2012 Oscars Catch-All

I did really like his oldest daughter. The actress did an excellent job and is definitely deserving of awards. The further I go the more I'm convinced that either Hugo or Take Shelter is the best movie I've seen this year.

Just wrapped up 50/50. Truly lovely. I really dig Joseph Gordon Levitt. The man is going places. To think he started in 3rd rock from the sun! ha! Anyways, I really enjoyed this movie. Solid script I´d say. Rogen wasn´t as annoying as I usually find him. Wish Anjelica Houston had more to play with, but she´s always magnificent.

And the car scene...wow. That got me. I highly recommend it!!

On to Beginners now!! Damn, there´s so many movies to watch...

Ugh. I forgot about 50/50. I'll see that soon. My movie pile of shame, accumulated because my wife has been in Australia for a quarter of the last year, is being whittled down slowly. Now one more on the pile.

hahaha, I know! The movie pile keeps on growing!

Just saw Beginners. I did enjoy Christopher Plummer´s performance. Mélanie Laurent is still beautiful (inglorious basterds for reference). I wouldn´t say it´s a fantastic movie though. Some parts are very entertaining, but I don´t know. It felt like it was trying to achieve some sort of the feel Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind had, but never quite made it there. The dog parts were funny and smart, I wished they had used that a bit more. I don´t know. I´m not sure what to think of it still. Is it good? Yeah. But nothing happens if you don´t see it. I think I´m missing something here...

Anyway, got my tickets already for Ides of March finally, so I´ll go catch that today. Good thing about the superbowl is, empty seats at the theatre. Also, it´s a long weekend here in Mexico. That´ll give me more time to catch up on my pile!

kexx wrote:

Just saw Drive. The second it ended, I didn't get the hype. I mean, I liked it, but I didn't get it. It's now been about 20-25mins since I saw it, and just remembering it in retrospect, wow...I think I really loved it.

I saw this and had an almost identical reaction. The credits started rolling and I was like well... ok then. It was good but, really all that talk about this? But after a while a lot of things kind of sank in, and I the more I consider it the more I like the movie. It really is great.

kexx wrote:

Just wrapped up 50/50. Truly lovely. I really dig Joseph Gordon Levitt. The man is going places. To think he started in 3rd rock from the sun! ha! Anyways, I really enjoyed this movie. Solid script I´d say. Rogen wasn´t as annoying as I usually find him. Wish Anjelica Houston had more to play with, but she´s always magnificent.

And the car scene...wow. That got me. I highly recommend it!!

On to Beginners now!! Damn, there´s so many movies to watch...

Just watched 50/50 (this is like a movie pile thread). It's really good. I was surprised. Much better than a lot of the movies in the Oscar race. I like it better than Descendants and The Artist, for starters.

I understand the snub to Drive. The Oscars only like violence when it's wrapped up in some kind of "fighting for justice" pastiche like Braveheart or Gladiator.

But Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is - unless someone can prove me wrong - the worst-reviewed film I have ever seen make it to the Best Picture category in decades. I can't believe a film so cynical and cloying actually worked on those people.

Just came back from Ides of March. Man, I really dig these kind of movies. Political mayhem is fun. I really enjoyed it. All performances are top notch. Even smaller roles like Paul Giamatti´s and Phillip Seymour Hoffman´s, but those two are forces to be reckoned with. And Ryan Gosling is definitely making all the right choices. Amazing where he stands now, and amazing to think where´s he´ll be in a couple of years. Definitely powerhouse material. And Clooney? Man, the guy never stops. He produces, directs, acts, and co-wrote this one. Is there no stopping this man? I know a lot of people don´t like him, but I approve of this guy. He´s the man.

I highly recommend this one!!

Ok, I´m tackling Hugo this week. I´ve put it off for far too long.

BAFTAS (British Oscars) have concluded, and generally what happens here is a reflection on what will happen Oscar night. Sometimes, very few, the Oscars go a different way, but history has proven we can now predict what the outcome will be, and here's what happened tonight:

Movie: Artist
Director: Artist, Michel Hazanavicius
Actor: Artist, Jean Dujardin
Actress: Iron Lady, Meryl Streep
Sup. Actor: Beginners, Christopher Plummer
Sup. Actress: The Help, Octavia Spencer

So, seems like The Artist might/probably will sweep Oscars as well. Thoughts?

kexx wrote:

BAFTAS (British Oscars) have concluded, and generally what happens here is a reflection on what will happen Oscar night. Sometimes, very few, the Oscars go a different way, but history has proven we can now predict what the outcome will be, and here's what happened tonight:

Movie: Artist
Director: Artist, Michel Hazanavicius
Actor: Artist, Jean Dujardin
Actress: Iron Lady, Meryl Streep
Sup. Actor: Beginners, Christopher Plummer
Sup. Actress: The Help, Octavia Spencer

So, seems like The Artist might/probably will sweep Oscars as well. Thoughts?

You neglected to mention The Artist winning best cinematography. I'm fine with it winning all of the 'best picture' and 'best actor' awards. I'm even okay with it getting the Bafta for soundtrack. It winning best cinematography over films like Hugo just seem a little too much though. The Artist looked good, but it was nothing (to my mind) particularly special, especially not when compared to films like Hugo and Tinker Tailor.

True points. It also won best Original Screenplay, which has caused some heavy flaming. I still haven't seen it, as it hasn't arrived here in Mexico yet, but all this hype will probably just ruin the experience whenever I do catch it.

On a separate note, just came back from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In the end, I enjoyed it, but I felt the pacing and the choice of score really did the movie a disservice. I generally like these types of films, but this one was just too damn slow and tedious in parts. And that doesn't help when you have to keep close attention to everything to keep up with the story unfolding.

Also, I'm glad Gary Oldman got a nomination, but he has a plethora of performances that outdo this one. He was good, but him being nominated (finally!) for this, and not other works just keeps the Oscar's downward spiral going and going.

kexx wrote:

On a separate note, just came back from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In the end, I enjoyed it, but I felt the pacing and the choice of score really did the movie a disservice. I generally like these types of films, but this one was just too damn slow and tedious in parts.

to speed it up would have been a disservice to the original material in my eyes. I dont like the trend of trying to speed everything up in general though. I know i'm in a minority on this.

ranalin wrote:
kexx wrote:

On a separate note, just came back from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In the end, I enjoyed it, but I felt the pacing and the choice of score really did the movie a disservice. I generally like these types of films, but this one was just too damn slow and tedious in parts.

to speed it up would have been a disservice to the original material in my eyes. I dont like the trend of trying to speed everything up in general though. I know i'm in a minority on this.

Reading Super Sad True Love Story right now and it's hard not to think of that book a lot when you hear things like this. Movies that take their time are few, far between and refreshing.

Still annoyed at the Artist winning so many awards. It just isn't a great movie.

kexx wrote:

True points. It also won best Original Screenplay, which has caused some heavy flaming. I still haven't seen it, as it hasn't arrived here in Mexico yet, but all this hype will probably just ruin the experience whenever I do catch it.

We only got it on Thursday. Heck, we don't even get Moneyball or Ides of March here for a week or so yet.

And Attack the Block (which you should all purchase the blu-ray of), which premiered in May, isn't here until MARCH!

Taco, I didn't love Attack the Block because most of the main characters are rather vile.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Taco, I didn't love Attack the Block because most of the main characters are rather vile.

Spoiler:

You have no soul. The satisfying thing about that film is that you start of seeing them as awful, and, as they slowly come to accept the consequences for their actions, you start to come around to their side! It's a journey!

El-Taco-the-Rogue wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

Taco, I didn't love Attack the Block because most of the main characters are rather vile.

Spoiler:

You have no soul. The satisfying thing about that film is that you start of seeing them as awful, and, as they slowly come to accept the consequences for their actions, you start to come around to their side! It's a journey!

Spoiler:

It's true, I didn't hate them as much by the end. However, they're still pretty much motivated by self-interest the whole way through.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
El-Taco-the-Rogue wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

Taco, I didn't love Attack the Block because most of the main characters are rather vile.

Spoiler:

You have no soul. The satisfying thing about that film is that you start of seeing them as awful, and, as they slowly come to accept the consequences for their actions, you start to come around to their side! It's a journey!

Spoiler:

It's true, I didn't hate them as much by the end. However, they're still pretty much motivated by self-interest the whole way through.

Spoiler:

What about that one bit where the one dude willingly risked his life to save others and atone for his mistake?

Watched Chico & Rita a couple of nights back on a whim, I've seen most of the films in the big categories and thought this might be a nice foray into the animated selection. And hey, I happen to be a big jazz-o-phile so what the hell. First and foremost the music is great, a good selection of pieces from Dizzy Gillespie, Monk and several Cuban based artists from the 40s and 50s. Story is pretty standard but well fleshed out, pretty much a vehicle for the music and the animation. Speaking of which the animation blew me away, it looks like a moving Diego Rivera piece. While I haven't seen any of the other animated pictures that are nominated I can say this film deserves recognition. Check it out!

This weekend has been a movie extravaganza. Saw The Beginners. That movie wasn't what I expected, but it was really sweet and good-hearted. Better than many of the nominees, including The Artist. The more I go into this the more The Artist is the major outlier for me. I have The Help rented as well. So I'll have seen most nominees except for maybe War Horse. And really I think I just dislike The Artist and most of the rest of the movies are only ok to me.

So "The Artist" predictably won. I need to stop watching. I didn't use to watch, but my wife did and I got suckered into it. I need to break that habit because in years where I actually like movies and active dislike the winner I'm not happy. I didn't like The Artist. Thought it was behind Moneyball, Hugo and a couple other movies amongst the nominees. Heck, for my money Melancholia, The Muppets, Take Shelter, Shame, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 50/50 and Super 8 were all better movies than The Artist.

So I think The Artist is, at best, like the 13th best movie this year. It was so Oscar-bait. Speaking of which, I did play Final Fantasy Tactics during the awards. That was a good thing to do while Cirque du Soleil was performing. Or while the In Memoriam was showing people, but not what they were famous for.

And Billy Crystal, those were some great zingers. Straight out of the early 90s...

I didn't see the Artist, but I too felt for some reason it wasn't deserving. I did enjoy Dragon Tattoo's Editing Oscar surprise, and Meryl Streep's 3rd Oscar. Those things made my night truly. I think the main problem was 2011 wasn't really that great, in comparison to other years. For example, I think any of last year's nominees, had they been up this year, would've taken the big prize home. Any, Social Network, Fighter, Black Swan, True Grit, you name it. It felt like a weak year, at least for me and my tastes. Next year looks amazing though. So many great titles coming out.

Also, I really enjoyed Billy Crystal as host. Was it safe to ask him to host? Yes. Did it pan out? Absolutely. He had some gimmicks that felt old, like his intro, and the "I know what they're thinking" bits, but in general, his comedy was awesome. Loved how he zinged the president of the Academy, and he killed me with "Live from the Chapter 11 Theatre..." hahaha, that was just class.

Every year around this time I usually end up catching all the major nominees for the Oscars. I've stopped doing that since I really hate the last few years of them, but I still find myself catching the films that were on a lot of "best of" critic's lists at this time. So far, I've been highly impressed with everything I watched recently.

Midnight in Paris: Who would have guessed Owen Wilson would make a great stand-in for Woody Allen? What a delightful, light-hearted film. My only qualms are how a few things are too on-the-nose. They could have made Rachel McAdam's character clearly a bad fit for marriage without making her the embodiment of the stereotypical superficial American, and Owen Wilson actually lays out the lesson he learned at the end in a direct monologue. Still, one of the better films he has recently made. I'm pretty familiar with that time period and that literature but I'm sure some of the references went over my head.

Take Shelter: I can't believe Jessica Chastain was in both this movie and The Tree of Life and she got nominated for The Help. What the hell. This was a great film, and you can see the stuggle on the main character's face as he's trying to determine whether he is crazy or whether he is recieving a legitimate warning from God. It's also clearly a metaphor for the difficulties of middle-class America with all the troubles we are currently facing and does a great job. The dream sequences are very effective, almost Kubrickian in execution.

Martha Marcy May Marlene: Jesus Christ, what a tense film. Elizabeth Olsen is amazing, I will certainly be looking out for her in future movies. John Hawkes also does a convincing job. You can totally feel how he would be able to manipulate those people and how creepy he is. The way the film is cut is flawless. It always takes a minute or two to figure out whether what you're watching is the present or past so you start to feel just as confused and disoriented as she is. Even the way the film is shot is clever. The whole thing is underexposed and the contrast has been thrown out of wack, so it creates this grey look over everything (suggesting there is nowhere for her to hide.) I don't think there has ever been a movie that features so much of an attractive young girl who is topless and all I feel is uncomfortable the whole time.

The Tree of Life: Well, this is a Terence Malick film, but I didn't expect it to be as overtly Christian as it is. Despite that, the whole film is wonderful and the cinematography is jaw-dropping. I will probably pick up the bluray at some point.

Good rundown, Kuddles. I forgot to mention Tree of Life. I really liked that as well. I really liked this part of your post, though.

My only qualms are how a few things are too on-the-nose. They could have made Rachel McAdam's character clearly a bad fit for marriage without making her the embodiment of the stereotypical superficial American, and Owen Wilson actually lays out the lesson he learned at the end in a direct monologue.

I thought the same thing when I saw the movie. It was one of those lazy writing jobs that made it easier to contrast Wilson's characters's experiences vs. the present. It was so bad that I thought to myself "I don't understand how they're together".

The last time I actually watched the oscars was eight years ago. and that was because my wife was a huge LotR fan, having read the books over and over before ever seeing the films. She was then a monster fan of what Peter Jackson did. So she wanted to watch Peter Jackson finally get his due, and Return of the King just slaughtered the competition.

It nearly brought our daughter, six-years-old at the time, to tears. All she knew was that Seabiscuit was about a horse, and Mommy's film kept beating it over and over and over again.

Otherwise, ALL awards shows are a waste of my time. I have, at most, a passing interest in who wins. Last night, before going to bed, I hit Entertainment weekly's website and saw who won. I cannot imagine sitting through the actual awards. Not the Grammy's, Tony's, or Golden Globes. Not the ESPY's, not the VGA's.

Mind you, I don't blame people if they like them for watching. But it absolutely astounds me the number of people that watch them that hate them. And it happens ever freaking year, like clockwork. What makes these shows absolutely pointless is that you spend 90% of your time waiting for those few things you might enjoy. Maybe a performance, a few jokes, or even just a thank you speech for a film you really liked.

It's not that the Oscars are bad. It's thatI don't need to know what award any pieve of art has one, unless I am trying to decide if I want to view or listend to it, or if I am making a case that something is good or bad. But the actual ceremony adds nothing to that.

I saw that Hugo, a film I liked picked up five Oscars. That made me happy. No Best Picture or Director, but not a bad showing. I got this without having to spend one minute watching.

DSGamer wrote:

So I think The Artist is, at best, like the 13th best movie this year. It was so Oscar-bait.

Considering the complete underdog story of that film's snowball to success, I don't think that it really qualifies as 'Oscar-bait'.

While I agree that it wasn't my favourite film of the year, and I doubt it was the most deserving, I feel bad for it just because it's such a likeable film, and yet it's getting a lot of unearned vitriol from people angry that it beat out their movie of choice for the Oscar.

El-Taco-the-Rogue wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

So I think The Artist is, at best, like the 13th best movie this year. It was so Oscar-bait.

Considering the complete underdog story of that film's snowball to success, I don't think that it really qualifies as 'Oscar-bait'.

While I agree that it wasn't my favourite film of the year, and I doubt it was the most deserving, I feel bad for it just because it's such a likeable film, and yet it's getting a lot of unearned vitriol from people angry that it beat out their movie of choice for the Oscar.

Or in my case my (at least) 12 other preferred movies of choice. I understand defending poor Harvey Weinstein if people are coming at his movie with specious attacks from movies that aren't good. But this was a down year with lots of movies as good or better. It's pretty easy to argue against The Artist without it being vitriol.

El-Taco-the-Rogue wrote:

Considering the complete underdog story of that film's snowball to success, I don't think that it really qualifies as 'Oscar-bait'.

Uh, I might not call the film "Oscar bait". That would go to something like Extremely Awful and Incredibly Cloying.

But it was never an underdog. It was always a movie that was clearly designed to be an indie darling right out of the gate, and was marketed all to hell as such. The fact that you even consider it an underdog means the marketing was successful. Seriously, it may have had the budget of a European film, but the amount of money spent on advertising and directly catering to Academy voters easily blew away the amount spent on most of the competition. Everyone knew the movie was going to win with how much power Weinstein continues to have on the Oscars that a lot of traditional betting pools in Vegas didn't even bother dealing with the Best Picture category this year because it was well known to be a shoe-in.

I agree that some of the negativity on The Artist is way too high, but at the same time I feel it does a disservice to take an entertaining, if slight, film and try to insist it deserves the kind of accolades it has been receiving. Mind you, I think it is a much better film than the likes of The Hurt Locker or The King's Speech so I guess I should count my blessings.

kuddles wrote:
El-Taco-the-Rogue wrote:

Considering the complete underdog story of that film's snowball to success, I don't think that it really qualifies as 'Oscar-bait'.

Uh, I might not call the film "Oscar bait". That would go to something like Extremely Awful. and Incredibly Cloying.

But it was never an underdog. It was always a movie that was clearly designed to be an indie darling right out of the gate, and was marketed all to hell as such. The fact that you even consider it an underdog means the marketing was successful. Seriously, it may have had the budget of a European film, but the amount of money spent on advertising and directly catering to Academy voters easily blew away the amount spent on most of the competition. Everyone knew the movie was going to win with how much power Weinstein continues to have on the Oscars that a lot of traditional betting pools in Vegas didn't even bother dealing with the Best Picture category this year because it was well known to be a shoe-in.

I agree that some of the negativity on The Artist is way too high, but at the same time I feel it does a disservice to take an entertaining, if slight, film and try to insist it deserves the kind of accolades it has been receiving. Mind you, I think it is a much better film than the likes of The Hurt Locker or The King's Speech so I guess I should count my blessings.

...I mean it was an underdog BEFORE it got picked up by Weinstein and became the phenomenon that it is.

Though I never saw any advertisements for it outside of one trailer at an independent theatre in my city.

kuddles wrote:

I agree that some of the negativity on The Artist is way too high, but at the same time I feel it does a disservice to take an entertaining, if slight, film and try to insist it deserves the kind of accolades it has been receiving. Mind you, I think it is a much better film than the likes of The Hurt Locker or The King's Speech so I guess I should count my blessings.

I think that's what bothers me the most. You pinned it down. So much effort is put into lobbying and advertising that I don't feel like people even know what "best picture" means anymore. Or best actor. If you saw The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo I would find it hard to not come away thinking that that actress was far more interesting than someone playing a famous person (also Oscar-bait) again. Yet she lost. Moneyball had an amazing soundtrack. The soundtrack, editing and the script are the main reasons that movie is so good. It was so well done.

In 10 years there's a good chance I pop in both of those movies again to watch randomly. I never saw The Hurt Locker a second time, I'll never see The King's Speech again. I did willingly see The Artist twice. The second time with my wife. So I guess that tells you that I think the movie is at least cute and entertaining.

To put a fine point on it, I actually really liked The Artist overall. It was harmless, entertaining and every bit as charming as Midnight in Paris. I just hate that it was somehow considered the best movie made this year when I consider it to be farce compared to the earlier list of movies I made. I wish the politicking and advertising would stop and those of us who love and appreciate good cinema could have an accurate record of what deserved to win. Weinstein did a good thing by bringing indie films to prominence, but he's turned indie films into such an industry that it doesn't deserve that category any longer.