The awkward Oscars moments are what we asked for

You can’t spend years complaining about the same standard fare ruling the Hollywood roost (as I have) then object when the multiverse laundromat movie with the hot dog fingers, butt plugs and Wong Kar-wai homage wins big

Donkeys featured prominently in several of this year’s Oscar nominees, which, for those of us who start to feel an Eeyore-like pall descending at the approach of awards season, was somewhat triggering. Not least, perhaps, because none of them seemed destined for happiness, whether it was the finger-swallowing Jenny from The Banshees of Inisherin or the long-suffering star of EO.

There was, as usual, much to be gloomy about. The ceremony, scheduled to run for three hours from 8pm Eastern, didn’t finish till gone 11:30; indeed, half an hour had passed by the time the second award was announced. Though Jimmy Kimmel did a mostly competent job as emcee, the proceedings included some real bum notes, including a clunkily scripted promo for the live action remake of The Little Mermaid (Disney owns ABC, the principal US broadcaster of the Oscars) and a particularly awkward low when Kimmel asked Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai if she thought Harry Styles really spat on Chris Pine.

Unmemorable, uninspiring and, frankly, bad movies and performances were nominated in all the major categories, and many of the Academy’s final judgements were old-school bordering on conservative. The success of All Quiet on the Western Front, which won four awards, is a case in point: a solemn and brutal war drama that looks fantastic (James Friend was a deserving winner for his painterly compositions) but has little to offer beyond hammering home the senseless brutality of war.

But this little donkey had something of a Damascene moment on the dusty road to midnight. As the evening went on, it was clear that the producers of this year’s ceremony had made a conscious choice to take the Oscars back to basics — and you know what, Piglet? It was surprisingly successful. Hamstrung by controversy and beset by years of low ratings, the beleaguered ceremony rose from its own ashes Sunday with a slick display of everything that’s historically made it good, if not great, television. Spectacle, glamour, emotional montages and bad jokes that stayed just the right side of the taste barrier: all were enough to keep the crisis-management team that Academy CEO Bill Kramer had on hand just in case very much at bay.

The awkward moments smattered throughout the long night are what we had been asking for. We laughed, we cried, we cringed, we were enthralled — all mostly on cue. Many of the evening’s historic and most emotionally charged moments came courtesy of Everything Everywhere All at Once, which won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and three of the four acting categories. The film itself twice left me cold (tons of ideas, not many good ones) but only a truly committed churl could begrudge its success, and that of its rambunctious cast and crew. Besides, you can’t spend years complaining about the same standard fare ruling the Hollywood roost (as I have) then object when the multiverse laundromat movie with the hot dog fingers, butt plugs and Wong Kar-wai homage wins big.

The first big winner was Ke Huy Quan for Best Supporting Actor. Ariana DeBose teared up when she opened the envelope and I imagine many followed suit when the producers cut to Steven Spielberg, who gave the actor his big break in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom nearly 40 years ago. “Dreams are something you have to believe in,” said Quan, who didn’t act for many years. “I almost gave up on mine.” (He also gave a shoutout to his Goonies co-star Jeff Cohen, aka Chunk. Who saw that coming?!)

Shortly thereafter, Jamie Lee Curtis, perhaps a controversial choice for Supporting Actress (Angela Bassett had at one point seemed a shoo-in), made good on a sentimental Hollywood narrative, winning the Oscar that eluded both her parents.

But the biggest moment was the win late in the evening for Michelle Yeoh, the first for an Asian performer in the Best Actress category and only the second time a woman of colour has won. “For all the little boys and girls who look like me… this is proof that dreams come true. And ladies,” said the 60-year-old, “Don’t let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime.”

Many groan when politics intrude in cheery awards celebrations, but at least Yulia Navalnaya’s “Stay strong, my love,” delivered to her husband, the imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was the sort of message everyone in the Dolby Theatre could get behind. And while it’s unlikely Quan was thinking of Suella Braverman when he was called to the podium, the home secretary could do worse than to catch the highlights. “My journey started on a boat,” said the actor breathlessly. “I spent a year in a refugee camp, and somehow I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage. They say stories like this only happen in the movies… This is the American dream.”

Will I regret my enthusiasm in the cold light of day? Sure, it’s good for commentators when the Academy Awards go off-piste — the Slap will surely have boosted ratings this year — and cynics may have wished, to paraphrase one of Kimmel’s Will Smith jokes, that it hadn’t entirely gone off without a “Hitch”. But it was a classier affair than we’ve seen for a long time, and with the forgivable exception of Jenny the donkey who made a surprise cameo onstage, nobody really made an ass of themselves.