Oscars 2021 — what a long, strange trip it’s been.
Welcome to the only holiday which truly matters.
I speak, of course, about Oscar night.
And morning, and afternoon, and …. yes, we’re taking the whole day here.
It has been ever so for me, at least back to the Oscars held March 25, 1991, the first I remember celebrating here on Whidbey.
We lived out off of Frostad Road back then, and I walked my happy butt several miles to the nearest convenience store so I could purchase four or five newspapers and do my pre-broadcast Academy Awards research in those days before everyone had the world at their fingertips via computers and cell phones.
Then I argued all night with the uncaring TV, approving of some wins, while bitterly disagreeing with others.
Nick Park, a Claymation genius and the father of Wallace and Gromit, had two of the three nominees in Best Animated Short Film, with Creature Comforts grabbing the little gold man
Good show, old man.
But, while I enjoyed Ghost, Whoopi Goldberg winning Best Supporting Actress over Annette Bening in The Grifters?
Utter blasphemy!
The passage of time has also shown Goodfellas was brutally robbed, beaten 7-1 by Dances With Wolves, continuing a trail of tears for Martin Scorsese.
And sure, the master would finally win Best Picture and Director 15 years later for The Departed, but swinging and missing for Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas?
Oof, Oscars, oof.
In 1991, I had seen my share of nominated films prior to the show, thanks to Oak Harbor’s movie theater and my trusty, overly-abused VCR.
But it was a time when any hopes of seeing the foreign films, documentaries, or shorts in advance was fairly firmly stuck on not-gonna-happen-if-you-live-on-a-rock-in-the-middle-of-the-water.
Things took a swing for the positive when I landed my golden ticket and started a 12-year run at Videoville in 1994, however.
Living behind a video store counter, with the ability to whine, plead, and make deals with movie studio reps at far-flung outposts increased my chances of nabbing nominated films pre-Oscars.
Add in Videoville’s annual Oscar contest, an event in which customers Val Flack-Jones and Julie Landau showed an uncanny knack for picking winners while I tried not to embarrass myself, and things were humming.
Jump forward to April 25, 2021 — the latest in a year any Oscars telecast has gone down — and the world is a vastly different place.
Cushy video store life is long gone, all the pre-show news stories are available online, without the walk to the quickie mart, and the pandemic has severly altered the movie landscape.
Largely unable to show their films in theaters this go-round, the movie studios sold their wares through streaming services and stashed them on obscure web sites, and David was all over that.
As I write this, mere hours before the Oscar pre-show kicks off at 3:30 PM, I have seen 52 of 56 nominees — my best pre-awards showing yet.
That includes every foreign film (though the category is now known as Best International Feature), every doc, and every single freakin’ short.
Booya.
The four which have evaded me? Minari, The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, and Roberto Benigni’s live-action Pinocchio.
The absence of the first three, all Best Picture nominees, galls me, but none of them have landed on a streaming service, or come down in price as a video on demand purchase.
I ain’t paying $19.99 for a film. I choose thrift over completeness.
Pinocchio, nominated for Makeup and Costume Design, is available to rent at $5.99, but the 275th (at least) version of the tale is not rousing my interest.
Though, I almost said the same for the newest version of Emma, which is up for the same two awards, and boy am I glad I tracked it down.
It might be the 544th version of that story to be put on film, but it’s impeccable and drop-dead gorgeous, done with wit and style, and featuring a sublime lead performance from Anya Taylor-Joy.
Frankly, it should be up for Best Picture and a whole lot more.
Quick, do a Best Supporting Actor write-in campaign for Bill Nighy, who conducts a master class in delivering deep sighs and subtly arched eyebrows.
Emma, like Wolfwalkers, The Man Who Sold His Skin, A Love Song for Latasha, or The Letter Room, are all nominees which will endure long after they find out the whims of Oscar voters.
And what about Love and Monsters, up for Best Visual Effects?
I went in expecting just another reheated slice of YA adventure, and was blown away by how much the filmmakers achieved.
The tale of a young man (and his good boy dog) outrunning assorted giant squishy bugs in a post-apocalyptic world, it’s funny, unexpectedly touching, often surprising, and deserved to be a blockbuster.
If Love and Monsters upsets Christopher Nolan’s visually-dazzling (and often brain-numbing) Tenet and wins an Oscar, Penn Cove will be treated to me screaming like a ninny.
It’s just how I’ve rolled these past 30 years, whether screaming in joy for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby (someone likes Clint Eastwood around here…) or jeering as Titanic shanked the far-superior L.A. Confidential.
I was, and still am, a Babe super fan (it wuz robbed!), and want to see Glenn Close get her Oscar. Just not for Hillbilly Elegy.
It’s easy to slag on Hollywood’s annual over-heated tribute to itself, and claim you never watch it. Good for you, skippy.
Me? I’m all in.
