Welcome to this Sunday’s Third Degree: Weekly Interrogations on matters public and private that force thinking and response. Today we target Oscars.

  • As the old joke goes, if tonight’s the night, can we expect the Oscars, including red carpet posturing, to meander four or more hours with mimesis unfolding (or unraveling)?
  • Seeking proper analysis, can we begin by identifying some real-life Oscars who use mimesis?
  • Can you name three?
  • From Plato on, was the “art imitates life” school dominant until challenged by that wild, Irish, Oscar playwright who argued the reverse?
  • Within the normal Hollywood range of the ridiculous to the sublime, will tonight’s Oscars demonstrate the duality and interoperability of life and art?
  • Can the rather dark, best picture nominees shed some mimesis light on America’s current 2024 political and policy performance and what’s expected?
  • Are “The Holdovers”, by example, very much in the news? Is the movie, wildly depressing, better than the news?
  • Is it “American Fiction” that our borders are secure and everything else is going good except for and because of them and him?
  • Does “Anatomy of a Fall” go beyond stumbles and seek culpability for global and domestic killing? Would that we had the nose, the sense, of movie hit, border collie, Snoop?
  • Are we “Poor Things” able to know ‘what is’ versus ‘what can be’ versus ‘what ought to be?’ If the gap between the is and the can is larger than the can and the ought, is action required?
  • If “Barbie” affirms boundless potential for women, are women able and willing to pay the price? Objectively, are feelings and sensitivity hindrances or helpers? “Poor Things?” Again?
  • Does “Past Lives” beat a bit of the same drum except remorse for lost love choices now takes center stage and so we better watch out this year?
  • If there is horror going on in your neighborhood, your “Zone of Interest”, should you confront or conform or flee?
  • What if confrontation puts livelihood or family at risk? What about freedom?
  • Are “Killers of the Flower Moon” quaint compared to aggressor fomented war? When the aggressor’s population provides support, are they fair game?
  • Are “Maestro” and uber-scientist types (“Oppenheimer”), of necessity and capacity, given to complex and, at times, confounding appetites? Is it what goes boom that matters?
  • In life and some movies, are eternal vigilance, assessment, decision and action with premium on speed and time absolutely essential?
  • Who will get, who will earn, even better, deserve, the big Oscar in 2024? Will we tolerate imitation of life or art and demand the real thing?

Socrates reminds: “The unexamined life is not worth living. The actions and answers are yours.