Even in somber moments, Oscar joy and optimism

Billy Crystal has strong moments at the Oscars, but none like this.
In a a eulogy for his friend, Rob Reiner, he did it all. It was sometimes funny, sometimes emotional, but always a celebration of a great life.
It included the professional — now-classic movies at the start of Reiner’s directing career — and the personal. With his wife Michelle, Reiner successfully championed progressive causes, including gay marriage;
That was part of the best (and busiest) in-memoriam stretch in Oscar history. It started with Reiner, paused in the middle for Diane Keaton, then closed with Robert Redford and the unexpected touch:
Barbra Streisand, a music perfectionist, has been reluctant to work live. But there she was, talking about her former co-star and then doing part of the song from their movie, “The Way We Were.”
Streisand also had some serious moments, of course. She pointed out that the film was set in the era of McCarthyism, when politics was consumed with hatred and accusations … as it is now.
Introducing the documentary category, Jimmy Kimmel said filmmakers struggle amid censorship attempts by some countries, “but I’m not allowed to say which ones.” He soon listed two of them: “North Korea and CBS.”
Kimmel also said documentaries are often about powerful issues and emotions … or “about walking around the White House looking at shoes.”
That reference — to the much-criticized Melania Trump documentary — was one of the night’s many quick digs at the president and the war. But mostly, this rippled with fun moments.
After three dreary years without a host, the Oscars bounced back with a three-host year and then some great solo hosts — first Kimmel for two years and now Conan O’Brien for two.
O’Brien had a strong opener, as usual, but also scattered clever, movie-oriented bits throughout the night. One showed classic films, re-edited with vertical scenes for phone; another brilliantly had a classic “Casablanca” scene, dumbed down with recaps for modern audiences.
A few things didn’t work. Most acceptance speeches were, as usual, blandly boring. The two songs were overly ambitious: For “I Lied to You,” the camera was often in the wrong place; for “Golden,” the sound-mix was off.
And some presenter bits — Bill Pullman with his son; a sort of “Moulin Rouge” reunion — also failed.
But mostly, the presenters were sharp. Kumail Najiani seemed genuinedly startled by O’Brien’s introduction as a guy “with the body of a Marvel Comics hero and the face of a Marvel Comics reader.” But he recovered and delivered a brilliant bit that proposed shorter versions of movies. “One Battle After Another,” for instance, would simply be”One Battle.”
As it happened, the whole night was a fun tug-of-war between that movies and “Sinners.” Two popular films (both on HBO Max) took turns winning.
Yes, I would have liked to see Timothee Chalamet win for his awesome work in “Marty Supreme” … just as I would have liked to see him win previously for his awesome work in “A Complete Unknown.”
But there were lots of worthy people, past and present, to honor. Oscar night, O’Brien pointed out, included people from 31 countries; their movies offer “that rarest of qualities today –optimism.”
Movies have a lot of optimism, joy, empathy of humanity. Americans, in the past, have overflowed with those qualities. It was the way we were.