Leonardo DiCaprio’s ‘The Revenant’ Could Fix Hollywood

Leonardo DiCaprio’s ‘The Revenant’ Could Fix Hollywood

It needs a lot of fixing, that's for sure.

I love movies, or at least I used to. I rarely go now because it seems that there are only three types of movies:

1. Fantasy movies derived from comic books. These are made for 13-year-old boys and attract large audiences.

2. Fantasy movies derived from romantic and/or "young adult" novels. These are made for 13-year-old girls and also attract large audiences.

3. Angst-fests created specifically to win prestigious awards. These are made for movie critics and hipsters, who watch them in festivals, special screenings or deserted theaters. A few of them get Oscar nominations, at which time they may attract larger audiences, but never large ones.

In other words, there are no movies made for me. I do occasionally enjoy a film made for 13-year-olds, but it's tough to motivate me off my couch with that crap when I can watch Game of Thrones or This Week With John Oliver without leaving the house. I do occasionally admire an angst-fest, but not really more than watching Don Draper or The Americans on basic cable.

Interestingly, there is almost no cross-over between the first two categories above and #3. Although pretty much anyone capable of generating brain waves could see that Guardians of the Galaxy was one of last year's two best comedies (with The Grand Budapest Hotel), it did not receive a Golden Globe nomination in that category. It was even more obvious that The Lego Movie was last year's best animated movie, and by a very wide margin (96% positive reviews in addition to box office gold), which seems to have blocked it from an Oscar nomination. Mind you, I'm not saying that these obvious choices didn't win. I'm saying they weren't even nominated. I'm assuming it's because the nominating committee consists of people old enough to remember Easter Island before they screwed it up with those ugly statues.