Same old Oscar ritual

Re “Film flam,” Current, Feb. 25

Must The Times trot out the same tired commentary every year at Oscar time about how out of touch voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are with the general moviegoing public, and how pompous and arrogant the academy is? It pleases me greatly that the type of movies that typically earn the most box-office revenue are passed over at Oscar time, seeing as how many of those movies are created with 16-year-olds as the target audience and are rampant with tasteless jokes, needless explosions and gratuitous female nudity.

The academy should honor directors whose work, while it may only reach a woefully small group of viewers, grapples with important issues that speak to adults and actors whose performances are challenging, rather than those who make the largest number of people chuckle in the theater.

That doesn’t mean that such movies as “Nacho Libre” shouldn’t be made too, but why do we need to give those movies Oscars? As for the grandiosity and self-congratulatory tone of the event itself, if you don’t like it, do what I do every year at Super Bowl time: don’t watch.

SHEILA PECK

Huntington Beach