Final words on Oscars 2019

The 91st Academy Awards were equal parts satisfying and infuriating. Just like always.

On the plus side, a legend, Spike Lee, finally won a competitive Oscar. While many people lamented Glenn Close’s loss in Best Actress, I was happy to see my favorite performance of the year, Olivia Colman in “The Favourite,” earn the prize instead.

And yes, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper crushed that performance of “Shallow.”

Anyone who followed my opinions about the Oscar season in this space already know my feelings about the success of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Green Book.” Those aren’t good movies for many different reasons, but the folks in the Academy obviously disagreed.

Rather than pile on the rage about “Green Book,” I’ll devote my final words on Oscar season to how this year’s ceremony might influence the future.

Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” might give Netflix what “Roma” couldn’t — a Best Picture win

Despite losing the top prize, Alfonso Cuaron’s masterpiece “Roma” did just fine on Sunday, scoring much deserved wins for Director, Cinematography and Foreign Language Film.

Many speculated that older members of the Academy didn’t want to vote for “Roma” in Best Picture because of its ties to Netflix, a streaming service that encourages users to stay home rather than visit a traditional movie theater (“Roma” did also screen in a few theaters, including the Magic Lantern in Spokane).

But the three Oscars it did win are nothing to scoff about. If voters were so down on Netflix, the movie probably wouldn’t have garnered as many nominations and wins as it did.

The loss may have more to do with its win in the Foreign Language category. No movie also nominated in that category has ever won Best Picture in the entire history of the Oscars. The logic goes like this — voters wanting to spread the love can feel good about voting for “Roma” in Best Foreign Language Film, then choose another favorite for Best Picture.

Nobody should feel bad for Netflix, for many, many reasons. I’m a huge fan of “Roma,” but I didn’t like how Netflix reportedly spent millions of dollars on an Oscar campaign while simultaneously canceling and/or under-promoting much of its other quality content (ask my wife how she feels about Netflix canceling the “Daredevil” TV series).

Best Picture might not even elude it much longer anyway. Martin Scorsese’s latest film, “The Irishman,” will drop on Netflix this fall, and Scorsese almost always factors into the Oscar game. The mob drama boasts the likes of Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci (!) and Al Pacino. Netflix is already promoting the project months ahead of release and are even discussing a wide theatrical release, so they obviously feel confident about its quality.

Say goodbye to the preferential ballot?

The wonky and confusing preferential ballot used to determine Best Picture is intended to select a movie with the broadest general support. It’s the only category where voters not only pick their favorite but also rank the other titles in the field. Basically, unless a movie earns at least 50 percent No. 1 votes in the first round of voting, how a movie performs down the ballot plays a big role in what determines Best Picture.

Now smarter people than me speculate that while “Roma” probably netted a large pool of No. 1 votes, the movie’s more divisive aspects (foreign language, black-and-white, the less-structured plot) also resulted in ballots where it ranked closer to the bottom. That leaves a movie scoring more consistently in the upper-half of the ballot a better chance to win Best Picture, even if it had fewer No. 1 votes.

Given the feel-good nature of “Green Book,” it’s a movie far less likely to be divisive to an average voter, and those problematic themes people like me have been complaining about for months are somewhat muffled by the film’s charismatic lead performances and snappy dialogue.

(This is my final disclaimer that it’s OK if you like “Green Book,” even if I think it’s one of the worst Best Picture winners ever. Agree to disagree.)

Regardless, the (mostly online) rage against “Green Book” might lead the Academy to consider a return to a less complicated voting system. Maybe “Green Book” still wins without a preferential ballot, maybe not, but I prefer a system where voters are forced to make a passionate choice. What’s the voter’s No. 1 pick? If nothing else, it would take some of this reckless speculation out of the process.

Dumping the preferential ballot and setting the Best Picture field at a clean 10 titles would also be nice. I liked those couple of years recently where we had 10 nominees, even when seemingly “lesser” movies like “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” occasionally made the cut. This year, movies like “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Widows,” “First Man” and “Eighth Grade” deserved a better chance to be in the Best Picture mix. Instead the category capped at eight … and really it capped at six if you just throw “Vice” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” in the garbage and never speak about them again. I’m not bitter at all …

Host or no host … whatever works

A good host can bring a lot to an Oscar telecast, but this year’s hostless affair went just fine. Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph provided enough good humor in their two minutes introducing the first category. We don’t need a 10-minute monologue every year.

The Oscars won’t ever hit Super Bowl ratings, so I wish the Academy and ABC didn’t fret so much about ways to attract a young audience. The young fans of “Black Panther” probably don’t care too much about it winning Oscars anyway, and with more than a billion dollars at the box office, Disney isn’t too concerned about the movie getting a financial “Oscar bump” from the telecast.

Let the Oscars be what they are to movie fans … sometimes satisfying, sometimes infuriating and ultimately something pretty much forgotten in a couple weeks. Does anybody even remember what movie won Best Makeup and Hairstyling this year?

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Tyler Wilson can be reached at [email protected]