“For a fair number of people who make their living by covering and/or predicting Oscars, this is one bunch of tired, shagged-out, bummed-out people, let me tell you,” writes RogerEbert.com‘s Glenn Kenny in a 2.20 post. “This is particularly true of the Oscar bloggers who are also Oscar partisans” — i.e., Sasha Stone, myself, et. al. One of the few not putting out “some form of distemper”, Kennedy concludes, is In Contention‘s Kris Tapley “who’s filing various guild award results with the machine-like efficiency of a minor character in The Front Page.” I’d probably feel morose if Kenny declared that I’m not quite on the level of Hildy Johnson, but maybe not. Maybe I’d shrug it off.

Besides my Birdman allegiance, I am described as generally susceptibile to “any movie which presents any midlife crisis in a manner that seems preferable to my own.” (Funny.) This is “between bouts of not quite understanding that ‘candor’ and ‘honesty’ don’t really make your opinions on topics people aren’t interested in your opinions about interesting or valid.” Kenny further explains that HE’s Movie Godz are “the voices in [Wells’] head that he thinks represent the higher forces of cinema.” Yes, they do represent that but their preferences and judgments are not really in my head…well, okay, I process them in my head but they originate, as do all eternal thoughts and perceptions, as cosmic impulses and lightning-like signals shooting around the heavens. I am simply picking up those signals and providing a kind of personalized translation. At least I’m considering what “they” think, which is more than I can say for a lot of critics and prognosticators out there.