{"id":9596,"date":"2022-03-24T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9596"},"modified":"2022-05-05T08:20:21","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T12:20:21","slug":"let-the-oscar-countdown-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9596","title":{"rendered":"Let the Oscar Countdown Begin!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Only three days until this year\u2019s Academy Award ceremony, and if you haven\u2019t seen all the movies in the overstuffed \u201cbest picture\u201d category, there\u2019s hardly time. This category needs to be broken up in some way so that viewers and voters are comparing apples to apples or at least to other fruit. Which is better, political commentary or pure entertainment? A film with a mega-million special effects budget or a small gem? A star-studded romp or exciting new talent? Ten choices are about twice too many. At the very least they should separate musicals from dramas, but of course that may just be my advocacy of West Side Story<\/em> showing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me admit up front I\u2019ve seen only seven of the \u201cBest Picture\u201d nominees. No Don\u2019t Look Up<\/em> (sounded too baldly polemical), no Dune<\/em> (though I loved the book), and no Drive My Car<\/em> (too depressing and long). And here\u2019s where they could pare the list further. Why is Drive My Car<\/em> both a \u201cBest Picture\u201d and<\/em> a \u201cBest International Feature\u201d nominee? Pick a category, please.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tastes vary, and viewers who like one genre of movie may not resonate with another. In my pair of films in the \u201cwhy was this nominated?\u201d category, you may have a favorite Sorry! My mystery nominees are Nightmare Alley<\/em> (though people tell me the 1947 original was better) and Licorice  Pizza<\/em>. The corollary to the \u201cwhy?\u201d question is \u201cwhy not?\u201d Why wasn\u2019t the awesome The Tragedy of Macbeth<\/em> nominated?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing I\u2019d say about all seven nominees I saw, is that the acting this past year has been great. Another thing that can be said about many of them is, they\u2019re too long. Some judicious editing would have helped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are my five top Oscar contenders, in reverse order:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coda<\/em> \u2013 one of those small sweet films that will never win, and, anyway, the plot was disappointingly predictable; loved the fish stuff
King Richard<\/em> \u2013 great characters and great acting (yes! Aunjanue Ellis), and if I could ever remember how tennis matches are scored, I would have gotten more out of the looong, decisive match
West Side Story<\/em> \u2013 perfection; loved that sly Riff (Mike Faist)
The Power of the Dog<\/em> \u2013 a mystery; haunting music, beautiful scenery, horses!; too long
Belfast <\/em>\u2013 beautiful acting, well directed, powerful historical story<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image by Gia Knight for Pixabay.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only three days until this year\u2019s Academy Award ceremony, and if you haven\u2019t seen all the movies in the overstuffed \u201cbest picture\u201d category, there\u2019s hardly time. This category needs to be broken up in some way so that viewers and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"My picks for the 2022 Best Film Oscars. (First eliminate a few!)","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[59,269,57,104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academy-awards","category-actor","category-movies","category-the-morgue"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2uM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9598,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9596\/revisions\/9598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}