Movies
- Thread starter gouis
- Start date
My initial thoughts having only seen some of these movies
- I like the 10 best picture field. I haven't seen a few of them yet but all of the ones I saw were clear good movies, some great movies, and the others are well reviewed. It's nice to see a movie like Drive My Car or Licorice Pizza get that kind of attention even if they are probably 6-10 on the nomination level. It was a deep year for good movies.
- I didn't love Dune, but Denis being left out of directing for making that into a movie feels off. I probably leave PTA off (or Spielberg but Spielberg could direct my cat's day and get an Oscar nom) to get him on there.
- I honestly can't judge Lead Actress as I've only seen Spencer of the five (didn't like the movie, Stewart was the only great thing about it), but I wish they found a way to get Caitrona Balfe in there. She was the emotional heart of a movie that got nominated everywhere else (deservingly). It was such a good movie it got Van Morrison nominated in the pandemic era but Caitrona got snubbed.
- Actor was stacked, hard to debate much of that. My choices would be different but I'm glad Andrew Garfield got some attention for his year
- Supporting Actress is filled with good stories. I am a huge Jessie Buckley stan even if this is probably Ariana Debose's to lose (and to be clear I'm fine with that)
- Glad they're getting a little more comfy with nominating non-American movies. I thought Drive My Car was great and Worst Person in the World is getting some major good press.
- Summer of Soul was a great doc for the all of us music nerds here.
- I love the tech categories that get weird mainstream movies nommmd: welcome to the Bad Grandpa club for Shang Chi, Spiderman, Coming 2 America, and Free Guy!
zomgbear
Well-Known Member
My favorite part of Mando was they decided to use puppets for the child. I loved the Muppet style waddling
kvetcha
Chet Hanks' Filmography Buff
Wasn't there a story about the fact that they were planning on replacing a lot of the child with CGI, and Werner Herzog was like 'If you do not keep the puppet, you are cowards.'
update: it's that they were hedging their bets by shooting empty plates as well as puppet plates, so they could replace the puppet if necessary, and Herzog razzed them.
zomgbear
Well-Known Member
Respect to Werner! I think that would have lost a lot of the magic. As good as CGI is, there's something magical about having real things filmed
ayayrawn
Well-Known Member
Denis missing is definitely a surprise, but so stoked Hamaguchi got in. I would drop Branagh for Denis in a second.
Kristin SHOULD win but honestly who knows with that category anymore. Kidman and Colman were snubbed at the Baftas, while Gaga was the only actress to make every precursor and still NOT get nominated while those two DID. Who knows what's going on there.
ayayrawn
Well-Known Member
Best Picture noms ranked:
1. Drive My Car (9/10)
2. Power of the Dog (8.5/10)
3. West Side Story (8/10)
4. Licorice Pizza (7.5/10)
5. CODA (7/10)
6. Dune (7/10)
7. King Richard (5.5/10)
8. Belfast (5/10)
9. Don't Look Up (3/10)
Haven't seen Nightmare Alley yet, though it does seem like something I would enjoy. Thankful I don't have to include House of Gucci or Being the Ricardos here.
Power of the Dog has it in the bag.
1. Drive My Car (9/10)
2. Power of the Dog (8.5/10)
3. West Side Story (8/10)
4. Licorice Pizza (7.5/10)
5. CODA (7/10)
6. Dune (7/10)
7. King Richard (5.5/10)
8. Belfast (5/10)
9. Don't Look Up (3/10)
Haven't seen Nightmare Alley yet, though it does seem like something I would enjoy. Thankful I don't have to include House of Gucci or Being the Ricardos here.
Power of the Dog has it in the bag.
I really wonder on Power of the Dog. Critics love the thing, film nerds love it, but general movie goers? Eh...
RT: 94%
RT Verified Viewers (so the handful of people who got to see it in a theater, under 50 I believe): 85%
IMDB: 69%
That's lower than any recent Oscar BP winner I can find, though Nomadland and Shape of Water are close. It's also a Netflix movie which has gotten into the discussion but have really under-performed in the big categories - it's really hard to convince people at home to hunker down and watch a 2+ hour drama on the small screen and Belfast got at least a decent release. We're just coming off the Nomadland win which is another indie film with a big star in an open western landscape (totally different movies of course, just thinking from a more general voter perspective) and BP voters love their variance.
Goldderby has it as the favorite at 13:2 odds pre-ceremony which seems about right, with Belfast at 15:2. My money would be on Belfast, it's more accessible and universal with a ton of great, likeable performances, enough heft to justify it being in the field, It also seems Oscar voters like to have some real stark variety from year to year.
It'll be interesting to see it play out since I don't think any of the five big categories have an absolute runaway winner right now, maybe except Campion
RT: 94%
RT Verified Viewers (so the handful of people who got to see it in a theater, under 50 I believe): 85%
IMDB: 69%
That's lower than any recent Oscar BP winner I can find, though Nomadland and Shape of Water are close. It's also a Netflix movie which has gotten into the discussion but have really under-performed in the big categories - it's really hard to convince people at home to hunker down and watch a 2+ hour drama on the small screen and Belfast got at least a decent release. We're just coming off the Nomadland win which is another indie film with a big star in an open western landscape (totally different movies of course, just thinking from a more general voter perspective) and BP voters love their variance.
Goldderby has it as the favorite at 13:2 odds pre-ceremony which seems about right, with Belfast at 15:2. My money would be on Belfast, it's more accessible and universal with a ton of great, likeable performances, enough heft to justify it being in the field, It also seems Oscar voters like to have some real stark variety from year to year.
It'll be interesting to see it play out since I don't think any of the five big categories have an absolute runaway winner right now, maybe except Campion
David A.
Well-Known Member
It’s really good. I still prefer the Edmund Goulding film better.
ayayrawn
Well-Known Member
Campion is also running away with adapted screenplay too. Her two locks, plus TPotD's 12 noms, and win at the golden globes leads me to believe it is the VERY heavy favorite. Only way I can see Belfast winning is if it also wins Original Screenplay, which IMO, is Paul Thomas Anderson's to lose. I think this is our most locked best picture winner in a long time.
ayayrawn
Well-Known Member
Also, if I were to guess, the middling audience reception for Power of the Dog and Nomadland are due to them being accessible (on Netflix and Amazon/Hulu respectively) and having more people see them overall than would otherwise.
Your average movie goer is going to see it on the homepage of Netflix and throw it on just because. Then they slowly discover it's very different from the usual stuff that Netflix dumps onto their service (Red Notice, et al.) and are taken aback.
IMO It's really not that inaccessible of a movie. It's barely over two hours, and bares itself pretty clearly to anyone who tries to pay attention (whether one like's it or not is fine, but that's another point). It's a movie you have to actually WATCH and not just watch, which is I think what a lot of Netflix subscribers look for.
Your average movie goer is going to see it on the homepage of Netflix and throw it on just because. Then they slowly discover it's very different from the usual stuff that Netflix dumps onto their service (Red Notice, et al.) and are taken aback.
IMO It's really not that inaccessible of a movie. It's barely over two hours, and bares itself pretty clearly to anyone who tries to pay attention (whether one like's it or not is fine, but that's another point). It's a movie you have to actually WATCH and not just watch, which is I think what a lot of Netflix subscribers look for.
It's pretty and well made. But none of the characters have ANY background or motivations. The closest we get is Richard Jenkins and he's not even in it much. Everyone else is a complete cipher. I also didn't appreciate that Willem Dafoe is the only person who smiles in the movie.
I don't think Power of the Dog has really been watched by many. It came in at #1 on Netflix in its first week with 27.2 million hours - this is roughly the same as "A California Christmas: City Lights" a few weeks later or week 4 of "Red Notice" or "Don't Look Up". It dropped to #4 in week 2 (13.2m) and entirely off the chart (so below 7m) in Week 3. I expect this will change with the nominations and as Oscar hype comes into play of course, but that tells me the people who did watch it are either very self-selecting which would make low viewer score not good or people who just watch everything which might not be the worst thing for PotD (new captive audience and people who might be inclined to it).
Nomadland also had the benefit of being against a ton of other movies that also didn't get wide release due to the pandemic. I would have paid way too much money to see something like Sound of Metal in a Dolby theater for instance. I don't think Nomadland really suffered (minus the cinematographer not getting the big screen to work with) for it.
We'll see how it goes down of course, I just need to see an actual, serious, focus-worthy Netflix movie win the Oscar before I'll believe it especially if it's facing off with several theater releases and spectacle-type movies. Your point about you needing to "WATCH" it is not something that I think will work in its favor among a larger voting base. I saw the Oscar hopes of movies like The Irishman and Marriage Story and Roma dissipate over the weeks prior to the Oscars as the decisions began to increasingly fall into the hands of people who were forced to their screeners or streaming services to watch them.
Bull Shannon
Well-Known Member
Underwhelmed by the noms, to be honest. Each category has one Oscar shoo-in (many of which would be career awards more than this-year awards), some heinous/weird choices, and a couple in between. Licorice Pizza was my favorite movie this year, but it’s not an Oscar winner; nobody’s going to reward a shaggy hangout movie that eschews big themes or statements. PotD is going to get picture, director, actor, and supporting actor, and the rest will split the crumbs (with Dune taking every technical award for which it’s nominated).
Overall these nominations have one foot in Oscar films from the last 2-3 decades, mixed with the frantic identity crisis streaming releases are giving Hollywood.
Justice for my boy the Green Knight.
Overall these nominations have one foot in Oscar films from the last 2-3 decades, mixed with the frantic identity crisis streaming releases are giving Hollywood.
Justice for my boy the Green Knight.
ayayrawn
Well-Known Member
I disagree, I do think we have one foot in the oscar shoo ins of the last 20-30 years but the other is in actually GOOD and surprising stuff. Whether that be in streaming or elsewhere. The Academy is very different now than it was even 5 years ago, and is skewing younger.
Don't count out Licorice Pizza just yet either, the Academy loooooves PTA (he got his 9th, 10th, and 11th nominations today) and I think there's still a very real possibility he wins screenplay.
Melt Face Molly Drop
Well-Known Member
The middling audience is due to the average movie watcher needing to be stimulated every 5 minutes (thanks Marvel). No one appreciates a slow burn anymore.
I personally enjoyed it because it was a slow burn and a methodical analysis of how men (still) refuse to deal with their emotions.
I think the disdain for it is because it doesn’t exactly bare itself entirely on the surface like a Brokeback Mountain or There Will Be Blood. It built up as if there could be a multi-character violent conflict resolve, only to be shown an emotional resolve instead. Audiences just don’t tend to be willingly moved by that anymore.
DJSJ
Well-Known Member
Don't Look Up is really BP nominated? Really?? It felt so incredibly pandering to me, from the writing to the acting to Adam McKay's "hold your short attention span" style. I couldn't make it through the whole thing. Dude needs to go back to making stupid comedies, it's where his talents lie.
ayayrawn
Well-Known Member
Genuinely think Step Brothers is better than anything he's made in the last decade.