Movies

Ginormousthumbs said:
Has anyone seen Emilia Perez?
It’s rated 5.4 on IMDB. I’ve heard nothing but backlash and it had a ton of nominations.
I don’t recall Gamora or the singing lady mentioning the trans community in their acceptance speeches(could be wrong about Gamora). Personally have no intention on seeing it.
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It's the worst thing I watched all of last year. I rarely loathe films but I fucking loathed it. In a year where I thought there was a lot of really good stuff.

Anora winning heavy last night has had interesting blowback. Lots of people long for the days where blockbusters cleaned up. Thing is, most modern blockbuster suck ass and mid budget films don’t make $ anymore.

Anora is a phenomenal film. Not quite as good as Flordia Project, but certainly still among the years very best.

We are at exactly the 10 year mark since the voting block got reworked to add more POC and international voters.

Here is how I would rank the past 10– of note, Birdman was 11 yesr ago but would be in tier I:

Tier 1: 5 star masterpiece
1. Parasite
2. Everything Everywhere All at Once
3. Moonlight

Tier 2: Extremely good and very worthy
4. Anora
5. Oppenheimer
6. Spotlight

Tier 3: Solid but shouldn’t have won
7. The Shape of Water– Get Out should have won but it was a stacked year in general. Dunkirk, Lady Bird, Call Me By Your Name and Phantom Thread… sheesh.

Tier 4: It was fine
8. Nomadland– weak year but Minari, Judas and the Black Masiah and the Sound of Metal are vastly superior. It's not that Nomadland was too slow for me; it's that it was toothless in its themes.

Tier 5: WTF
9. Green Book (Roma will go down as one of the biggest snubs in Oscar history)
10. Coda (another weak year but this movie is as mid as mid gets. Dune Pt, Liquorice Pizza and Power of the Dog would have been worthy)

Personally, I think adding to the voting block has mostly been a success. 3 straight years where I'm content with the winner and 7/11 years is a pretty damn high hit rate even it comes with hiccups like Emelia Perez getting too much love due to international voters.

Films like Pulp Fiction would have won with this voting block. Eternal Sunshine would have had a good chance and would have at least been nominated. Ext.
 
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DownIsTheNewUp said:
Anora winning heavy last night has had interesting blowback. Lots of people long for the days where blockbusters cleaned up. Thing is, most modern blockbuster suck ass and mid budget films don’t make $ anymore.
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Also seems very cart-horse; most Best Picture winners made a lot of money because of the accolades. Very few Best Picture winners could be pointed to as "blockbusters," and their financial success could be laid at the feet of a long release schedule which was prolonged by people ticking boxes on their Oscar lists, or even catching up to the movie once it's won.

Looking at the list, I don't see many "blockbuster" winners over the course of the Award's existence. Maybe there's something to be said for the monocultural impact of previous winners before the 00s/10s or so...
 
I don't put much stock in the Oscars (or at least I don't take them as serious as some do) HOWEVER, I will add "Conclave snubbed for best cinematography" to my list of niche arguments to have at parties
 
ngower said:
I don't put much stock in the Oscars (or at least I don't take them as serious as some do) HOWEVER, I will add "Conclave snubbed for best cinematography" to my list of niche arguments to have at parties
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I was VERY happy Brutalist won score and cinematography. Just an absolutely visually stunning film. Conclave was gorgeous but pretty standard in its approach. Brutalist has moving cameras, bold compositions and an esthetic that matched its themes and content.

Meanwhile, it winning best score means Johnny Greenwood may actually win some day. It was definitely influenced by the moody, experimental stuff he has been doing with PTA.
 
Bull Shannon said:
Also seems very cart-horse; most Best Picture winners made a lot of money because of the accolades. Very few Best Picture winners could be pointed to as "blockbusters," and their financial success could be laid at the feet of a long release schedule which was prolonged by people ticking boxes on their Oscar lists, or even catching up to the movie once it's won.

Looking at the list, I don't see many "blockbuster" winners over the course of the Award's existence. Maybe there's something to be said for the monocultural impact of previous winners before the 00s/10s or so...
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All true. I think it boils down to international voters leaning towards character studies (see Cannes) and Americans being pre-programmed to want a clear plot.
 
DownIsTheNewUp said:
Tier 3: Solid but shouldn’t have won
7. The Shape of Water– Get Out should have won but it was a stacked year in general. Dunkirk, Lady Bird, Call Me By Your Name and Phantom Thread… sheesh.
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I am a huuuuge del Toro fan, and I agree this one shouldn't have won. It's almost like everyone knew he deserves an award at some point but also that a lot of the time he doesn't make the kinds of movies the Academy Awards like to recognize, so I see it more as an overall award for him, than for this movie.
 
I made a point of seeing every Best Picture nominee that year and thought The Shape of Water was far and away the best of all of them but I didn't think it actually had any chance of winning. Needless to say I was overjoyed when it went to GDT. All these years later though I'd probably say my favorite of that crop is actually Phantom Thread.
 
gaporter said:
I made a point of seeing every Best Picture nominee that year and thought The Shape of Water was far and away the best of all of them but I didn't think it actually had any chance of winning. Needless to say I was overjoyed when it went to GDT. All these years later though I'd probably say my favorite of that crop is actually Phantom Thread.
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That was a stacked year, and I would've been happy with like 5 of those nominees, including Shape of Water, winning BP. Is it Del Toro's best film, no, but it's a lovely passion project that's an amalgamation of his best qualities as a filmmaker.
 
ayayrawn said:
That was a stacked year, and I would've been happy with like 5 of those nominees, including Shape of Water, winning BP. Is it Del Toro's best film, no, but it's a lovely passion project that's an amalgamation of his best qualities as a filmmaker.
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One of my favorite years, all time. Perhaps in part bc I had movie pass and saw everything. But also because there was just so much mid-budget filmmaking with a distinct voice.

I Toyna remains an all-time favorite. I've watched it probably 5-10x over the years. Blade Runner 2049 was that year too.

But I thought Get Out should have one it at the time and I think that's still my stance today. Visionary and riveting filmmaking, marked the emergence of a vital filmamker and it's themes are as relevant as ever.

PTA winning would have been nice. But the film from that decade that I'd choose to be the one he won for would be The Master. Unfortunately, it's polarizing and wasn't even nominated.
 
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DownIsTheNewUp said:
I adore both of the films. Easily my favorite major blockbusters of the decade and my favorite Sci Fi since Blade Runner 2049. Would take them over the OG Star Wars trilogy if the third one maintains the quality of the first two.

It's a joke that voters wouldn't watch it. And it's a joke that DV wasn't nominated.

That said, glad Anora won tonight considering I knew Nickle Boys had 0 chance. Wish Nickle Boys had gotten adapted screen play and Demi best actress. Otherwise everything went as I would have voted.

Haven't watched I'm Still Here or Complete Unknown though.
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The Denmarkian Wonder said:
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😂 Yeah, I knew that would be sacrilege to a ton of people.

The 1st Star Wars has never been a favorite. The Death Star scene has always dragged on way too long for me.

The 2nd and 3rd Star Wars are great but also influenced by the popularity the 1st one had with kids. They aim to be entertainment 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The characters and world are incredible but it isn't a character study.

The Dune films are entertainment but are made for adults. They are tone heavy and with plot development that slowly unwinds while the visuals wash over you and the themes perculate. Denis turns Dune into a character study.

Basically, they are more my speed and I think it's fucking rad that Denis was allowed to make films on such a large budget that dare to be challenging. Plus, Star Wars rips a bunch of stuff off from Dune anyways ;)

On LB I have it (rewatched the 1st six last year):

A New Hope: 3.5
Empire Strikes Back: 4.5
Return of the the Jedi: 5

Dune: 5
Dune II: 4.5

That said, I hear the 3rd Dune novel is goofy AF. So Denis has his work cut out for him.
 
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DownIsTheNewUp said:
It's the worst thing I watched all of last year. I rarely loathe films but I fucking loathed it. In a year where I thought there was a lot of really good stuff.

Anora winning heavy last night has had interesting blowback. Lots of people long for the days where blockbusters cleaned up. Thing is, most modern blockbuster suck ass and mid budget films don’t make $ anymore.

Anora is a phenomenal film. Not quite as good as Flordia Project, but certainly still among the years very best.

We are at exactly the 10 year mark since the voting block got reworked to add more POC and international voters.

Here is how I would rank the past 10– of note, Birdman was 11 yesr ago but would be in tier I:

Tier 1: 5 star masterpiece
1. Parasite
2. Everything Everywhere All at Once
3. Moonlight

Tier 2: Extremely good and very worthy
4. Anora
5. Oppenheimer
6. Spotlight

Tier 3: Solid but shouldn’t have won
7. The Shape of Water– Get Out should have won but it was a stacked year in general. Dunkirk, Lady Bird, Call Me By Your Name and Phantom Thread… sheesh.

Tier 4: It was fine
8. Nomadland– weak year but Minari, Judas and the Black Masiah and the Sound of Metal are vastly superior. It's not that Nomadland was too slow for me; it's that it was toothless in its themes.

Tier 5: WTF
9. Green Book (Roma will go down as one of the biggest snubs in Oscar history)
10. Coda (another weak year but this movie is as mid as mid gets. Dune Pt, Liquorice Pizza and Power of the Dog would have been worthy)

Personally, I think adding to the voting block has mostly been a success. 3 straight years where I'm content with the winner and 7/11 years is a pretty damn high hit rate even it comes with hiccups like Emelia Perez getting too much love due to international voters.

Films like Pulp Fiction would have won with this voting block. Eternal Sunshine would have had a good chance and would have at least been nominated. Ext.
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With a couple of changes (moving Anora to your Tier 1 and Everything Everywhere... to your 4), I agree substantially with this assessment of the last 10 years. I've been watching the Oscars regularly for 35+ years, and though I know rationally that these awards are not any real let alone absolute metric of worth or quality, I have been thrilled with how frequently they have gotten it right, near-right, or at least reasonably right in the past several years.
 
gcowgill said:
With a couple of changes (moving Anora to your Tier 1 and Everything Everywhere... to your 4), I agree substantially with this assessment of the last 10 years. I've been watching the Oscars regularly for 35+ years, and though I know rationally that these awards are not any real let alone absolute metric of worth or quality, I have been thrilled with how frequently they have gotten it right, near-right, or at least reasonably right in the past several years.
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I feel EEAAO is a film you either love or it doesn't click at all for you. I saw it in theaters before anyone had a clue it would win best picture because Sean Fenessy called it the most imaginative action film since the Matrix and was caught completely off guard by it.

Upon rewatch, much like my favorite comedy of the past 10 years Bottoms, I found it extremely rewarding because I didn't have to adjust to its unique tone. Instead, I could just bath in its humor, density and themes. And the 3rd act felt less Spielberg satcherin for whatever reason.

I grew up on satire and the world has become very hard to saterize. I think comedies are adjusting by dabbling in absurdism instead.

By the way, if I haven't mentioned it here before... Bottoms is a masterpiece. I've watched that sucker 5x since it released and it just gets funnier every time.
 
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