Movie Thread

bravesnumberone said:
Tree of Life, Moneyball, War Horse.
Click to expand...

Like I said, I think Tree of Life would have also been deserving.

I didn't see Moneyball, since I'd read the book years prior and wasn't much interested in seeing it dramatized on screen.

Having seen the trailers, War Horse looked like just the sort of overwrought war-pierce I find intensely boring—and I'm pretty skeptical of Spielberg products, since I think he's generally overrated (and since I still haven't forgiven for donking up Kubrick's vision when he made his version of A.I.). So, I checked out on that one, and honestly was surprised when I wiki'd and saw it had been nominated that year.

bravesnumberone said:
I enjoyed The Artist but I don't think it wins without it's subject matter.
Click to expand...

Hard for me to divorce most films (or texts in general) from their subject-matter, but I think—while that's probably particularly true with The Artist—the sense of personal fading, of experiencing one's own obsolescence, that it explores (and explores well, I think) allows it to transcend its specific niche subject-matter (which was a relatively brief but watershed moment in cinematic history).

bravesnumberone said:
There's just too good a history of the Academy doing this over the last couple decades.
Click to expand...

I guess I'm just not seeing it. Yes, Argo—while a fairly tightly-constructed, straightforward film—most likely didn't deserve its win (it was a weak year; I would have gone with Beasts of the Southern Wild, though I've read good things about Amour); but other than that, over the past twenty years, I'm not really seeing a big upset where the Academy selected an "industry" film over a substantially more-deserving film.

In fact, Titanic won out over the vastly superior L.A. Confidential, an explicitly "Hollywood" narrative (with Titanic actually registering as the worst of the five contenders in 1997); Million Dollar Baby beat The Aviator, another golden-age yarn (and another film about ego and self-absorption, which I coincidentally preferred to the Eastwood/Haggis joint); and Crash—the absolute worst selection of the past couple decades, in my opinion, and one of the worst films to win Best Picture in recent memory—triumphed over Good Night, and Good Luck and Capote (both films specifically concerned with celebrity; the former about another "screen" industry, the latter a biopic about a figure very active in Hollywood during his career).

bravesnumberone said:
And partially sticking it to the critics who vastly preferred Boyhood.
Click to expand...

I don't think you can say "vastly": most of the reviews I've read were quite high on both, and they're only separated by 5% on Rotten Tomatoes (93% for Birdman, 98% for Boyhood), which does a pretty good job aggregating "professional" response.
 
You know what happened yesterday? There are now 3 best actor/actress (not supporting) who were in as key members of the Big Lebowski, not to ignore of course Golden Globe winning actors Buscemi and Goodman, as well as Oscar winning Directors and Writers the Coen Brothers. I tihnk it cements the Big Lebowski as the greatest movie of all time. Sit down Kanye.
 
jpx7 said:
I don't think you can say "vastly": most of the reviews I've read were quite high on both, and they're only separated by 5% on Rotten Tomatoes (93% for Birdman, 98% for Boyhood), which does a pretty good job aggregating "professional" response.
Click to expand...

Fresh ratings on ROtten Tomatoes don't tell too much. Has an average rating of 8.5 compared to Boyhood's 9.3 which is big.

That's not to validate critics. Critics afterall hated on The Shining, including Kubrick and Duvall going up for Razzies. Critics in general suck. See Bob's Burgers episode on critics.
 
zitothebrave said:
You know what happened yesterday? There are now 3 best actor/actress (not supporting) who were in as key members of the Big Lebowski, not to ignore of course Golden Globe winning actors Buscemi and Goodman, as well as Oscar winning Directors and Writers the Coen Brothers. I tihnk it cements the Big Lebowski as the greatest movie of all time. Sit down Kanye.
Click to expand...

My least favorite Coen Brothers film, actually, after Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers. I don't hate it; I just really love Miller's Crossing, Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Man Who Wasn't There, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davies, and—especially—Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (which are three of my favorite films, at least by living directors). I also prefer, but don't love, Blood Simple, No Country for Old Men, and their True Grit.
 
zitothebrave said:
Fresh ratings on ROtten Tomatoes don't tell too much. Has an average rating of 8.5 compared to Boyhood's 9.3 which is big.
Click to expand...

That's still pretty close—enough, at least, that I don't think it demonstrates a "vast" preference, which was my only point in citing aggregated numbers.
 
jpx7 said:
My least favorite Coen Brothers film, actually, after Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers. I don't hate it; I just really love Miller's Crossing, Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Man Who Wasn't There, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davies, and—especially—Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (which are three of my favorite films, at least by living directors). I also prefer, but don't love, Blood Simple, No Country for Old Men, and their True Grit.
Click to expand...

I don't know if it's my favorite COen Brothers film. I'd probably say Fargo is my favorite? Hard to say, so many great ones they've done as you've pointed out.
 
jpx7 said:
That's still pretty close—enough, at least, that I don't think it demonstrates a "vast" preference, which was my only point in citing aggregated numbers.
Click to expand...

Well it's not too massive of a gap, but 8 tenths of a point is very healthy, especially as you get to the top.
 
By "vastly" preferring Boyhood, I meant it pretty much swept the critics award circuit from what I remember, as opposed to the industry - producers, actors, writers, directors - which favored Birdman pretty heavily. To even get nominated, you need to have at least 75 percent positive reviews, with a few exceptions. So, it's no surprise both Boyhood and Birdman were well north of 90 percent. You have to really stretch to find something badly wrong with either.
 
War Horse isn't that good. It is overwrought. That said, I always cry at horse movies (Seabiscuit, Secretariat, The remade The Black Stallion).

Coen brothers are hit-or-miss for me. Liked The Big Lebowski but have never completely understood the status beyond cult that it has earned. They are Minnesota guys and I get a lot of their perspective as outsiders growing up Jewish in about the most whitebread place on the planet. I thought Fargo was a decent murder mystery that was wrapped up in a long one-note joke. I loved A Serious Man.

jpx7, I'm not degrading Birdman with my comments. It's a much better film than a number of films that have won. I thought it would boil down to either Birdman or Boyhood this year and I was fine with either (like that matters). Both are really meditative films.

Only other thing I would mention about the Oscars is that with all the well-deserved hubbub regarding Julianne Moore's performance in Still Alice, Felicity Jones' performance in The Theory of Everything really gets overlooked. I thought Eddie Redmayne and Jones did one of the best "team acting" jobs that I've seen in recent years. The storyline of The Theory of Everything gets a bit hackneyed at junctures (which often happens with film biographies), but the acting top-to-bottom in that film was stellar.
 
BTW, want to see a trend, notice best actor winners and overcoming physical or societal obstacles.

Redmayne - Disease
McConaughey - Disease
Firth - Speech impediment
Penn - Gay

It's like better than 50%. Even crazier than that if you eliminate DDL as being an acting machine.
 
zitothebrave said:
BTW, want to see a trend, notice best actor winners and overcoming physical or societal obstacles.

Redmayne - Disease
McConaughey - Disease
Firth - Speech impediment
Penn - Gay

It's like better than 50%. Even crazier than that if you eliminate DDL as being an acting machine.
Click to expand...

Yea, personally I think that's a much more demonstrable, as well as more annoying, "trend" than industry or artists' movies winning Best Picture. With some exceptions, an actor basically has to play a "damaged goods" or martyred role (or both) to win Best Actor or Best Actress, at this point (while there seems to be much more variation in the Supporting nods).
 
I watched Boyhood and honestly didn't see what was so great about it. I guess I should watch it again. Except for the somewhat gimmickery effect of filming it over 12 years and letting the actors actually age with the story, what was special about it? Yes, they brought more authenticity to their characters but does that really make the story better? Makeup artists and good acting can be just as convincing.
 
Speaking of the Coen Brothers, I'm really looking forward to Hail Caesar.

Was also just reminded of the time that I was the only person in the theater who burst out laughing when John Malkovich took an axe to Richard Jenkins' head at the end of Burn After Reading.

 
Runnin said:
I watched Boyhood and honestly didn't see what was so great about it. I guess I should watch it again. Except for the somewhat gimmickery effect of filming it over 12 years and letting the actors actually age with the story, what was special about it? Yes, they brought more authenticity to their characters but does that really make the story better? Makeup artists and good acting can be just as convincing.
Click to expand...

I think the beauty of the product is in its ambition. I agree that the story isn't anything special, but then again, growing up for most kids isn't anything other than a series of events, some more memorable than others. I thought Linklater and the cast did a pretty good job portraying that.
 
Saw "The Kingsman" last night and really enjoyed it. Good characters and great action - definitely a movie that you enjoy more in the theater rather than at home.
 
Saw Kingsman tonight. Really good film. Don't agree you would enjoy it more in the theater than at at home as I think it could be highly enjoyable highly intoxicated.

Have to say (without spoilers for now) very enjoyable film. Lots of nods to classic era spy films (keeping it simple, not introducing too many characters), good fun, good jokes, highly stylized action film. Keep in mind when I say not introducing too many characters, I mean there are a good number and you could be confused, but they don't introduce too many characters that are of any long lasting importance. There's really only like 8 or so truly important characters and a few other guys who're important to moving the story along but aren't involved for too long.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top