the good movie thread

[Ryethe]

Saw Elysium and man what a piece of shit. I was expecting District 9 2.0 and instead got some cardboard cutout characters and some shitty action including a fucking 3D camera revolve during a melee sequence. Good lord. Glad I didn't pay for this.

On the other hand, saw Europa Report and didn't expect much based on some ratings online but actually really, really, liked it. The tension was awesome and the science was totally unbelievable (apparently NASA helped out). Kind of reminded me of a version of Sunshine that didn't drop a steaming deuce 2/3s of the way through. Also reminded me of Gravity in a good way.

[Dpsonroids]

oscar predictions:

Best Picture: Either Slavery or AIDS will win here but I'm going with 12 Years a Slave

Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club (cmon LEO, although it's either between matthew or chiwetel)

Best Actress: Only movies I have seen from this category are Gravity and American Hustle, Amy Adams had a pretty strong performance but I know nothing about the other nominees.

Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club

Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o- 12 years a slave

Directing- Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity or David O Russel for American Hustle since he's an awards show tool but I'm gunna go with Alfonso

Animated- Frozen

Cinematography - Gravity

Film Editing- Gravity

Adapted Screenplay- Wolf of Wall Street

Original Screenplay- Her

[Michael]

you're probably right on all counts, which is

Spoiler: show

gay

[Dpsonroids]

Yeah, in my personal opinion I thought Gravity was the best movie of the year but there's no way in hell that is winning and I thought Leo's performance in Wolf of Wall Street was the best of the year (The Ludes scene nearly fucking killed me) and that;s ignoringthe fact that the guy has already delivered half a dozen oscar worthy performances without winning any. He's up against guys portraying slavery and AIDS so it doesn't look like it's going to be his year despite my belief that he had a stronger performance than both matthew and chiwetel.

[Psamtik]

Before Midnight deserves all of the Oscars - shame that it only got nominated for the screenplay.

[Michael]

Yeah, in my personal opinion I thought Gravity was the best movie of the year but there's no way in hell that is winning and I thought Leo's performance in Wolf of Wall Street was the best of the year (The Ludes scene nearly fucking killed me) and that;s ignoringthe fact that the guy has already delivered half a dozen oscar worthy performances without winning any. He's up against guys portraying slavery and AIDS so it doesn't look like it's going to be his year despite my belief that he had a stronger performance than both matthew and chiwetel.

I thought gravity was an ok movie, but not special at all. Prisoners was the shiz.

[Andre]

Sigh, this is why I don't like the Oscars

Gravity was the best movie of the year and is the movie that will be remembered years from now. 12 years just won cause the academy is gay. It just joined the club that Shakespeare in Love, King's Speech and the shitty indian millionaire movie are a part of.

[Dpsonroids]

^, at least he got best director man my predictions spot on suck my diiiickkk

[Gondlem]

Slumdog Millionaire was really good I thought, don't think it deserves to be in a "bad best picture" list at all. Thought King's Speech was pretty good too actually.

If you want bad Best Picture winners, there's The English Patient and Titanic...

Overall I think it's really dumb that every time a non-American film wins, or anything outside of the general list of genres that always wins people make these assumptions of tokenism or whatever. As though the best film of the year is always by default a high budget Hollywood film full of recognised Hollywood stars and the only reason to give best picture to anything else is some sort of elitist masturbatory nod to cultural inclusion or whatever.

Obviously not talking about 12 Years here, but more generally about best picture whines.

edit: and CRASH. Now that was a shit film.

[Michael]

I didn't realize this many people liked gravity. Seemed like sandra bullock in a spinning room full of plot holes to me, what makes it the best movie of the year?

[Andre]

It was just a good fun movie, with amazing visuals, great acting, great directing. It's been a while since I felt actually tense during a movie. I had to stop myself from yelling GRAB IT YOU WHORE at some points.

Plot holes? If you're talking about science plot holes, ignore my question.

[Andre]

If you want bad Best Picture winners, there's The English Patient and Titanic...

Yeah, English Patient and Crash were crap. At least Crash didn't have that gay "Oscar Aura" to it.

I disagree a little about Titanic. It was a phenomenon that had to be acknowledged.

I didn't realize this many people liked gravity. Seemed like sandra bullock in a spinning room full of plot holes to me, what makes it the best movie of the year?

It was just a good fun movie, with amazing visuals, great acting, great directing. It's been a while since I felt actually tense during a movie. I had to stop myself from yelling GRAB IT YOU WHORE at some points.

Plot holes? If you're going to throw scientific plot holes at me, nevermind.

[Michael]

Well when you title a film gravity and try to make it realistic you probably should be 100% accurate about gravity, or the lack there of, in the movie. What force was pulling clooney away from bullock that couldn't be corrected with a flick of her wrist?

I enjoyed the movie, I was just stunned it (and a couple others) were nominated for best picture. Even more surprised it won that many awards, man.

Also, I agree with gondlem quite completely. Just because a movie is an ultra box office hit doesn't mean it was the best movie of 1997. Good will hunting, boogie nights, life is beautiful...fuck even starship troopers was a better movie.

[Andre]

Well when you title a film gravity and try to make it realistic you probably should be 100% accurate about gravity, or the lack there of, in the movie. What force was pulling clooney away from bullock that couldn't be corrected with a flick of her wrist?

That's a plot hole?

The movie is about survival and that was just an arbitrary decision to go on with the plot. The director himself said in many interviews that they took a lot of "creative liberties" with the movie because the story was better off from it. And the fact that scientists are nitpicking these "plot holes" just means they did something right. And as far as I know, all of them really enjoyed the movie.

Listen we like movies, and a consequence if liking movies is that we usually know how stuff is done. It took me 30 seconds to realize that the first scene of the movie was going to be a long take and it made me enjoy it so much more. I know you guys had the same reaction and I know this isn't what most people do. Most people don't give a shit about "how they made this" when they are watching a movie. Part of our enjoyment is breaking down the technical aspects of the movie, how hard it was to act a scene, how a director can really make a movie better, etc.

I was like that with Gravity only for that one take. After that, I was completely immersed. I couldn't being to understand how they were making this movie and pulling the visuals off and that sucked me into it. I enjoyed it, a LOT. Those 90 minutes went by like a second. It's been a while since I felt this way about a movie. Maybe Dark Knight?

I had to YouTube behind the scenes videos for that movie because I just wanted to know how the hell they pulled some shit off, and when I watched those I just couldn't believe it. They really made an effort to make you feel like you're in space, coming up with new technology, stuff you couldn't even imagine, and it paid off.

It was a given that Gravity was going to win all the technical awards because the Academy is gay only about screenplays. I was very happy Alfonso won best director and Gravity deserved to take best picture.

[Cakes]

Slumdog Millionaire was really good I thought, don't think it deserves to be in a "bad best picture" list at all. Thought King's Speech was pretty good too actually.

If you want bad Best Picture winners, there's The English Patient and Titanic...

Overall I think it's really dumb that every time a non-American film wins, or anything outside of the general list of genres that always wins people make these assumptions of tokenism or whatever. As though the best film of the year is always by default a high budget Hollywood film full of recognised Hollywood stars and the only reason to give best picture to anything else is some sort of elitist masturbatory nod to cultural inclusion or whatever.

Obviously not talking about 12 Years here, but more generally about best picture whines.

edit: and CRASH. Now that was a shit film.

Slumdog was quite good, and the King's Speech was as well.

There's been a long history of questionable films winning best picture, but I don't think this year is one of them.

Forrest Gump (a great film) beat out Shawshank Redemption (a better film) and Pulp Fiction (also a better film).
Return of the King beat out Mystic River, Master and Commander, and Lost in Translation.
Shakespeare in Love beat out Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, and Life is Beautiful.

12 years definitely deserved it.

[Gondlem]

Yeah Lord of the Rings beating Mystic River made me gag.

Probably the thing that bugs me the most about people complaining about the Oscars giving award to "Oscar bait" is that there are actually things that are way more "bait"-ey than the stuff that gets the criticism.

A good example is war films. I like a good war film, there have been some amazing ones over the years, but a high budget war film about a war people can remember within their parents lifetimes is absolutely Oscar bait. Saving Private Ryan was a well made, tense action film but if you remove the layers of sentiment and historical import attached to the setting it would never get an Oscar nomination for anything more prestigious than sound editing. In fact if it was a generic action film there would be moments in that film that would have been the subject of critical mockery, particularly the "emotional" scenes of people dying and shots of cemeteries with sad music and stuff.

Biopics about sympathetic historical figures are another one. Actually period dramas in general, but especially of the historical biopic variety - Ghandi, Braveheart, Good Night And Good Luck, Lincoln etc.

And when it comes to something like race, the films that are eye-rollingly likely to get Oscar noms aren't actually films about slaves or whatever but films which create an "overcoming racism" narrative about how we're all just people deep down. Crash being the classic example of a film that won because of it's message rather than it's quality. Or, say, The Help.

And don't get me started on The Artist - the fact that people called that Oscar bait was the most annoying given that it was a fucking black and white silent comedy made in France, a type of film that has never won a single Oscar ever. But because it was "arty" or whatever and got critical acclaim without being a box office hit, it simply had to be a pointless wank that never should have won over Toy Story 3 or whatever, a complaint inevitably made by people who hadn't seen the film. It couldn't be that it was just an amazingly special film - because the best film has to be a high budget Hollywood film with people you recognise in it, everyone knows that.

Anyway this is kinda off topic because it's not really about 12 Years vs Gravity. I liked Gravity, and I think Cuaron is great. It just bugs me that every year at Oscar time you get the same complaints about Oscar bait and how out of touch the Academy is, but it's never directed at The Hurt Locker (a film I loved, incidentally), which is way more designed to win Oscars than most films you'll see.

[Cakes]

Probably the thing that bugs me the most about people complaining about the Oscars giving award to "Oscar bait" is that there are actually things that are way more "bait"-ey than the stuff that gets the criticism.

A good example is war films. I like a good war film, there have been some amazing ones over the years, but a high budget war film about a war people can remember within their parents lifetimes is absolutely Oscar bait. Saving Private Ryan was a well made, tense action film but if you remove the layers of sentiment and historical import attached to the setting it would never get an Oscar nomination for anything more prestigious than sound editing. In fact if it was a generic action film there would be moments in that film that would have been the subject of critical mockery, particularly the "emotional" scenes of people dying and shots of cemeteries with sad music and stuff.

Biopics about sympathetic historical figures are another one. Actually period dramas in general, but especially of the historical biopic variety - Ghandi, Braveheart, Good Night And Good Luck, Lincoln etc.

Eh... I can sort of agree. I guess it's something that people tend to feel more emotionally attached to, so there's some sort of implicit need to reward them if it made them feel patriotic, thankful, or reminiscent. However, there are subsets of that genre that are just really well done, and I feel like those deserve to be rewarded. Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, All Quiet on the Western Front, etc.

And when it comes to something like race, the films that are eye-rollingly likely to get Oscar noms aren't actually films about slaves or whatever but films which create an "overcoming racism" narrative about how we're all just people deep down. Crash being the classic example of a film that won because of it's message rather than it's quality. Or, say, The Help.

Yeah, The Butler fell under this category for me.

And don't get me started on The Artist - the fact that people called that Oscar bait was the most annoying given that it was a fucking black and white silent comedy made in France, a type of film that has never won a single Oscar ever. But because it was "arty" or whatever and got critical acclaim without being a box office hit, it simply had to be a pointless wank that never should have won over Toy Story 3 or whatever, a complaint inevitably made by people who hadn't seen the film. It couldn't be that it was just an amazingly special film - because the best film has to be a high budget Hollywood film with people you recognise in it, everyone knows that.

Totally agree.

Anyway this is kinda off topic because it's not really about 12 Years vs Gravity. I liked Gravity, and I think Cuaron is great. It just bugs me that every year at Oscar time you get the same complaints about Oscar bait and how out of touch the Academy is, but it's never directed at The Hurt Locker (a film I loved, incidentally), which is way more designed to win Oscars than most films you'll see.

Interestingly, Lone Survivor and Zero Dark Thirty were in a similar vein (released at the end of the year, gripping war movies) and really didn't do much of anything at the Oscars.

[Michael]

There wasn't a lot of "oscar bait" talk about the hurt locker because it was 100% about how it didn't deserve to win, and how avatar was the better movie. Hurt locker winning was the high point of all the oscar shows I've ever seen put together.

Toy Story 3 was horrible. They almost killed the toys, what the fuck.

I can't argue with your points, Andre, but you're saying you were drawn in at the beginning by a long shot? Why, in the tv thread, did you say it's not that impressive? I have a theory: you just liked gravity more. I didn't. Not too much can be said beyond that. I had technical issues with it, yes. Like I said, though, I still enjoyed the movie, I just didn't get the hype. I also didn't get the hype around children of men, so maybe it's a thing I have with the director.

I'm hungry.

[Michael]

Interestingly, Lone Survivor and Zero Dark Thirty were in a similar vein (released at the end of the year, gripping war movies) and really didn't do much of anything at the Oscars.

Lone Survivor didn't really get much attention from anyone, and ZDT did get nominated.

[Gondlem]

Definitely not saying that war films don't deserve to be rewarded btw. I like war films just fine. The Deer Hunter is one of my favourite films, Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket and Platoon are great films, Hurt Locker is a great film, The Thin Red Line is a great film, etc. And actually emotional impact is a pretty good reason to rate a film as award-worthy, which is exactly why I think some of the claims of Oscar bait around certain social issues etc are kinda silly. Though obviously there's a line with cheesy sentiment and audience pandering etc, but that line is pretty personal.

If you make a film about slaves that makes people feel something it's a done something good as a film, much like a war film that makes people feel something. It's not all about technical achievement, there are categories specifically for that after all.

edit: And yeah, ZD30 did get the best picture nomination, though that's a bit easier these days than it used to be.