A preview of the Oscars

By DON & JOYCE FOWLER
Posted 2/20/19

By DON and JOYCE FOWLER We'll be watching the Academy Awards Sunday night, even though we don't like the concept of choosing one performance over another and can't stand those acceptance speeches. We do, however, have some of our opinions after seeing

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A preview of the Oscars

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We’ll be watching the Academy Awards Sunday night, even though we don’t like the concept of choosing one performance over another and can’t stand those acceptance speeches.

We do, however, have some of our opinions after seeing almost all of the nominated movies.

Foreign movies

The good news is that, thanks to the Avon Cinema, we were able to see two of the Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Film. The bad news is that we found both ”Cold War” and “Shoplifters” slow, boring and depressing.

Poland’s “Cold War” features two lovers caught up in the Cold War who rendezvous every few years until things go real bad for them. We didn’t care much for the characters and, although the black and white movie was less than an hour and a half long, couldn’t wait for it to end.

“Shoplifters” was about a Japanese family that survived on shoplifting. The director attempted to make you sympathize with the family, which was hard to do. This one went on and on until its depressing ending.

The predicted favorite is Mexico’s “Roma,” which has not played any theatre in Rhode Island but was accessible on at least one TV service. Our son-in-law and daughter saw it, found it to be a bore, and both fell asleep on the couch.

Our Oscar favorites

We have never liked the system of choosing “the best,” believing that comparing performances and movies is like comparing apples and oranges. How can you logically choose between “Green Book’s” Viggo Mortensen and “Bohemian Rhapsody’s” Rami Malek?

And how can you make the distinction between Mortensen and Marhershala Ali as to who is leading actor and who is supporting actor?

What we do believe is that the following movies (in no particular order) are must-see productions:

  • Green Book
  • Bohemian Rhapsody
  • BlacKKKlansman
  • A Star is Born
  • The Favourite

We also found the following actors to be outstanding in their roles:

  • Christian Bale in “Vice”
  • Rami Malek in “Bohemian Rhapsody”
  • Mortensen and Ali in “Green Book”
  • Adam Driver in “BlacKKKlansman
  • Glenn Close in “The Wife”
  • Lady Gaga in “A Star is Born”

Stay up late, suffer through the too-long show, and see if your favorite move and actors are recognized.

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