The Oscars: The Evil of Banality

Enough has been said about Will Smith and "toxic masculinity." So I'm going to talk about what truly ruined last night and the Academy Awards in general. Oscar banality. Even the winning Brits were dull last night. Like Kenneth Branagh, who could've -- should've -- tied Ukraine to the Troubles in Northern Ireland (which his film "Belfast" sugarcoated.) When the celebrities did try to get topical on Ukraine etc., it was embarrassing. Like co-host Amy Schumer's head-scratcher: "There's a genocide going on in Ukraine and women are losing all their rights ... and trans people." Huh?

The Hollywood winners were typically, predictably stupid and dull in their victory speeches. The winner of the Best Adapted Screenplay Award for "Coda" burbled on inanely, thanking a laundry list of people (can winners be limited to three thank-yous?) and gushing about how "amazing" the award was. And she's a writer?

Acceptance speeches should be witty and well-crafted. After all, these people work in the fucking ENTERTAINMENT business. But we were neither entertained nor amused nor moved by ANY of the victory speeches last night.

Even the rehearsed moments of the Oscar ceremony last night were lame. Take the "In Memoriam" segment -- please. A faceless choir sang generic gospel-type music while a screen in the remote distance showed the small faces of those Hollywood luminaries who passed away in the past year. What is usually a moving requiem was simply annoying and distracting -- and undecipherable.

In short, the show is a mess. Yes, as Ross Douthat wrote in the New York Times on Sunday, the movies themselves have gotten smaller. (Or more pumped up on superhero testosterone.) But the ceremony has also been badly produced for years.

Instead of modernized and energized for the new era, the Oscars have become performative and politically correct -- and even more dull and empty.

Not even the slap heard 'round the world could save the evening from its own torpor.