This is your mission should you choose to accept it. Spend an entire year talking about which films might go to the Oscar race. To go to the Oscar race the movie must be:
1. A feel-good theme
2. Take place in the past
3. Not have any negative reviews or mixed feelings but must appeal unanimously across the board
4. Have an “Oscar story” (tough to get made, rags to riches, little movie that could)
5. Center on a male protagonist who saves the day against most or all odds, and/or triumphs over a disability (preferably both).
6. Earn enough acclaim in our cynical, jaded, seen-it-all film criticism community to be considered “smart”
7. Not have cost too much money – on the cheap with some profit domestically
8. Have “gravitas” to give voters a sense of urgency – that their vote was not wasted
9. Be directed by a white male (usually)
10. Appeal to the BAFTA
11. Extra credit: be about Hollywood, plays or actors
While #9 and #10 were shattered last year, these rules generally apply. Each and every Oscar blogger heading into the season knows this. When our year begins in Cannes you can already hear the rumbling. David Poland and Jeff Wells said the Academy would never go for Foxcatcher. Pete Hammond said the Academy would never vote for Julianne Moore in Maps to the Stars. Mommy, Leviathan and Winter’s Sleep out of Cannes were “foreign” and therefore automatically out of a Best Picture race on a preferential ballot with five slots for nominations. Sure, there is always some wiggle room but unless you’ve got The Artist which covers rules 1-10 above? Forget it.
After Cannes, we ambled towards Telluride and Toronto where our Big Oscar Movies were supposed to hail from. Out of Venice launched Birdman – perfect for the edgy pundits and voters who know that occasionally Oscar likes to access his “dark” side. See rule #11.
But out popped The Imitation Game and shortly thereafter, The Theory of Everything. And BOOM! Your Oscar race just took shape. The most exciting festival was the New York Film Fest which was going to showcase Gone Girl and Inherent Vice. Gone Girl was a film that didn’t tell you how you were supposed to feel because Fincher isn’t that guy. Is it supposed to be funny? (yes)? Is it supposed to be so contemptuous? (yes) Is it satire? (yes) Because it couldn’t be put in a box easily by pundits or critics it got good reviews and an iffy reaction from pundits. It doesn’t cover any of the above rules, well #11 if you’re using your noodle. David Fincher would have his highest grossing film of all time because the public, unlike the critics and the pundits, don’t need to put Gone Girl in a box. It’s one of those old fashioned movies that people actually go see to be entertained.
But because of people like me it was being compared vis a vis the “Oscar box.” Did it fit? Square peg, round hole – nope, doesn’t fit. Add to that the supposed reaction by Academy members who didn’t much care for it (see rules #1-11). It’s a weak year, oh it must be because Gone Girl doesn’t fit in the Oscar box. Neither does Inherent Vice, for that matter. Hoards of bloggers, critics, pundits and people who have no business pretending to be experts of box office, the Oscars or Hollywood were all chiming in on its Oscar prospects. Inherent Vice wasn’t judged as a movie. Like Gone Girl, it was judged against its Oscar prospects. Where to fit such a square peg? WHERE?! MY GOD WHERE?!
If it didn’t enliven the diehard PTA fans and it didn’t move the needle in terms of shaking up the Best Picture race it, too, was “selected out” of a race it never had any business being stuffed into in the first place.
Finally, the biggest elephant in the room lands – Interstellar. It looks like a duck (emotional movie), walks like a duck (gravitas, big effects, virtuoso director) but it doesn’t quite stick its landing either. Perhaps it needed not to be put in the Oscar box in the first place so that it somewhere to go from there besides down.
I’m not sure we can blame the movies for this, my friends. I think we all need to take a good long look at ourselves. I was taken aback by the many think pieces on Gone Girl that sprang off the op-ed pages. The real writers were out there doing the job the film critics failed to do: connect a movie opening at the box office with American culture. They did it brilliantly. But why didn’t the critics? Is it because they were measuring it against points #1-11?
Gone Girl sped right past them, past the Oscar bloggers, lighting the box office on fire, drawing adults out of their caves to see the movie everyone couldn’t stop talking about. And yet …
I don’t know yet know what the fate of Inherent Vice is. I certainly don’t know what is to become of the movies we haven’t seen, like Unbroken, A Most Violent Year, Selma, American Sniper, Into the Woods and The Gambler. My 16 years in this business tells me that if I haven’t seen it yet there’s a reason why. I could be wrong. I hope I’m wrong. But one thing I will force myself to do – I will not judge these preordained “Oscar movies” through the prism of what, as Jim Rocchi continually reminds me, 6,000 individuals of a certain kind of demographic might think.
Every year there is the same lament – it’s such a weak year for Oscar movies. 2010 and 2012 are two years where there was much excitement and much talk about the films that were in the race but both of those years eventually wound up, as the consensus is wont to do, rewarding the “safe” easy-to-like, middle of the road movie. The King’s Speech and Argo. When middle of the road and easy-to-like is your end goal, sooner or later the movies that pundits predict to be in the race are going to be middle of the road and easy-to-like.
Mark Harris attempts to answer this, sympathizing with them for simply voting for what they “like” best. I have no problem with this, by the way. My only sticking point is that they call the Oscars the “highest achievements in film.” Such a lofty description demands higher thinking. It demands examination and analysis. It can’t just be like clicking the “like” button on Facebook.
So is the so-called “weak year of film” the fault of the people who make movies or the lack of imaginations of the pundits? Or the lack of courage of industry voters?
I’m going to go with the latter. How many times already have we heard “they” won’t go for it or “it’s TOO much” for “The Academy”?
Purposefully dumbing down the Oscar race for Best Picture is what leads to the so-called “weak” year. Analysis by pundits and critics, and if need be op-ed writers, bring the debate to the voters and enliven the race overall.
The alternative is laying there and pretending to like it as the same old shit goes down year after year. Why would anyone want to be a daring artist under such mind-numbing constrictions? Television exhibits, week after week, daring and brilliant works that people, all over the world, can’t stop talking about. Films made in other countries – like Xavier Dolan’s Mommy – are alive with experimentation, originality, great characters. And yet the only place where we have routinely dumb it down, smooth it out, soften it, lessen it, dampen it, weaken it is in the biggest contest in film history: the Oscar race. Why? Because people like me spend way too much time worrying about what “they” will do.
Is it a weak year for film? Fuck no. I brought my daughter to see Gone Girl – she stood up at the end of it and said, “wow. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a movie where I didn’t know how I was supposed to feel.” That, my friends, is art.
I remain as excited about 2014 as I’ve ever been. I do not look forward to how it’s all going to turn brown in a month or two. Right now, it is alive with color and vibrancy.
My list of the best films I’ve seen this year so far:
Gone Girl, Boyhood, The Theory of Everything, Birdman, Foxcatcher, The Imitation Game, Mommy, Whiplash, The Homesman, Mr. Turner, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Maps to the Stars, Leviathan, Interstellar, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, to name a few. And look at what’s happening in the documentary race, with Life Itself, CitizenFour, Last Days of Vietnam, The Overnighters, Seymour, Look of Silence. And then in animated, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Big Hero 6, Princess Kaguya.
I have not seen everything – I have not seen near enough of what I need to see but these alone have been worth my time. I look forward to the many films that I haven’t seen, like Inherent Vice, Big Five, Dear White People, Selma, Unbroken, American Sniper, The Gambler and A Most Violent Year.
![2025 Oscars: Can a Late-Breaker Still Win Best Picture? [POLL]](https://www.awardsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/gladiator-350x250.jpg)
Whilst it could be argued that there are occasionally bad Oscar years, even a ‘bad film year’ is amazing to most cinephiles. I find ‘bad year’ talk is mostly self-fulfilling, and most avid art film fans stay away from such discussion. If I was talking about the least outstanding years for film so far this century, 2000, 2003 and maybe 2010-11 are the first to come to mind, but even those years have several classics I love.
Of the films I have seen thus far in 2014, my top 10;
1. Under the Skin
2. Boyhood
3. Calvary
4. Gone Girl
5. Jauja
6. Winter Sleep
7. Charlie’s Country
8. Still Life
9. Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
10. Listen Up Philip
HM: A Most Wanted Man, Appropriate Behaviour, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Tracks, Nymphomaniac (also loved Princess Kaguya which I classify as 2013).
I’m pretty glad with that top 10, and it’s only just entered November. This month promises to me viewings of Whiplash, Mr. Turner, Interstellar and The Imitation Game, Nightcrawler, etc. Even if 2014 doesn’t quite yet have the handful of masterpieces that 2013 had, I think 2014 bats rather deep. And to me, that is what makes a film year. i.e. I think 2002 is an incredible year for film, but that is because of the scores of 4 star films, not the handful of 5 star masterpieces. As far as I am concerned, any film year that can rack up 25+ 4 star films passes with flying colours, and I think 2014 is well on its way.
Personally, I think film as a medium is currently in a really inventive phase. Even a lot of the misfires are really interesting. The personality in cinema at the moment is palpable.
Bryce, excellent lists you put together. Seeing NCFOM and TWWB neck and neck in most categories just reminds me how close the race was that year. The best ranking you gave probably goes to original score with Burwell, Greenwood, Cave and Ellis and especially Murphy and Underworld. I felt Sunshine was underrepresented all year long. I know people hated the third act but, although I didn’t love it, it made sense to the character and just what happens when you get to close to an instrument of the god you pray to. Still one of my favorite sci-fi movies.
By the way my costume was Sam Flynn from the underappreciated masterpiece TRON: LEGACY, but I don’t have any pix. My friend took some of me. I’ll try to retrieve those and show you guys today before they become too old of news.
Aww man I missed the lovefest. Well needless to say that I immensely appreciate Ryan and Sasha and everything they do by keeping this joint up for us film experts to congregate and commiserate, or you know, just hash it out in general. And Andre of course who is the only charming Brazilian among the readers. The other Brazilians are misinformed blowhards.
Speaking of ZODIA, the year 2007, and the awards given during that year, here’s how I would have voted, and like Ryan I prefer a line-up of even ten Best Picture nominees:
Best Picture
1. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
2. THERE WILL BE BLOOD
3. THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
4. BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
5. ZODIAC
6. 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS
7. YOU, THE LIVING
8. EASTERN PROMISES
9. THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
10. 300
Best Director
1. Joel & Ethan Coen – NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (w)
2. Paul Thomas Anderson – THERE WILL BE BLOOD
3. Andrew Dominik – THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
4. Sidney Lumet – BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
5. David Fincher – ZODIAC
Best Actor
1. Daniel Day-Lewis – THERE WILL BE BLOOD (w)
2. Brad Pitt – THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
3. Viggo Mortensen – EASTERN PROMISES
4. Phillip Seymour Hoffman – BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
5. Tommy Lee Jones – IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH
Best Actress
1. Anamaria Marinca – 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND TWO DAYS (w)
2. Jeon Do-yeon – SECRET SUNSHINE
3. Julie Christie – AWAY FROM HER
4. Maria Pankratz – SILENT LIGHT
5. Marion Cotillard – LA VIE EN ROSE
Best Supporting Actor
1. Tommy Lee Jones – NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (w)
2. Casey Affleck – THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBER FORD
3. Javier Bardem – NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
4. Albert Finney – BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
5. Jake Gyllenhaal – ZODIAC
Best Supporting Actress
1. Cate Blanchett – I’M NOT THERE (w)
2. Hannah Schygulla – THE EDGE OF HEAVEN
3. Laura Vasiliu – 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS
4. Maria Prankatz – SILENT LIGHT
5. Ann Savage – MY WINNIPEG
Best Original Screenplay
1. Kelly Masterson – BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD (w)
2. Roy Andersson – YOU, THE LIVING
3. Cristian Mungiu – 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS
4. Steven Knight – EASTERN PROMISES
5. Carlos Reygadas – SILENT LIGHT
Best Adapted Screenplay
1. Joel & Ethan Coen – NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (w)
2. Paul Thomas Anderson – THERE WILL BE BLOOD
3. Andrew Dominik – THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
4. James Vanderbilt – ZODIAC
5. Ronald Harwood – THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
Best Film Editing
1. Joel & Ethan Coen – NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (w)
2. Tom Swartwout – BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
3. Angus Wall – ZODIAC
4. Dylan Tichenor – THERE WILL BE BLOOD
5. Dylan Tichenor, Michael Kahn – THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
Best Cinematography
1. Robert Elswit – THERE WILL BE BLOOD (w)
2. Roger Deakins – THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
3. Roger Deakins – NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
4. Harris Savides – ZODIAC
5. Edward Lachman – I’M NOT THERE
Best Original Score
1. Nick Cave, Warren Ellis – THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (w)
2. Johnny Greenwood – THERE WILL BE BLOOD
3. John Murphy, Underworld – SUNSHINE
4. Carter Burwell – BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
5. Howard Shore – EASTERN PROMISES
Best Animated Feature
1. Brad Bird – RATATOUILLE (w)
2. Masayuki, Kazuya Tsurumaki – EVANGELION: 1.0: YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE
3. Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi – PERSEPOLIS
4. Makoto Shinkai – 5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND
5. David Silverman – THE SIMPSONS MOVIE
Best Production Design
1. ZODIAC
2. YOU, THE LIVING
3. 300
4. THERE WILL BE BLOOD
5. THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
Best Costume Design
1. ATONEMENT
2. ZODIAC
3. SAVAGE GRACE
4. SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO
5. THE ASSASINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
Best Visual Effects
1. 300
2. SUNSHINE
3. STARDUST
4. TRICK ‘R TREAT
5. SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO
Best Original Song
1. Alex Beaupain; ‘As-Tu Deja Aime’ – LOVE SONGS (w)
2. Alex Beaupain; ‘Ma Memoire Sale’ – LOVE SONGS
3. Alex Beaupain; ‘La Distance’ – LOVE SONGS
4. Alex Beaupain; ‘De Bonnes Raisons’ – LOVE SONGS
5. Alex Beaupain; J’Ai Cru Entendre’ – LOVE SONGS
Best Sound Mixing: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Best Sound Editing: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Best Makeup: LA VIE EN ROSE
Best Documentary Feauture [tie for the win]
1. Guy Maddin – MY WINNIPEG (w)*
1. Werner Herzog – ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD (w)*
2. Asger Leth, Milos Loncareciv – GHOSTS OF CITE SOLEIL
3. Wang Bing – FENGMING, A CHINESE MEMOIR
4. Seth Gordon – THE KING KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS
5. Doug Pray – SURFWISE
6. David Sington, Christopher Riley – IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON
7. Charles Ferguson – NO END IN SIGHT
Best Foreign Language Film
1. Cristian Mungiu – 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS (Romania)
2. Roy Andersson – YOU, THE LIVING (Sweden)
3. Julian Schnabel – THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY (France)
4. Carlos Reygadas – SILENT LIGHT (Mexico)
5. Christophe Honore – LOVE SONGS (France)
Sasha, if you’re saying Oscars 2015 is the time the 2014 films will be recognized…..then I would say…..sight mostly unseen, that this is not a weak year for film. If anything, I think it could be stronger that the films from 2013 awards at Oscars 2014.
Now if you’re saying that Oscars 2015 represents the calendar year in 2015, and you are insinuating from what you already know that there’s going to be a weak slate…..well, I shudder at the thought already.
It is definitely a weak year so far. Case and point Boyhood. Step back and Take out the accomplishments 12 yrs filming etc…..What is left is simply life. We all experienced it. Aren’t films meant to be an escape and inspire / evolve us as human beings ?
This narcissistic appeal of ‘oh I remember when that happened in my life ‘ does not make a great film. It’s nostalgia. It doesn’t change your life in any way.
I have just watched this film for the 2nd and genuinely want someone to explain to me the fascination.
I find everyone who writes on this website to be very passionate and dedicated so would be awesome to get my head around what everyone is seeing/ feeling besides the blantantly obvious?!
Bring on December releases or this will be an extremely forgettable weak year in film.
I think the title, or part of it, says it all. It’s not a weak year for film. “Oscar” is just talked about too much and we make everything Oscar Oscar Oscar. If so-and-so doesn’t get an Oscar nomination then phrases like, “It’s because he/she is black or a woman and that’s why the industry is fucked up.” If that person/film wins something then people say “The industry is heading in the right direction” like the Oscars truly matter to the rest of the entire industry. I say, for one day only as a test, we talked about how good or bad a movie is without Oscar talk, gender/ethnicity/race bias is thrown out the window, politics are nowhere to be found, just the movie itself in the very moment. Can it truly be done by us? Can we not let a story be a story without weighing it down with shit it shouldn’t attract in the first place?
Sasha, it took you a while to.come around to Zodiac? I thought that’d be in your wheelhouse. Off the top of my head I’d say it was snubbed for at least adapted screenplay but that year was really competitive, also it was the year of he best slate of cinematography nominees otherwise I’d say give it to Harris Savides. There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Atonement…ok maybe Juno should’ve been left off. But at least adapted screenplay. Vanderbilt outdid himself, as did the actors. John Carroll Lynch was by far the MVP. Had he been given more screen time I’d say throw him in the nominees too.
Which has meant that great flicks like Grand Budapest Hotel and Gone Girl get discussed as having Oscar potential when they are (for me) nothing more than a great, fun night at the movies.
I’m not sure what you mean by “Oscar potential” but Gone Girl is every bit worthy of Oscar’s attention for many reasons. The limitations are your own. It is a high achievement in film if there ever was one. Is there a Tarantino in the mix? No. Is there are Paul Thomas Anderson people are creaming themselves over? Nope. So what’s a fanboy culture turned film critics culture to do? Complain about the movies.
This has been the worst year in (my) living memory for films. Which has meant that great flicks like Grand Budapest Hotel and Gone Girl get discussed as having Oscar potential when they are (for me) nothing more than a great, fun night at the movies. Imitation Game and Theory of Everything? Nice films but Shadowlands never got nominated, did it?
Boyhood alone is this year’s great film.
Any film that hasn’t had at least some screenings by now, I presume it’s because they aren’t worth seeing. Selma may not in fact be finished, but Unbroken? Jolie moved on to other projects months ago.
Interstellar has opened in France. Critical and audience reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. The mixed (even vicious) US reviews intrigue me. EW’s review was the most bizarre (and unprofessional) review I think I’ve ever read. The guy questioned why Nolan had “shied away” from addressing what to him are the obvious Freudian undertones to Cooper’s relationship with his daughter. Whhaaaat? Sorry, when a reviewer thinks a story needs just a little hint of incest to make it compelling for him, you’ve got to wonder about the motivation behind the review. My mind remains open on Interstellar till I’ve seen it. Blade Runner got lousy reviews when it came out too.
Sasha,
I love the story about your daughter’s reaction to Gone Girl. I can remember feeling that way when I came out of the theater after seeing Seven(I was 15). That is still one of my favorite moviegoing experiences and I bet your daughter will remember that feeling for years to come. As an adult, I knew exactly how to feel about the ending of Gone Girl: Fincher nailed it. One of my favorite endings for a movie in a long time. I can’t see how it won’t get nominated for the big awards this year, but if it doesn’t, it will join Seven and Zodiac as unrecognized classics that will far outlast the majority of movies that passed it by in the race.
Maybe there aren’t a ton of groundbreaking films, but the films that get it right, REALLY REALLY get it right. Boyhood? Game-changing. Gone Girl? When was the last time a movie was talked about and dissected by the public so thoroughly? Birdman? Cinematic ambrosia. The Lego Movie? Don Draper’s messiest nocturnal emission. Whiplash? Where even to begin? The list might not go on and on, but boy are the highs sky-freaking-high. Every year is different, and everything has something special to offer. This year is certainly no exception.
Saw Nightcrawler tonight and omg … what a fucking masterpiece. The ‘margaritas’ scene at the restaurant floored me … been a while since I’ve been that much in awe of a scene. Bravo … my favorite film of the year thus far.
Not everyone has seen all of these films yet. Most people haven’t. So it’s hard to say. But certain films have been labeled “divisive” and therefore eliminated from the chatter, when in fact divisive films are often the best. Inherent Vice being a good example. Maybe the Academy needs to broaden its taste.
It’s also hard to take the “bad year” talk seriously when a film with a 92 RT and an 88 MC is ruled out solely because it was released in February.
Too bad there wasn’t a great action film this year so far. Maybe we should start to consider Mockingjay.
I’m all for the expanded field, for the reasons Ryan stated. Look at 2008. The field of five had become a disaster.
So sad that my awesome Alex DeLarge costume was not recognised by 97% of people I met tonight. Most thought I was Chaplin on account of the cane and the hat.
Well, it’s not a huge stretch.
I’d like to sincerely thank Sasha, Ryan and everyone else here for being such positive presence in my life for so long.
The feeling is deeply mutual, Andre. You can’t know how much your kind words of concern meant to me when I was going through a rough patch myself this past year. (You can’t know because I’m so rotten I never told you till now.)
Great shots! Brilliant!
Now I want to see a remake of A Clockwork Orange with Andre starring as a sweeter, sexier, smarter, and a lot lot hotter Alex.
How could so many of your party friends not have known who you were? You either need some other additional party friends, Andre, or else you should throw your own parties where the uninitiated get their eyelids propped open with eyelid brackets while they watch the essential movies they’ve somehow missed.
Hahahaha I know I know
Here’s one more pic
http://picpaste.com/image-vMRP5b68.jpg
And, if I may get mushy for a second… Thank you all for this community. As someone who had a lonely last few years and whose friends are few and far between, I’d like to sincerely thank Sasha, Ryan and everyone else here for being such positive presence in my life for so long.
All the best!
It’s hard for a movie to truly take us Oscar-watchers by surprise since we all know going in what is ‘supposed’ to be Oscar-worthy. If something like Boyhood or Gone Girl or Birdman or Whiplash impresses, well, no kidding, they were SUPPOSED to impress us. The double-edged sword of these expectations, of course, is when a film is only ‘good’ when it was supposed to be great, and then we can’t help but nitpick it to death or consider it lesser to other Oscar contenders. I can list off movies like Lincoln, The Descendents, The Aviator and probably several others in recent years that I enjoyed just fine and would recommend, yet they were lacking that extra special something to put them over the top in my mind as legitimate Oscar-caliber work.
(And, god forbid if you go into a movie with high expectations and it turns out to be bad. Something like Benjamin Button was probably a middling 5/10 movie if I’m being totally objective, yet I was just so turned off by that piece of junk that I’ve often called it “one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen” though I can name 500 movies that were easily worse)
“Too old for that doodad at 29”
Queen Elizabeth is on Twitter! The Pope is on Twitter! Cher and Bette Midler tweet 24/7. There are movie writers on twitter who are older than Yoda.
http://picpaste.com/image_2.jpg
http://picpaste.com/image-YY6wk1vB.jpg
Feedback would be enjoyed! 😛
Ain’t on the twitters. Too old for that doodad at 29 🙂
I was seriously dismayed at how few younger people knew what I was dressed as though!
In my view, “ACO” was a pretty widely known, even if not seen, bit of characterization.
I’ll send the pics there, Monsieur Adams!
So sad that my awesome Alex DeLarge costume was not recognised by 97% of people I met tonight. Most thought I was Chaplin on account of the cane and the hat. How can I share that with everyone here?
Andre! I want to see! You have photos, yes? If you’re not on twitter (and you’d better NOT be because you’re not following me) then you can post a photo free and easy on picpaste.com. If you’re serious about wanting to share a look (and I hope you are) then you can set up the picpaste share with any limits you want. You can stpulate that it will be online for 1 hour, 6 hours 3 days, or forever — and any other length of time in between.
(I posted this earlier and it didn’t show up so, apologies if it ends up being a double post. Also, I’m wording it better this time around)
While I would not say that this year’s best films (so far) have moved me nearly as much as last year’s, I’ve still loved the wealth of films I’ve seen and loved this year.
Not only that, for the first time in a while my top films of the year are all in the talk for best picture (top 4 at least: “whiplash”, “boyhood”, “grand budapest” and “gone girl”. #5 is “princess Kaguya” which ought to be an Animated Film winner if all is right).
Off topic: happy Halloween! So sad that my awesome Alex DeLarge costume was not recognised by 97% of people I met tonight. Most thought I was Chaplin on account of the cane and the hat. How can I share that with everyone here?
I just saw Birdman. My opinion of it is far from fully formed (in part because expectations in both directions were acting upon me), but I would not weep if it did not get many noms beside Original Screenplay (and even then…) and Supporting Actress (the one nomination I’d fight for; Emma Stone was great). I’d honestly be fine if Nightcrawler (which I’m seeing tonight) snuck in and took the edgy-indie slot.
I don’t know, it hasn’t been a great year for American films, but it hasn’t been that bad, either. It’ll shake out as it shakes out.
It’s not a weak Oscars if Interstellar and Hunger Games: Mockingjay 1 are included. It’s been a suck-ass 2014 otherwise. Boyhood is just as much a gimmick movie as The Artist was, the ultimate Seinfeldian movie about practically nothing.
I’d like a full rack of 10 BP nominees every year. Those couple of years when we had a two full handfuls of 10 represent a fine legacy of the wide range of cinematic taste beyond standard Oscar-friendly fare.
But there is a downside. Over the years I’ve come to the conclusion that roughly 15%-20% of the AMPAS membership have taste up their ass — I believe approximately 1/5th of the voters (of all ages) have horribly bland timid predilections.
So in years of 5 nominees there is almost always one unavoidable embarrassment. And in years of 10 nominees that number might very predictably double to two embarrassments.
But since we cannot ever hope to rid the Academy of those 1 out every 5 voters who are middlebrow dullards, I think it’s worth enduring 2 head-scratcher nominees if we can get 8 nominees of quality.
Old middle-brow voters might die off, sure, but we’ll always be stuck with the young middle-brow Academy members that the old middle-brows have invited to join. There’s almost no way around it. Get used to it.
Besides, who’s to say which of those 10 nominees will rise or fall in esteem, in retrospect, 10 or 20 years from now.
I really like looking back at the slate of 10 BP nominees in the 1930s and early 1940s because it gives us a more comprehensive snapshot of the taste and attitudes of the era.
Give up on the hope of ever having a full 5 respectable nominees that will stand the test of time Forget about that goal. It’s only happened about twice every decade for the past 85 years.
Better to get dealt a hand of 10 cards, so future generations can still have a healthy number of 8 movies to admire after they stop laughing at the two inevitable clinkers.
I bet if we went back to five best picture nominees, both the nomination and the award would regain some lost prestige. Making the Top Five should be HARD. People will perceive a movie year to be strong if they can plausibly say “These five BP nominees are really good, but how great a year was it that you could have seen these five other films get a nomination”. Think how much more of an accomplishment it would be for a Boyhood or a Birdman to be one of only five BP nominees.
I’m sorry, but trying to placate Batman fans with misplaced anger has badly watered down the top award.
Not sure. I mostly haven’t seen anything yet. Ax me Wednesday night.
However I did see NIGHTCRAWLER earlier. I thought it was really good. Did anyone who saw it get reminded of the last scene of THE USUAL SUSPECTS in the next to last scene in this movie? Maybe it was just me. Anyway, Jake was great. Losing weight made his eyes even more ginormous. We all love him right? I just want to hug him and squeeze him even when he is a cuckoonut. The trailers I saw before it all looked really good. I saw one of my other faves Gael Garcia Bernal in the ROSEWATER trailer. That looked awesome. I dunno. I liked ST.VINCENT enough. It was better than some of the tearjerking PHILOMENA type crapola that gets nominated. I was thinking it was going to be a bad year but I’m actually feeling better about it now. Still waiting on BIRDMAN.
I didn’t read the article or anyone’s comments. I’m afraid of spoilers so bad I nearly risked my life even coming here.
It is worth thinking about what the average moviegoer might think about the year… Looking at the IMDB top 250, the following 2014 releases have ranked:
51. Boyhood (2014)
63. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
83. Gone Girl (2014)
72. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
79. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Winter Sleep, Birdman, Whiplash, Wild Tales, Mommy, Nightcrawler, John Wick, The Raid 2, The Imitation Game, and Fury are also doing well among voters.
I think last year had at least 10 films that would qualify for the general public’s “best movie of the year”. I think these 10 would get the most #1 votes. If you have at least 10 films, that is not a weak year.
12 Years a Slave – Steve McQueen – 2013
Before Midnight – Richard Linklater – 2013
Captain Phillips – Paul Greengrass – 2013
Gravity – Alfonso Cuarón – 2013
Her – Spike Jonze – 2013
Inside Llewyn Davis – Ethan Coen, Joel Coen – 2013
Nebraska – Alexander Payne – 2013
Prisoners – Denis Villeneuve – 2013
Rush – Ron Howard – 2013
The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese – 2013
This year, without having seen a good amount of them, but speculating what movies would have the most #1 votes by the general public, I’d guess these 10:
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
Gone Girl
Inherent Vice
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Unbroken
Whiplash
Last week I saw JOHN WICK
Today I saw NIGHTCRAWLER, BIRDMAN and seeing WHIPLASH in 20 minutes
I’m having a ball.
Must suck to be a snob.
Well-said Evan… We clearly had the same reaction to this piece.
I agree that Boyhood towers over the rest of this year’s crop, and have no problem if it waltzes its way into a Best Picture win… It certainly would be a preferable choice to films like Birdman or The Imitation Game, which pander as you describe.
If it is indeed a weak year (I haven’t seen everything, so I’ll withhold comments), it certainly wouldn’t be the first time. That being said, I usually don’t find a lot of overlap between the quality of a year’s films and the quality of a Best Picture lineup. A classic example would be 1999, which most people agree was a watershed year in American film, yet there’s not a single film in the lineup that I would consider “Great”.
Number of Best Picture nominees from the last few years that I’ve had on my personal top ten:
2013 – 2
2012 – 3
2011 – 2
2010 – 4
2009 – 2
I point this out not because I think I am some great iconoclast, but because I see in Sasha’s attack some real logical gaps… She complains about the predictable middlebrow tastes of the Academy, but her top ten films of the year are routinely chock full of Best Picture winners and nominees. I am not saying that this is some incredible lapse in taste on her part, but rather a suggestion that most cinephiles don’t judge the strength of a given year based largely on the quality of that year’s Oscar crop. To judge 2014 as a whole, it would require seeing more than the 20-30 most obvious Oscar contenders. Films like Nightcrawler, The Immigrant, Nymphomaniac, Under the Skin, Abuse of Weakness, Stranger By the Lake, Stray Dogs, Maps to the Stars, The Guest, Love is Strrange, Calvary, and The Raid 2 are effectively off the Oscar radar this year, but they are among the year’s very best. Just as you claim that the Inherent Vice critics don’t have the right to perform casual Oscar-watching, Oscar-watchers have no right to assess the overall health of the medium without broadening their tastes and doing the work of watching films that they don’t get publicist invites to.
I get that you are running a business here Sasha, but you are doing yourself a disservice by buying into the very systems of middlebrow taste and patriarchal representation that you so detest by focusing your attention on those films that are pre-vetted for Oscar glory.
“Purposefully dumbing down the Oscar race for Best Picture is what leads to the so-called ‘weak’ year.”
DING DING DING. You are correct. Like I said in the recent Best Actress post, if bloggers challenged the conversation a little more in the earlier stages, suggesting that outré films still had a chance, perhaps they could force voters to dig a little deeper in their screening piles. You can’t make Oscar voters like something they’re never going to like (at least, it’s much harder to do that), but you can make them see things that they might not have seen and considered.
Of course, then you go and list all of the heretofore released major Best Picture contenders as your favorites as the year. Le sigh…
Happy Halloween everyone!
Whiplash is the real deal. Only reason why that movie doesn’t absolutely CRUSH everything else is that its “too small” and won’t have an aggressive enough campaign. But there is not ONE single movie that plays as well in a theater this year. Not one.
Let us not forget Ridley Scott’s “Exodus” film coming out at Christmas either! It’s on my ‘must see” list.
I have to admit I lament as well that 2014, thus far, has been a weak year for films.
“Boyhood” is still the picture for me that stands out above the rest.
The film which got lost in all of this was “The Railway Man” released in February. It’s one of my favorite films of the year (and also pushes all of the Oscar buttons which Sasha listed in her article above).
My simple answer is: “Weak Year in Film.” Weak year for the easily-excitable moviegoer anyway.
“Every year there is the same lament – it’s such a weak year for Oscar movies.”
I don’t think that’s true at all. Last year and the year before there were many many films on dock in late October that pumped us with excitement. I mean: McQueen’s 12 Years, Cuaron’s Gravity, Russell’s American Hustle, Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street, Greengrass’s Captain Phillips, Coens’ Inside Llewyn Davis, Jonze’s Her, Payne’s Nebraska. What a must-see lineup entering November! Year before: Spielberg’s Lincoln, Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, Tarantino’s Django Unchained, Lee’s Life of Pi, Anderson’s The Master, Hooper’s Les Miserables. Again: those were A LOT of major must-see movies to anticipate.
This year I’m looking forward to Inarritu’s Birdman, Anderson’s Inherent Vice, and Nolan’s Interstellar. The others (Miller’s Foxcatcher, Eastwood’s American Sniper, Chandor’s A Most Violent Year, etc.) are rather tepid in comparison. Of course I’m curious about others, like Imitation Game, but only as much as I was curious about Philomena last year. This year there is a notable dearth in terms of big must-see movies.
I hate to say it, but Into the Woods will likely match the criteria from #1 to #10 pretty easily (assuming it gets good reviews and the rumored 40 mill cost is accurate)