“…in advance of voting makes me want to take a bath with a toaster, as Bill Maher joked the other night” — Sunday (4.11) email from seasoned East Coast Academy member who’s been around.

HE: Pandemic year + no exhibition + wokester mandates = most nothing-level Oscar year of all time. An asterisk year. Nobody gives much of a shit…they just don’t. An era committed to cultural-political change by way of instructional Red Guard this-way-or-the-highway-isms boils down to “do you wanna be cancelled? No? Then get with the program.”

goodvibe61 (posted late Sunday night): “I think at the end of the day, many people feel badly when the film that’s going to win and does win is a film that you just don’t care that much about. And I think that’s the deal here.

“And like most years I don’t think Wells is alone with this idea. Yes, he’s repeatedly said it’s a fine film that he respects very much. But is it a film that he truly loves, and will pull out the Criterion repeatedly to watch? Will he even OWN the Criterion, let alone desire to play it? Probably not.

“I watched Nomadland once, and have very little desire to do so again. I could perhaps be talked into seeing it once on a big screen…maybe. It just doesn’t particularly ring my bell. It’s well made. The performances are quite good. It just won’t be a favorite on mine, not by a long shot.

“And I’ve always LOVED Frances McDormand. I’ve treasured so much of her work over the years. But the idea of putting this new one on repeat when I can think of at least 15 other films of hers that are so much more watchable for me, it’s just not happening.

“Fargo. Almost Famous. Raising Arizona. The Man Who Wasn’t There. Blood Simple. Wonder Boys. Short Cuts. Moonrise Kingdom. Mississippi Burning. Burn After Reading. Primal Fear. Any of her Wes Anderson films. And that’s off the top of my head, films I know I love of McDormand’s, that I’m sure I will choose next time at home when picking a film to watch. Or maybe something of hers I haven’t seen.

“There are remarkably few people who care even a little about this year’s awards anyway. I know I have zero anticipation for any of it. I’m going to a wedding that weekend, but haven’t felt an iota of conflict about not getting home in time to watch this year live. I saw nothing in the theater, and I could care less about most anything I see for the first time on a TV screen. It didn’t help that this is an incredibly weak year.

“It’s been an incredibly weak DECADE for Best Picture Winners. When I go back and look, starting with 2010, for the most part i haven’t re-watched most of them; only a couple have a watched since my original viewing. That’s not good for my love of Oscar.”

HE to goodvibe61: Easiest Best Picture re-watchers since 2010 — Green Book, Spotlight, Birdman and The Wolf of Wall Street, which didn’t win the 2012 Best Picture Oscar but I love it all the same.