Gay-Themed "Moonlight" Wins Best Picture at 2017 Academy Awards After "La La Land" Mix Up
At the beginning of February the Super Bowl became one for the ages when it became the first to go into overtime. Then three weeks later the "gay Super Bowl", i.e., the Academy Awards, had an equally memorable ending when the wrong Best Picture winner was announced. The actual winner, Moonlight, became the first movie with a gay main character to win Best Picture (and its all-black cast was also a first for a Best Picture winner). However, it had to wait a few minutes before the cast could bask in glory because La La Land was first announced as the winner. It somehow seemed fitting that "drama" would surround a gay-themed movie. Below you'll find my observations about the rest of the telecast:
A Parade of Dashing Presenters ...
And the Dashing Members of the Audience ...
- Granted, the telecast was slow moving but I think we can all agree that the various stage sets were beautiful to behold.
- Emma Stone's younger brother, Spencer, looked cute in a hamster/chipmunk-like way.
- Denzel did not look pleased after not winning for Best Actor, perhaps because he had a fiery acceptance speech planned whereas winner Casey Affleck seemed to be still in character from Manchester by the Sea, with his halting, uninspiring acceptance speech.
- Although it was emotion-filled, Viola Davis' acceptance speech after winning for Best Supporting Actress was oddly joyless.
- However, she did manage to crack a smile later ...
- I love him to death, but isn't Lin-Manuel Miranda's "Hamilton" patter getting a bit tired?
- The opening with Justin Timberlake boogying his way through the audience left me cold - was this the opening of the Grammy's? How did they get everyone in the audience so jazzed? And although his song, Can't Stop the Feeling, was a Best Song nominee, what about the mash-up with Lovely Day (a Bill Withers song).
- The singer of the nominated song from Moana, Auli'i Cravalho, was slightly grazed by one of the huge flags being waved behind her, but she maintained her poise. Although the song didn't win, hers was the best performance as John Legend's voice was weak and pitchy when he sang the two nominated songs from La La Land.
- I liked Scarlett Johansson's coiff, which was a mash-up of New Wave and old Hollywood glamour.
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- For the third year in a row Chris Evans was a presenter and continued his Oscar tradition of having the same look..
- Besides the acceptance speeches made after Moonlight won its awards, the only other gay moment I recall was when Byron Howard, a co-director for Best Animated Film, Zootopia, gave a quick shout out to his husband, Shepherd, as the orchestra began playing.
- I was amused by the running gag of animosity between host Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon, especially when the music started playing whenever Damon would speak.
- The necklace worn by Alicia Vikander (Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl in 2016) was lovely.
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