There was Michael B. Jordan’s late-breaking surge to win best actor and the first ever win for best casting. There was also the, ahem, bum drum and the decision to play off a “Kpop Demon Hunters” speech. The Oscars are always filled with highs and lows. Here’s how we saw it this year.
— Stephanie Goodman
Most Thrilling Win: Michael B. Jordan
After the hugs, after he let himself smile and after the roar of the standing ovation finally subsided, the newly minted best actor, Michael B. Jordan, stepped to the mic and said: “Man, God is good.” And as one of my colleagues in the media interview room reported, a few journalists couldn’t help themselves and called back: “All the time!” Everyone seemed overjoyed by Jordan’s win for his turn as the twins Smoke and Stack in “Sinners.” His peers seemed thrilled, too, with stars like Teyana Taylor from “One Battle After Another” jumping up and down as he took the stage. And he promised to return the favor — to them and to his many fans: “I know you guys want me to do well,” he said, “and I want to do that.”
—Matt Stevens
Best End to a Losing Streak: Paul Thomas Anderson
Clutching his Oscar for best director for “One Battle After Another,” Paul Thomas Anderson quipped, “You make a guy work hard for one of these.” And it’s true, the academy made Anderson wait a long time for his first Oscar wins — 28 years, to be exact. He was first nominated in 1998 for his original screenplay for his breakout film “Boogie Nights.” Over the years he continued to collect nominations — 14 in total — but no statuettes. That is, until he came away with three trophies on Sunday: for directing, adapted screenplay and best picture.
— Esther Zuckerman
Sweetest Speech: Jessie Buckley
Jessie Buckley’s win for best actress was no surprise considering she had taken home pretty much every major prize this season for her work as a grieving mother in “Hamnet.” Still, she brought a charming, ebullient sweetness to the stage when she accepted her trophy. She keeled over with delighted laughter. She said of her family in the audience, “Ireland bought them flights!” And she explained that her eight-month-old daughter was “probably dreaming of milk.” On her awards run, Buckley proved she had a knack for finding profundity in her joy. She dedicated her Oscar to the “beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.” And “beautiful chaos” is a good way to describe a Jessie Buckley speech.
— Esther Zuckerman
Punchiest Cold Open
Awards-show opening montages can feel forced, but on Sunday night, the host Conan O’Brien adapted the climatic chase scene from “Weapons” into high-energy comedy gold. Done up to look like the film’s lipstick-smeared, red-wigged witch Gladys, O’Brien careened through scenes from several of the year’s nominated films with a mob of “Weapons” kids on his heels. When he popped into “Sinners” singing the Irish folk classic “Danny Boy,” it felt like destiny. Putting a bow on it: Amy Madigan, who played Gladys, won the first Oscar of the night, best supporting actress, for the role.
— Maya Salam
Best Fashion Trend: Doing More With Less
Blame it on Joan Rivers, the creator of the red-carpet fashion police, who scared everyone out of trusting their own taste, but since the millennium there has been a certain predictability to Oscars dressing. You can pretty much bet on seeing princess gowns. Also mermaid dresses. More — more ruffles, more structure, more cleavage — has generally been regarded as more. If all the references were very last century, who cared? The point was the pose.
Which is why it was such a surprise to suddenly see a group of actors subverting expectations and doing more with less instead.
Renate Reinsve in a strapless red column dress slit to the hip on one side led the way (decoration: only her bare leg), followed closely by Wunmi Mosaku in free-form but form-fitting emerald green (decoration: her pregnant stomach) and Gwyneth Paltrow in a white dress that was so minimal, it didn’t seem to have any sides. They all looked comfortable. They looked like they could walk, sit, clap, climb the stairs if necessary, and even better — breathe. What an idea.
— Vanessa Friedman
Happiest Return: Clips of Performances
How lovely to see the Oscars once more make room for clips from the acting nominees, a wonderful tribute (and catch-up for audiences). But if they’re taking notes, please restore the reaction shots from the nominees as the clips play: I want to see who’s proud or embarrassed about what was selected!
— Kyle Buchanan
Cruelest Speech Cutoff: ‘KPop Demon Hunters’
In a ceremony that seemed to be moving at a leisurely pace — with a nearly 15-minute In Memoriam segment and a lengthy “Bridesmaid” bit — it seemed extra harsh that the group accepting best song for “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters” was abruptly cut off. As the second winner went to speak, a cymbal crashed, the mic was turned off, the stage went dark and the camera zoomed out before the show went to commercial break. Even worse, that was the second time a speech from “KPop Demon Hunters” winners was cut off. When the directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans and the producer Michelle L.M. Wong accepted best animated feature, the orchestra began to play them off right after Kang had shared the importance of representation in film.
— Shivani Gonzalez
Most Heartfelt In Memoriam Segment, Part 1
At the end of a long, emotional In Memoriam segment, Barbra Streisand emerged with a deeply personal tribute to Robert Redford, her co-star in “The Way We Were” (1973). She spoke about how Redford initially turned down the role of her love interest, Hubbell, in that film because the character had “no backbone.” However, Redford, Streisand said, had “real backbone on and off the screen.” Her speech turned most moving when she described their own connection. “I miss him now more than ever,” she said. Then, just as it seemed as if she was concluding, Streisand sang a few bars of the title song from “The Way We Were,” a ballad about memories. It was a challenge to anyone still watching with dry eyes.
— Esther Zuckerman
Most Heartfelt In Memoriam Segment, Part 2
The loss of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, who were killed in December, was handled with great care, starting with a tribute from Billy Crystal, whose words drew applause and tears alike. Crystal recalled first meeting Reiner in 1975 when he was cast on “All in the Family” as Reiner’s character’s best friend, a dynamic that quickly went from screen to real life. Crystal reminisced about some of Reiner’s most-loved films, and spoke directly to fans: “Rob told me that it meant everything to him that his work meant something to you.” Then the curtain rose to reveal more than a dozen stars from his films, including Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kathy Bates and Christopher Guest.
— Maya Salam
Best History-Making Win: Autumn Durald Arkapaw
Autumn Durald Arkapaw, the cinematographer of “Sinners” was already the first woman of color to be nominated in her category; her history-making moment as the first woman to win was a surprise, and the audience’s thundering ovation acknowledged both her technical and artistic achievement. The large-format cameras were 65-pound beasts. And the scenes she produced were as often ethereal as they were dark. During her speech, she radiated what the director Ryan Coogler has called her “calm electricity.” And she shared the spotlight by asking other women in the room to stand “because I feel like I don’t get here without you guys,” she said.
— Melena Ryzik
Best Ever (OK, Only) Acceptance Speech for Casting
When Cassandra Kulukundis won the casting Oscar for “One Battle After Another,” she got caught up in hugs and high-fives, then sprinted toward her Oscar in an embrace and collision with one of the presenters, the “One Battle” star, Chase Infiniti. The exuberance made sense. This was the inaugural award for a category that casting directors had fought hard to include. But Kulukundis also had a little fun with it, one-upping her film’s director, Paul Thomas Anderson: “I have one before you,” she said from the stage. “I hope you get one tonight.” (He did.)
— Mekado Murphy
Most Chaotic Outcome: The Live-Action Short Tie
The shorts categories don’t usually involve much excitement for viewers, but in one of the oddest moments of the night, the live-action race resulted in a rare tie, between “The Singers” and “Two People Exchanging Saliva.” The presenter Kumail Nanjiani insisted that he was not joking as he read out the winners. It was the seventh tie in Oscars history. The last was in 2013 in sound editing, but most famously it happened in 1969 when Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn shared the Oscar for best actress.
— Esther Zuckerman
Worst Sound Effect: The Bum Drum
“Why, Conan, why?” O’Brien’s off-the-cuff comment early in the show, after the night’s most juvenile gag — the “Chalamet bum drum” — summed up what most of us were thinking. For reasons that were unclear, a percussionist in the orchestra was repeatedly shown playing a plastic butt with table tennis paddles. It was ostensibly a riff on the scene in “Marty Supreme” in which Timothée Chalamet’s character gets spanked on his bare derrière. The bit required people to have seen “Marty Supreme” and be familiar with — and appreciate — O’Brien’s absurdist humor. Perhaps the “bum drum” can be used in the future to denote jokes that don’t quite land. Ba-dum-bum.
— Brooks Barnes
Worst Sound Mixing: The Show’s Audio
This ceremony certainly wasn’t going to win an Oscar for sound mixing. For those watching at home, the audio was at various points muddled, echo-y and just plain inaudible. When Barbra Streisand paid tribute to Robert Redford during the “In Memoriam” segment, her words were drowned out by the piano, an effect akin to listening through a glass against a wall. “F1” won for best sound, but clearly, the academy skipped a pit stop.
— Sarah Bahr
Best Encapsulation of Hollywood Angst
O’Brien took playful, creative jabs at emerging technology and the perilous state of the film industry. He joked that he would be the last human host of the Oscars, kidded the co-chief executive of Netflix, Ted Sarandos (“It’s his first time in a theater! This is what they’re talking about!”) and poked fun at Amazon’s film ambitions, demanding to know, “Why isn’t the website I order toilet paper from winning more Oscars?” There were also highly produced digs, like the fake ad cutting iconic film scenes to (unsuccessfully) fit a vertical format and a dumbed-down take on “Casablanca” based on the idea that movie audiences are distracted by their phones. At least on Sunday, Hollywood could (temporarily) laugh instead of crying.
— Shivani Gonzalez
Plummiest ‘Voice of God’: Matt Berry
In recent years, actors with distinctive voices have served as the Oscars’ offscreen announcer, a.k.a. the “Voice of God.” This year Matt Berry (Laszlo in “What We Do In the Shadows”) and his lilting, transatlantic-inspired accent did the honors. It was a treat to hear him adding personality to one of the driest aspects of the telecast as he announced sponsors like “Burger King” and “Lilly” with exaggerated bravado.
— Kellina Moore
Best Reunion We Didn’t Know We Needed: The “Bridesmaids” Cast
It wasn’t a milestone on our calendar, but when Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy and Ellie Kemper took the stage to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their hit (and Oscar-nominated!) comedy “Bridesmaids,” they got a standing ovation in the theater — and a round of applause at my watch party. As presenters, their segues were hit-or-miss. But even the reminder of the howls that their taboo-busting blockbuster produced was satisfying. Did the bit where they got notes reflect how they made the movie, when the director Paul Feig would hand them Post-Its of alternate jokes? (Maybe.) Did they have beef with Wendi McLendon-Covey, a co-star who didn’t show? (No, she was recovering from a neck lift, as she posted on Instagram.) When will we get another female-ensemble comedy? (Lord knows, Feig has tried.) Ladies, just hold on.
— Melena Ryzik
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