some out there questioning why Suicide Squad demanded a sequel given how it turned out, I can answer that question in two words… James Gunn. Yes, the man who brought us two of the greatest superhero films of the past few years is in charge this time around, and I’m fully confident that he will give us a superior sequel. But in conclusion, let’s also thank Cathy Yan for starting off 2020’s slate of superhero films on a high note with the delightfully madcap adventure that is Birds of Prey.

Rating: 4.5/5

Miracle (2004) review

Today on Rhode Island Movie Corner, we’re celebrating the 40^th anniversary of one of the most iconic moments in not only the history of sports but also the history of the entire United States. On February 22^nd, 1980, the U.S. Men’s Hockey Team played against the Soviet Union Men’s Hockey Team at the 13^th Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. At the time, the Soviet Union squad was one of the most dominant forces in Olympic history and had taken the Gold Medal in 5 of the last 6 Olympic Games. But against all odds, coach Herb Brooks’ squad of amateur/college players pulled off the impossible and defeated the supposedly unbeatable Russians 4-3 on route to a historic Gold Medal run. This moment in history would forever become known as the ‘Miracle on Ice’ and provided a jolt of national pride that America was arguably quite lacking at the time. But now this brings us to the 2004 film adaptation of this historic event, simply titled Miracle. Released by Disney and directed by Gavin O’Connor, the film was a solid success both critically and commercially upon its release. It grossed over $64 million worldwide and scored good reviews with critics, and even nowadays, I find that many people still regard this as one of the best sports films of all-time. Unlike the actual Miracle on Ice, 2020 doesn’t connect to any specific anniversary for this film, but it did celebrate its 15^th anniversary last year. Thus, I figured that now is the perfect time to celebrate an undisputed classic of the sports film genre; a film that flawlessly works around its genre’s predictability to perfectly capture the spirit and emotion of the legendary game that it’s based around.

In the summer of 1969, University of Minnesota Ice Hockey coach Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) is hired as the new head coach of the U.S. Men’s Hockey Team. Brooks, who had previously played on the 1960 squad but was cut right before their Gold Medal run at the Olympics that year, proposes that the only way they can defeat the unstoppable force that is the Soviet Union’s hockey team is by changing their strategies and the ways that they practice. However, Brooks’ radical ideas are initially met with skepticism by the members of the United States Olympic Committee, especially after he ends up selecting the initial 26-man roster on the first day of what was meant to be a week-long tryout session. Nevertheless, Brooks sticks to his guns and selects a team made up of amateur and college players, including players from Boston University and several who had previously played for Brooks at the University of Minnesota. The only problem, however, is that Boston and Minnesota are responsible for one of the fiercest rivalries in college hockey, and sure enough, that hostility starts to become an issue once the team gets on the ice. However, Brooks manages to work around this by implementing a strict training regime that pushes the players to their limits so that he can properly instill in them the values of playing hockey for the United States of America. And in the process, the team starts to come together as they head to Lake Placid, where they find themselves becoming the catalysts behind a newfound sense of national pride as they brace themselves for the inevitable battle with the Soviets.    

As I alluded to in the intro, sports films can often get dinged for having predictable plots that usually revolve around a team that’s established as being major underdogs but end up winning the most important game of the season against their biggest rivals. This is especially the case for films that are based on true stories since there’s a very likely chance that audiences are well-aware about the history of events that they’re based on going into them. But while Miracle is quite arguably one of the most blatant examples of the latter since, let’s face it, we all know what happened on that fateful February day 40 years ago, this never hurts the film in any significant manner. A lot of this is thanks to how director Gavin O’Connor perfectly conveys the tumultuous atmosphere of everything that was going on in America at the time without ever shifting focus away from Herb Brooks and his team. Whether it’s the opening credits montage that covers events like the Three Mile Island incident and Watergate or a sequence where Herb’s wife Patti (Patricia Clarkson) diverts his attention to news on the developing hostage crisis in Iran, the film never shies away from how American morale was arguably at an all-time low. But just like in real life, the film does a wonderful job of building up to the climactic game against the Soviets and showing just how big of a deal it ended up being for the U.S. In fact, the attention to detail when it came to recreating this game is so authentic that legendary sportscaster Al Michaels didn’t even bother to re-record his iconic final words from the original broadcast (“DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES? YES!”). Why? Well, it was quite simply because he knew that he couldn’t even remotely come close to replicating the pure, unbridled emotion of that moment.

But, of course, the best aspect of this entire film is Kurt Russell’s phenomenal lead performance in the role of Herb Brooks. Russell fully commands the screen as the legendary hockey coach who pushed his team 24/7 to be the best that they can be. And yet, as much as the film focuses on the instances where he dishes out tough love to them like no one’s business, it also makes an effort to emphasize his humanity amidst all the pressure that he was clearly under to lead his team to victory. Much of this comes through in the scenes that he shares with Patricia Clarkson as Herb’s wife Patti who, despite her admittedly limited role as the generally passive ‘supporting wife’, does get to have a few instances where she keeps her husband in line when he starts to become too focused on his coaching responsibilities. After that, they’re backed by solid supporting players like Gavin O’Connor regular Noah Emmerich as Herb’s assistant coach Craig Patrick and Sean McCann as Walter Bush, the team’s general manager who also serves as Herb’s liaison when it comes to defending his actions to the U.S. Olympic Committee. As for the 20 men who made up the 1980 U.S. Men’s Hockey Team, the filmmakers primarily relied on casting actual hockey players in the roles. And while the film does tend to focus on some players more than others (namely, the quartet of goalie Jim Craig (Eddie Cahill), team captain Mike Eruzione (Patrick O’Brien Dempsey), defenseman Jack O’Callahan (Michael Mantenuto), and forward Rob McClanahan (Nathan West)), their overall camaraderie is outstanding.  

I still remember going to see this film in theaters back in 2004 when my family and I were on vacation in New Hampshire. I also remember a time in 2008 when, due to various reasons that range from having to do a school project on the ‘Miracle on Ice’ to just casually watching it at home on DVD, I ended up re-watching this film at least 3 or 4 times in the span of a month. In other words, just like another classic Disney sports film of the era, 2000’s Remember the Titans, Miracle is a film that I have quite a lot of history with, and upon re-watching it for this review, it’s easy to see why. Sure, it can be just as predictable as other films in the sports genre from a story perspective, but to be fair, this is the ‘Miracle on Ice’ we’re talking about. Thus, in this instance, it’s not a big deal that you already know the outcome of the film going into it because that’s not the point of it all. Instead, Miracle succeeds immensely thanks to excellent direction from Gavin O’Connor that perfectly conveys the historical importance of this legendary game and an unforgettable performance from Kurt Russell in the lead role of head coach Herb Brooks. I may not have been alive to witness the ‘Miracle on Ice’ in person, but this film more than does its job when it comes to authentically recreating such a spectacle on the big screen. And really, it doesn’t matter how many times you re-watch the actual game itself or this film’s interpretation of it as the climactic medal round matchup between the United States and the Soviet Union still stands as one of the most exhilarating finales in the history of sports films.   

Rating: 5/5!

92nd Academy Awards: Results/Recap Post

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS – 1917

BEST EDITING – FORD V FERRARI

BEST COSTUME DESIGN – LITTLE WOMEN

BEST MAKEUP/HAIRSTYLING - BOMBSHELL

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – 1917

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

BEST SOUND MIXING – 1917

BEST SOUND EDITING – FORD V FERRARI

BEST ORIGINAL SONG – “(I’M GONNA) LOVE ME AGAIN” (ROCKETMAN)

BEST SCORE – JOKER

BEST ANIMATED SHORT – HAIR LOVE

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT – THE NEIGHBORS’ WINDOW

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT – LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WAR ZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL)

BEST DOCUMENTARY – AMERICAN FACTORY

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM - PARASITE

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE – TOY STORY 4

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY – JOJO RABBIT

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY - PARASITE

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – LAURA DERN (MARRIAGE STORY)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – BRAD PITT (ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD)

BEST ACTRESS – RENEE ZELLWEGER (JUDY)

BEST ACTOR – JOAQUIN PHOENIX (JOKER)

BEST DIRECTOR – BONG JOON-HO (PARASITE)

BEST PICTURE – PARASITE

THOUGHTS ON THE SHOW

For the second year in a row, the Oscars decided to go without a host to headline the ceremony. As I noted in last year’s Oscars recap post, there was some initial skepticism about this decision when this happened last year since the last Oscars to go without a host, the 61^st Academy Awards in 1989, is still considered as one of the worst Oscar ceremonies of all-time. Thankfully, though, the 91^st Academy Awards did not turn out the same way as the lack of a host surprisingly managed to work out just fine in this instance. Most notably, it managed to condense the notoriously long show in a good way rather than the ways that the Academy had planned on condensing it that year (e.g. cutting the performances of the Best Original Song nominees and not showing the acceptance speeches for a few select categories). Thus, emboldened by the success of last year’s ceremony, the Academy decided to once again go without a host… although it is worth noting that this year, the decision was intentional rather than it being due to their original host Kevin Hart having to back out due to offensive tweets. And once again, the ‘no host’ option worked very well. This year’s ceremony did run a few minutes longer than last year’s ceremony, but it still came in at a respectable three hours and thirty-five minutes. In other words, I think it’s safe to say that nothing will ever top the 74^th Academy Awards’ runtime of a whopping four hours and twenty-three minutes. Just like last year, the lack of a host meant that the show was able to get through all the award categories at a solid pace without being bogged down by any of the host’s sketches that could’ve potentially gone on too long (e.g. Neil Patrick Harris’ ‘Oscar Predictions’ box from a few years back). In short, I’ll reiterate what I said last time in that I’m fine if the Oscars decide to keep doing ‘no host’ ceremonies in the future although I do hope that this doesn’t completely turn them off from having any more hosts since I genuinely feel that the right kind of host can truly do wonders for this event. Just look at Ellen DeGeneres’ turn at the 86^th Academy Awards or Hugh Jackman’s turn at the 81^st.

As for this year’s results, it seems to me like this will end up being one of the more ‘well-received’ batches of Oscar winners in recent memory, namely thanks to director Bong Joon-Ho’s critically acclaimed Parasite scoring four Oscars (the most of the night) that included the big one, Best Picture. In fact, Parasite is the first-ever non-English film to win this award, which can only mean good things for both the Oscars and the industry going forward when it comes to international films. However, as is the case with every ceremony, there was still a lot of discussion over this year’s biggest snubs; namely, a complete lack of female nominees in the Best Director category. And while those who’ve been following this site for a while know that I usually don’t make any kind of fuss over this sort of thing, it’s clear that this whole situation is one that could’ve easily been avoided given all the big female-directed films that came out in 2019. Just to name a select few, there’s Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers, Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, and Alma Har’el’s Honey Boy. This also includes Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, to an extent, because while it did earn a Best Picture nomination and ultimately won for Best Costume Design, Gerwig only got a screenwriting nomination. Now again, like I just said, I don’t get worked up over snubs anymore because I believe that award shows like this aren’t meant to be the definitive tally on what the best films are in any given year. However, this does lead me to something that I’ve been dying to talk about that’s starting to become more of an issue in recent years, and the way I see it, it’s something that could quite possibly explain why certain snubs have been happening. Specifically, I’m referring to the ‘Honest Oscar ballots’ from anonymous voters that get published by major media outlets. I briefly talked about this last year when I mentioned that one voter who dismissed Avengers: Infinity War as a ‘money grab’ and viewed Black Panther as being ‘not that much better’ than most of the other Marvel films. But believe me, folks, when I say that it only got worse this year, which is why I now present…   

A SMALL SAMPLING OF THE BIZARRE HOT TAKES FROM THIS YEAR’S COLLECTION OF ‘HONEST OSCAR BALLOTS’

Of the various ‘Honest Oscar Ballots’ that were published this year, many of them didn’t have a lot of positive things to say about Little Women. One dinged it for casting British actresses in the four leading roles (even though only two of them are technically British), quite a few called its narrative confusing, and another criticized it for being unoriginal… while simultaneously praising Joker for its originality even though one could argue the exact opposite with that film.

There also wasn’t a lot of love for this year’s Best Original Song nominees, with one voter even going as far as to abstain from the vote even though they had listened to all the songs.

While Toy Story 4 ended up taking home the award for Best Animated Feature, it was clear that not all voters were 100% on board with that decision. One called it a “Franchise f***ing Campbell’s Soup Film” while another claimed that they weren’t going to vote for it simply because Pixar’s already won the award so many times.

Finally, while the Oscars crowd was beyond ecstatic for Bong Joon-Ho and the Parasite crew’s multiple wins, apparently there was one voter who thought differently. Not only did they want an ‘American’ director to win Best Director, but they also thought that foreign films shouldn’t be nominated for Best Picture.

But the one hot take that I want to focus on specifically comes from the same voter who wasn’t going to vote for Toy Story 4 because of Pixar’s consistent success in the Best Animated Feature category. This voter proclaimed that this year’s slate of Best Picture nominees were the films that they “should be honoring” rather than something like Avengers: Endgame and stated that they were “the last stand against the franchises”… even though ‘franchise’ films usually don’t get any sort of recognition from the Oscars, to begin with, outside of the technical categories. If I haven’t mentioned it before, comments like these basically sum up my issue with the Oscars rather than things like whether a film truly deserved its nomination compared to a film that didn’t get one. Instead, it’s the simple fact that ‘genre’ films don’t get that much love at shows like this, and I’m not just talking about films like Endgame. The horror genre often gets overlooked entirely (Bill Hader from It: Chapter Two, anyone?) and while I’m not going to piss off someone like Brad Bird and call it a ‘genre’, only three animated films have ever been nominated for Best Picture despite several of them being some of the most well-reviewed films of their respective years. Now, as always, I know damn well that not every blockbuster is going to be a thought-provoking masterpiece, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be of the same quality as the films that get nominated for Best Picture every year. And yet, after reading through all these ‘Honest Oscar Ballots’, I can now say that I finally understand why that Best Popular Film category that they were proposing last year was so poorly received. Last year, I stated that I wasn’t too bothered by it when compared to the rest of the internet but now I fully agree that this would’ve been an utterly terrible method of honoring films that apparently aren’t good enough to be nominated for Best Picture. But to conclude this extended summary of my thoughts on this year’s Oscars, I’m just going to reiterate what I’ve been saying for years now in that this is just one show. And while the lack of female nominees for Best Director was certainly an issue this year, the fact that an international release like Parasite managed to win Best Picture does make me believe that the Oscars will continue to evolve when it comes to what gets nominated every year.

With all that out of the way, let’s delve into the biggest highlights from this year’s ceremony. If you recall, last year’s Oscars recap post did away with the idea of separating the highlights into ‘best’ and ‘worst’ categories. While this was partially because I felt that there weren’t any ‘bad’ moments from last year’s broadcast, it’s mainly a case where I figured that it’d be better to just go through all the memorable moments, for better or worse…

THIS YEAR’S HIGHLIGHTS

JANELLE MONAE’S OPENING NUMBER CELEBRATES FILM

Last year’s hostless ceremony opened with an energetic performance by Adam Lambert and Queen to kick things off.  This year’s ceremony started off in similar fashion thanks to Janelle Monáe, who opened the show with a lovely tribute to Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and its iconic opening theme, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”. Monáe then followed that up with a film-based rendition of her song “Come Alive (The War of the Roses)” complete with background dancers dressed as various characters from 2019 films including the Joker and the Tethered from Us. Billy Porter also joined in at one point with a performance of Elton John’s hit song “I’m Still Standing”. Also, as per usual with her live performances of “Come Alive”, Monáe (wearing a flowered shawl and crown a la Midsommar) got the audience to sing along with her, which led to some participation from the likes of Brie Larson, Kathy Bates, and perhaps most amusingly, Leonardo DiCaprio. All in all, it was a fun performance to start off the biggest night in Hollywood, and it even gave Monáe a chance to “celebrate all the women who directed phenomenal films” this past year and how she was “so proud to stand here as a black, queer artist telling stories” in recognition of Black History Month. This was, of course, in reference to the lack of female nominees for Best Director as well as having only one African American nominee in the acting categories (Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman in Harriet).  

STEVE MARTIN AND CHRIS ROCK’S OPENING JOKES

Another segment that was carried over from last year’s show was the first presenters who started things off with some humorous remarks. Last year’s Oscars were kickstarted by the trio of Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and Maya Rudolph; this year, that honor went to former Oscar hosts Steve Martin and Chris Rock (“Such an incredible demotion!”). And really, there’s not much more that I can say here aside from pointing out some of their best jokes such as…

“They don’t really have hosts anymore, why is that?” “Twitter! Everybody’s got an embarrassing tweet somewhere. I know I do.”

“Marty [Scorsese], I got to tell you, I loved the first season of The Irishman!”

“Cynthia [Erivo] did such a great job in Harriet hiding black people that the Academy got her to hide all the black nominees…”

MAYA RUDOLPH AND KRISTEN WIIG ARE “TICKED OFF”

Over the years, Oscar ceremonies have given us some fun presenter duos whose strong camaraderie resulted in some of the funniest moments of the night, and this year was no exception. Take, for example, Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig, who came out to present the award for Best Production Design looking rather angry. In fact, they were so “t-ed off” that they were about to leave the stage… before ultimately admitting that it was just an act to show all the directors in attendance that they can do much more than comedy. And when they came back immediately afterward to present the award for Best Costume Design, they figured that it’d be better to sing about costume design first rather than going straight to the nominees. Sure, it may have elicited one heck of a confused reaction from Billie Eilish, but you really can’t go wrong with two of the funniest women in the business.

A CELEBRATION OF MUSIC IN FILM – COMPLETE WITH AN EMINEM PERFORMANCE

Now let’s talk about one of the more unique moments of this year’s telecast, which all began when Lin-Manuel Miranda came onstage to introduce a montage of classic moments in film that were heavily defined by their music. This montage included everything from “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” from The Breakfast Club to the title song from Footloose before concluding with the Oscar-winning song “Lose Yourself” from 8 Mile by Eminem… who then proceeded to perform it live on stage. Now at first glance, this may look like one of the most random moments in recent Oscars history. Sure, “Lose Yourself” did win the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 75^th Academy Awards, but it’s not like this was an anniversary year for it or anything. However, upon further research, it seems like this was primarily meant to make up for Eminem not attending the 75^th Academy Awards for various reasons that included the simple fact that he didn’t think the song was going to win. But, of course, it did, and 17 years later, he finally got the chance to perform it on the Oscars stage to a crowd that was as full of enthusiastic listeners (e.g. Zazie Beetz, Kelly Marie Tran, and Gal Gadot) as it was those who weren’t quite as invested in it (e.g. Billie Eilish and Martin Scorsese). Speaking of raps…

UTKARSH AMBUDKAR RAPS AN OSCAR RECAP

At around the midway point of the ceremony, actor Utkarsh Ambudkar appeared on stage to provide a recap of everything that had happened so far in the form of a rap backed by music from Questlove. Like Janelle Monáe’s opening number, Ambudkar’s performance was an excellent combination of film references (e.g. the infamous ‘Adele Dazeem’ incident from the 86^th Academy Awards (“Her name is Idina Menzel, Mr. Travolta!”) and an acknowledgment of this year’s lack of diverse nominees (“Keep an open mind, I’m sure you’ll find that there’s plenty of light here for us all to shine!”). Now the only thing to do is to wait and see if his prediction of the film adaptation of In the Heights being “guaranteed to win” next year ends up coming true.

WILL FERRELL AND JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS CONFUSE CINEMATOGRAPHERS FOR OTHER MEMBERS OF THE FILM CREW AND LAMENT ABOUT ALL THE FILMS THAT THEY GOT CUT FROM

Another fun presenter duo from this year’s ceremony was Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who presented the awards for Best Cinematography and Best Editing. Before announcing the winner for Best Cinematography, however, the two celebrated cinematographers for all that they bring to film… namely, “preparing the meals for the crew and cast” and “waiting patiently for you in that golf cart to ‘travel’ you to set”. It wasn’t until Will Ferrell received a message from an unknown figure via the ‘earpiece’ that he got from backstage that they were informed that these weren’t the jobs that cinematographers are known for. And while they were far more accurate with their descriptions of editors, they also noted that they were both cut from some of the year’s biggest films. Julia Louis-Dreyfus mentioned that she was originally in 1917 and Parasite while Ferrell revealed that, initially, it was meant to be Ford v Ferrari v Ferrell and that he’s still in a lot of the film’s key art (“I’m just going to say it, I hate this award!” – Will Ferrell).

TOM HANKS ANNOUNCES THE OPENING OF THE ACADEMY MUSEUM OF MOTION PICTURES

While this next moment wasn’t related to any of the ceremony’s awards, it was still quite noteworthy for what it revealed. After an introduction from Academy president David Rubin, Tom Hanks noted that there are several museums in Los Angeles dedicated to all sorts of culture including, to his complete bewilderment, a selfie museum. But until recently, there was never a museum in the City of Angels that was dedicated solely to what is quite arguably its greatest import. Thus, he announced that the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures would finally open its doors at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax on December 14^th, 2020. Now if you’re like me and you follow film for a living, this is a big deal, especially given how long it’s taken for this to come together. To put this all into perspective, I remember when it was slated to open all the way back in 2017; it’s one of the main reasons why my mom and I went on vacation in LA that summer because we thought it’d be open by then. Obviously, though, it took a little longer than that for it to be finished; nevertheless, I look forward to the day when I finally get the chance to step into what will surely be a wonderful tribute to the history of filmmaking.

(It’s also worth noting that Tom Hanks concluded his segment with a nice little tribute to the late Kirk Douglas by proclaiming that he is Spartacus.)

JAMES CORDEN AND REBEL WILSON DON CAT COSTUMES FOR THE BEST VISUAL EFFECTS AWARD

Practically from the moment it was first announced, the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Cats was slated to be one of the most infamous projects in recent memory. Sure enough, the film was downright savaged by critics upon its release, with the most common criticism directed towards the visual effects that were used to bring the story’s characters to life. This was directly lampshaded by two of the film’s stars, James Corden and Rebel Wilson, when they came out dressed as their characters from the film (Bustopher Jones and Jennyanydots, respectively) to present the award for Best Visual Effects. The two proclaimed that as part of the film’s cast, they understood “the importance of good visual effects”. But just like the film itself, this moment did attract some controversy as the Visual Effects Society criticized the bit for turning the art of visual effects into the butt of the joke. And yet, while I do see where they’re coming from, I also think that Corden and Wilson deserve some major credit for, at the very least, taking all the criticism that the film has gotten like champs.   

TAIKA WAITITI HONORS ALL INDIGENOUS CULTURES

With his win for Best Adapted Screenplay for his film Jojo Rabbit, Taika Waititi became both the first Maori filmmaker and the first filmmaker of indigenous heritage to win a Screenplay Oscar. Later in the ceremony, Waititi followed that up with further acknowledgment of the indigenous people who once inhabited the spot where Hollywood now stands; specifically, the Tongva, the Tataviam, and the Chumash. And to make this pivotal moment even more special, this was all during a segment where Waititi highlighted the honorees of this year’s annual Governors Awards, which included legendary Cherokee actor Wes Studi.

BRIE LARSON, GAL GADOT, AND SIGOURNEY WEAVER PROVE THAT “ALL WOMEN ARE SUPERHEROES”

The awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song were presented by the trio of Brie Larson, Gal Gadot, and Sigourney Weaver. Larson and Gadot kicked things off by honoring Weaver for her legendary turn as Ellen Ripley in the Alien films, which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in 1986 and effectively paved the way for other iconic cinematic heroines including Larson’s Captain Marvel and Gadot’s Wonder Woman. Weaver then followed that up with the proclamation that “all women are superheroes”. Not only that, but Weaver also announced that the trio was planning on starting their own fight club where the winner will get “a lifetime supply of deodorant, sushi, and tequila” while the loser “gets to answer questions from journalists about how it feels to be a woman in Hollywood”. Finally, to top off this incredibly uplifting segment, the three announced that the performances of the nominees for Best Original Score would be led by the first female conductor in Oscars history, Eímear Noone. It was only fitting, then, that the Oscar would ultimately go to a female composer.

 THE OSCARS CROWD KEEPS THE PARASITE CREW ON STAGE LONGER

It’s basically become a running joke at this point about how the Oscars often try to condense their notoriously long ceremonies by limiting the length of their winners’ acceptance speeches. Over the years, however, there have been some notable examples of winners that have defied that infamous send-off music and this year’s ceremony gave us one of the greatest cases of this (albeit without the music, but the point still stands…) by way of the Oscars crowd when Parasite was announced as this year’s Best Picture winner. After a speech from producer Kwak Sin-Ae, the lights started to dim to signal the end of the show… that is, until the crowd started chanting “UP! UP! UP!” so that executive producer Miky Lee would get her chance to speak as well. Thus, this quite arguably became the definitive moment in Parasite’s historic night as it perfectly exemplified how nearly everyone in that room was beyond ecstatic for all its success.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCES

Lastly, before we get to the ‘Speeches’ segment of this post, let’s go over the musical performances that I haven’t mentioned yet. As usual, the performances of the Best Original Song nominees were all terrific, with soulful performances of Breakthrough’s “I’m Standing with You” by Chrissy Metz and Harriet’s “Stand Up” by Cynthia Erivo and energetic performances of Toy Story 4’s “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” by Randy Newman and Rocketman’s “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” by Elton John. But when it comes to these nominees, the most unique performance of the night was for Frozen II’s “Into the Unknown”. Instead of just having Idina Menzel perform the song as usual while being backed by Aurora, who provided ‘The Voice’ in the film that leads Elsa on her journey, Menzel was also backed by nine of her character’s international voice actresses. This included Maria Lucia Heiberg Rosenberg (Danish), Willemijn Verkaik (German), Takako Matsu (Japanese), Carmen Sarahí (Spanish), Lisa Stokke (Norwegian), Katarzyna Łaska (Polish), Anna Buturlina (Russian), Gisela (Castilian), and Gam Wichayanee (Thai). To reference the opening comments made by Josh Gad prior to the performance, it beautifully highlighted how the film has managed to reach audiences all over the world. Finally, there was, of course, the In Memoriam segment, with this year’s version of it being paired with a performance of The Beatles’ “Yesterday” by Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell. And while Eilish has since gone on record stating that she felt her performance was undermined considerably due to illness, it was still a fitting accompaniment for what is always the most somber moment of any Oscars ceremony.

And now let’s delve into some of the most memorable speeches from this year’s Oscar winners…

GREAT SPEECHES

*Brad Pitt got things started on an excellent note by recognizing the nature of his role as stuntman Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and honoring everyone involved in the stunt industry (which, yes, still doesn’t have its own Oscar category). Pitt even managed to get a nice jab in at the expense of the U.S. Senate by remarking that the 45 seconds of speech time he was being given was more than what they gave John Bolton at Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

*In her acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress, Laura Dern paid tribute to her heroes… who just so happened to be her parents Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern.

*Best Sound Editing winner Donald Sylvester noted how Ford v Ferrari was one of the last films made by 20^th Century Fox prior to the studio’s renaming as 20^th Century Studios following its purchase by Disney (though it’s technically not the last to come from the Fox era). Thus, he proceeded to pay tribute to several key figures who worked for the studio, including former president Emma Watts who had just resigned from her position a few weeks prior. He also remarked that director James Mangold should’ve gotten a Best Director nomination and proclaimed that he was willing to break off a piece of his trophy for him.

*Hildur Guðnadóttir became the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Original Score since the category was reworked in 2000 after years of being separated into ‘Dramatic’ and ‘Comedy’ genres (officially, she was the first female winner since Anne Dudley in 1997 for her work on The Full Monty). Her victory was timed perfectly with the fact that the award was presented by the trio of Brie Larson, Gal Gadot, and Sigourney Weaver and that samplings of all the nominated scores had been performed by the first female conductor in Oscars history. Likewise, she concluded her speech by encouraging all women “who hear the music bubbling within” to “speak up… we need to hear your voices”.

*Joaquin Phoenix had one of the most emotional speeches of the night when he accepted the Oscar for Best Actor. He began by remarking that the award did not make him feel superior in any way compared to his fellow nominees. He then proceeded to speak about some of the various bits of social activism that he’s been involved in over the years, including his efforts as an advocate for animal rights and the continued fight against various social injustices. Finally, he concluded with a tribute to his late brother River Phoenix by quoting a lyric that he had written prior to his death in 1993; “Run to the rescue with love and peace will follow”.

Finally, let’s celebrate the one… the only… Bong Joon-Ho!

Thanks to Parasite’s four Oscar wins, Bong Joon-Ho had one of the most successful nights for any individual filmmaker in Oscars history. In fact, he came very close to tying Walt Disney’s record of 4 individual wins at the 26^th Academy Awards in 1954 (since Best International Feature Film is credited to the country that the film is from, Joon-Ho was only credited for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay). Nevertheless, this paved the way for several great speeches from the newly minted Oscar winner…

*His acceptance speech for Best Original Screenplay was generally straight-forward but it did highlight the fact that this was the first Oscar that’s ever been given to a film from South Korea. Obviously, it wasn’t going to be the last…

*He began his speech for Best International Feature Film by commenting on how this was the first year that the award was known as such after years of being called ‘Best Foreign Language Film’. The Academy decided to change it back in April 2019 and Joon-Ho remarked that he was happy to be its first recipient under the new name while also applauding the forward-thinking mindset behind the decision. He also took the time to honor his cast and crew, who were promptly given a round of applause, and proclaimed that he was “ready to drink tonight”.

*But perhaps his greatest speech came during his win for Best Director. For starters, he joked that he thought he “was done for the day” after the Best International Feature award and was “ready to relax”. But then he proceeded to properly honor all his fellow nominees in the Best Director category. He began by quoting Martin Scorsese (“The most personal is the most creative”), which then led to a full-blown standing ovation for the legendary director. He then thanked Quentin Tarantino for continually highlighting his films amongst his favorites of the year so that he could become more well-known in the U.S. And after honoring Todd Phillips and Sam Mendes, Joon-Ho remarked that if the Academy would allow him, he would grab a chainsaw (a “Texas Chainsaw”, specifically), cut the trophy into five pieces, and split it amongst the five directors. Finally, as an update to his “ready to drink” comment from earlier, he noted that he “will drink until next morning”.

And that concludes Rhode Island Movie Corner’s annual Oscars recap post. I recognize that this was quite arguably the longest of these that I’ve done to date (hence why it took so long to finish it), so I appreciate you all for sticking it out with me on this one. Clearly, I had quite a lot to talk about for this one, including those, let’s be frank, ‘awful’ Honest Ballots. As always, be sure to sound off in the comments below with some of your thoughts about this year’s ceremony. Is the ‘no host’ option still working out just fine? Do you think that Parasite’s big wins mean good things for this show going forward? And will the internet ever truly follow through with its claims that we shouldn’t take award shows like this that seriously?