Movies

[barton]

Cameron, in a recent interview with Terry Gross, said he and Bigelow were fast friends these days and he really hoped she would win.   

I'm rooting for neither Hurt Locker nor Avatar....may the best PRAWN win.  (District 9, for those who haven't seen it yet)  I skip the Oscars these days, usually catch the highlights on NPR the next morning.  If there are any.


 

[barton]

One can also check in at another NYT splinter website, 3rd Eye, and see who won their alternative award, the "Blanche."  (Oscar's wife is Blanche -- heh, heh)  If they are still doing that.  I need to go have a look.

[whiskeypriest]

One can also check in at another NYT splinter website, 3rd Eye, and see who won their alternative award, the "Blanche."  (Oscar's wife is Blanche -- heh, heh)  If they are still doing that.  I need to go have a look.

Ceremony was last night.  Some predictable (Bigelow, Hurt Locker for BP, Waltz, Bridges), some not (A Serious Man shared best original screenplay and NOT just because I counted those votes, Sidibe and Mulligan were best actress, Gyllenhall and Farmiga for supporting actress).

[MrUtley]

Caught A Serious Man last night -- everything Whiskeypriest said, and a plate of cookies.   Love all the rabbi scenes, including the one with the young rabbi (who is a geek on The Big Bang Theory, btw) and his philosophy of the parking lot view.  No one does philosophic-comedy quite like the bros.  ASM goes into their Top Five, in my book, and shows them extending their range.

I thought it was extremely well done also.  The Jefferson Airplane tie-in, along with the Columbia record company subscription was great and Aaron Wolf was fantastic as Danny.

Good movie. Very funny.

[MrUtley]

The problem with "Crazy Heart":

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/86738697.html

[jbottle]

In the 3EYE competition did hippiemc win best burnout?

I can't stand Mo'nique, if I spelled her name right, she just seems so intolerable as a person and the movie seems like a TV MOVIE, if it's really an astonishing feat of amazing genius and not just an astonishing play for the most vulnerable emotional centers that human people have, then fuck me.  It looks and smells like a trick, just like "The Blind Side," what a joke for best picture, "Avatar," what a joke for best picture, etc.  What "Precious" does is make an abandoned impoverished single mother who has a child who is abused by a boyfriend of the mother some kind of legitimate human story instead of a social tragedy.  There is no reason to celebrate a cycle of abuse and legitimize sexual violence.  In the guise of empowering black women, what this film does is say, hey, no matter how many black men who don't marry me and screw my daughter are out there, we can overcome.  That is not the primary message to send into the African-American or White or Hispanic Community:  This is ORDINARY, and you must OVERCOME ORDINARY TRAGEDY.

Pathetic.

The aim, by being so poorly written, is a perpetuation of a disease, have fun with it all you fuck-ups and preciouses out there black or white or indifferent, which would be me.

[Gintaras]

'Bout what you would expect.  The real laugher was Bullock as best actress    But, I suppose she is no worse than Paltrow, Kidman, Hunt or Roberts. 

Even more amusing is that Mirren and Streep are automatically out because they already have Oscars.  So, the "academy" puts Bullock on the same level with these actresses, assuming they will continue to be nominated for best actress or supporting actress year after year.  I think Streep has been nominated a staggering 15 times, but has only two Oscars to show for her great work.

Cameron, in a recent interview with Terry Gross, said he and Bigelow were fast friends these days and he really hoped she would win.

In another interview, he said he was willing to give up Best Picture to Hurt Locker for Best Director, so I imagine he became a little blue under the collar when Bigelow took home the Oscar.

The sad part to me is that the "Academy" has become so dumbed down over the years that it seems more about making politically correct choices and awarding popular fellows than it does nominating and awarding the best movies and performances.    From all accounts, the academy doesn't watch many of these movies, and goes pretty much on audience and critical response, making it no better than the Golden Globes and People's Choice Awards.  The ten best picture nominees seemed gauged mostly to satisfy the broadest possible appeal.  I watched "My Education," which had no business being nominated for anything.  It was about the same level as "Coco Before Chanel," a period costume drama.  But, I suppose it was nominated to satisfy the Anglophiles in the audience.

[harrie]

jbottle, by your last sentence, I'm pretty sure you're using sarcasm and get the point of the flick; but given the recent deterioration of my bottle-reading skills, I feel compelled beat a point to death.  A factor in Precious is that Mom (aka Mo'nique) beats the crap out of the title character in addition to everything else; Precious starts the film illiterate, beaten down, unloved and knowing it.  By the end, she's got some self-esteem; knows there are people, albeit none of them related to her, who care about her; and hopefully is on her way to a successful life.  So she has risen above her circumstances, and overcome ordinary tragedy. 

When we read Death of a Salesman in high school, at the play's conclusion our teacher sighed and said something like "They just don't make tragedies the way they used to; give me Medea any day."  (It might not have been Medea, it was one of the biggies.)  In other words, characters in American tragedies just don't have as far to fall.

I didn't see Precious, but did experience the media overload (for it and other flicks, too); nor do I plan to. (When I check into that other forum and see that one poster in particular has written something, I automatically think "Okay, what movie didn't you see that you don't like this time?"  And now I'm becoming that person. [shudder])  I don't get the thing about enjoying movies that essentially manipulate the viewer emotionally - though there's been a niche for that stuff forever, it seems like it's becoming its own genre.

If I take a beating for having an opinion, so be it.

[barton]

The sad part to me is that the "Academy" has become so dumbed down over the years that it seems more about making politically correct choices and awarding popular fellows than it does nominating and awarding the best movies and performances.    From all accounts, the academy doesn't watch many of these movies, and goes pretty much on audience and critical response, making it no better than the Golden Globes and People's Choice Awards.

Word!

Interesting that "Blanche" and Oscar intersected on the Dude and the Hurt Locker.  The Dude abides.     

[Gintaras]

I like Jeff Bridges, but it was kind of like Paul Newman getting an Oscar for Color of Money.

[whiskeypriest]

'Bout what you would expect.  The real laugher was Bullock as best actress    But, I suppose she is no worse than Paltrow, Kidman, Hunt or Roberts. 

Even more amusing is that Mirren and Streep are automatically out because they already have Oscars.  So, the "academy" puts Bullock on the same level with these actresses, assuming they will continue to be nominated for best actress or supporting actress year after year.  I think Streep has been nominated a staggering 15 times, but has only two Oscars to show for her great work.

16, I think.  The problem with Streep is that she's always good.  Sandra Bullock can make us say, who knew?  Mo'Nique can surprise us with a powerful performance.  Christoph Waltz can come out of nowhere.  Streep?  "Oh, yeah, she's great again."

[Gintaras]

So, just give Streep a lifetime achievement award and be done with it rather than nominating her time and again.  There is no way anyone can tell me Bullock was better in Blind Side than Streep was in Julia, but then Kidman got nominated over Streep in Hours, and she wasn't even the main figure in the story, much less the best actress in the movie.  The "Best Actress" award has become one of the most perverted in the last 10 or so years, with some highly dubious choices.

[knoxharrington]

Harrie posted the Seacrest red carpet chat with Streep over in tv.   Guy really put his foot in it.

No mention of The Class, in the foreign category -- just bizarre, that being the foreign film that a lot of people in the U.S. actually saw and were blown away by (myself included).  Lots of weird snubs and politics, as usual.

[barton]

Quick show of hands, Academy members:  how many people saw Mirren in The Last Station?  How many had heard of the film before the awards ceremony?

I could snipe like this all day, so I'm going to quit right now.  I wonder if the The Class was snubbed, Knox, because of a technicality??  It showed in US theaters in 2009, but had a release date in France in fall of 2008.  An amazing film.  Kind of sickening to see it so ignored.

[Gintaras]

Another joke was Up getting the Oscar over Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox.  Pixar already has two recent Oscars to its credit, so why not go for something original in the way of animation rather than the same ol' Pixar thing,