The Oscars were last night!

0:00Close your eyes. Focus. Listen to work getting done with Monday.com. Relax as AI does the manual work. While your teams are aligned on a single source of truth. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform. So flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Notice your limitless. Now open your eyes. Go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally breathe. This is a CBC podcast. Look, I don't know about you, but I'm feeling well rested and really refreshed this morning because the Oscars managed to end at a reasonable hour last night. The 98th Annual Academy Awards were handed out last night. And for Paul Thomas Anderson and one battle after another, it was one award after another. I'm El Amino Mahmoud and this is commotion. The group chats here. They have a lot of thoughts. Let's do this. Terry Hart is here. Ashley Ray is here. Bill Gabier is here. Hello, all of you.

1:04It's nice to have you here. Listen, we are going to start where the Oscars ended with, of course, the biggest award of the night. Have a listen to this. I just want to say that in 1975, the Oscar nominees for Best Picture were dog day after noon, one flew over the cook who's nest. Jaws, Nashville and Barry Lyndon. There is no best among them. There is just what that mood might be that day. But we're happy to be part of this. That's a nice bit of humility there. That's Paul Thomas Anderson accepting the Best Picture Oscar for one battle after another. One six awards last night, including two for PTA for directing and adaptive screenplay and a best supporting actor for for for Sean Penn and also, of course, the first ever Oscar for casting. Bill, I'm going to start with you on this one, pal. What, what do you think? Did the Oscars get it right in terms of best picture? They didn't, but they don't have to because the Oscars are their own ecosystem, right? The award season. It's is its own ecosystem.

2:07A lot of people tried to tell us that it was a very unpredictable best picture race. It was it was not one battle after another was the front runner since before it even premiered. And it won everything. I mean, it won every precursor like it won every precursor. So, you know, I appreciate the fact that a lot of people thought that there might be upsets and things like that. I wasn't seeing it. Now, it's not my favorite movie of the year. It doesn't eat. I like the film a lot. It didn't make my top 10 list. I don't think it's even in the top five of Paul Thomas Anderson's movies. But I'm so happy to see him. No, but I was so happy to see him win. After so many years of of not winning anything. I mean, my favorite movie of the year was Train Dreams. You're a Train Dreams guy. And it was also a best picture. Yeah. Yeah. But I will say that the thing that you're saying about the idea of one battle after another winning every precursor and not being a surprise. It was a surprise to me only in the sense of I like watching momentum, Ashley. And it felt like in the last little while, the momentum had shifted because it's one thing to say, like, that is a front runner. I think it has been the front runner for a really long time.

3:16But I think sinners had been picking up steam is because it was kind of becoming the sort of, you know, the popular vote choice, in a sense, like there was something energetically speaking about people turning towards sinners. So for you, Ashley, as you should have watched the outcome last night, what would you think of one bad after another still winning best picture after that? You know, I didn't feel it was the right choice. It wasn't my favorite movie, but it was the movie I thought would win. I mean, I don't think it's as egregious as say a green book or crash win. You know, it is at least a movie that I enjoyed watching. Again, I nodded my top 10 either. But it was one that that I was happy for Paul Thomas Anderson to finally win. I was very happy to see my root off every time they cut to him. Mostly happy for my root off. I was married to Paul Thomas Anderson, but some people learned that yesterday until I just did people did not know that they were wondering why she kept kissing that man. I love that they're married and they have children. Yes. So, you know, I think just as someone who loves Hollywood, it was a good year for giving those people who deserve it. They're okay at last Oscar.

4:23Yes. But I was a sinners person and I think after the BAFTA's sinners got a lot of sympathy and people were talking about the movie again and how you know we shouldn't be distracted from it. And I thought maybe that could give it an upset and be enough to like get those last minute Academy voters. But yeah, it didn't move. I think people just kind of opted out of the controversy and said I'm just going to pick a different movie. I want to acknowledge for both Belga and Ashley, do you know how many movies a year you have to see to not think that one bad after another is in your top 10? Like, I don't know how many movies you saw to the point where you're like, hey, one of the biggest movies and one of the most beloved movies by critics. And you guys are like, wouldn't make my top 10 because you guys see 4,000 movies a year and I love that about you. Terry, let me go to you. I do think like with this idea of momentum sort of turning with sinners. I think like hamnet had momentum coming out of tiff, you know, winning the people's choice. That momentum is shifting again to one bad after another. It ends up kind of maybe turning towards sinners. What do you what do you think ends up putting one battle over the top?

5:31I think that we can lean towards like an asop fairy tale here in terms of like, you know, strong and steady wins the race. Like, I think that that is what one battle did. It didn't have any controversy. I mean, it had some controversy, but it didn't have a Timothy Chalamet controversy. It didn't have and, you know, Paul Thomas Anderson is a really, really well liked person in Hollywood. I think we saw that last night. And, you know, Bilga talked about it had won everything leading up. I just want to like mention some of the things it had won. It won the BAFTA one critics choice. It won both directors and producers guild. It won writers guild. Paul, when you put it like that, you know, as Bilga said, like, yes, it was going to win. But then I think not only the momentum after the actor award win for Michael B. Jordan and also the BAFTAs for sinners, I think that also sinners 16 nominations.

6:34The fact that the headline and the nominations was that sinners broke nomination records. I think that that kind of took a certain kind of storyline from the Oscars away from one battle and after another. And they just kept their head down and kept on moving forward. I think that what changed it for me last night was when PTA won director. I was like, okay, this is where we're going. Because I really wasn't absolutely sure even listing all those things. I still had that like, you know, surprise me, Hollywood about me. First of all, I should say that like he's been around long enough for the people no longer say Paul Thomas Anderson, they just say PTA as you just did this there. And I think like it was significant to me that when the casting director for one battle after another one, the first, first ever Oscar for casting in her speech, she said, I can't believe I won before you because at that point, he had not yet won any Oscars. And I think he's been nominated. Yeah, and I think he's been nominated. He's like, he's not exactly like Diane Warren, but he's been nominated like 14 times. So it's not like he's like a newbie. Like Paul Thomas Anderson has been, as he said in one of his speeches last night, like you make a guy work hard for this. I really appreciate it.

7:50Worth noting, Diane Warren 0 for 17 now in terms of best song. She lost yesterday as well. She was in Lucie of Oscars. She had, she, yeah, the idea of like being nominated 17 times for best song and then losing 17 times. Next year is her hair. And then losing for a movie, for a song from a movie that is about her. About her. I don't keep it specifically about her. Okay. I want to talk about like, I understand that one bad after another is obviously the headline. And I want to talk about a moment that meant a lot to me watching this happen. This is a moment where we finally, this is a race we talked about a bunch on the show, which is a race for a best actor. And it was just a really emotional moment when this guy won right here. I stand here because of the people that came before me, Sydney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Howley Barry, Jamie Foxx, Forrest Whitaker, Will Smith, and to be amongst those giants, amongst those great, greats, amongst my ancestors, amongst my guys. Thank you everybody in this room and everybody at home for supporting me over my career. I feel it. I know you guys want me to do well.

8:56And I want to do that because you guys bet on me. So thank you for keeping them. For keeping betting on me. That is Michael B. Jordan winning the Oscar for best actor for his performance. I've both smoked and stacked in the movie centers. Actually, talking about that speech, man, would you make of that moment? I mean, it was incredible. I think we all love Michael B. Jordan. I mean, since the wire, that's flawless. That's our guy. That's my guy. You know, I love Friday night lights. I was live watching and I truly just started clapping and going since the wire like that. We've been wanting this boy to win. It's like we got to watch him grow up. I don't think anyone could be upset about his win. It did also to me feel kind of like a surprise after Sean Penn won for best supporting. I did not really expect Michael B. Jordan, even though you had been my front runner. So that they the Academy got it right to me. I think all of Hollywood was so happy seeing Jesse Clemens look on for his Friday night lights brother.

9:56Like that's what you hope for in these moments and his speech was just so beautiful. Just seeing how everyone in centers just looked at him with so much love. And that that's the moment you hope for first. I promised myself I wasn't going to do this on the air and then you brought it up. And now I have to do this on the air. But like Michael B. Jordan walking up the stage turning around scene Jesse Clemens. That is Vince and that is a Landry from Friday night lights. And that means something to me. Do you understand that means that to the people who were raised by Friday night lights a little bit. You know, like it was like all these guys. We watched them grow up in front of our eyes. And then you get to see this moment happen. And they turn to us each other and they acknowledge each other was just the loveliest thing in the world. Bill got after all the discourse has been surrounding this category, right? And the idea of like, hey, Timothy Shalamese, a front runner. Oh my god, two of these Shalamese no longer the front runner. Were you were you happy with this outcome? I was. You know, I feel like I would have been happy with any of the outcomes. But I was probably happiest with this one. I mean, it was such a stacked category, right? I mean, heavy weights truly every single one of those performances.

10:58Exactly. Would we have been like super upset if Wagner Morrow won? Would you have been super upset if Ethan Hawke won? I wouldn't have even been upset if Leonardo DiCaprio won. And he's like the one name in that category that I'd replace with Joel Edgerton, frankly. Yes. I have to be more trained. Number one trained dream stand, Bill Gabiri. Yes. But it was a great category. I mean, I actually felt similarly about best supporting actor. Those were the two categories that were the most unpredictable in a way. That sort of seemed to drive a lot of discourse. And honestly, I would have been happy with any of those nominees winning. But Michael V. Jordan, I mean, it's great. I, you know, he's not just a great actor. I have to keep saying that he's also a great director. Like Crete 3 is a great movie. Yes. Yes. And, and so he's one of these people like every time I see him, I'm like, oh, this guy is not just really good, but he's like going to do really great things. You know, like, I mean, they honored Robert Redford last night. And, you know, there's a bit of that to him.

11:59Like he could, I can see him becoming like one of our great filmmakers. I mean, he's already made one really good movie. But like, you know, if he keeps at it, like he can really balance that popular appeal with like really intelligent work throughout his career. And I completely, completely agree. Like that is a career that people have been watching for a minute just because he's been making very intelligent deliberate choices. As he sort of moves through this career and you kind of go, oh, you just want to see that rewarded as much as possible. No, no, I would say the best actor category. That was the most sort of intensely contested. And people kind of going back and forth in terms of who's going to win. There was one category where everyone was like, we're pretty sure we know exactly who's going to win. And that is the winner from Best Actors category. It's Mother's Day in the UK today. So I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother's heart.

13:00We all come from a lineage of women who continued to create against all odds. That was Jesse Buckley accepting her Best Actors Oscar for a Hamlet last night. Terry, truly a foregone conclusion. But also, I think a deserved one. What was your reaction to that one? Yes and yes. Okay. She was foregone conclusion and absolutely deserved. I mean, every time you see a clip of Hamlet that close up of Jesse Buckley's face with Tearshoom, you're dead. Like you're dead. You're out. You cannot deal with it. And she is, I also think Paul Muscow was great in that movie. And I think he's actually quite underrated for what he does in that movie. Because she is just like a monster of performance in Hamlet. And so I think when somebody is such a lock, unlike those actor categories supporting and lead, Jesse was such a lock. I think you wonder like, can they act surprise? Like how are they going to handle this? And she was perfect. I mean, head and hands, immediately burst into tears, takes the stage.

14:04And she did in her speech what I love when actors do, which is they weave their personal experience with that of the character that they've played. And I just love when they've crafted a speech so well between it being, and we just heard her say that it's Mother's Day in the UK. Her looking at her husband and saying she wants to have 20,000 more babies with him. And then she ends her speech speaking in Gaelic, which I think is so, it's such a, it's such a subtle but important reminder of the times we're living in right now. And it really resonated with me very that that was such a choice for her. So I think we're going to see Jesse Beckley on the Oscar stage a lot in her career. She will go on to have many, many more excellent performances. Like Michael B. Jordan, I think we saw two people win best actor and actors that we are going to see for a long time in this industry. Yeah, people seem to take the craft seriously and also the idea that they've arrived at their moment

15:08and they want to use that for good. I think that's exactly the reaction that I get out of that Jesse Buckley speech. Terry, let me ask you, were you excited to see any other wins? Like how did Canadians do last night? Yeah, arms up. It was a big night. Let's go. It was a big night for Canada. You know, we do well in the animation categories and we did very well in the animation categories last night. Animated short film, The Girl Who Cryed Pearls. One, that's an NFB doc. We also won. I don't know if people know if they don't where they've been. They're about to find out. Tell them. Yeah, the director of the mega mega mega hit, K-Pop Demon Hunters, is Canadian. Yeah. Megan Kang. And so to see her there after seeing her through this award circuit was truly a thrill. And then Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro basically has taken up Toronto as his production city. He makes his movies in Toronto. So we had a couple of Canadians win for a makeup and hair styling for Frankenstein and also production design for Frankenstein. I mean, we always talk about those big six categories, but it is worth noting how well Frankenstein represented in these under the line categories.

16:15Yeah. I mean, it is obviously so hugely respected. And that is not just the people who are leading those departments, but so many Canadians working on that movie in Toronto. Yeah. And I think that, you know, that is something that in this business, in this city, we have been working towards. And when we have a filmmaker like Guillermo del Toro adopt a city like Toronto, it is because of the artists and the craft people that are working on these movies. So congratulations to everybody who worked on Frankenstein. Okay. I want to take a break there. And then when we come back, we're going to talk about how Conan did because he's a, he's hosted for the second year in a row. But first, a break. If you work in university maintenance, Granger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Granger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place from HVAC and plumbing supplies to lighting and more and all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock. So your team always gets the win.

17:15Call 1800 Granger, visit Granger.com or just up by Granger for the ones who get it done. Hi, I'm Jamie Poisson and I host the Daily News podcast front burner. And lately, I'll see a story about I don't know political corruption or something and think during a normal time, we'd be talking about this for weeks. But then it's almost immediately overwhelmed by something else. On front burner, we are trying to pull lots of story threads together so that you don't lose a plot. So you can learn how all these threads fit together. Follow front burner wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, we are back. I'm Elimine Abdel-Mahmoud and this is commotion and Terry Hart is here and Bill Geberi's here and Ashley Ray's here. And we are talking about last night's Oscars. And I want to take a moment to talk about Conan O'Brien, Conan O'Brien, of course, back for a second year in a row hosting the Oscars. And I just want to play you this little bit of his opening monologue. It's the first time since 2012. First time since 2012 that there are no British actors nominated for best actor or best actress.

18:21Yeah. British spokesperson said, yeah, well at least we arrest our pedophiles. So we got that going. Ashley, listen, I like Conan under pressure. I'm not sure I felt him under pressure yesterday. How do you know, how do you, what do you make of his performance last night? I thought Conan did great. He definitely, you know, I think people thought he'd maybe go a little bit harder with all of the paramount announcements that have been going on and everything additional with Trump. And I, you know, living in LA, I was actually pretty lucky. I got to see Conan run a lot of his jokes for the Oscars around town. He loves to like go to just small comedy shows and practice the jokes. Yeah. And a lot of it was about, you know, actors. It was about just what was actually going on in the movies. And I kind of appreciated that. I felt like they let other moments be political. We had Jimmy Kimmel come out and of course he did his thing. And I think they knew a lot of the winners would obviously make statements.

19:21So I felt Conan did a great job going with his usual just out there weirdness. And then it did feel for some reason like a messier Oscars. There were a lot of just messed up camera cues and people's microphones disappearing in the middle of their speeches. And Conan did a great job making fun of that. And just leaning into the awkwardness of like the camera cutting to him. And I loved all of those moments. And I think with a different host, maybe they would not have been a smooth. I think my favorite moment was like when they came out from commercial and he was just standing there. And they were like, oh, are we back? All right. And it was genuinely just like a beautiful Conan moment that anyone else would have made that really, really awkward. Bill, go overall, was it a good time watching this Oscars, do you think? It was. And one of the things that really struck out at me was how kind of serene and centered the show was. Despite, you know, the various like glitches and things like that.

20:21Yeah. I think, you know, in a weird way, I think the fact that the show has been sold to YouTube and is going to be on YouTube. Start 28, yeah. Yeah. I think that that actually has liberated them a little bit because they're no longer desperately trying to appeal to some dumb ABC exec. And whether they might like show the acts or some crazy thing like that. Right. So there was this weird sense like the show, my favorite bit was the very, very last bit they did, which was. Yeah, which was a, which was a, you know, take off a take off on the ending of one battle after another. Yeah. And then, um, and then it opened with a take off on the ending of weapons. And then the, um, the best editing clip was a shot of Sean Penn getting his face blown off in one battle after another. And what does that tell you? That tells you these Oscars were not worried about people who hadn't watched the movies. They were not worried about spoiler alerts. They were like, this is a show for all you people who bothered to see the movies. And I love that about it. Yeah.

21:21I completely agree. I do think like that last bit was risky in terms of like sort of playing off one battle after another. But then they do the little switch to the names. You know, like the next house is going to be Mr. Beast. And I got a little bit of a laugh out of that. It's like acknowledging the eventual YouTube future. Also, the Jane Lynch bits were actually incredible. More Jane Lynch bits and everything. Okay. I want to move on to another highlight for a lot of people last night. Let's hear this. I'm so honored to be here. And I really want all the women in the room to stand up. Because I feel like I don't get here without you guys. I really, really truly mean that. Okay. So that was Autumn Dirt Archipa. And she's accepting the award for best cinematography for her work on sinners. Unbelievable work on that movie. But also that makes her the first woman in the history of this award. 98 year history of the Academy Awards. The first woman to ever win best cinematography. Ashley, how do you feel seeing that?

22:21I loved it. I was really, really hoping she would win. Yeah. For me, sinners was the clear winner for cinematography. I just thought it was such a beautiful movie. And I think, you know, when you are a film critic and you are a woman and you grow up a lot of around and you grow up around a lot of film bros. They all sort of see cinematography as the manly thing. It's the thing that you really, oh, well, you like directors. I know cinematography. And it just does seem very male dominated. So to see Autumn win. I for something that to me is also just so different and her vision. And it is so clear. I just am so happy. I think, you know, as the Oscars changes, I hope we see more nominations like this. I hope Hollywood realizes we can trust more people in their visions than maybe those standard names you see on the list. I will say, I don't know how you see sinners and see that scene and everyone knows exactly what scene I'm talking about. And you go, like, oh, who else could possibly win, you know, best cinematography?

23:23With respect to the road scene in one battle after another, you know, still that scene and sinners sort of takes the cake for me. Okay, I want to play a clip from last night's winners of the best documentary category, which is Mr. Mr. Nobody against Putin. Here's the co-director David Bornstein. Mr. Nobody against Putin is about how you lose your country. And what we saw when working with this footage that you, it's that you lose it through countless small little acts of complicity. When we act complicit, when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities. When we don't say anything, when oligarchs take over the media and control how we could produce it and consume it. Bill, it's not lost on me that these Oscars come on the heels of the Grammy Awards, which were actually relatively political. Like a lot of artists end up using the platform to talk about the current political situation in the US. How did that energy show up last night at the Oscars? It showed up less than I thought it would. Honestly, I thought there would be more sort of political speeches and things like that.

24:24But there was a bit of it. And, you know, what there was was actually quite telling. I mean, the most notable for me was Javier Bardem getting up there. And, you know, declaring free Palestine and also calling for an end to war. But also doing it in such a way because he knows that when people do that, they can often come off as kind of unscripted and awkward. He came out and he said it almost like it was part of the script, which I thought was beautiful. But also he was wearing his Nuala Guerra pen that he wore in 2003 to the Goya Awards. So, and, you know, it was very much a sense of we've been here before. We'll probably wind up here again. I thought that was very, I mean, it was subtle, but I thought that was beautifully done. You know, there were some people who wanted Paul Thomas Anderson to be more political in his speeches. And I would have loved that too. But I think the film is very clear where it stands politically. Like, I don't think he really had to say more than what's in the film itself.

25:25But yeah, I mean, I was hoping for a little more politics. But then again, some of the films were political in that sense. And sometimes what happens is the people who didn't make political work feel the need to maybe be more political in their speeches and then vice versa, you know. I completely agree with that idea of the politics sort of like being all present throughout so many of the best picture winners. Best picture nominees and like the big films of the moment to the point where like if you make sinners, right? If you make one bad after another, you don't need to hit the politics on the head because you actually have already made the movie that directly sort of addresses that. I am, I have so many more questions, but I'm out of time. So I got to let you guys go. I really appreciate you guys being here. This has been really wonderful. Thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate it. This is an entertainment reporter for Super Channel in Toronto. Ashley Ray is a comedian and podcaster in Los Angeles. And Bill Gates is a film critic for Vulture in New Haven, Connecticut. My name is Alamine Abdu Mahmoud.

26:25This show is called Commotion. You should absolutely just go out and watch all of the best picture nominees. Bill Geltelia, start with Train Dreams. Okay, have a good day. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.