“No to war and free Palestine,” said Spanish actor and Oscar presenter Javier Bardem, who’s a mensch and a lefty stalwart. He got a big cheer from the audience at the 98th Academy Awards ceremony last night, probably because it was a relief to hear the most direct political statement of the evening.

And quite a mid evening it was. Mostly predictable Oscar wins, including the pleasing ones — Paul Thomas Anderson for Best Director; One Battle After Another for Best Picture; Jessie Buckley for Best Actress; Michael B. Jordan for Best Actor — and the disheartening ones, such as Sean Penn winning Best Supporting Actor over both Delroy Lindo and Benicio del Toro, and then the bastard wasn’t even there to collect. And don’t even get me started on Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice not even being nominated for Best International Film, when it was a far greater cinematic achievement than the winner of the award, Norway’s Sentimental Value, and almost everything else getting honored this year.

There were some amusing gags from returning host Conan O’Brien, who started strong wearing Amy Madigan’s monstrous hair and makeup from the horror movie Weapons. “I look like Bette Davis with lupus!” he shrilled, getting in an astute comical nod to a major figure of Hollywood history before racing out chased by gleefully murderous children and finding himself edited into other Oscar nominated films, such as solemn Scandinavian exchanges with Stellan Skarsgård in Sentimental Value (“I learned Norwegian for this!”). Though, as usual, some jokes died in pained silence, especially the bum-drum bit referring to Timothée Chalamet’s spanking in Marty Supreme.