As I make my way home from a weekend trip, it seems likely that I will catch the Academy Awards telecast only in part or not at all. Spring has come to the south and in moving north I am also traveling back in seasonal time. I could travel north to south repeatedly and slip into and out of spring many times before the east coast is of one mind about it. Movies can do something like that to us too, treating us to shades and nuances that we perceive as 'other', only to realize (or sometimes not realize) that we have become harmonized with them as we watch. I think our responses to movies indicate the kinds of experiences we are willing (or not willing) to have, quite apart from our likes and dislikes.
I don't know, and almost don't care who will win what. I can only say which movies took me along where they were going. Life of Pi, Rust and Bone, Silver Linings Playbook, Searching for Sugar Man, and The Master all did. Among the actors, Joaquin Phoenix, whose public persona is a bit off-putting to me, took me quite far. I loved Robert DeNiro's superstitious OCD character in Silver Linings Playbook. DeNiro has done almost everything in movies, including silliness, without losing the thread of what he's doing. He plays a mean game of chicken. Marion Cotillard is my pick for best actress - never mind that she wasn't nominated. Anne Hathaway and Quvenzhane Wallis both brought magic to their stations, turning them into constellations - which is why they're called stars. And, it's why we watch.
Photo,mine: A toddler is fascinated by the wall of live fish at the Georgia Aquarium
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