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The Highs, Lows, and Whoas of the 2024 Oscars


Is this a show for everyone or just the diehards? Is Hollywood back and better than ever or has it lost its sense of identity?

In his acceptance speech for The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer explicitly framed his comments about Israel and Gaza as the Jewish director of a film about the Holocaust: “All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present,” he said. The ceremony really drew out our anticipation by scheduling every other performance before Gosling’s, but they were all distinct: Jon Batiste with just a piano; Billie Eilish and Finneas at the bottom half of a hot-pink circle that slid open to reveal an orchestra above them; the Osage Tribal Singers shot from above, as they are at the end of Killers of the Flower Moon, to show their percussive drum work. It’s a much-repeated cliché that showier performances win Oscars over more subtle ones, but the reality is that reading the anonymous voters’ testimonials this awards season indicated troubling backlash to the sense that Gladstone was a shoo-in.

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