I have my way of watching the Oscars, first recording the show and then speeding through the speeches and ads, pausing only to identify the winners. I can do the whole 2.5 hours in twenty minutes. It isn't nearly as boring as watching the whole thing, watching the rich people in $500 seats in the auditorium. 95% of them are frantic to get the bore over so they can stop smiling, pick their noses off camera and get to the booze and blow. Or just go home and get in bed.
I had seen more than half of the major films involved and enjoyed them. That includes the winner, which was the usual white savior film. The Academy loves movies in which some relatable working-stiff white guy saves an educated, high-falooting black guy and teaches him to appreciate jazz. But for some reason Viggo Mortensen, who carried the movie, got shut out.
The only film I saw all year that had genuine weight to it was Roma. Unfortunately, the first hour of Roma is a pretty deadly slice of life, the life of a house servant in Mexico City. It's about as interesting as the daily work of a cleaner. Most of the people I know left the movie before the first hour ended. The second hour gets explosive. But it wouldn't work without the tonnage of the first dull hour.
Roma won some major awards. It will be around for decades.
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