I skipped watching the Academy Awards or Oscars again this year, and not just because movies I like never win anything.
OK, that’s not quite true.
The Lord of the Rings; The Return of the King won a dozen Oscars, but that was more than 20 years ago and, if I remember correctly, all those Oscars were also for the first two movies, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers.
I went into Oscars night this year without having watched a single one of the movies nominated for best picture, best actor, best actress, best original song, etc.
So I really wasn’t that interested, nor am I generally in award shows — since my taste in culture and the arts tends to veer away from the mainstream, which wins awards far too often, in my humble opinion.
One unwatched movie did catch my attention, A Complete Unknown, the Bob Dylan biopic about his early 1960s days in New York City, when he went from being an unknown folk singer to whatever Dylan was by 1965 — an original singer, songwriter and musician who still defies definition.
Dylan is an acquired taste, which not everyone acquires, as I like to say.
But I was too disorganized to get to the movie theatres in time to watch A Complete Unknown on the really big screen, and before I knew it, it was gone.
I can’t figure out how to stream it without signing up for some service for six months where I don’t like 90 per cent of the shows.
Last I read, it was supposed to be out on DVD sometime in April, so that might be my ticket, as they say. I know how to work my DVD player and my television, so I’m all set there.
It will probably cost me $25 to $30, which is about twice what it costs to go to the theatres, but that’s OK because then I won’t be tempted to buy a bucket of greasy popcorn and another bucket of watered-down pop.
It’s not like Dylan didn’t have a presence at the Oscars this year, despite not attending in person.
Rolling Stones’ frontman Mick Jagger presented the Oscar for best original song, explaining with a small grin that he was the second choice to do so, that Dylan was wanted. But Jagger said Dylan figured his songs in A Complete Unknown were the best tunes that year (but Oscar-ineligible, as they were written in the 1960s).
It wasn’t unclear to me whether it was actually Dylan or Jagger who thought Dylan’s songs were better.
Jagger made things even funnier by pointing out he’s younger than Dylan and the latter had suggested a younger man present the award.
Both men are in their 80s.
A Complete Unknown was nominated for eight Oscars; it won zero.
Anyway, I saw all this in YouTube clips (a friend sent it to me) and didn’t actually watch the awards show.
I did manage to watch Conclave, the movie about picking a pope, while the Oscars were taking place. It was a pretty good movie, though I’m sure the Catholic Church has a more than slight problem with it.
Conclave won for best adapted screenplay, whatever that means. Or so they tell me, as I was not watching the Oscars.
I think all that’s left that I might be interested, awards-show wise, is the Junos, honouring Canadian music on March 30.
I’m not sure who is nominated or what type of music they play, but if I like it one thing’s for sure. They won’t win.
Not unless there’s a new, nominated Canadian version of The Lord of the Rings soundtrack.
Bob Bruton covers city hall for BarrieToday. He holds it against awards show that nothing he likes almost ever wins. It’s a sore point. And don’t get him started on the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame, or the Hockey Hall of Fame.