I was delighted that my wife recorded the Oscars last night, so we could fast forward past commercials. Unfortunately, we also found ourselves fast forwarding past almost everything.
If you are like most humans, you skipped the annual tribute to the movies and I assure you that your life will be fine. Perhaps that is true EVERY year, but this year's show can only be described as excruciating.
No songs beyond a few bars. No film clips beyond a few incomprehensible clips. No silly jokes or "insider" jokes since there was no host (this was the third year for that). The one potentially fun bit was some sort of music quiz with the stars, but that only proved that improv has its ups and downs. Lots of memories of old movies -- maybe when movies were not only important but entertaining?
No fun... at all.
I often advise students to "write cinematically," and by that I mean to make significant scenes come alive, to consider dialog to establish characters, and to imagine readers as similar to viewers who we are trying to keep from turning the channel. What should we think of a show focused on movies that contains almost no movies, or clips of movies, or even pre-recorded mini-movies?
This show seemed to have a goal of keeping the smallest audience ever. If so, well done.
You would think that a show that celebrates cinema, quite literally, would be more than a mediocre podcast, but that's what we got.
I have other complaints, like the fact that even an old-timer like me was struck by how ancient almost everyone was, whether they were presenters or nominees. It was actually shocking to see Zendaya appear as a presenter. Huh? Someone under 60?
It was a tough year for everyone and even tougher for The Dream Factory, I guess.
One good thing that resulted? I got a glimpse of what hell might be like... forced to watch this Oscars show over and over.
I promise to mend my ways.
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