5 Thoughts on the 97th Academy Awards

A ceremony that largely avoided both gimmicks and politics.

The 97th Academy Awards are finished, and Anora was the night’s big winner. While I tanked on my predictions this year (I whiffed on all the shorts and went the wrong way on toss-ups), it was tough to get too upset with any of the night’s winners. If anything, there were some pleasant surprises like Latvia winning its first Oscar for the endearing Flow and the Academy backing the full-throated plea for Palestinian sovereignty with the documentary No Other Land.

Here are a few other takeaways from the evening.

Conan Was Conan, and That’s Great

Sometimes, the Academy either picks someone ill-equipped to host the show or takes an exciting host and drains him or her of their unique personality. Thankfully, that didn’t happen here with Conan O’Brien bringing his signature blend of goofy weirdness to the Dolby Theater. While you could argue he didn’t go full Conan (I wish they had done the Mac and Me bit he does with Paul Rudd), other hosts probably wouldn’t have put the sandworm from Dune in a tux and have them play an instrument. What’s more, Conan’s post-monologue bits were about celebrating movies rather than pandering to the audience or celebrities. We never need to see another pre-recorded bit of going to a theater to let us know regular moviegoers haven’t heard of some of the nominees or an extended gag of giving snacks to the most famous people in the room. The 97th Oscars got on with the show…for the most part.

Okay, the James Bond Thing Was Awful

Perhaps the most genuinely baffling segment was the James Bond tribute. The Oscars already did that in 2013 to celebrate the series’ 50th anniversary, and then bringing out performers of questionable clout (no disrespect to Lisa or Raye) to sing some Bond classics felt random and rushed. I understand why they didn’t perform the Best Song nominees this year (the songs weren’t that good), but on a night where you could see the cuts at the end of the broadcast to make up for lost time, this whole bit could have been removed. If anything, it only raised the specter (no pun intended) of how Amazon will ruin a franchise people love.