Oscars 2024: Good, bad or mediocre?

The 2024 Oscars, good, bad or just mediocre? Here’s my take…..

A highlight for me was seeing Robert Downey Jr. finally get his due as an actor winning Best Supporting Actor for “Oppenheimer.” He’s been through self-inflicted hell during his career, finally coming through to the other side thanks to his fabulous wife Susan, a Schaumberg native. During his acceptance speech, he said, “I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order.”

Jimmy Kimmel served as emcee this year and let’s just say, did no harm. I didn’t think his monologue was particularly funny but there were some chuckles. A serious moment, which I loved, came when he paused for a round of applause for the working-class people of Hollywood, the teamsters, crew members, who didn’t cross the picket lines during this year’s actor’s strike. I loved that nod of recognition but did not love the injection of politics.

The worst part of the show was during the In Memoriam segment. Andrea Bocelli and his son Matteo sang while dancers blocked the views of the deceased and their names. The singers and dancers should NOT have been the focal part of this segment, obviously, and fans were furious.

I’m a fan of Al Pacino and am sorry he was blamed for not naming all the best picture nominees. According to my sources, this was not his creative choice but rather the show’s producers who had decided to do this ahead of time. The reason being that the movies had already been promoted all throughout the show.

I was surprised to see Sean Lennon onstage since I haven’t seen or heard his name in years. He did, however, do something that I thought was sweet. He asked the Oscar audience to wish his mother Yoko Ono a happy 91^st birthday and they complied.

And, for the first time in Oscar history, each major category was presented by past Oscar winner friends of the nominees. They spoke from the heart about their nominee friends which gave us a better perspective on who they are as people and also added a certain poignancy to the show.

Bradley Cooper remained an Oscars loser, failing to take home a trophy for the 12^th time, this year for “Maestro.” The Best Actress race (which snubbed “Barbie” star Margot Robbie from the category) was a battle between Annette Bening (“Nyad”), Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”) and Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) with Stone taking home the win. (Love her)

I also loved the “pretend rivalry” between presenters Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”) and Ryan Gosling (“Barbie”). So clever and they’re both so adorable. And, like her or not, I thought Kim Kardashian’s commercial for her SKIMS line was genius.

I did NOT like the pretend streaker segment at all but loved the set design, red carpet coverage (I thought the E! Channels Laverne Cox was great as an interviewer, so well prepared.) She was the first transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy for her role in “Orange Is the New Black.”

And, lastly, I was thrilled Da’Vine Joy Randolph won for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the “The Holdovers.” We loved this quiet film and her role in it was key to its success, but I was very sorry Paul Giamatti didn’t win. Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”) was expected to win and did.

All in all, a satisfying show that didn’t have me jumping up and down or busting out the champagne. Semi-sigh. (See all winners here)