View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
pilight
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 67491 Location: Where the action is
Back to top |
Posted: 01/24/24 10:53 am ::: Oscars 2024 |
Reply |
|
Let's look at the best picture nominees
AMERICAN FICTION
The funniest film of the nominees. I'd like it better if the family drama didn't bog it down and destroy the pacing. When it remembers to be about what it's about it's great.
ANATOMY OF A FALL
I don't know much about French court procedure, but an awful lot of what happens in the trial at the center of this film wouldn't fly in an American one. That took me out of the suspension of disbelief and I never could get back in.
BARBIE
Starts strong before turning into this year's preachy political entry in the last act. Overall it's not terrible but it is highly overrated.
THE HOLDOVERS
Spends way too much time setting up what turns out to be a pretty cliche story, and setting in the Vietnam era is a cop out. Paul Giamatti gives a good central performance but it can't overcome a meh script.
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
On par with Scorsese's best, which of course means it won't win. Robert De Niro should run away with Best Supporting Actor for his well studied villain. Leonardo Di Caprio was surely the biggest snub for Best Actor as he plays wildly against type as a timid, not too bright, nebbish.
MAESTRO
The exact opposite of American Fiction. This film needed to spend more time examining Bernstein's complicated family life and a lot less on the usual biopic hagiography. Bradley Cooper will make a great film one day, but this ain't it.
OPPENHEIMER
Brilliant film that couldn't have been made better by anyone else. Nolan's decision to do this biopic in non-linear fashion is inspired. The cinematography is exquisite. Cillian Murphy brings the perfect measure of indecision, reluctance, and genius to the title role. This should win all the awards.
PAST LIVES
Not an Oscar type film but a perfectly lovely meditation on regret, melancholy, and wondering "what if?" Hard to believe this is Celine Song's first film.
POOR THINGS
I just don't get Yorgos Lanthimos. His films just strike me as too mannered and weird-for-weird's-sake. I like what Emma Stone is trying to do here but it's buried under the overdone, surreal production design of Lanthimos.
THE ZONE OF INTEREST
Manages the tricky feat of showing the mundane lives of Nazis living in the literal shadow of a concentration camp without humanizing them or engendering sympathy for them. This is a film that requires close, careful viewing to truly appreciate.
_________________ The truth is like poetry
Most people hate poetry
|
|
Luuuc #NATC
Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 22163
Back to top |
Posted: 01/24/24 9:36 pm ::: Re: Oscars 2024 |
Reply |
|
pilight wrote: |
I don't know much about French court procedure |
They do have an interesting system
_________________ Thanks for calling. I wait all night for calls like these.
|
|
jammerbirdi
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 21119
Back to top |
Posted: 01/25/24 2:02 pm ::: Re: Oscars 2024 |
Reply |
|
pilight wrote: |
Let's look at the best picture nominees
MAESTRO
The exact opposite of American Fiction. This film needed to spend more time examining Bernstein's complicated family life and a lot less on the usual biopic hagiography. Bradley Cooper will make a great film one day, but this ain't it.
|
This I don't get at all although most of the major critics agree with you on this point. I guess people are just more interested in someone's family drama than they are the art that is the reason for his legend. As a musician who of late has come to appreciate how uniquely great the NY Phil was under Bernstein, I'm like, enough of this family bullshit, let's get into what made this man and the realization of his musical vision and genius such that IT is the reason why a film about him is justified in the first place.
So, for different reasons, I also didn't care for Maestro._________________ Every woman who has ever been presented with a career/sex quid pro quo in the entertainment industry should come forward and simply say, “Me, too.” - jammer The New York Times 10/10/17 |
|
Youth Coach
Joined: 23 Mar 2008 Posts: 4766
Back to top |
Posted: 01/25/24 10:58 pm ::: |
Reply |
|
Looking over all the nominations, there isn't a single film I've seen on the list. And only one I might even consider seeing.
Movies are just not all that much of a draw for me recently for some reason. |
|
jammerbirdi
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 21119
Back to top |
Posted: 01/26/24 4:50 am ::: |
Reply |
|
Youth Coach wrote: |
Looking over all the nominations, there isn't a single film I've seen on the list. And only one I might even consider seeing.
Movies are just not all that much of a draw for me recently for some reason. |
Amen. They don’t know how to make them anymore._________________ Every woman who has ever been presented with a career/sex quid pro quo in the entertainment industry should come forward and simply say, “Me, too.” - jammer The New York Times 10/10/17 |
|
PUmatty
Joined: 10 Nov 2004 Posts: 16516 Location: Chicago
Back to top |
Posted: 01/26/24 10:34 am ::: Re: Oscars 2024 |
Reply |
|
pilight wrote: |
POOR THINGS
I just don't get Yorgos Lanthimos. His films just strike me as too mannered and weird-for-weird's-sake. I like what Emma Stone is trying to do here but it's buried under the overdone, surreal production design of Lanthimos.
|
I'm hot and cold on Lanthimos, but I loved "Poor Things." I was surprised by how incredibly funny it was. And, for me, the artifice and surreality worked in this one as it set the story up basically as a fairy tale/fable.
Though definitely understand why it wouldn't work for people. As much as I loved it, I am actually really surprised how much attention it has gotten and successful it has been.
|
|
PUmatty
Joined: 10 Nov 2004 Posts: 16516 Location: Chicago
Back to top |
Posted: 01/26/24 10:37 am ::: Re: Oscars 2024 |
Reply |
|
The best movie I have seen this year is "May December." When I watched it I didn't expect Oscars for it (it's too good and Todd Haynes has been ignored too many times). But given precursors, I am really disappointed that Julianne Moore and, especially, Charles Melton were left out.
|
|
jammerbirdi
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 21119
Back to top |
Posted: 01/26/24 12:21 pm ::: Re: Oscars 2024 |
Reply |
|
PUmatty wrote: |
The best movie I have seen this year is "May December." When I watched it I didn't expect Oscars for it (it's too good and Todd Haynes has been ignored too many times). But given precursors, I am really disappointed that Julianne Moore and, especially, Charles Melton were left out. |
That was excellent._________________ Every woman who has ever been presented with a career/sex quid pro quo in the entertainment industry should come forward and simply say, “Me, too.” - jammer The New York Times 10/10/17 |
|
pilight
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 67491 Location: Where the action is
Back to top |
Posted: 01/26/24 1:05 pm ::: Re: Oscars 2024 |
Reply |
|
PUmatty wrote: |
The best movie I have seen this year is "May December." When I watched it I didn't expect Oscars for it (it's too good and Todd Haynes has been ignored too many times). But given precursors, I am really disappointed that Julianne Moore and, especially, Charles Melton were left out. |
Haven't seen it yet. I'm always wary of Natalie Portman flicks that get good reviews. I never seem to like them as much as everyone else.
_________________ The truth is like poetry
Most people hate poetry
|
|
PUmatty
Joined: 10 Nov 2004 Posts: 16516 Location: Chicago
Back to top |
Posted: 01/26/24 1:37 pm ::: Re: Oscars 2024 |
Reply |
|
pilight wrote: |
PUmatty wrote: |
The best movie I have seen this year is "May December." When I watched it I didn't expect Oscars for it (it's too good and Todd Haynes has been ignored too many times). But given precursors, I am really disappointed that Julianne Moore and, especially, Charles Melton were left out. |
Haven't seen it yet. I'm always wary of Natalie Portman flicks that get good reviews. I never seem to like them as much as everyone else. |
My mileage varies with Portman - I often find her too mannered. I thought it worked here, and I'll watch Julianne Moore do pretty much anything.
|
|
|
|