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We ask a lot of the Academy Awards.
How could it be anything but a baggy mess?
How Far is Hollywood From Achieving Equality?
However, for a while almost its entire first half these Academy Awards felt like they were tonallynothing.
It was like watching figure skating, but the compulsories, not the free skate.
If Kimmel seemed somewhat tentative, so did the audience.
It was received dutifully, as medicine the audience knew it had to take.
What was the theme of the evening going to be?
He didnt rate more than a couple of lines.
Gradually, a shape began to emerge.
Guillermo del Toro began his characteristically heartfelt speech with the words, I am an immigrant.
At times, however, it felt like this Oscars show was in a stalemated battle with itself.
But there are always two Oscars: the show that gets written, and the show that writes itself.
And last night, the second one finally took over.
And you could not, nor would you want to, escape Frances McDormand.
So McDormand wasnt just speaking truth to power she was speakingpowerto power.
