The 2020 Screen Actors Guild Awards aired Sunday night to the sort of muted fanfare that’s reserved for basic cable.
The SAGs are the most low-key of the televised award shows — broadcast on TBS and TNT — and doesn’t aim for the pizazz or headlines of the Golden Globes and Oscars.
Instead, the SAG Awards are generally regarded as a quick and kindly celebration of film and TV performers.
Still, there were a few stand-out moments from the two-hour ceremony.
Worst: Robert De Niro
He just couldn’t help himself.
When accepting the SAG lifetime achievement award, actor Robert De Niro spoke little about his storied career in brilliant films such as “The Godfather Part II,” “Raging Bull” and “Taxi Driver,” instead opting to focus on his favorite go-to button-pusher: politics.
“I can imagine some of you are saying let’s not get into politics,” he said, accurately. “I have to say something… I thought I said it pretty well to Variety the other day, so I’m gonna quote myself.”
De Niro went on to read aloud an interview he gave to the entertainment trade publication. Really.
Best: Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt embraced his inner Don Rickles during his acceptance speech, rattling off hilarious one-liners like he was the host instead of a winner.
“I gotta add this to my Tinder profile,” he said when he got up to the microphone.
Later, he made a gag about the amount of bare female feet in “Once Upon A Time In … Hollywood,” suggesting director Quentin Tarantino is a closet foot fetishist.
“Quentin Tarantino has separated more women from their shoes than the TSA,” Pitt said.
He even poked fun at his failed marriages to Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie.
“It was a stretch,” he said of his role in “Once Upon A Time.” “A guy who gets high, takes off his shirt and doesn’t get on with his wife.”
Worst: SAG being SAG
This is the only award show that 100-percent celebrates actors that are voted on by actors. And, boy, does it show.
Two presenters, including SAG president Gabrielle Carteris, quoted a deep-thinking playwright and poet in their remarks — George Bernard Shaw and Berthold Auerbach, respectively.
Sunday will, undoubtedly, be the last time we hear those names on TNT.
Best: “Parasite”
The South Korean film “Parasite,” directed by Bong Joon Ho, has been one of the most critically acclaimed features of the year — winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and scoring a best picture nod at the Oscars.
But it’s been a challenge to guess how Hollywood’s actors collectively feel about it. The film received no individual acting SAG nominations and only managed a best ensemble nod.
However, when the cast of “Parasite” took the stage of the Shrine Auditorium in LA to present their film, they received a much-deserved standing ovation.
That was a good omen for the movie, which became the first foreign-language film to ever win the SAG ensemble award, and is a bona fide front-runner for the best picture Oscar in February.
Worst: But the actors were so predictable!
No matter what films you admire, everybody loves a shake-up. Well, in the film categories we got none of those.
The winners went just as expected, consistent with their equivalent category winners at the Golden Globes: Female actor in a leading role (Renée Zellweger), male actor in a leading role (Joaquin Phoenix), male actor in a supporting role (Brad Pitt) and female actor in a supporting role (Laura Dern). They’ll almost all definitely win Oscars, too. Snooze.