Oscars 2020: 10 Ups & 6 Downs
Ups...
10. The Awesome Opening Segment
As is customary for the Oscars, this year's show kicked off with a musical number, a medley led by Janelle Monae, which incorporated Mr. Rogers' iconic tune "Won't You Be My Neighbor?," and slinked effortlessly into Monae's own song "Come Alive (The War Of The Roses)," before Billy Porter showed up for a snappy rendition of Elton John's "I’m Still Standing."
Just as entertaining as the singing and dancing, however, was the costumes: Monae's backup dancers were dressed as characters from Joker, Dolemite Is My Name, Little Women, Midsommar, and Us, while Monae herself wore both the distinctive Mr. Rogers cardigan and the iconic flower dress from Midsommar.
This wasn't all, though: this opening song was immediately followed by an hilarious intro from legendary Oscar hosts Steve Martin and Chris Rock, who took the opportunity as definitely-not-Oscar-hosts to roast the nominees, decry the lack of representation among them, and also rake Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who was in attendance at the show, over the coals.
These back-to-back segments got the show off to a fun start, and couldn't have been further from some of the Oscars' more infamously calamitous opening skits.