On Tuesday, we had a friend over for dinner on the patio. Conversation bounced around the usual bumpers: Politics, crime, ex-spouse, lawyers, kids, the neighbors.Yet not a word was spoken about the Oscar nominations, announced just that morning.
Which is weird, because this particular guest only two years ago was a West Side superviewer—someone who works with big-name movie people, lived on the guild screener circuit, and was a regular at my colleague Pete Hammond’s show-and-tell sessions at the nearby Aero Theatre, once a crucible for awards season buzz.But this year, nothing.
Not even a yawn.What’s worse, it’s been this way with older, sophisticated movie fans in and around my little patch of West Los Angeles and Santa Monica for months.
Early adapters, those cinema-savvy “civilians” who used to see pictures via viewing clubs, filmmaker screenings and festivals from Santa Barbara to Palm Springs, and then promote them on the chatter circuit before the wider public got a shot, have gone silent.It’s as if the honey bees had all died.Obviously, the pandemic had a lot to do with this.
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