Movie Awards 2017

My last few years in Los Angeles, when Joe and I shared an apartment in West Hollywood, I stopped watching the big movie awards show. Roads were closed all over town, even to pedestrians, to make sure that, God forbid, a celebrity should run into a common person on the way to a post-award show party. I was at the movies at least once a week in L.A. (in Morgantown, once a year), so I had generally seen all the movies. I knew the nominees were the movies the studios wanted nominated, not necessarily the best.

I still keep a membership in SAG-AFTRA. In thirty years, I haven't made what I've paid in dues. So okay, I like to brag that I have worked, even minimally, in Hollywood. The SAG Awards are slightly more democratic, because it's only acting awards, and actors vote. Still, little-seen movies with great acting won't win.

This year, maybe because of the state of the world, or because a few movies got to me, I would have watched the show. We now have an actual television, but the network hosting the show can only be seen on cable from Pittsburgh. We don't have cable. We only watch DVDs on our new device. I asked on Facebook if anyone was having a viewing party (more popular than Super Bowl parties in L.A.), but I guess not.

SAG-AFTRA sends me DVDS or codes to watch things online. I saw "Moonlight" in Greenbelt, Maryland, "La La Land", "Jackie," "Manchester by the Sea," "Fences" and "Hidden Figures" on DVD. All of them were good.

I liked "La La Land." I've been to auditions where I've learned a speech and they stopped me after two words; my sister's husband, a jazz pianist, was once fired for improvising on Christmas carols. Los Angeles looked beautiful and dream-like, which it often is, just as it can be heartbreaking. For most of us, we found love there, but our careers didn't take off. Some of us left, and some stayed in jobs making less than they were worth in a city they couldn't afford.

"Moonlight" was more disturbing. All of us who are gay have had stunted lives because of hatred from society.  We've hid our real selves to get by at whatever we were doing. Often we don't stay where we grew up, but end up in Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York, where being gay is not such a big deal. I was blindsided by the prejudice I dealt with, even in Los Angeles. There is some redemption in "Moonlight," and that's when I was most moved.

I know people who didn't care for "Jackie." I was an impressionable fourteen-year-old when John Kennedy was assassinated, and to see a totally believable Natalie Portman deconstruct the legend of Jackie was beautiful and hard to watch. The horror of that time has not gone away.

"Hidden Figures" is an important, well-acted story that needed to be told, and although there was a book, the movie reached many more people. "Fences" is a classic American play, and Denzel did a great job directing it for the screen.

I found "Manchester By The Sea' disturbing also. I didn't like any of the characters, and I thought the women were even less sympathetic than the men, and underwritten to boot. Still, Casey Affleck was believable.

So I didn't disagree with all the awards. I might have gone for Meryl Streep or Natalie Portman for best actress, obvious choices, but I don't deny Emma Stone's fine performance.

I listened to all the songs online before the awards, and "City of Stars" was the one that made me cry.

Mahershala Ali was on "Fresh Air" on NPR. He talked about being a Muslim, and how he felt about the kid in the movie. He talked about being part of a community under attack, which he related to as a Muslim in America today, and he said he could see how gay people could feel that, too. I'm wildly paraphrasing here. It's touching to me that Muslims, gays and Jews have been brought together, mostly since the election.

After years of ignoring African-American actors and filmmakers,  I'm glad that a film like "Moonlight," not big box-office, and never playing in Morgantown, was recognized for the great achievement it is. The LGBT Center at WVU finally showed it last week at the college. That's not to take anything away from "La La Land," an excellent and heartbreaking old-fashioned (in a good way) film.

So I guess i am still, even marginally, in the "film community." I wish our two multiplexes here would show better movies. Often, when I am looking to see a good movie, I get Joe to go with me to Pittsburgh, because the good stuff isn't here.

If I had more of an entrepreneurial streak, I would restore and reopen the Warner Theater in downtown Morgantown and show art movies. Maybe the era for that has passed, but a man can still dream.