The Father Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

No matter what you think about last night’s Oscars, one thing is for sure—it ended in a very peculiar way. Typically, the show ends on the Best Picture award, which is the biggest of the night.

Unlike the rest of the world tuning in to watch Hollywood's biggest night, Anthony Hopkins was sound "asleep" and had no idea when Joaquin Phoenix announced that he had won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for The Father at Oscars 2021.

It may be a couple of months behind schedule, but the awards season is officially ending with the 93rd Academy Awards. In the past year, since Bong Joon Ho won 4 Oscars for his work on “Parasite,” the world has changed quite a bit, with the COVID pandemic changing every aspect of our lives.

And then there were eight. The Best Picture nominees have been widdled down to a chosen few and from a layman’s perspective, it might appear that the race to take Oscar’s most prestigious prize is surprisingly wide open.

Is now when the fun begins? After a historic two-month pandemic-related postponement, the nominees for the 93rd Academy Awards are about to be announced. It’s been a strange campaign with no official in-person screenings, virtual Q&As, and almost every major contender already available on streaming or PVOD.

After a relatively slow start to the year, on the film front, at least, February looks to provide a larger range of films across streaming platforms (and some still only available in theaters.) There’s a decent mix of awards hopefuls, feel-good romances, and experimental indie films in the mix, with trilogy finales, directorial debuts, and knock-out performances from Anthony Hopkins and Daniel Kaluuya to look forward to.

It’s a sign of the times that the incredibly prolific Clint Eastwood will not release a film that qualifies for the current 2021 Oscar season. His spirit, however, is present in Ron Howard’s disappointing “Hillbilly Elegy,” which pulled the curtain back on reviews and reactions today.

There is no shortage of films that tackle the idea of dementia and aging. However, the upcoming film “The Father” takes the well-worn, heartbreaking premise of a man succumbing to the effects of advanced age and puts the viewer directly in the shoes of the victim and not his caring family.

There have been some good dramas about people sliding into dementia, like “Away From Her” and “Still Alice,” but I confess I almost always have a problem with them. As the person at the center of the movie begins to recede from her adult children, from the larger world, and from herself, he or she also recedes — at least, this is my experience — from the audience.