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“Anora was the big winner at the Oscars, winning five awards including best actress for breakout star Mikey Madison, and a record-breaking four prizes for its director Sean Baker. The whirlwind drama stars relative newcomer Madison as a New York stripper who falls in love with the son of a wealthy Russian…
“Other winners on the night included Kieran Culkin, Adrien Brody and Zoe Saldaña, while Flow won best animated film and I'm Still Here took home the best international prize… The best documentary award went to No Other Land, a collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli film-makers about the ongoing conflict in the region.” BBC
The left was underwhelmed by the ceremony, but praises Anora.
“It was OK! It was cute! It was fine! Host Conan O'Brien made some good jokes and medium jokes, never bringing his energy above a 7 out of 10… We got to start with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo singing ‘Wicked’ just like everybody wanted, and end with an upset or two. Nobody announced the wrong winner. The mood was upbeat…
“The winners likewise offered less spark and spunk than in many of the Oscars' best years. While there were moments of pointed speechifying, including the Israeli and Palestinian honorees for best documentary feature winner ‘No Other Land’ explicitly denouncing Israel's oppression of Gaza… most speakers were curiously apolitical on a stage that often invites fiery calls to action… Inoffensive and somewhat bland, the 2025 Oscars lacked passion and fervor.”
Kelly Lawler, USA Today
“Over the course of his monologue, O’Brien affably roasted himself for not having had enough work done, Karla Sofía Gascón for her many offensive tweets, and Timothée Chalamet for his baby face. He also got in a truly delightful bit about showing John Lithgow’s disappointed face to anyone who took too long with their acceptance speech, plus another long shaggy-dog one with a belligerently be-hoodied Adam Sandler…
“Making the Oscars funny is a feat in and of itself, but at the end of his monologue, O’Brien one-upped himself with a genuinely heartfelt tribute to what the Oscars mean in the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires. Award shows for wealthy celebrities can feel shallow after so much devastation, he acknowledged — but the Oscars also offer an incredible platform for the below-the-line talent that is not so famous. That the awards also lavished the nominees of the technical categories with the kind of praise they normally save for the actors? Well, that’s the icing on the cake.”
Constance Grady, Vox
“‘Anora’ is about sex work, yes. But it’s really about work work… Almost every scene is a comment on the desperation of struggling paycheck to paycheck in America… from the Las Vegas hotel manager terrified to tell rich brat Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) that his suite isn’t ready, to the nightclub waitress stuck with Vanya’s $800 tab, to the tow-truck driver panicked that the billionaire’s brutes have broken his vehicle…
“Employment is fickle unless you’re at the tippy-top, with a private jet at your command. Ani is the one character who continually, and loudly, advocates for her own value. ‘When you give me health insurance, workers’ comp and a 401(k), then you can tell me when I work,’ she claps back to her strip-club boss. The tragedy of ‘Anora’ is that even this smart and forceful girl gets crushed by wealth. Only the Russian billionaires end the film without a scratch.”
Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times
The right praises the ceremony, but was underwhelmed by many of the winning movies.
The right praises the ceremony, but was underwhelmed by many of the winning movies.
“I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of progressive posturing among the glitterati… [Kieran Culkin] shared the charming story of how his wife, Jazz, promised they could have another kid if and only if he won an Oscar… While Culkin is most well-known for his work as a child actor in family-friendly films, he is also a family-oriented actor…
“As the star of an upcoming Broadway production, Glengarry Glen Ross, Culkin successfully requested Sundays off for family time. In an industry that almost never adheres to the Chick-fil-A labor model, Culkin’s feat was a seismic triumph… With thanks to Culkin and others, I can happily say that the Academy Awards were not a total embarrassment. From jokes that were actually funny — to pronatalism on stage — it might just be a new dawn in Hollywood.”
Kayla Bartsch, National Review
“On the other hand, there was the usual PC silliness — and worse. Conan joked about Trump not standing up to Putin. Introducing Linda Muir, nominated for costume design for Nosferatu, Lily-Rose Depp (Johnny’s daughter) praised her for capturing in her garments ‘the restrictions holding women down’ in the Victorian era…
“Perhaps the political low point of the evening was the Best Documentary Feature award to No Other Land, a piece of agitprop described by its producers as a film about ‘the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.’… None of the films about Hamas’s October 7 atrocities was nominated for this prize. But this one was nominated — and, predictably enough, won.”
Bruce Bawer, American Spectator
“It used to be rare for movies awarded the Oscar for ‘Best Picture’ to rake in less than $100 million at the domestic box office. Today, it’s rare for ‘Best Picture’ films to eclipse that box office figure with Oppenheimer, released two years ago, being the only one to do so since Argo in 2012…
“The Academy Awards might not be a public popularity contest, but at the same time, popularity shouldn’t count for nothing… Will last night’s winning film about a supposed sex seller, Anora, be remembered for years to come? Not likely. The movie grossed less than $16 million at the domestic box office, one of the lowest totals ever for a ‘Best Picture.’ The movie adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked, on the other hand, made more than $460 million…
“By constantly rewarding movies the public seems less and less interested in, the Oscars have become another illustration of the disparity between academic ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ critics and their general audiences. The end result is an Academy Awards program presented by Hollywood and for Hollywood with no real reason for most Americans to pay much attention anymore.”
Tristan Justice, The Federalist
