But for now, the 88th Academy Awards have been put to bed, and the show — in addition to being one of the most well-tuned and least boring in years — may have opened the door to a somewhat brighter future. Host Chris Rock spun out a brilliant gag about the racism of Hollywood, explaining that it isn’t “burning-cross racist” but “sorority racist,” as in: “We like you, Rhonda, but you’re not a Kappa.” But he also spoke astutely to the idea of boycotting — as in, how is not showing up going to help anything? His opening monologue and all the interstitial riffs that followed — including the moment he brought out a troop of Girl Scouts, all of them young women of color, who fanned out into the audience to sell their Tagalongs and Trefoils — opened a valve on the steaming-hot diversity issue. Within minutes of taking the stage, he’d let us all know that it was O.K. to enjoy the show — but also that we should all be ashamed if nothing has changed in the industry by the time next year’s nominations roll around.
While it’s probably unduly optimistic to call 2015 the last hurrah of superwhite Hollywood, it’s certainly possible to envision something different next year, and an even more changed landscape the year after that — by that time, maybe we’ll see more evidence of casting directors’ and filmmakers’ thinking more broadly about who belongs in that sorority. As it stands now, though, the 2016 Academy Awards was a fairly typical jumble of expected winners and pleasant upsets. The night’s biggest surprise was that Spotlight, a beautifully crafted movie built on a bedrock of terrific performances, took Best Picture over the more showboating front-runner The Revenant. Alejandro González Iñárritu took home so many Oscars last year for Birdman, the audience may as well have just stayed in their seats to watch him take yet more for The Revenant, which also won for Emanuel Lubezski’s cinematography and, of course, Leonardo DiCaprio’s lead performance, as a trappers’ guide left for dead in the western wilderness of the 1820s. No one was surprised about that win, either, but you also got the sense that everyone was happy for him. (DiCaprio has been nominated six times, but this was his first win.)
Earlier in the evening, though, it looked as if The Revenant might be nosed out by George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, which took a whopping six awards (including editing, sound editing and costume design). Alicia Vikander’s Best Supporting Actress win (for The Danish Girl) and Brie Larson’s Best Actress award (for Room) seem to follow the Jennifer Lawrence mode of young actresses who break out very quickly — not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Mark Rylance was terrific in Steven Spielberg’s solid and rather underappreciated Bridge of Spies, and he gave a lovely, gracious speech as well — he praised his fellow nominees, in a straightforward way, and asserted, “It’s a wonderful time to be an actor.” Still, count me among the millions who were disappointed not to see Sylvester Stallone get the award for his role in Creed. What might that speech have been like? And what’s it like, anyway, to go from being a mumbling Expendable wearing too much oversize silver jewelry to becoming an Oscar front-runner? Maybe Stallone’s almost-win is as good as the real thing. It’s the kind of comeback few of us would have predicted for him.
But for me, the best and most gratifying award of the evening was Ennio Morricone’s win for the galloping, mischievously sinister-sounding score he wrote for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. The picture is problematic in all sorts of ways, but Morricone’s score is just about perfect. Astonishingly, this is the first Academy Award Morricone, 87, has received for a specific score. (He was given an honorary award, for his body of work, in 2007.) To watch him take the stage, clearly ready to cry as he prepared to give his speech, is to be reminded why we watch this awards show year in, year out, putting up will all manner of frustration, boredom and outright disgust. Sometimes, among the winners, there are tears that make you roll your eyes — melodramatic actresses who jabber on about how they can’t believe they won, and the like. And other times there are tears from people who have poured their whole lives into work that has given the world great joy, movie after movie, year after year. Sometimes one thing goes right in the universe, and it just happens to be at the Oscars.
Next year, if all goes well, maybe we’ll see a different kind of right thing.
Oscars 2016: Celebrities on the Red Carpet
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Steve Granitz—Getty ImagesCate Blanchett attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Valerie Macon—Getty ImagesLady Gaga attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Jeff Kravitz—Getty ImagesAlicia Vikander attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Todd Williamson—Getty ImagesBrie Larson attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Jason Merritt—Getty ImagesOlivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Jason Merritt—Getty ImagesSylvester Stallone and Jennifer Flavin attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Todd Williamson—Getty ImagesRooney Mara attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Todd Williamson—Getty ImagesMatt Damon and Luciana Barroso attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Jeff Kravitz—Getty ImagesSaoirse Ronan attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Jason Merritt—Getty ImagesChrissy Teigen and John Legend attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Todd Williamson—Getty ImagesRachel McAdams attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Jason Merritt—Getty ImagesMichael Keaton attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Jeff Kravitz—Getty ImagesBryan Cranston and Robin Dearden attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif. Todd Williamson—Getty ImagesJennifer Garner attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Todd Williamson—Getty ImagesEniko Parrish and Kevin Hart attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Jason Merritt—Getty ImagesMargot Robbie attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Todd Williamson—Getty ImagesSacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Jason Merritt—Getty ImagesMindy Kaling attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.George Pimentel—Getty ImagesMichael Fassbender attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif. Valerie Macon—Getty ImagesHannah Redmayne and Eddie Redmayne attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Steve Granitz—Getty ImagesAbraham Attah attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Steve Granitz—Getty ImagesJordyn Blum and Dave Grohl attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Jeff Kravitz—Getty ImagesJared Leto attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Jason Merritt—Getty ImagesJennifer Jason Leigh attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Steve Granitz—Getty ImagesSophie Turner attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Steve Granitz—Getty ImagesJimmy Napes and Sam Smith attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Todd Williamson—Getty ImagesPriyanka Chopra attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Kevin Mazur—Getty ImagesCharlotte Riley and Tom Hardy attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.George Pimentel—Getty ImagesSofia Vergara attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Steve Granitz—Getty ImagesCharlotte Rampling attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Steve Granitz—Getty ImagesCharlize Theron attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Lester Cohen—Getty ImagesJuliet Rylance attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif. Ethan Miller—Getty ImagesBenicio Del Toro attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Steve Granitz—Getty ImagesDaisy Ridley attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Jeff Kravitz—Getty ImagesNaomi Watts and Liev Schreiber attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Valerie Macon—Getty ImagesJacob Tremblay attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Steve Granitz—Getty ImagesWhoopi Goldberg attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Jason Merritt—Getty ImagesDorith Mous attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.George Pimentel—Getty ImagesTina Fey attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Todd Williamson—Getty ImagesKerry Washington attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Jason Merritt—Getty ImagesThe Weeknd attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Todd Williamson—Getty ImagesAlejandro Iñárritu and Maria Eladia Hagerman attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Todd Williamson—Getty ImagesOlivia Munn attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Valerie Macon—Getty ImagesChristian Bale and Sibi Blazic attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Steve Granitz—Getty ImagesSarah Silverman attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Jeff Kravitz—Getty ImagesKate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif. Jeff Kravitz—Getty ImagesAmy Poehler attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif. Jeff Kravitz—Getty ImagesHeidi Klum attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif. Kevin Mazur—Getty ImagesNancy Carell and Steve Carell attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif. Ethan Miller—Getty ImagesPharrell Williams and Helen Lasichanh attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif. Kevin Mazur—Getty ImagesPatricia Arquette attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif. Todd Williamson—Getty ImagesEmily Blunt attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif. Jeff Kravitz—Getty ImagesJason Segel and Alexis Mixter attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif. Steve Granitz—Getty ImagesSandy Powell attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Valerie Macon—Getty Images