The hedged-bets, have-it-all-ways ceremony made Sunday night’s one of the longer and most self-conscious Oscars imaginable. Even the music played to expel overly loquacious winners was arch: the theme of “Jaws.” But it wasn’t the acceptance speeches that prolonged the night; there were too many stars doing fatuous presentations — even Melissa McCarthy wasn’t funny. And by the time Michelle Obama made a surprise cameo, via satellite, to announce the best picture, it was almost midnight and too late to revive a sagging evening.

The Hollywood spotlight may not exactly be the place for shrinking violets, but this year’s batch of Best Picture nominees is marked by the swagger with which they depict, affirm, assert, represent. There’s no self-questioning; no hesitation about the aesthetic or ontological status of the filming of history or of violence; no doubt about the uninhibited access to film any subject at will; no suggestion that there’s any particular personal standpoint that defines the perspective and that is itself apt to be reflected in the film; no worry about whether something is too violent or too repellent or too intimate or simply too uncertain to film with the hard-edged stamp of unchallenged veracity. None of these nine films contains or implies the question of how or even why they’re filmed as they are. They all have tension-free representational positiveness, with all negative charges suppressed in advance.

Follow our merry band of reporters, bloggers and movie critic Ann Hornaday as we covered the 85th Annual Academy Awards. We tracked everything from the red carpet to the best picture, with reports from Dan Zak straight from the Dolby Theatre and beyond. Share your questions and feedback in the comments or tweet us @washingtonpost.