What He Said

Hi everyone,

As you're likely aware, the Academy Awards were held a few weeks ago.  There were some nice things that happened:

--Hannah Beachler was the first Black person to be nominated--and win!--for best production design (for "Black Panther" (2018)!), and she gave a wonderfully inspiring speech!

--A movie that finally helped me understand why Spider-Man is great won best animated feature.

--Olivia Coleman's acceptance speech was absolutely adorable.

--Alfonso Cuarón won twice, including for best director, and gave a beautifully principled speech about the importance of film as a portal into lives and stories we might otherwise not see (which is relevant for my forthcoming beef with awards that occurred later in the evening).

Also Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga successfully confused like 70% of viewers about the difference between acting and IRL love.

However, there is also the issue of what won best picture.

Maybe I've gotten spoiled over the last few years by some of the really wonderful progress in evidence of who and what has been winning awards in the last few years of the Oscars, but it just seemed like some problematic BS was afoot when "Green Book" (2018) won best picture.

New York Times critic-at-large Wesley Morris shared his analysis of this award on an episode of my new favorite podcast and confirmed my suspicions.  Honestly, anything I have to say is going to be less cogent than what he said. 

So I suggest everyone just take a listen here.

The only thing I'll add is: he's definitely right about "Do the Right Thing" (1989).

{Heart}