Moonlight Feels Right

I didn't think I'd write about the Oscars, but that was really something.  Not the winners, which were predictable, nor the lecturing in the speeches, which was even more so. I'm talking, of course, about the most glorious screw-up in Oscar history.

On the slight chance you haven't heard, the presenters for Best Picture were Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, this year being the 50th anniversary of Bonnie And Clyde.  But Warren opened the envelope and paused, and eventually let Faye (who was a bit annoyed) announce the winner--La La Land.

The producers came up and made their acceptance speeches.  But there was activity behind them--something was going on.  By the time the third guy started speaking, it was clear something was wrong.  He started strong but soon heard the news, and said, almost as an afterthought, that actually his film lost. (If they'd only made two speeches, they might still have the Oscars.)

Turned out Beatty had the wrong envelope--not sure whose fault that was--and so was confused by the card inside, which read Emma Stone and La La Land.  But she'd already won Best Actress, and didn't produce the movie.  That's why Warren was acting so oddly--it wasn't a bit.

The real winner was Moonlight.  That film had been surging in the past few weeks, while La La Land was seeing a bit of a backlash, but it still wouldn't have been a surprise if La La Land took it.

I felt pretty bad for the "winners" who had the Oscar snatched away from them.  It's bad enough to lose, but to know what it feels like to win and then lose is so much worse. (I also feel bad for all those people who had La La Land in the pool.)

Up to that point, the Academy had been spreading the wealth pretty widely, so it seemed that La La Land, Moonlight and Manchester By The Sea all had a reasonable chance of taking the big award.

I was rooting for La La Land, and when it won was thinking something like "finally the Academy got it right, and wasn't fooled by a film that didn't deserve it, like Moonlight." I should have known better.