Saturday, March 19, 2022
Oscar Watch
There was a time when I really cared about the Oscars to the point of, say, being infuriated that Crash won best picture or that Hilary Swank could win two lotto scratchers, much lest two Oscars. But as time has passed I've almost started to feel as though awards are not a perfect signifier of talent and sound editors are not the ideal public speakers. And frankly, as the ceremonies have stretched to 4+ hours of montages and vaguely uncanny musical numbers, they haven't really seemed like the best investment of time. So I've compensated by getting drunk and largely talking over them with friends until something really exciting happens like Dame Judi Dench doing the Macarena.
Which is the plan again this year. But we have actually seen some of the movies this time around, although admittedly most of that happened in the last week. If I had to pick a best picture, I might have to say West Side Story because I actually enjoyed it thoroughly, even though I thought remaking it was a terrible idea and I fully planned to hate it. I couldn't even fully hate Ansel Elgort, which kind of pisses me off. I also enjoyed Licorice Pizza, although I found the central relationship to be basically creepy and the treatment of Asians to be not just inappropriate but utterly mystifying. King Richard I remember enjoying, but that was several months ago, so I'm coming up short on specifics. Maybe I posted about it at the time? (I am 100% too lazy to check.) Dune I didn't really get at all. It looked good, but all the talking kind of seemed like nonsense? I'm generally pro Zendaya, I will say. Oh, and Nightmare Alley? Good lord. I wouldn't say it was bad, but I have no idea what motivated all of those awards bait actors to sign on for a 1940s freak show movie. Maybe just big fans of the fish sex from Guillermo del Toro's last movie? Stars, they're just like us.
