A sure-fire way to tell who’s going to win Best Picture

A few weeks ago, I told you who wasn’t going to win the Super Bowl. Today, I’ll tell you who’s winning the Academy Award for Best Picture.

I’ve seen only two of the movies so far: “Hell or High Water” and “La La Land.”

“Hidden Figures” and “Lion” are still showing in town. “Hidden Figures” is one of those movies I’d like to take the whole family to see, but we’ll probably end up watching it at home during Thanksgiving.

Speaking of watching movies at home, the following are available to download online: “Hacksaw Ridge,” “Manchester by the Sea” and “Moonlight.”

“Fences” left town last week.

“Arrival” has been available for a while. I thought we were going to watch it last weekend, but the two teen males still living in my house decided they’d rather we see “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.”

It garnered zero Oscar nominations, though Tom Cruise should have been nominated just for punching a guy through the window of an automobile.

I saw “Hell or High Water” on Redbox last month and thought it was excellent.

The mark of a good movie, in my opinion, is when two very different people feel that in some way it confirms their view of the world.

For example, there’s a great scene in “Hell or High Water” in which two brothers rob a small-town Texas bank and are met outside by a line of citizens hunched behind pickups and firing their pistols.

As the brothers drive away, one of them comments that the state’s conceal-and-carry laws sure make life exciting for bank robbers.

A friend of mine who believes everybody should be armed loved the scene and thinks it made the case for his point of view.

Another friend who believes guns should be outlawed everywhere also loved the scene, and thinks it made the case for her point of view.

So “Hell or High Water” is a hell of a movie.

But it’s not my predicted winner.

That would be “La La Land.”

And here’s why: I watched it from one of those deluxe recliners at Hollywood Connection and I did not fall asleep once.

I’m not kidding.

The movie was at the top of Bess’ list, and as a dutiful husband I was more than happy to watch a musical in which people dance among the stars.

Especially when I realized it was showing in the room full of gigantic recliners. Last year, I went to see the latest Jason Bourne film there and experienced one of the deepest sleeps of my life.

Bess and I went to see “La La Land” on a Sunday afternoon, which is usually naptime for me, so I figured if I’d missed half of the death blows Bourne delivered to his would-be assassins then I’d miss every single note of “La La Land” and wake up and have Bess ask me if I loved the movie as much as she did.

And I’d wipe away the drool and say, “Yes, honey. It was great.”

But a funny thing happened. I saw the whole thing. Sure, I’m not into musicals and I’m not sure that what Ryan Gosling was doing could be called singing, but it did ask a lot of profound questions.

Like, do you have one love of your life? Is what you do for a living more important than who you live with? Is it really worth sacrificing everything and everybody to achieve one big dream you have?

But mainly, I stayed awake. So “La La Land” will get the coveted gold man on Feb. 26.

You can take it to the bank. Or shoot at somebody robbing the bank.

Or whatever.

This story was originally published February 17, 2017 at 6:39 PM with the headline "A sure-fire way to tell who’s going to win Best Picture."