I didn't know this Best Picture nominee about the short and turbulent life of 1950's-60's stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce was directed by Bob Fosse, and when I saw that it was, knowing how dark his sensibility was, I thought, "Well, I guess this won't be 'The Sound of Music.'" And you know what, man? It sure isn't.

The biopic hits all the right notes, it stars Dustin Hoffman, one of the top actors of his generation at the peak of…

Everybody has to start somewhere. It says a lot that this Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood/Ennio Morricone trilogy ended with "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," one of my all-time favorite films, and a wide and deep piece of cinema in which I find something new every time. There's none of that here -- well, except for Morricone's terrific score. He hit it out of the park on his first swing.

This is all style -- and wow, what style. But…

I didn't drink the Kool-Aid, and that made all the difference. I was aware of the hype surrounding this film -- oners! told in real time! -- but never really paid attention to it. The worst thing about film hype is that it leaves me going too far in the other direction ("Really? That's it?"). That's probably what happened to me with fellow Best Picture nominee "Parasite," for instance. But because I watched "1917" in a relatively hype-free environment, I…

We, as a society, cannot address our problems with race by hiding our problems with race. This movie is a specific example of that problem, and it should not be canceled by our indignant, easily outraged culture. I'm not here to defend the film. I fully respect anyone's desire to criticize the picture, ignore it, write it off the face of their own personal earth. But it should not be canceled.

The problem with "GWTW," as I see it, isn't…