98th Oscars - an admittedly blinkered view

As typically I avoided Sunday night's Oscars. I'm of the same view as Woody Allen and this year Sean Penn (who also skipped them and he won), that these ceremonies are a lot of over the top hokum. The Brits have a good term for actors at awards ceremonies - "luvies" - because they sing each other's praises and throw their arms around one another ad nauseum. (What really happened on those film sets?) And I also didn't see most of the nominated films, either because of lack of interest or they never made it to my city (thanks film distributors!). But let me take a stab at some of the nominated films and winners anyway, as blinkered as my view is. As everyone everywhere predicted One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson) won. I avoided because, well, I wasn't interested in seeing a violence-spewed flic about ex-radicals. I did see nominees Hamnet, Marty Supreme and Sentimental Value. Of those I'd select Marty Supreme - fast-paced and fine acting in a realistic period setting. Hamnet (Chloé Zhao) was basically a family drama about an errant husband (Will Shakespeare) in the 16th century. Screen wife Jessie Buckley won for best actress but I would have chosen Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You.  Michael B. Jordan won for Sinners, which I didn't see - not really into vampires. I would have chosen Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon, a superb performance to an extent I didn't even know who the actor was (and I'm a long time fan) given the makeup and captivating changed persona. For Best Director I would have chosen Josh Safdie for Marty Supreme (see above). I'll pass on the supporting male and female actors. Norway's Joachim Trier won for Sentimental Value in the international category. For me it was just a meh movie. It's hard for me to comment on some of the other awards because I didn't see most of those movies or have little to compare the winners with. For best documentary I would have liked to have seen the winner Mr. Nobody Against Putin (David Borenstein & Pavel Talankin) and I did think The Perfect Neighbor (Geeta Gandbhir) was excellent, especially given the story was all told from "third party" police bodycam or prison cell footage...... And next year I'll probably also have not seen most of the films on offer.