For culture lovers, the Oscars are our Super Bowl, and the wait is over: Oscar weekend is here. Just in time, Slate wrapped up its Best Case for Best Picture video series, eight videos that make the case for why each nominee, from Spotlight to The Martian, should be the one to take home the big award. Watch them all, and let them help you decide who to pick in your Oscars fantasy draft, which Darian Alexander recommends you do instead of a pool if you actually want to have fun this year. Dana Stevens wrote up her hopes and dreams for the ceremony, all Jack Hamilton cares about is that you know The Revenant sucks (and Step Brothers rules), Bryan Lowder ranked the movie score nominees, Aisha Harris looked at which winners could make history this year, and there’s lots more Oscar coverage where that came from on Slate.
One more reason to appreciate the Oscars? They make perfect fodder for small talk. Also this week, Ruth Graham defends chit-chat, small talk, and idle conversation from anyone who would call it tedious. It’s a valuable social lubricant, people!
In case you’re looking for more fun facts to bring up during small talk, maybe it will interest you to know that a zany new movie is breaking box-office records in China? David Ehrlich calls The Mermaid demented but great. As far as last week’s big movie that people are still talking about, Slate writers continued to puzzle over The Witch: Why did critics like it so much more than moviegoers? And why are goats so evil? The film’s director answered some of our questions.
Even more material to chit-chat about:
- Fuller House is just as corny as the original.
- The rise of –splain, an increasingly meaningless suffix.
- A new video game with origins in the text adventures of the ’80s.
- Black-ish aired a great (and funny!) episode about race and police brutality.
- Why doesn’t Bachelor Ben Higgins talk more about being a Christian?
- What was “Damn, Daniel”? (Damn, spaniel.)
- No, teenagers don’t think books “smell like old people.”
- A gripping Web series about Dungeons & Dragons.
- An exhaustive guide to Kesha’s legal battle with Dr. Luke.
- Ellen Page has a new travel show.
- Poor Evelyn Waugh spent a lifetime defending his first name.
