Ke Huy Quan must have suspected that he would win the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. It was Hollywood’s worst-kept secret, which loves comeback stories. The actor of Everything Everywhere All at Once was already in tears at the mention of the finalists. He was still in tears backstage ten minutes later, accompanied by fellow Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis. Quan moved audiences at the Dolby Theater to a standing ovation, decades after Hollywood more or less ousted the Goonies and Indiana Jones child actor from its ranks. “This is the American Dream!” “said the actor, who arrived in the United States after fleeing Vietnam by boat and spending a year in a refugee camp. “I almost gave up on my dream. Keep your dreams alive! »
We wondered how Jimmy Kimmel, at the helm of his third Oscars, was going to evoke the famous slap in the face of Will Smith last year. He did so by gently poking fun at the Oscars in his opening monologue: “If there’s something violent going on, we’ll do like last year: we’ll give you an Oscar and let you go.” a 19 minute speech! He also poked fun at James Cameron’s lack of humility, wondering if the filmmaker’s absence from the Avatar gala had to do with being snubbed in the Best Director category. “Maybe we thought it was a woman?” Kimmel did not intervene too often or too long, with the good-natured humor that we know from him and which suited this long evening rather well.
David Byrne donned sausage fingers while singing This Is a Life from Everything Everywhere All at Once, the cast of RRR came up with a rousing number worthy of Bollywood – and the film’s ‘braces dance’ – in support of the song Naatu Naatu and Rihanna was accompanied by an orchestra and backing vocals to sing Lift Me Up by Black Panther. But Lady Gaga, who was however not announced, stole the show among the artists invited to push the note on the stage of the Dolby Theater. “You may find that you can be your own hero. Even if you feel broken,” she said, before singing with great emotion and intensity Hold My Hand, taken from Top Gun: Maverick. A raw, stripped down and intimate vocal turn, which (almost) made us forget a few less in tune notes.
John Travolta nearly lost his voice, knotted with emotion, as he presented the tribute to the fallen, which included his friend and Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John. “Friends we will always remain hopelessly devoted to,” he said, using the lyrics and title of a famous song from the film. Lenny Kravitz, who does not seem to age, sang while accompanying himself on the piano while we saw the many artists and craftsmen of the cinema who disappeared in 2022, including Jean-Luc Godard, James Caan and Rachel Welch. There were, however, great forgotten: Monica Vitti, Antonioni’s muse, as well as Jean-Louis Trintignant, one of the last giants of cinema of the last half-century. A detail. And people will tell me that the Oscars are not American-centric…
“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope. It’s proof that dreams do come true,” said Michelle Yeoh, who became the first Asian comedian to win the Best Actress Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once. “And ladies,” she added, “never let anyone tell you that the best is behind you. The hilarious film from Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, 11-time finalist and big favorite, has taken on quite a challenge in the past year: to give meaning to the overused term “crazy”. The two co-writers and co-directors brightened up an evening that somewhat mocked the American right. Daniel Scheinert said that “dressing as a drag queen was not a threat to anyone”. Kin toe, Ron DeSantis!
