The Oscars were generally a pretty fun show this year, with a popular and widely-seen movie like Oppenheimer winning several awards, some funny moments like a naked John Cena, and no major controversial moments that overshadowed the proceedings. However, one of the true highlights had to be Ryan Gosling’s performance of “I’m Just Ken,” which was so amazing that even Martin Scorsese was getting into it.
The director of Killers of the Flower Moon didn’t have a great night when it came to awards, but he still apparently enjoyed himself at this year’s Oscars. In a clip that’s gone viral that was made by the director’s daughter Francesca and compiled by British Vogue, we see the director clearly having a blast with the bright pink performance. Check it out.
@britishvogue ♬ original sound - British Vogue
Martin Scorsese may have a very particular view of what constitutes cinema, but that doesn’t mean the man can’t have some fun. He looks like he’s having a blast with all the insanity on the Oscar stage, and in the aisles, as the dancers run around and make a spectacle of the whole thing. The song might not have won the Oscar that night, but it stole the show. It also lost the Oscar to another song from Barbie, so I’m not sure anybody can be too upset by that.
It was a great performance, not the least of which because the Oscars had Ryan Gosling perform the song from the movie. The Oscars tend to hire ”singers” to perform at the Oscars rather than let the actors who actually performed the song in the film, i.e. the people who made it note-worthy, do it. When a song Gosling sang in La La Land was nominated, John Legend sang it at the show. It's never as good, and it seems unlikely anybody else would have gotten the same reaction to the song that Gosling got that night.
Scorsese was far from the only person who enjoyed the performance; the entire theater was on its feet. The look on Margot Robbie's face and others was priceless. When Emma Stone won her Best Actress Oscar and revealed she had broken her dress, she blamed “I’m Just Ken” because that dress is not the sort designed to be wildly danced in I suppose. The song got its Oscar nomination because of the way it stole the biggest movie of the year, and then it stole the Oscars.
Like Scorsese, Gosling himself went home without an Oscar, but he still had an absolutely incredible night thanks to that performance. It was iconic, with references to classic Hollywood built into the choreography. It’s the sort of moment that most of us watch the Oscars to see, and apparently even Martin Scorsese won’t be forgetting it anytime soon.
