The 2016 Oscars telecast was a hot mess, but it certainly wasn’t boring.
An event most often criticized for being self-indulgent and self-congratulatory — so over-long, repetitive and predictable that the host is all but required to joke about its absurdity — this year’s Academy Awards was a strange compilation of atonal moments in which the audience was kept perpetually off-balance. Host Chris Rock called Hollywood out on its racism and then sent his daughters out to sell Girl Scout cookies. The mood whipsawed from the shocking to the familiar and back again, often in the space of a few moments.
OSCARS 2016: Full coverage | List of winners | #OscarsSoWhite controversy
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Brie Larson and Alicia Vikander backstage (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet backstage (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Leonardo DiCaprio backstage (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Leonardo DiCaprio with his Oscar for best actor (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Brie Larson celebrates (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu backstage (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Brie Larson (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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The cast of Best Picture “Spotlight” take a selfie backstage. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Lady Gaga (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Brie Larson (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Sacha Baron Cohen (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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A Secret Service watches Vice President Joe Biden backstage (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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C3PO (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Kevin Hart (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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R2D2 and C3PO (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Kate Winslet (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Mark Rylance (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Cheryl Boone Issacs (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Backstage at the 88th Academy Awards (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Vice President Joe Biden (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Andrew Whitehurst and Mark Ardington (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy accept the award for Original Screenplay for “Spotlight.” (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Paul Norris and Sara Bennett (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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R2D2 and C3PO (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Oscar statuettes (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Charlize Theron (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Sam Smith (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Adam McKay (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Alicia Vikander (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Charlize Theron (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Adam McKay and Charles Randolph (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Alicia Vikander (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Emmanuel Lubezki (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Benicio Del Toro and Jennifer Garner (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Liev Schreiber and Priyanka Chopra (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
It was also the first Oscars in memory that, nakedly and unapologetically, attempted to do something other than hand out a bunch of gold statues. Which is revolutionary in and of itself.
From the moment the nominations were announced, the focus has been less on who made the list and more on who didn’t. Speculation about how Rock would handle hosting the #OscarsSoWhite ceremony ran to near frenzy. From the moment he stepped onto the stage in a white tuxedo jacket, it was clear he was not messing around.
“I counted at least 15 black people in that,” he said in reference to the show’s opening montage of the year’s films, adding: “Welcome to the white people’s choice awards.”
Narrowing the conversation about diversity to a black-and-white issue, he first downplayed the importance of this year’s protests — in past years, black people were “too busy being raped and lynched to care about best cinematographer,” he joked — before addressing them directly.
“Is Hollywood racist?” he asked finally. “You damn right Hollywood’s racist.”
After moving in and out of a few more jokes, he brought it back to the point: “We want the black actors to get the same opportunities as white actors. That’s it. And not just once.... All these guys get great parts all the time. But what about the black actors?”
For all its flaws, Rock’s Oscars had some of the most powerful moments seen in the telecast’s history.
— Mary McNamara
Those who bet Rock would limit the issue to his monologue and then move on to more standard comedy lost that Oscars pool. Again and again, Rock returned to the theme of racism, in ways that sometimes worked — a clip in which best picture nominees were envisioned with black characters was very funny — and often did not. The evening’s oddest moment was Rock’s introduction of Stacey Dash as the academy’s new head of outreach. The bit left many baffled and reaching for Google. (Dash recently called for an end to Black History Month, among other things.)
OSCARS 2016: Awkward Oscar moments | Quiz | Awards database | Red carpet fashion
In between Rock’s moments onstage, a more traditional ceremony occurred. Ryan Gosling sparred with Russell Crowe, Buzz and Woody revisited their cinematic bromance, Louis C.K. pointed out that the best documentary short subject was the most important award of the evening because it was the only Oscar “going home in a Honda.”
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The cast of Best Picture winner “Spotlight” takes a selfie backstage at the 88th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre.
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Director Tom McCarthy with the Oscar for best picture, “Spotlight.” (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Actress Stacey Dash speaks onstage during the 88th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre on Feb. 28, 2016.
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Michael Keaton and the cast and producers of “Spotlight” celebrate after winning the Oscar for best picture.
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The production team and cast of Spotlight celebrate the award for best picture.
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Leonardo DiCaprio (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Brie Larson (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, winner of Best Director with Tom Hardy
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Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Lady Gaga performs (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Lady Gaga and abuse survivors (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Daisy Ridley and Dev Patel (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Vice President Joe Biden (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Director Laszlo Nemes (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Chris Rock and Girl Scouts (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Dave Grohl during the In Memoriam segment (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Whoopi Goldberg
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Kate Winslet and Reese Witherspoon (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Kate Winslet and Reese Witherspoon (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Chris Rock (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Louis C.K. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Chris Rock (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Mark Rylance (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Mark Rylance thanks Steven Spielberg before accepting his Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
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Patricia Arquette (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Filmmakers Pato Escala Pierart and Gabriel Osorio Vargas (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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The Weeknd performs (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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The Weeknd performs (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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The Weeknd performs (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Jonas Rivera and Pete Docter (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Girl Scouts sell cookies with Chris Rock (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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David White, right, and Mark Mangini (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Marcos Taylor as Suge Knight
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Rachel McAdams and Michael B. Jordan (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Emmanuel Lubezki (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Priyanka Chopra, left, and Liev Schreiber (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Margaret Sixel (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Chris Evans, right, and Chadwick Boseman (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Benecio del Toro and Jennifer Garner (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Elka Warden, Lesley Vanderwalt and Damian Martin (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Presenters Margot Robbie and Jared Leto (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Colin Gibson and Lisa Thompson (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Cate Blanchett (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Tina Fey and Steve Carell (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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CaJenny Beavan (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Alicia Vikander (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Adam McKay, front, and Charles Randolph with their Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
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Sam Smith (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Sarah Silverman (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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“The Big Short,” the anarchic, bracing broadside against Wall Street malfeasance, won the adapted screenplay Oscar at tonight’s 88th Academy Awards. The script was written by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay, who also directed. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Emily Blunt and Charlize Theron (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Chris Rock (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
But the show also swung from women in dog collars dancing as the Weeknd sang “Earned It” to Vice President Joe Biden calling on the audience to help end rape and sexual assault on campuses before introducing Lady Gaga and her nominated song “Til It Happens to You.”
On top of the political challenges, this year’s telecast had brand-new producers, Reginald Hudlin and David Hill, who initiated several changes including a thank-you crawl, in which the people to whom winners felt indebted ran along the bottom of the screen, and a narrative order that purported to follow the timeline of filmmaking.
Taken together, it was, well, difficult to take together. Stitched into a new format and given the extra features of activism and admonishment, the evening often felt like the Franken-Oscars, a whole different sort of creature that no one could quite control. At times, it felt as if the winners were almost incidental.
Yet for all its flaws, Rock’s Oscars had some of the most powerful moments seen in the telecast’s history. His decision to honestly answer the question “Is Hollywood racist?” was brave and effective. Even when the jokes became one-note, there was no denying that, with the exception of the documentary and the foreign film categories, the winners were a procession of white people. Honestly, why can’t feature films be as reflective of human experience as documentaries?
VIDEO: The five best lines from Chris Rock’s Oscars monologue >>
Somewhere at the midway point, academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs took the stage, as the academy president always does.
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Jennifer Lawrence
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“The Martian” actor Matt Damon
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Actress Priyanka Chopra
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Taylor Kinney, left, and Lady Gaga arrive at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
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“Titanic” costars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet reunite on the red carpet.
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Amy Poehler and Michael Keaton
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Charlize Theron
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The Weeknd and Common
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Oscar nominees Cate Blanchett (“Carol”) and Bryan Cranston (“Trumbo”).
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Oscar nominee Rachel McAdams (supporting actress, “Spotlight”).
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From left, actress Margot Robbie, best actor nominee Eddie Redmayne (“The Danish Girl”) and actress Jennifer Garner.
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People protest the all-white slate of acting Oscar nominees and lack of diversity in the industry near the 88th Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center.
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Taylor Kinney, left, and Lady Gaga
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“Director Ridley Scott and Giannina Facio, left, and supporting actor nominee Tom Hardy (“The Revenant”) with Charlotte Riley.
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Supporting actor nominee Tom Hardy (“The Revenant”) with actress Charlotte Riley.
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Best actress nominee Cate Blanchett (“Carol”).
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Nominees and former costars Kate Winslet (supporting actress, “Steve Jobs”) and Leonardo DiCaprio (best actor, “The Revenant”).
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Leonardo DiCaprio
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Actor Christian Bale with wife Sibi Blazic.
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Reese Witherspoon
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Model Heidi Klum
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Model Chrissy Teigen and husband John Legend
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Kerry Washington
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Supporting actress winner Alicia Vikander (“The Danish Girl”).
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Naomi Watts, Olivia Munn, Priyanka Chopra
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Cinematographer Ed Lachman, Spirit Award winner and Oscar nominee for “Carol.”
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Mindy Kaling
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Jordan’s foreign-language nominee “Theeb” is represented by, from left, director Naji Abu Nowar and actors Jacir Eid and Hassan Mutlag Al-Maraiyeh.
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Sofia Vergara, costar of ABC’s “Modern Family,” on the red carpet.
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Actor Byung-hun Lee.
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Governors Ball chef Wolfgang Puck.
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From left, model Heidi Klum, best actress nominee Saorise Ronan (“Brooklyn”) and last year’s supporting actress winner Patricia Arquette (“Boyhood”).
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“Room’s” young actor Jacob Tremblay shares a stretch of red carpet with “Modern Family’s” Sofia Vergara.
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Original song nominees Jimmy Napes, left, and Sam Smith (“Writing’s on the Wall,” “Spectre”).
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Nominated film editor Hank Corwin (“The Big Short”) and wife Nancy arrive at the 88th Academy Awards.
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Actor Orlando Jones during the arrivals.
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Tobias Lindholm, center, director of Denmark’s foreign-language nominee “A War,” arrives with the film’s lead actor Pilou Asbæk, right.
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“Beasts of No Nation” actor Abraham Attah.
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Morning show host and former NFL player Michael Strahan addresses the media on the red carpet.
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“Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts.
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Composer Carter Burwell, nominated for original score for “Carol.”
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Model Dorith Mous on the red carpet.
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Members of the nominated live-action short feature “Shok” arrive on the red carpet for the 88th Academy Awards.
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Sofia Vergara at the 88th Academy Awards.
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“Beasts of No Nation” costar Abraham Attah arrives at the 88th Academy Awards.
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Orlando Jones arrives for the 88th Academy Awards.
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TV personality Stephanie Bauer on the Oscars red carpet.
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TV personality Giuliana Rancic at the 88th Academy Awards.
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TV personality Maria Menounos at the 88th Academy Awards.
( Ethan Miller/Getty Images, left, Jason Merritt/Getty Images, right) Isaacs has been at the center of the #OscarsSoWhite storm even more than Rock, and her call to those in the audience to be part of the solution was simple and affecting. “It is not enough to listen and agree,” she said. “We must take action.”
After years of being dissed for its irrelevance, this year’s Oscars took action. The results were mixed, to be sure, and Rock did not ever settle into his usual balance of outrage and humanity. But it was an attempt. And if Hollywood believes, as it should, that film is a medium of truth-telling and a catalyst for change, then moments of self-examination should occur at least as often as those of celebration.
Even if they are not seamless evenings of splendid extravaganza.
mary.mcnamara@latimes.com
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