I've been watching the rise of Stephanie Zacharek over the years and enjoying her reviews and columns more and more. Her recent column on what the Oscars say about us as Americans is infinitely more interesting than all the posts about who will win. She echoes what Roger Ebert said about movies more as reflections of society than agents of change. Then Zacharek wrote about who will win at tonight's Oscars and who should. Very succinct; she doesn't waste our time. Some movies do waste our time and we quickly forget them. On recently seeing Trumbo about an important era in twentieth century America, it's important, but the film itself doesn't matter too much on its own. It can, however, spur people to read more broadly about that era and what happened, and what transpires today with our civil liberties. A movie did that once for me in college, but Oliver Stone's JFK mattered so much as a story and stunning achievement in filmmaking. It inspired then and still does today, and it lost Best Picture to The Silence of the Lambs, a good thriller, yes, with great scenes, but not transcendent. Or, the latter movie is for some. That's where the medium, in the course of about two hours, affects us for years or longer after we've seen them. There you are.
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