And the Oscar goes to...Movie Magic

Many of you who follow me know that I love movies. I love seeing movies, going to the movies, talking about movies, movie trivia, movie nights--all things movies.

I follow movies like others follow sports, so I often say the Oscars is my SuperBowl.

Throughout the movie "season", I keep on eye on all the chatter to see which movies, directors, writers, actors, actresses, etc are likely to be nominated for an Oscar. I watch the results of the Golden Globes awards, the Screen Actors Guild awards, and other industry awards because I know that the winners of their top honors are great indicators for what will do well at the Oscars. Then, on the two Saturdays preceding the Oscars, my friends and I attend AMC Theater's Best Picture Showcase to watch all the Oscar nominees for Best Picture back-to-back. This year there were ten nominees, which meant we watched five movies on the first Saturday and another five on the second Saturday.

"Why?" is a question I often get asked. Why would you want to sit and watch five movies back-to-back? Why not spread it out and see them throughout the season instead of waiting until the weekend of and before the Oscars and doing them all at once?

First and foremost, this is something I enjoy. As I mentioned before, I love movies. So spending the day at Showcase means I get to do something I love for the whole day. Second, I like the buzz of seeing them all at once right before the winners get revealed at the Oscars. That way the performances are fresh in my mind when I watch the acceptance speeches and clips. Also, if I do my research well throughout the season, I can predict which movies will be nominated and save them until the end so that I'm watching all the nominees for the first time during Showcase. Obviously, that doesn't always work. Sometimes I see a movie before it generates enough buzz to be a contender for nominee, and sometimes I see a film that isn't an obvious contender and then it gets a surprise nomination I didn't see coming. (Looking at you here, Mad Max: Fury Road!) Even if I'm already seen the nominated film, I'm usually happy to watch it again and pick up on things I may have missed before.

To those who say okay, but why not just stream them all at home?

And sure, it's great to watch in my pajamas at home with the ability to hit pause, but I love viewing a film on the big screen with big sound from speakers that were engineered specifically for movies. I also love the smell of popcorn and the outrageously expensive candy and sodas. (I kid--I definitely do NOT love that part!)

But my absolute favorite part of spending the day in a theater for Showcase is watching these films with an audience who loves movies and the theater experience just as much as I do.

There is nothing like watching a story unfold and having everyone around you laugh together, gasp together, or weep together. Somewhere in that collective intake of breath when we're surprised or that communal laughter when we're amused, we find common ground in being human.

We connect to movies--to stories--because they allow us to relate to one another. Even in the most fantastical of settings, the characters love like we do. They hurt like we do. They strive to do better and be better and have better. They protect the ones they love, and they make mistakes. They go through hardships and triumphs. They win some. They lose some.

Good things happen for them, but bad things happen too.

When we watch movies, we learn about our fellow humans. We learn about ourselves. We learn what we have in common and how we are different. We find things we can relate to. We find hope. We find closure. We find inspiration and healing. Equally important, we find escape in simply being entertained. I hear all the time from people who don't get the hype around Oscar nominees and don't understand why the chosen movies are nominated. They've never heard of those movies, or they watch one because it was nominated and don't find what they expect in a "good" movie. And I get that. I really do.

I don't always agree that the ones nominated are the "best" pictures or best performances of that year. I definitely don't always agree on who or what wins.

But the movie I don't care for could be someone else's perfect cup of tea. Maybe their sense of humor was a better fit or what scares me doesn't scare them. Perhaps their life experiences allowed them to relate to the story or the characters in a way I couldn't. It could just be that our idea of what constitutes a good movie is not the same.

Isn't that a reflection of humanity? We don't always agree. We don't always like the same things.

While we're all working with the same emotions--love, joy, anger, shame, guilt, happiness, sadness, fear, desire, surprise, to name a few--each of us feel those emotions in different circumstances and to different degrees. We're triggered by different things.

We've lived different lives. We've had different relationships. Our struggles are not identical, nor are our strengths, our heartaches, our triumphs, our hopes, or our dreams.

Twenty people could see the same movie and have twenty different opinions, because they are watching it through their own lens and relating to it based on their own life experiences and their own tastes and interests.

That's what makes life interesting. The world would be a boring place if we all liked all the same things and saw everything the same way.

Being open to watching a wide variety of movies exposes me to a variety of worlds within our world. I am able to gain understanding and appreciate lives that are different from mine, even when I don't necessarily like the film.

Beyond that, I can also find ways to respect the creative effort behind the film. Perhaps I didn't care for the plot, the characters, or the writing, but the costumes were fantastic or the sets were amazing or the performers gave it their all.

It's rare that there is nothing I can appreciate about a movie because I go into the experience looking for things to appreciate. Even if that is nothing other than fellow creatives expressing their stories and their art in a way that appeals to them. If nothing else, I can respect and appreciate the effort itself.

When I gather in the theater with my fellow Best Picture Showcase nominees, we are all connected by our desire and willingness to be moved, to feel, to relate.

In between the films, my friends and I like to discuss what we've just seen with other attendees seated near us, with similar conversations--connections--taking place at the concession stand or in the restroom.

Strangers with separate lives coming together to share an experience through which we can relate to each other and the world at large.

There is one moment in particular from last weekend's Showcase that stands out in my memory. The scene was a heavy one, and the actress was nailing it. It was the performance of a lifetime, and I believe it won her the Oscar.

Some will dismiss movie moments like that as just pretend. Nothing more than an actress wearing a costume reciting lines from a script while standing before cameras on a set constructed to look like it existed another place in another time. But for those of us in the theater, it was real. The character's grief was real.

It was gut-wrenching, and we were all experiencing that emotion to some extent with her and through her.

I realized as I watched that I was holding my breath, and then I became aware of the silence around me, as though the entire auditorium was holding its breath with me...with her.

We all sat together in silence.

No one whispered. There was no shuffling in seats or rustling of candy wrappers.

We were held spellbound by an imaginary character's grief.

We felt it. We related to it. We shared it. In that moment, we were no longer separate. We were one.

That's movie magic.

And that is why I love movies.