Perusing news from the USA I learn that people now go to a library more often than a movie theatre.
A Gallup poll taken just before Christmas found that people visit a library on average 10.5 times a year compared with only 5.3 times a year for movie theatres.
After reading about and watching Sunday’s annual Academy Awards show, I understand why. I’d rather watch raccoons dining at the dump than pay to view some of Hollywood’s recent offerings.
Take for instance the ridiculous Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. How it made it to the Academy Awards defies common sense, as well as common decency. It has to be one of film history’s all-time duds.
It’s packed with star power: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margo Robbie and Al Pacino. Were they on vacation with nothing to do, so they volunteered to take part in this movie-making catastrophe?
It did work out well, however, for Brad Pitt, who won best supporting actor for his low-key performance as a stunt double to DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton, a washed-up cowboy movie star.
The movie was directed by Quentin Tarantino, and to be totally transparent, I don’t like any of his work. He has a penchant for brutal violence and racial slurs in his films.
He is not a natural storyteller and prefers to create movies that are non-linear, with scattered plots sprinkled with absurdity.
If I want to watch disjointed absurdity, I don’t need to go to a movie theatre. I can watch the evening news, or take a walk through downtown Toronto.
That’s just my opinion. Many people love Tarantino’s work, which has included Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.
Although I don’t like Tarantino’s work, it is good that Hollywood has it. The movie industry needs diversity, in its people and in its work.
It got a shot of diversity Sunday when the South Korean thriller Parasite became the first film not in English to win an Oscar for best picture. The film’s director, Bong Joon Ho, won best director and it also picked up the Oscars for original screenplay and best international feature.
I haven’t seen Parasite yet because I dislike having to read sub-titles, but I will get to it. I’m told it is a cutting social satire about economic inequality.
I’m assuming that the Academy Awards voters did their job thoroughly and that it is a much more interesting flick than the competing 1917, Joker, or The Irishman.
I thought they were okay, but not on the top of my Academy Awards list, although some of the acting in the competing films was terrific.
Joaquin Phoenix was outstanding in Joker, getting a well-deserved Oscar for best actor. Rene Zellweger (best actress) in Judy and Robert De Niro (The Irishman) put in good performances but neither film left me with anything really memorable.
I would have fallen asleep during 1917 but the rifle fire and explosions kept me awake. It did win three Oscars – for sound, cinematography and visual effects.
Last year’s offerings were much better, I thought. Films like A Star Is Born, Green Book, Bohemian Rhapsody and Black Panther were good storytelling while carrying important messages.
Three of the best movies I watched this winter did not figure in this year’s Academy Awards.
The Wife, which won nominations last year, is an intriguing story of a wife (Glenn Close) who writes her husband’s books and he wins the awards. The Good Liar (2019) is about a con man outwitted by a widow (Helen Mirren) he is trying to con and Rocketman, is the biographical musical about Elton John.
I thought each of these was as good or better than some of this year’s Academy Awards offerings. But then again, I’m not a film expert. I’m just a guy who likes to sit down to watch some good storytelling and to leave the theatre having seen something memorable.
Much of the Academy Awards stuff I’ve seen this year is not memorable. Except of course for Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, which was memorable for all the wrong reasons.
However, as my dear old mother used to tell me: “Everybody to their own taste, said the old lady as she kissed the cow.”
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