Here we have the 2022 edition of the "EE British Academy Film Awards", better known as BAFTAs, and the focus was on film this time of course. It took place last night and I just watched a recording of the show, so my memory is still very fresh for sure. In any case, this was the 75th BAFTAs, so a special occasion, but unfortunately the show was not even close to being worth and fitting the occasion. Details shall follow later. I will just do some brainstorming for now what stayed most in the mind for me. Of course, the opening was nice with Shirley Bassey showing up with a Bond tribute. She is not Tom Jones, but still one of the better, if not best inclusions of the night. The entire ceremony went for two hours. I am not sure if there were commercials, just add another half hour roughly if so. The host was Rebel Wilson and she hit the nail on the head during her opening monologue when asking the audience why would she host. Not because she is Australian or "from the bush" (what?), but because she is just not particularly talented. I mean I could have accepted Melissa McCarthy. Wilson probably stayed in the mind of the producers with a previous inclusion at the show that seemingly made them think she could also be a good host. Totally not and she proved it. For every okay or good moment, there were three or four weak moments with her. Her opening monologue was already a massive disappointment. She lost the moment she showed us a photo of herself on the big screen from when she had a lot more weight two years ago or so. That was so embarrassing. Just like the jokes she made to direct the attention away from herself again, the attention she was (not so) secretly looking for though. Of course, she then had to emphasize she would never lose weight for a man and instead focused on the still terrible working/casting conditions for women in the industry. All as expected. I was also not too happy about the verbal salutation she addressed the audience with, but that is something everybody will perceive differently. The big applause was even worse.
Then here and there she took the routine to make fun of her big movie flop Cats. The first joke was already enough, the second try-hard then. The segment with the Benedict Cumberbatch cake could have been a much better inclusion, maybe one of the comedic highlights of the evening, but she botched that too unfortunately. Her low point was maybe the mention of Armie Hammer linked to Kenneth Branagh. Big thumbs-up to Branagh from me for looking beyond the public and focusing on art instead when deciding who to cast for his films. As for Wilson, I did like the little shot she took at Will Smith or I should say his wife. Unthinkable really if Smith had constantly had sexual affairs with young girls while being married. The public would probably hate him, but the other way around it is accepted. Sigh. I felt that Wilson was channeling her inner Ricky Gervais here and there and also became a bit controversial. Or most of the time it stayed the attempt basically because from a talent perspective I should not even mention her in the same sentence like Gervais. It is pretty sad what the BAFTAs have turned into in recent years from the hosting perspective. Surely, it is almost impossible to replace a national treasure like Stephen Fry, but they easily could to find somebody better than Wilson who was kinda okay in the second half, but still overall quite flawed. What was with her over-the-top laughing every time she moved aside for a presenter? Mouth wide open. Pure cringe. You could not hear it, but see it. Why not go for Gervais? Not sure if he'd be interested though. So much for the hosting. Next year please no Wilson. Even her pre-recorded segments were fairly awful and unfunny. And also please not again the one who took over directly after Fry. As for the ceremony itself: Well, the big winner was once again The Power of the Dog, a criminally overrated agenda movie these days that should never win all these awards. Campion's win is not a revelation either, but at least she was not horrible as a director. As a writer probably, but luckily there the film did not win.
Paul Thomas Anderson finally winning his first BAFTA was a true moment of glory and it would be absolutely amazing if he could repeat at the Oscars. There he will surely be present. I think he has a double-digit amount of Academy Award nominations already, so high time he takes it, even if there's other films from him I probably prefer over Licorice Pizza. I personally found it interesting to see a German win and he surely has good chances at the Oscars too. I think it was for Dune in the Best Visual Effects category. In any case, it happened to be a category that was part of the broadcast. I still find it extremely questionable that they rush in so many wins and acceptance speeches (or segments, not even the entire speech) at the very end and this is not how it should be handled. Disrespectful. The really bad news is that the Oscars are following suit this year kind of. Let's look a little bit more at the winners: If Cumberbatch cannot beat Will Smith here, then the Oscar is also safe now for Smith surely, even if Richard Williams also has a big London (i.e. Wimbledon) connection through his daughters. Best Actress category looked very chaotic. No Oscar nominees nominated. I mean I cannot say anything about the winner, but it looks more like a film and performance that fit the mainstream nicely than real movie art. Maybe I'll watch it one day. I am sure she was better than Lady Gaga though. The way Gaga presented herself last night was utterly embarrassing once again. Gets worse and worse. And I thought "A Star is Born" was the negative highlight. Lowlight, does one say that? Supporting actress was basically decided before this ceremony, nothing to add here. Supporting Actor Troy Kotsur also seems to be right on course to Oscar glory now and Kodi Smith-McPhee's momentum is long gone. Hopefully, the momentum for Power of the Dog can also still disappear, but I doubt it. Lead actress is probably very interesting. Chastain, Kidman, Colman all not a factor here and Stewart was surprisingly not even nominated. Still no love for Lady Di from the Brits.
By the way, I just mentioned Troy Kotsur and surely I agree why not a deaf James Bond? If we talk about his ethnicity (please no Kaluuya), then we can also talk about other aspects. Or let's maybe just talk about talent, that would be the most reasonable way. I have not (yet) seen CODA, but if this is the film to pose the biggest competition to Power of the Dog, I happily take it. Unfortunately, politics also played a role again. I never like that at these events, but at least it was less than I thought. You can think of Putin what you want, but giving him (or anybody) the middle finger in front of millions of people is as low as it gets. Typical Rebel Wilson movie. I wish she could have had other moments and inclusions like what she had to say about The Rock's salary for some movie. I am sure some people (maybe including herself) will find a reference to salary equality there too. Anyway, this was also not really Wilson or a strong delivery, but the line was just funny. Back to the awards: Summer of Soul winning here means pretty much that Flee will not manage the Oscar upset. There seemed to be some momentum for Flee lately, but it's difficult to see it win in America if it can't win in the UK. Oh yes, politics. I was not done yet. What's his name? The Gollum (and Planet of the Apes) actor of course also had to get in some political agenda here. I am not surprised. I think I came across him with something similar in the past, so kinda expected. Oh yeah, Serkis is the name of course. Best Foreign Language Feature is also really decided and more love to Asia this time. I did not think "Drive My Car" was this convincing to be honest, at least not that it would fit all the love it got, but for Hamaguchi I am still happy. We'll see if he will make international films too at some point. So lots of interpreting going on here as well, for Japanese and mute people this time. We could very well see the same at the Oscars.
One really disrespectful component I must mention is about the in-memoriam segment. How can they sometimes show one photo of a dead person on the screen and then put in two on other occasions? Couldn't get any more tasteless. On a completely different note, I think also British movie they split the nominees into two and I have no idea what was on their mind. This plus the rushed-in winners in the last ten minutes was just truly bizarre. Many poor decisions here. Why ten nominations for Best British Film? What also surprised me, but did not bother me too much was that there was no special ceremony this time at the end what they usually do when Prince William or so shows up and they pick one especially deserving Brit for a royal honor. I never cared about that, so it's okay. Bigger flaws were elsewhere. Prince William did show up briefly though through a video message. Okay, that is almost it then. No Best Song here, so no Eilish win, but Emilia Jones gave a pretty good music performance. Still, this evening was not about the music and that's the right decision. Focus must be on the awards. Otherwise, I maybe would have taken away another two stars. I feel that four out of ten is still on the generous side. It was not a good presentation with a sometimes atrocious host and also slightly ridiculous winners here and there, especially in terms of the big prize of the night. Dune winning the most trophies was also so-so, not that great of a film. Probably overcame 007 more than once. Rebel Wilson's Tom Hiddleston final quote was just a good summary of her hosting that night. Simply not funny. Overall, watch Bassey's opening performance. Then switch off. Thank you, next.
Then here and there she took the routine to make fun of her big movie flop Cats. The first joke was already enough, the second try-hard then. The segment with the Benedict Cumberbatch cake could have been a much better inclusion, maybe one of the comedic highlights of the evening, but she botched that too unfortunately. Her low point was maybe the mention of Armie Hammer linked to Kenneth Branagh. Big thumbs-up to Branagh from me for looking beyond the public and focusing on art instead when deciding who to cast for his films. As for Wilson, I did like the little shot she took at Will Smith or I should say his wife. Unthinkable really if Smith had constantly had sexual affairs with young girls while being married. The public would probably hate him, but the other way around it is accepted. Sigh. I felt that Wilson was channeling her inner Ricky Gervais here and there and also became a bit controversial. Or most of the time it stayed the attempt basically because from a talent perspective I should not even mention her in the same sentence like Gervais. It is pretty sad what the BAFTAs have turned into in recent years from the hosting perspective. Surely, it is almost impossible to replace a national treasure like Stephen Fry, but they easily could to find somebody better than Wilson who was kinda okay in the second half, but still overall quite flawed. What was with her over-the-top laughing every time she moved aside for a presenter? Mouth wide open. Pure cringe. You could not hear it, but see it. Why not go for Gervais? Not sure if he'd be interested though. So much for the hosting. Next year please no Wilson. Even her pre-recorded segments were fairly awful and unfunny. And also please not again the one who took over directly after Fry. As for the ceremony itself: Well, the big winner was once again The Power of the Dog, a criminally overrated agenda movie these days that should never win all these awards. Campion's win is not a revelation either, but at least she was not horrible as a director. As a writer probably, but luckily there the film did not win.
Paul Thomas Anderson finally winning his first BAFTA was a true moment of glory and it would be absolutely amazing if he could repeat at the Oscars. There he will surely be present. I think he has a double-digit amount of Academy Award nominations already, so high time he takes it, even if there's other films from him I probably prefer over Licorice Pizza. I personally found it interesting to see a German win and he surely has good chances at the Oscars too. I think it was for Dune in the Best Visual Effects category. In any case, it happened to be a category that was part of the broadcast. I still find it extremely questionable that they rush in so many wins and acceptance speeches (or segments, not even the entire speech) at the very end and this is not how it should be handled. Disrespectful. The really bad news is that the Oscars are following suit this year kind of. Let's look a little bit more at the winners: If Cumberbatch cannot beat Will Smith here, then the Oscar is also safe now for Smith surely, even if Richard Williams also has a big London (i.e. Wimbledon) connection through his daughters. Best Actress category looked very chaotic. No Oscar nominees nominated. I mean I cannot say anything about the winner, but it looks more like a film and performance that fit the mainstream nicely than real movie art. Maybe I'll watch it one day. I am sure she was better than Lady Gaga though. The way Gaga presented herself last night was utterly embarrassing once again. Gets worse and worse. And I thought "A Star is Born" was the negative highlight. Lowlight, does one say that? Supporting actress was basically decided before this ceremony, nothing to add here. Supporting Actor Troy Kotsur also seems to be right on course to Oscar glory now and Kodi Smith-McPhee's momentum is long gone. Hopefully, the momentum for Power of the Dog can also still disappear, but I doubt it. Lead actress is probably very interesting. Chastain, Kidman, Colman all not a factor here and Stewart was surprisingly not even nominated. Still no love for Lady Di from the Brits.
By the way, I just mentioned Troy Kotsur and surely I agree why not a deaf James Bond? If we talk about his ethnicity (please no Kaluuya), then we can also talk about other aspects. Or let's maybe just talk about talent, that would be the most reasonable way. I have not (yet) seen CODA, but if this is the film to pose the biggest competition to Power of the Dog, I happily take it. Unfortunately, politics also played a role again. I never like that at these events, but at least it was less than I thought. You can think of Putin what you want, but giving him (or anybody) the middle finger in front of millions of people is as low as it gets. Typical Rebel Wilson movie. I wish she could have had other moments and inclusions like what she had to say about The Rock's salary for some movie. I am sure some people (maybe including herself) will find a reference to salary equality there too. Anyway, this was also not really Wilson or a strong delivery, but the line was just funny. Back to the awards: Summer of Soul winning here means pretty much that Flee will not manage the Oscar upset. There seemed to be some momentum for Flee lately, but it's difficult to see it win in America if it can't win in the UK. Oh yes, politics. I was not done yet. What's his name? The Gollum (and Planet of the Apes) actor of course also had to get in some political agenda here. I am not surprised. I think I came across him with something similar in the past, so kinda expected. Oh yeah, Serkis is the name of course. Best Foreign Language Feature is also really decided and more love to Asia this time. I did not think "Drive My Car" was this convincing to be honest, at least not that it would fit all the love it got, but for Hamaguchi I am still happy. We'll see if he will make international films too at some point. So lots of interpreting going on here as well, for Japanese and mute people this time. We could very well see the same at the Oscars.
One really disrespectful component I must mention is about the in-memoriam segment. How can they sometimes show one photo of a dead person on the screen and then put in two on other occasions? Couldn't get any more tasteless. On a completely different note, I think also British movie they split the nominees into two and I have no idea what was on their mind. This plus the rushed-in winners in the last ten minutes was just truly bizarre. Many poor decisions here. Why ten nominations for Best British Film? What also surprised me, but did not bother me too much was that there was no special ceremony this time at the end what they usually do when Prince William or so shows up and they pick one especially deserving Brit for a royal honor. I never cared about that, so it's okay. Bigger flaws were elsewhere. Prince William did show up briefly though through a video message. Okay, that is almost it then. No Best Song here, so no Eilish win, but Emilia Jones gave a pretty good music performance. Still, this evening was not about the music and that's the right decision. Focus must be on the awards. Otherwise, I maybe would have taken away another two stars. I feel that four out of ten is still on the generous side. It was not a good presentation with a sometimes atrocious host and also slightly ridiculous winners here and there, especially in terms of the big prize of the night. Dune winning the most trophies was also so-so, not that great of a film. Probably overcame 007 more than once. Rebel Wilson's Tom Hiddleston final quote was just a good summary of her hosting that night. Simply not funny. Overall, watch Bassey's opening performance. Then switch off. Thank you, next.
