Adventures in Words

  “ Oppenheimer” poster art via IMDB Apart from the buzzy excitement of the ceremony itself, when it comes to Academy Awards I've long believed that the nominations were better than the wins.  Being acknowledged as one of five great artists in your field, or one of 10 mighty movies, is a different proposition from actually winning the prize – especially in a contest that moves the goal posts every time it's played. Let us not forget that the greatest field general of modern Oscar campaigns was probably Harvey Weinstein, when he wasn't otherwise preoccupied. The nominations were announced Tuesday; winners will be named Sunday, March 10. Oscar nominations mark the beginning of the end of another movie awards season. My personal nod to the year's  best movie  gets on the  “Oppenheimer” bandwagon. It wins on the basis of degree of difficulty among other things. It's about the beginning of the end, too. Christopher Nolan's biography of the “father of the A-bomb,” J.

     Teo Yoo and Greta Lee in "Past Lives." Photo via IMDB.com Its intentions are more modest and perhaps more pure than some of the epics it's pitted against, but watch for “Past Lives” when the Oscar nominations are announced tomorrow. After being in the running for Golden Globes, its star Greta Lee was just named Best Actress by the Hawaii Film Critics Society, and writer-director Celine Song won in the group's Original Screenplay and Best New Filmmaker categories. Hollywood likes to display its fondness for Asian perspectives on American culture at Oscar time. Chloé Zhao's “Nomadland” won three of the awards including Best Picture in 2020. Last year “Everything Everywhere All At Once” brought home seven more of the little gold guys, sweeping most of the major categories. “Past Lives” can't match “Everything Everywhere's” great, one-size-fits-all title, but it does have an equally cosmic guiding principle. It's  In-Yun,  an ancient Korean Buddhist c

Lily Gladstone (second from left) with Cara Jade Myers, Janae Collins and Jillian Dion.  Photos via IMDB Not since “Oklahoma!” opened on Broadway has the state where I grew up in the '50s and '60s gotten so much attention in popular culture. That's not necessarily a good thing. Ken Burns's recent PBS documentary “The American Buffalo” followed the rise and demise of the majestic beasts across a boundless landscape being transformed in a nation. Their fate was intertwined with the fate of Native Americans, a lot of whom, along with a lot of buffalos, wound up in Oklahoma. A horrendous 1921 race riot in Tulsa provided the opening scenes of the recent HBO miniseries “Watchmen.” And now comes “Killers of the Flower Moon,” recounting yet one more unconscionable chapter that wasn't in the books or libraries when I was learning Oklahoma history in school.  The tragic, three-and-a-half-hour epic follows the diabolical scheming by white men in what was called “Indian Territo