Oscars v. Homework
At college, I’ve found, when people say “break”, they often just mean doing something else and working. Perhaps this is why I found myself in a classroom on Saturday afternoon, making my computer multitask as much as I was, only half paying attention to Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma. A heartbreaking, moving, Oscar-winning masterpiece was playing on the large pull-down projector screen in front of us, and the beautiful score was playing through speakers only the music department would have, and I was working.
Luckily, I’ve become quite good at multitasking. The eerie singing during the wildfire scene did not fail to disquiet me, and the continual return to water throughout the movie felt almost drowning on the big screen and just-too-loud speakers. Yalitza Aparicio’s acting debut floored me - I only found out later, and I barely believed this was not her profession. It was a great afternoon. (I also finished an assignment.)
The other casualties of this weekend were: Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse, which I saw for the second time (and you should, too - so beautifully animated and not even the loudest noise was hard to listen to, the way so much noise in movies is); The Favourite (a movie which made me rather uncomfortable); and Bohemian Rhapsody.
Bohemian Rhapsody did a number on my homework. It had every ounce of my attention from the very first moment to well after the credits started rolling. Rami Malek’s performance was, of course, Oscar-worthy, but it was so much more captivating than that. For two hours and 15 minutes I was walking three steps behind Freddie Mercury, watching him grow and fail and learn and love and make music like his life depended on it. I was on stage with Queen, and in the middle of their fights, and while I have heard that the movie took some liberties with facts, the energy, tone, cinematography, and overall literary quality of the movie embodied everything that Queen’s music has made me feel.
We watched the Oscars too, and every time Black Panther won an Oscar, I got a little more excited, and when Spider-man won best animation, and when the announcers said “Bohemian Rhapsody”, I felt really lucky to have spent a weekend with my friends, watching movies that endeared themselves and then watching the people who poured themselves into those movies celebrate their achievements.
Even if my homework saw the better half of the movies and the Oscars they won.
Green Book and BlacKkKlansman next weekend, anyone?