One of my close friends is a big fan of the Oscars. I think I’ve mentioned that every year when the list comes out, she makes a copy, checks of which movies she has seen and then spends the next month or so trying to fill in the blanks by watching as many as she can. I love her dearly but just cannot bring myself to join her in this mania; I’ve thought for years that the film industry is the most insecure industry – the amount of self-adulation in the way of awards that it needs amazes me.
But because she’s a friend, I did click open the announcement today of what films will be up for Oscars this year. It’s no surprise that I haven’t seen any of them (I quit reading when we got down to costumes) since I haven’t been to a movie theatre since December of 2019. However it was a surprise that I had only heard of two of them. I’ve noticed “My Octopus Teacher” on Netflix and I did read a YouTube review of “Mulan” but none of the other movies in any category even rang a small bell. Normally I’ve heard of a lot of Oscar nominees because I’ve seen the commercials on TV but not this past year.
Did these movies come out in theatres? If so, who went to see them? Have they all been out on TV on subscription channels (of which YA and I have only Disney+, because it’s free right now)? Have other people heard of these films and I’m just more clueless than usual? Do we even need Oscars this year?
Have you seen any of the nominees for this year? Will you? Anything you think the Academy has overlooked?
Trail Baboon 
My brother-in-law used to throw an Oscars party where people would compete to predict winning films. It was a good party, with clever and interesting people attending.
I began competing just because I enjoyed the parties and found it interesting to predict an event that even its supporters called “just a popularity contest.” My system depended on NOT viewing contending films because that caused me to make poor choices, letting thoughts of merit overrule the popularity contest. I got good at predicting, although my system emphasized how divorced from merit the Oscars were.
Now I don’t do the parties, so I mostly ignore the Oscars. I’ve seen three films up for awards this year. The one I liked was that octopus film.
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I had establish a Tuesday movie tradition where I took my mom to the movies every Tuesday night because it was five dollar movie night that stopped a year ago and we tried doing it with Netflix in the living room and it just didn’t work too many distractions and interruptions which is what I find wrong with watching movies at home so I haven’t even checked the list this year in the past three or four years I’ve known 90% of the movies and pick the winners and 90% of them so this year I’ll be a watcher just like everyone else
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If you get a chance to see soul
that was an exceptional movie Anna the guy from Minneapolis who runs the movie company that did soul is the son of Rita who is the person who headed up the music in the schools program that you current Lee do and that I did over many years ago was PeterDocktor is his name
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I have seen Soul and thought of Rita and her Bravo program while I watched. 🙂 I enjoyed the film, most especially the music.
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In a normal year I would see perhaps between 24 and 36 movies. After 11 months of not going to the theater, I did return in mid February to my favorite (and closest) theater. Everybody in the building has to wear a mask, no concessions, and seating is limited. Once a ticket is purchased (I did mine online) the two seats on either side are blocked. Because of recliner seating, the rows are already spread apart. Attendance was between 1 and 8 people at the 5 movies I saw. So I have seen a few of the nominees – Anthony Hopkins in “The Father” (excellent performance), Frances McDormand in “Nomadland” (another of her wonderful performances), and the movie “Minari” (about a Korean immigrant family trying to make a living farming in NW Arkansas). I also saw “Soul” on Disney +. I agree with Tim that it is excellent and hope it wins. I would like to see “Mank” (Herman Mankiewicz and the script for “Citizen Kane”) but it is on Netflix streaming, which I do not have yet. I’m still the dinosaur who gets DVDs from them.
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haha- We get DVD’s from Netflix too. But we did add streaming when we got better internet. We don’t get to watch as many shows as we’d like. Partially just because daughter has a monopoly on the TV (I keep saying ‘I’m the Dad! How come I don’t get to watch TV??) I do, but it’s more late night mindless TV shows… So we had two DVD’s sitting on the TV all winter. We had gotten them in June and finally watched them a month ago.
I told a college student and they said “You have got to be kidding me!” Well, which part?? There’s so many things in that statement that they wouldn’t believe.
She didn’t know anyone still got DVD’s. Yeah, that’s a thing; my son doesn’t have a DVD player anymore.
I do want to see ‘Mank’. Don’t know any of the others either.
Last movie I saw in a theater was an opera back early March 2020.
But I recently got movie theater popcorn!
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I didn’t even know you could still get DVDs from Netflix. We’ve had Netflix for several years but I will admit that it’s mostly YA who watches it.
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My mom still gets DVDs from Netflix. I think she likes queuing up options and waiting to see what arrives next – the surprise is half the fun.
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We watched “Nomadland” in a theater a few weeks ago. I like Frances McDormand and thought she was fine but the film was rather dark, literally and figuratively. Most of the scenes, even sunny daylight, were shrouded somehow so you never experienced a bright sunny day as we know it. Weird. My wife complained that she had a hard time seeing the characters and setting details because it was shot in such low light.
I get it that the darkness mirrors the tone of the movie but come on, we’re not idiots who need to be hit over the head with that metaphor (?).
However, it’s a great movie for people to watch who are thinking of chucking it all, buying an RV, and living as a nomad for the rest of their lives. Not as glamorous as the RV dealers want you to believe.
The last time we watched all the Oscar-nominated films was in about 1999. Five was the number back then. Titles that spring to mind were LA Confidential, Shakespeare in Love. Don’t remember who won that year but it was a fun year since we at least had an opinion of what the best film winner might be. I think it was S.I.L. But I’m sure I’ll be corrected if I’m wrong. 🙂
Chris in Owatonna
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I believe 1999 was the year “Shakespeare in Love” beat out “Saving Private Ryan” for best picture. But Steven Spielberg did beat out John Madden for best director.
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I don’t know, maybe after the last 12 to 15 months we do need to be hit over the head with metaphor.
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🙂
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I haven’t seen any of them.
TCM starts 31 Days Of Oscar on April 1.
The movies are being shown alphabetically.
https://31days.tcm.com/
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I loved TCM until Comcast made it only viewable to those who pay an extra fee.
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My cable is Spectrum. The gold package costs a bunch with internet and phone. There are likely ways around it but I’m not going to do anything illegal. And I can barely navigate my remote controls.
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i love tcm
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We usually see precious few films, and I often choose by who’s acting. It looks like the only ones we’ve seen are Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom My Octopus Garden, (which I hope wins). We get Netflix (just this year switched from dvd mailing to streaming), and I’ve seen several of these are available there… Now that I see which ones are up for Oscars, I might be more motivated to watch a few – Chicago Seven and Hillbilly Elegy), which I realize is probably no indication that I’ll like them!
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I have seen a few of this year’s nominees – mostly because they were on Netflix. I agree that My Octopus Teacher was really good. I got part way through Ma Rainey and need to finish it (I was just too tired the night I started it). Really liked The Chicago Seven, even if parts of it were fictionalized – Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman was great. I was disappointed with Hillbilly Elegy as I think it relied too much on only part of the book and didn’t really tell the whole story of the family, nor hit on the main themes of the book (though the makeup was truly amazing – really that was Glenn Close?…). Soul made me weepy, but that is likely not too surprising. I liked it a lot, though I think that Inside Out is perhaps a better movie and story.
The last movie I saw in a theater was right as things were starting to tighten up and close down. Theater was purposefully not fully booked, though masks were not yet required. It was the Miss Fischer movie – which was frothy and delightful. Might have to see if I can find that one again on Amazon Prime…
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A tip for “finding that one again.” I get nowhere trying to find films with my TV remote and using the interface that appears on the screen. Those things repeatedly promote the films most people want to see, and my tastes are very different
But I have Netflix and Amazon Prime on my computer. If I go to those sites I can use the keyboard to call up films that are in the system but not prominently pushed by the screens. If I start watching a film on the computer and back out of it, my TV will offer it as a choice for resumed watching.
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I have looked things up on my laptop and then saved them to my viewing list (called different things on Amazon and Netflix) – then I can easily just browse to “my list” from the TV. 🙂
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I have Amazon Prime and see that “Sound of Metal” is on there. It’s about a rock drummer who is losing his hearing – very good reviews – will have to check that one out.
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I liked it. Didn’t love it.
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I don’t really remember much about movies at this point. Theaters? Haven’t been to one for well over a year. Don’t have cable. I think I might have a Netflix DVD around somewhere but I can’t remember for sure. I should look for that. I used to watch movies, especially when they used to run movies on broadcast TV. You had to wait about a year to see a new movie, but that was OK with me for the most part. I’d see two or three movies a year in a theater and then wait for the rest to show up on TV.
I haven’t seen any o the new crop.
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Ooh, I just remembered The Overstory by Richard Powers. I wish everyone could read this book, but it is kinda long, maybe 500 pages. Fiction, but I learned so much about trees. “The novel is about five trees whose unique life experiences with nine Americans bring them together to address the destruction of forests.”
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