So all the pomp and circumstance around the Oscars is over. Ellen DeGeneres headed up a great party, even providing her guests pizza. And who knew that all those famous people could photo bomb so well? Overall, it was an entertaining evening with not many surprises outside John Travolta’s new toupee and his terrible faux pas – who the hell is Adele Nazeem? Poor Idina.
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Like I said, not many surprises in the evening. It was known that even with the scandal surrounding Woody Allen (are you team Woody or team Dylan?) that it wouldn’t diminish the achingly good performance of Cate Blanchett in a modern day Blanche DuBois type of role in Blue Jasmine. It didn’t hurt matters that Cate has starred as Blanche in her own theatre company’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire for more than a few performances. There was no doubting that Jared Leto would win for his portrayal of a transgender woman in Dallas Buyer’s Club. Hollywood loves that kind of stuff, even though Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave really went somewhere with his grotesque and self-loathing role.
But this isn’t about me talking about who should have won. It’s about what’s next and if anybody cares. Over 67% percent of people say they haven’t seen any of the best picture nominees. It just makes me wonder if people are just willing to wait until they can Netflix it and watch it in the privacy of their own home. I wouldn’t blame them. It’s so much easier. There are no worries about some enormously tall guy sitting in front of you. Or someone bringing their hour-old baby into the theater. Or the two old guys from The Muppet Show sitting behind you talking through the entire movie. In fact, I can’t think of any reason to go to the actual theater unless it’s to see something like Gravity that dares to use space as a character. But even then you have to contend with not be able to pause it to go to the bathroom to take care of that giant Coke you had to buy to go with your overpriced popcorn because you thought it was a good deal.