It was a great half-hour, anyway

This year’s Academy Award show gave us 31 great minutes.
It also gave us 194 not-great (and, sometimes, not good at all) minutes. But at least we got something.
The great ones were at the very start. There was a musical burst from Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo that took an 85-year leap from “Over the Rainbow” to “Defying Gravity.”
Then came Conan O’Brien’s sharp monolog. (We’ll forgive his nasty mini-film that preceded it; O’Brien made up for that later with a terrific little film introducing younger generations to movie theaters.)
Even the first award was pleasant enough, because the presenter (Robert Downey Jr.) and winner (Kieran Culkin) are clever guys.
This was fun, and went a half-hour before the first commercial. Usually, that only happens with a disaster or a presidential speech.
But once we got back from the break, the Oscars skidded.
Yes, there were some cute mini-bits from O’Brien, announcer Nick Offerman and some of the presenters, including Bowen Yang and (especially) Ben Stiller. There was also a great musical tribute to James Bond films. But they were the exceptions.
Award speeches have often wandered into useless turfs – reading a list or reciting hollow bromides. Every actor is somehow “brave” or “generous”; every film is about the interwoven human condition.
It’s bad enough when those show up in acceptance speeches. But the show arbitrarily injected them elsewhere.
In some categories, there were one-by-one odes to each of nominee. A few people (John Lithgow, for instance) were clever; more sounded like a publicist with an English-lit degree and a thesaurus.
To make things worse, the nominated directors prattled on about what movie they thought they were making. Some seemed to think they were makine “Hamlet” or “Glass Menagerie,” when we thought these were films about giant worms or flying witches.
The nominated songwriters did the same. Ironically, that covered up our only chance to hear parts of their songs.
That sort of symbolized one of the frustrations.
Yes, it was good to hear “Over the Rainbow” and some James Bond songs. But that reminded us of the days when movies could propel great songs. Alas, this year’s nominated songs were dismissed.
And yes, it was great for the show to inject memories of James Bond and “The Wizard of Oz” and more. But that reminded us that most of this year’s nominees were in films many people had never heard of.
That’s why I ended up liking Sean Baker … eventually.
Baker, who made “Anora,” gavefour acceptance speeches. The first two (for editing and writing) were so-so; the fourth (best-picture) was brief, alongside other producers. But the third (original screenplay) was a gem.
Baker talked about the importance of movie theaters. He talked about the communal feeling of sharing laughs or gasps or silence.
He was right, of course, and there’s more to say. There’s the giant picture, the full sound and, more importantly, the richness of focusing on one thing and letting it wash over you.
Sean Baker did his job – making a low-budget ($6 million) movie that won five Oscars. Now we should do ours:
Go to a theater. Try a movie – I’m big on “Conclave,” “Wicked’ and “A Complete Unknown” – that seems appealing. Sit back and let it flow past you.
These films are made by people who have great talent – even if they are quite bad at giving acceptance speeches.