If one theme united most of last night’s Oscar speeches, it was causes. A.L.S., immigration, equal pay, Alzheimer’s, civil rights, gay rights, crisis hotlines: they all got their moment. (Actually, crisis hotlines got two.) History suggests that political Oscar speeches are tricky business, easily translating as strident, self-important, or arbitrary. When Marlon Brando sent Sacheen Littlefeather, of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee, to collect his Oscar for “The Godfather,” the moment was more surreal than edifying. Jane Fonda gave her speech for “Coming Home” in sign language, even though the movie had nothing to do with deaf people. Vanessa Redgrave, winning for “Julia,” got booed when she spoke of “Zionist hoodlums.” So did Michael Moore, when he used his “Bowling for Columbine” speech to chide George W. Bush. Then there are the inappropriately issue-free speeches, as when Matthew McConaughey used his “Dallas Buyers Club” win to expound not on AIDS but on the mind-melting concept that, at any given moment, his hero is himself ten years in the future. Figure that one out, Stephen Hawking.
This year, political speeches were the rule, not the exception. And the surprise: most of them were rousing and on point. As the ceremony dragged on into Monday, bloated by the longest and least satisfying magic trick of all time, courtesy of Neil Patrick Harris’s predix in a box, the speeches gave the night its zingiest moments, Lady Gaga’s “The Sound of Music” medley notwithstanding.
So, how did the big winners fare? Extra points, as always, for adorable accents.
J.K. Simmons, Best Supporting Actor: The first speech of the night was full-on family values. Declining to say anything about “Whiplash” or his “team,” Simmons thanked his wife, his “above-average” children, and his parents. Then he implored us all to call our moms: “Don’t text. Don’t e-mail. Call them on the phone.” A sweet sentiment, though I’m not entirely convinced it wasn’t covertly sponsored by Verizon or by my mother. I called her on Saturday, Mr. Simmons! I swear! B+
Pawel Pawlikowski, Best Foreign Language Film: This category is great because the announcer says things like, “This is Argentina’s third Oscar and sixth nomination,” as if an entire nation were about to take the mic. In any case, this was Poland’s tenth nomination and first win, so gratulacje! Pawlikowski, the director of “Ida,” thanked the Academy, his producers, and, as the play-off music began to swell, his crew in Poland, “who were in the trenches with us and who are totally drunk now.” The orchestra finally gave up as he went on to thank his late wife, his parents, and his children (“who are still alive”). Geez, Poland, wrap it up! Still: adorable accent. B
Patricia Arquette, Best Supporting Actress: One of the most electrifying moments of the evening arrived like a sneak attack. After an opening bleep, Arquette read nervously from a piece of paper, thanking the usual suspects: the Academy, her “Boyhood” family, her real family, and the people at her humanitarian organization, GiveLove. Then the paper started to vibrate, Arquette’s voice quivered, and, as if breaking into a guitar solo, she delivered a galvanizing message to every woman in the nation: “It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America.” Though “Boyhood” is not an explicitly political film, the speech instantly brought a political dimension to the rueful single mother Arquette spent twelve years playing. And it was enough to get Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez cheering from their seats like road-trippers at Lilith Fair. Preach! A+
Laura Poitras, Best Documentary Feature: There was not a boo in the house as Poitras gave a strong (if a little stiff) endorsement of Edward Snowden, the subject of her film “Citizenfour,” and of whistle-blowers like him. I kept wondering what was passing through Clint Eastwood’s mind during this one. Only the empty chair that he yelled at afterward knows for sure. B
John Legend and Common, Best Song: Who the heck are “John Stephens” and “Lonnie Lynn”? Oh, right, they’re Common and John Legend, who brought down the house with “Glory,” the civil-rights anthem from “Selma.” After a performance so riveting that even Chris Pine was in tears, the musicians delivered a pair of speeches that were just as fiery and full of purpose. “The spirit of this bridge,” Common said of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, “connects a kid from the South Side of Chicago, dreaming of a better life, to those in France standing up for their freedom of expression, to the people in Hong Kong protesting for democracy.” Legend added a poignant note about the erosion of voting rights and the staggering number of African-Americans in the prison system. The Best Song winners shouldn’t have had to represent the under-nominated “Selma” alone, but they did, and beautifully. A
Graham Moore, Best Adapted Screenplay: The precocious thirteen-year-old who wrote “The Imitation Game” (O.K., he’s actually in his thirties) began his speech by thanking Oprah, so right away he was on solid footing. His speech took a poignant turn when he revealed that he attempted suicide when he was sixteen. Without tempering his buoyancy, he summoned the neglected spirit of his subject, Alan Turing, and dedicated the prize to kids who don’t feel like they belong, whom he implored to “stay weird,” à la Austin, Texas. It recalled the speech given, in 2009, by Dustin Lance Black (for “Milk”), another Oscar winner who wrote a biopic of a gay hero. A
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Best Director: With all these heartfelt speeches, “Birdman” ’s march to victory seemed especially hollow, given the film’s preference for self-regarding whimsy. Iñárritu got up three times—starting with Best Original Screenplay and ending with Best Picture. But his Best Director speech was his most memorable, starting with his claim that he was wearing Michael Keaton’s tighty whities for good luck. “They are tight, smell like balls,” he said, a sentiment not expressed at the Oscars since Ingrid Bergman won in 1945. He went on to decry “that little prick called ego,” by which he did not mean Tom Cruise, and closed with a shout-out to his “compatriotas Mexicanos.” Accent! B+
Eddie Redmayne, Best Actor: After admitting that he was struggling to articulate his emotions, Redmayne clutched his bowtie and let out a convulsive “wow,” proving himself as adorkable as the young Stephen Hawking. He dedicated the prize to the Hawking family and to people with A.L.S., describing himself as the statuette’s mere custodian: “I will polish him, I will answer his beck and call. I will wait on him hand and foot.” Wasn’t that the plot of “Fifty Shades of Grey”? In any case, classy and humble. Tough luck, Cumberbatch. A-
Julianne Moore, Best Actress: Didn’t see “Still Alice”? Who cares! Julianne Moore deserved an Oscar, and now she has one. Her speech was a cover-all-the-bases sort, probably because, as a shoo-in, she had months to prepare. Moore dutifully thanked her agent, her manager, her brother, her sister, her parents, her husband, her co-stars, and the filmmakers, and she gave an elegant nod to people with Alzheimer’s. But her most resonant line was her first: “I read an article that said that winning an Oscar could lead to living five years longer.” By the end of the telecast, we were all roughly five years older, so I’d call it a wash. B+
