But Sunday night’s event did make it seem possible. Without passing any judgment on their quality or merits (four of them, in fact, made our best-of-2022 lists), it’s notable that The Banshees of Inisherin, Tár, The Fabelmans, Elvis, and Triangle of Sadness walked away with zero Oscars between the five of them, despite nearly all being touted for at least some of the big trophies. And the two biggest movies of the year, Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water, won one each.

Notwithstanding The Whale’s two pickups (a well-deserved Best Actor trophy for Brendan Fraser and Best Makeup and Hairstyling), the only other movie to come close to EEAAO’s haul was the four won by All Quiet on the Western Front, a German film that was a pickup – and almost an afterthought – for Netflix until it began to generate Oscar heat thanks to its unflinching adaptation of the book.

At some point in the last couple of weeks, as it racked up big wins from the Director’s Guild, the Producer’s Guild, and the Screen Actors’ Guild, EEAAO seemed inevitable to win the big prize at the Oscars, despite the Academy’s sometimes unpredictable voting and the fact that dark horses like All Quiet, The Fabelmans, and Top Gun: Maverick were still lurking in the wings.

But as the night went on at the Oscars, the runway became clearer for EEAAO and the element of surprise grew more faint. This little sci-fi mind-bender overcame the naysayers who didn’t think the Academy would go for a movie so outright weird and the pundits who thought that conventional thinking and confused responses to the movie itself would win or at least split the ballot.

Ironically, the victory for such a subversive little film (its total budget was probably the daily motion capture bill for Avatar: The Way of Water) came as part of what was the most traditional Oscar ceremony we’ve seen in several years. Jimmy Kimmel hosted with just the right balance of good cheer, dutiful homage, and sarcastic asides (yes, he addressed the Slap, among other things), making us think that he could join the greats like Carson and Crystal and keep the job for a while.

But aside from some strange camerawork (lots of rather jarring closeups), the show ran smoothly and efficiently, with a minimum of clutter, some great speeches, and only a handful of mistakes. The blatant commercial for Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid was offensive, as was the commercial for Warner Bros. Pictures’ 100-year anniversary. One of the song performances – oddly, for “This is a Life” from EEAAO – was flat-out bad. Yes, the show ran three-and-a-half hours; deal with it. In terms of the presentation, this was a straight down the middle Oscars, and we enjoyed it.

Danofgeek