There was something rather appropriate to our times when the wrong film was announced as winning best picture at last night’s Oscars. It seems that even this major event in Hollywood can no longer get it right. How rapidly the American dream fades!
However, despite the mystery of the wrong envelope (surely a plotline for a great detective novel) there was much to celebrate in the spread of awards. “La La Land” did well, but didn’t crush everything else in its path.
It was great to see “Moonlight,” a fiercely intelligent and compassionate film, win the Oscar for Best picture, with much deserved awards also going to “Fences” and “Manchester by the Sea.”
2017 will be remembered as the year of the wrong envelope; the year when the mistake that must never happen actually happened. Hopefully this will not eclipse the memory of four outstanding films that, each in their own way, capture important truths about the human condition.