It’s Oscar night! For Cinephiles like myself tonight is our Superbowl, World Series, our Grammy Awards night.

For me movies are nothing short of magic. When the theater doors close and the lights dim, the rest of the world and the 100 things that are on my mind disappear. It’s bliss, a mini vacation, a deserted island. I am at peace for the next two hours free from distractions, solving problems, or making To-Do lists. I am present and open and free to let the story on the silver screen unfold.

Every story ever told by any human consists of only five possible conflicts in the storyline. Five. That’s it! Man vs. Self, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Supernatural, Man vs. Man and/or Man vs. Society. That seems impossible to me to be true, but I have yet to see a movie where it didn’t apply.

We think humans are so complex, but the way we move and live in this world really does boil down to how you treat yourself, how you treat or respond to nature, how you interact with others, acceptable or unacceptable societal norms, and how you interact with the supernatural, which I assume includes tech and AI.

Movies have the ability to give us all a better understanding of different people and cultures. Movies can shift the way we see the world…as it was, is, or could be.

If the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asked me to categorize, nominate and hand out Oscars based on my lifetime of movie tickets purchased and buckets of popcorn eaten, my Lifetime Oscar awards would look something like this.

All Time Best Musical – West Side Story

I’m Glad I Know This Movie Has a Happy Ending – Argo

Best Rom-Com/Chick Flick – When Harry Met Sally and Annie Hall (It’s a tie.)

I Did Not See That Coming! – Crash, Broadcast News, The Crying Game, and The Sixth Sense

Movies I Thought About for a Long Time – The Color Purple, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, It’s A Wonderful Life

Most Charming Movies – ET, The Big Chill, Star Wars, The World’s Fastest Indian and Big

Movies My Son Made Me See That I Didn’t Want to See, But Made My Top 25 Movie List – Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, 8 Mile, The Matrix, Waking Life

Movies Garv Made Me See That I Didn’t Want to See, But Made My Top 25 Movie List – Rocky, Star Wars, Breaking Away

Movies No One Else Saw or Liked But Made My Top 25 List – What Dreams May Come, The Kid, Remember the Titans

Movies I Feel Guilty for Never Seeing – The Godfather, Gone with the Wind, Out of Africa, Dances with Wolves, Schindler’s List, Life is Beautiful

Best Picture 2018 – BlacKkKlansman

I have this fantasy that tonight during the Red Carpet pre-Oscar show Ryan Seacrest will pop through my TV screen to interview me.

Ryan: Who are you wearing?

Me: Adidas and my shoes are designed by Ugg.

Ryan: What’s your next project?

Me: I’m meeting with the Academy to discuss a new Oscar category.

Ryan: What category?

Me: Best Movie Goer

Ryan: You will be nominated every year.

Me: I KNOW, right?

 

What’s a boomer to do? Ponder this Native American Proverb then promise yourself you will go to a movie soon.

“Tell me the facts and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.”