Just what do the Academy Awards tell us about the world we live in?
I began thinking about this after I was contacted by Carl Plantinga, a research fellow and professor of film and media studies at Calvin University in Michigan. Plantinga was pushing a theory that, for better or worse, Oscars for best picture tend to honor films with simple, straightforward, morally clear messages and are less likely to go to morally complex or ambiguous films.
His argument — laid out as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences prepares to hold its 95th awards ceremony on March 12 — is that films such as this year's "Tár," a complicated drama about political correctness, sexual harassment, art, genius, leadership, truth and deception, may be nominated for best picture (as "Tár" was), but more often than not they lose in the end.
