The Academy Awards…
Frequent readers of this blog are probably aware that I’ve not done movie reviews for more than a year. The reason is obvious: Covid-19. We don’t have streaming video and don’t want it because we the need the full-screen, surround-sound, reclining seats, and popcorn—the full experience that can only be obtained in a big, traditional theater setting. I hope to return to that experience and writing movie reviews soon.
Any opinions I have about this year’s Academy Award nominees were formed by movie trailers and chats with friends, online or otherwise. These opinions about films, actors, and other film workers, if any, are basically worthless, but I will make some comments. Anthony Hopkins was a surprise; I’d have voted for Chadwick Boseman. That’s more a personal choice than a valid observation because I didn’t see their performances. I’m happy that Soul won two awards, but that’s because I love music—I have yet to see this film that seems like another advance in animation art with its portrayal of NYC’s vibrant life and citizens.
While Covid has been an unwelcome force of change, there’s no doubt that Hollywood needed to change. The descriptor “tinsel town,” intended to capture in general how irrelevant movies and how detached and out-of-touch actors, directors, and producers were in the past, is less appropriate now: Change is occurring in Hollywood. Whether it’s good or bad, Hollywood will never be the same. And maybe that’s good in itself.
Evolution isn’t only a force of nature; it’s a force for change in the world’s institutions and social norms. Whether they like it or not, conservatives have to learn to live with a changing world. Chana didn’t watch the Oscars; they boycotted them, even though a Chinese-American professor from NYU won an award. That’s disconnecting from the world. China does that at its own peril. Trumpers, and the great loser and con man himself, hate Hollywood; they’ll achieve the irrelevance they fear so much and so richly deserve.
Yes, evolution is social change too, like it or not. Dylan’s song is as true now, if not more so, than it was in the nineteen-sixties: The times are a-changin’—and that’s a good thing, in Hollywood and elsewhere. Let’s hope it speeds up so we can save the planet and arrive at the point where we all recognize that we’re all on the great spaceship Earth together and must make the best of it.
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Comments are always welcome!
Origins: The Denisovan Trilogy, Book One, by A. B. Carolan. Kayla Jones has dreams she can’t understand. Her future seems determined as the brilliant STEM student who looks forward to a research career, but her past gets in the way. As if the chaos afflicting the world and leading to her adopted father’s death wasn’t enough, killers begin to pursue her. With some friends who come to her aid, she’s on her way to discover a conspiracy that can be traced to prehistoric battles waged by hominins bent on conquest of a primitive Earth. Available at Smashwords and all its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Gardners, etc.).
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
