Over the last couple of days the Oscar-related issues with the strongest current are (a) Jessica Crispin’s 1.13 Guardian piece about the attack of the virtue-signalling Kool-Aid critics, and (b) the reactions to Joker‘s 11 Oscar nominations and the question “why exactly isn’t Todd Phillips‘ film considered a leading Best Picture nominee?”

World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy and I discussed these and other topics yesterday. Here’s the portion that more or less addresses the Guardian thing, and a slightly longer (but still relatively short) excerpt that gets into Joker ramifications.

Ruimy believes that among the Best Picture nominees Joker is in fourth place now, just ahead of The Irishman but behind Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, 1917 and Parasite. HE to Ruimy: Forget Parasite winning anything other than Best International feature.

Again, the Guardian thing and Joker kick-around. And no musical-intro bullshit.