The show must go on, but first!
Remember when movies were, quote unquote, good?
The Academy does. A very long — some may argue inordinately long — montage became one of the first divisive moments of the evening for viewers.
This isn’t the first time the Academy put together a montage of classic Oscar-winning movies for its award ceremony, but this year, it certainly felt like one of the longest. The montage was created by the Academy to celebrate 90 years of movie and Oscars history. While the effort was clearly appreciated by those watching in the audience, there’s no doubt it went on a little too long for us viewers at home.
Twitter became even more inundated with sarcastic groans and smart-alecky responses following the montage, thanks to film aficionados who took the montage as a reminder that cinema was once good, but no longer is.
Others tried to be the voice of optimism and love, celebrating the montage for reminding us that movies have always been good and will continue to be good.
Yes, they tried to remind us that the future of film is hopeful during the same year that The Boss Baby is up for an Oscar.
Look, we’re not here to rag on the Oscars — or movies as a whole. If we didn’t like movies, we wouldn’t be writing about them. We’re covering the Oscars because we love and believe in what movies can do for people all around the world.
We also, however, recognize that the Oscars are basically four hours long, leaving us with a limited amount of time to use the restroom, scarf down some pizza and post a pretty witty tweet without missing a second of it. It’s just that playing an extended montage when the message of the night is “please don’t take too long while accepting a speech” is kind of ironic, right?
It’s true: The first Oscars lasted 15 minutes from the beginning to end. Tonight’s Oscars will last a solid three-and-a-half hours, at least. It’s a Sunday. We have work and school tomorrow.
Please, save the montages for YouTube.
