Thoughts on the Oscars
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Tomorrow I will do a men's NCAA tournament preview. Today I want to talk about the Oscars.
RD and I just did a podcast where we talked about past Oscar winners, what we thought should have won and gave our predictions for this year. We got some wrong and some right, like most. But, unlike our recent pod, I have no real issues or complaints about any of the major winners last night. I feel like the Academy, for once in its existence, got it pretty spot on. When we recorded, we both talked a lot about "Sinners" and "One Battle After Another". They were the big winners last night as we expected and as it should have been.
I was so stoked for Michael B Jordan winning best actor. When we made our predictions he was my pick. Not only did he play two roles, but he played them exceptionally. He was also two totally different characters in those two roles. It felt like I was watching two different actors playing Smoke and Stack. He did that dual role such wonderful justice and he was rewarded for his hard work. This is going to go down as one of the better performances to win an Oscar. The only person I thought that had a shot to take the award from him was Timothee Chalamet in "Marty Supreme". Both actors did great work, but I will say this forever, Michael B Jordan was two totally different people and he was amazing. I'm very happy for him and for "Sinners".
"Sinners" also got best original screenplay, as it should have. We are talking about a horror/vampire/musical. That is unlike any other thing out there right now. When my wife and I saw "Sinners" we were shocked it wasn't adapted from something else. But this was all Ryan Coogler and his team that made up this wonderful and engaging story. "Sinners" has an originality that a movie like "Everything Everywhere All at Once" had. This was a totally original and totally awesome idea for a movie and Coogler and crew brought it to life perfectly.
"One Battle After Another" took home a ton of hardware. That's great. It was my number 1 movie of 2025 afterall. All of the accolades and awards for "OBAA" are more than deserved. Paul Thomas Anderson finally got his Oscar. I still like "There Will Be Blood" a bit more, but "OBAA" ranks right up there. And even if this is a lifetime achievement thing for him, and the Academy surely expects Coogler to be back, PTA earned this award last night. "OBAA" was so wonderfully and expertly directed. The movie flowed excellently. Each story connected with the whole big story. The car chase scene was one of the coolest and most intense things I've ever seen put to film. And PTA got the best out of each and every actor that was onscreen. Kudos to him for a job well done. Sean Penn won for supporting actor, as I predicted. Never have I been more frightened and nervous when his character was on screen. He was a horrible racist in this movie and he was shockingly good at what he did. I know Penn isn't like this in real life, which makes his performance all that much better. I was pulling for Delroy Lindo, but in the end I think we all kind of knew Penn was going to win and this was a much deserved Oscar for him. And to wrap up their night, "OBAA" won best picture. You'll get no argument from me here. "OBAA" was my top movie of the year and it has every claim to win best picture. "Sinners" and "Marty Supreme" were right there for me, but in the end, "One Battle After Another" is a well deserving best picture winner from 2025.
As for the other awards, we all knew Jessie Buckley was going to win best actress. That has been in the making for sometime now. I haven't seen "Hamnet" to this point, and don't know if I will see it. I did see "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You", and Rose Bryne would have gotten my vote. She was tremendous in a movie where she was on screen for pretty much all of it. But Buckley is a fine winner. I was so happy for my daughter because "K-Pop Demon Hunters" won best animated feature. That movie rules, the music is incredible and that movie deserves all of the accolades and talk it has garnered to this point. "Golden" also won for best original song, as it should have won. "Sinners" deserved the original score, and when Miles Canton and crew performed "I Lied to You" it took me back to that scene in the movie and it was amazing. Go watch that performance if you haven't yet.
The best for me last night was Amy Madigan winning for playing Aunt Gladys in "Weapons". This is awesome on so many levels. Madigan is a consummate professional that everyone seems to love working with and she took home her first Oscar. "Weapons" is an independent movie directed by a former comedic actor, Zach Cregger. This is akin to when Jordan Peele won an Oscar for "Get Out". Independent horror movies made by former comedians don't get the accolades they deserve, but they kind of rectified that last night. But in the end, Madigan embodied probably the most evil villain any movie has seen in some time. She is barely on screen for "Weapons", but when she shows up she steals that movie. She was amazing, her performance was amazing, "Weapons" is an indie with smaller actors in it and Madigan was rewarded for her amazing work. It’s about time a movie like "Weapons" and an actor like Amy Madigan got some well deserved praise.
As I said at the top, I have no complaints about the winners. Everyone got what they earned and I'm happy for them all. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and this is a year where the Academy did the correct thing and gave the awards to deserving people. Nice work.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.
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