Ah, the Oscars

 That seems so last-century. But I saw 4 movies this year, so I'll opine:

West Side Story was enjoyable to  some degree, but seemed too long. Adding Rita Moreno to the cast was a nice tribute, but some of her appearances seemed redundant, and slightly patronizing. I heard her say that when she was approached for the job, she assumed it was for a cameo appearance, and she let them know that "I don't do cameos."  She probably should have.

Don't Look Up is a movie seemingly composed of  a number of Saturday Night Live skits, randomly strung together to make a politically or ecologically  oriented point. A few of the pieces (and that's what they are---pieces) are clever and /or amusing, but many are just plain simple and foolish. They were strung together by a relaxed committee. The excuse for disaster here is they label it a satire. Also too long.

Licorice Pizza makes me think of a bunch of stoners sitting around a desk trying to think of a title for the movie. Hey, since we're eating pizza, let's use that. We need another word. Not pepperoni or cheese, too common. What food would you not put on a pizza? We got it---licorice. And Licorice Pizza will make it sound somewhat deep and artsy, right? The movie started out like it was going to go somewhere, with characters and a possible plot. But it soon went astray, with a jumble of activities and happenings unrelated to each other or anyone that I could figure anyway. Case in point:  The guy and girl protagonists are in conversation with each other. Suddenly police officers appear on the scene and roughly and without explanation put him in handcuffs and take him away to a jail or court, where he is handcuffed to a bench in the hallway. No spoken words as far as we know. Suddenly one of the "cameo" actors appears in a frazzled hippie state and points to him and tells the cop with him that "No, he's not the murderer." So he is silently released from his handcuffs just as the female lead character shows up. She has been running to find him since  they dragged him away. Both characters do a whole lot of running in the movie. 

Coda is favored  to win Best Picture. I can understand why. It's not an outstanding film by any means, but in comparison to the others I've seen it's a sure bet to win. It has compelling characters and significant continuity of plot. But more importantly, in today's climate, it deals with a handicap, and a young girl pitted against societal discriminations. And Tah Dah, the Happy Ending!  Members of the audience  can indulge in a good cry. So I hear, and have observed. Overlooked in the rush to proclaim happiness for all, though, is the unexplained answer of how their major problem gets resolved. That evidently does not matter. All we need to know when the movie ends is that they all lived happily ever after.