Oscar Watch

On the heels of Mary Leary's powerful reminder of how our culture of celebrity worship can obscure and undermine our vision of the dignity of the person (particularly of women), I sort of hate to admit where I've spent last Saturday  & will be spending tomorrow -- my traditional best-picture Oscar nominee movie watching marathon with my son.  But, that being said, here are a couple of random observations about Catholic (and even one legal) aspects of this year's nominees.

First, my son & I both agree that this year's slate of nominees is remarkable for its relative wholesomeness -- many of the movies focus on the importance of the bonds of love, and the overwhelming importance of families in our lives.  Though many of the families portrayed are broken in various ways, the brokenness tends to be acknowledged by the characters as a bad, rather than celebrated as a good, and the ideal of the family toward which so many of the characters are striving in these movies tends to be something very compatible with the Catholic notion of family.

Second, though Tree of Life does appear to be profoundly suffused with Catholicity -- except maybe towards the end where I think it might veer into new-agey-ness (though one of my students who is currently exploring entering the Benedictine order disagrees with me there) -- I think it's a terrible movie.  It might be a great graduate school seminar, but it's a tedious movie.

Third, I enjoyed The Descendents much more than I expected.  I was entranced by the movie's theme of stewardship and our responsibility for what (and whom) we are given to care for in this world.  And what Catholic lawyer wouldn't be tickled by a movie that uses the Rule Against Perpetuities to help make the point that the things (and people) entrusted to us are given to us for a limited time?

Fourth, The Artist is a perfect jewel of a movie.  Yes, it's a silent, black & white movie.  But it's a magnificent piece of art, and utterly, thoroughly charming.

Finally, what Oscar-related post of mine would be complete without a reference to the nun who kissed Elvis, Mother Dolores, the Hollywood starlet who gave up fame and her fiance to answer God's call to the cloistered life of the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis?  Well this year, she's going to actually be at the Oscars!  Her story is the focus of an Oscar-nominated best documentary short film:   God Is the Bigger Elvis.  Oh, wouldn't it be a grand sight to see her striding down that Red Carpet in full habit?