Usually around the time of the Academy Awards, I write a negative appraisal of the Oscars, if not of all award shows. Here are just some of my negatory yawps in no particular order:
- Celebrating the Oscars (Not!) on March 11, 2023
- Phooey on the Oscars on February 9, 2020
- Selfie with Barbie on February 6, 2024
- … And the Envelope Please … on February 28, 2016
This year I will refrain from casting aspersions on the awards except to say that I have no idea who won what this year, nor do I care.
Instead, I will say that I have not seen any current movies this last year. I am tired of paying an inordinate amount of money to see a bunch of young actors making faces at one another in a vehicle that is devoid of story or cinematic value. The filmmakers I worshiped are all gone: John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Jean-Luc Godard, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Carl Theodor Dreyer, and Luis Buñuel among others. They have been replaced by people from television, video games, and TikTok.
When people watch films on smart phones and other small screens, it’s pretty much game over.
Perhaps this marks me as an old-timer, but I don’t give a damn. I will continue to watch the great films that have meant so much to me, and to boycott the current product unless it shows signs of genius. So far, there haven’t been many films worth watching.
Tarnmoor 