** Film AWARDS season time again

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Lancemc said:
12 Years of Middlebrow Pap

I mean it's ok but I'd rather see American Hustle win because even though I haven't seen an O Russel film I've liked since Three Kings and haven't seen this one it at least looks to have something of a pulse.
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I thought you would have appreciated the restraint. Some great work with long takes as well as some of the more natural images/cutaways (the churning of the boat paddle wheel, the burning embers of the discarded letter).

I also think it's odd to call it "middlebrow" considering McQueen's background, and this certainly feels like an extension of his first two works, albeit on a larger canvas.

There's no justification for rooting for Scorsese Lite.
 
I'm being kind of facetious. It's not quite middlebrow, it's highbrow artist catering to middlebrow "art" tastes. Restraint I admire, but not a great deal when it mainly turns material dry. Which is subjective but this film didn't have an worthwhile style for my tastes. Too "restrained" to be expressive, too classical for a truly observational or imressionistic angle, and ultimately too flat for its own classicism. I feel like McQueen could have made this more interesting if he'd indulged more in his own stylistic whims, which is exactly what I saw him praised a lot for NOT doing. Fair enough, but I feel this film could have been more fierce and affecting if more... I don't even know. More dynamic or subjectively shot even. Outside of a few parts it was too clynial for me.

But lol no I really don't way Russels film to win. Wolf is easily my favorite in the bracket.
 
Wait, what? 12 Years A Slave is wonderfully/horribly alive. It's incredibly visceral, has fantastic cinematography and many stylistic flourishes (the long takes that were mentioned). I think over-stylizing runs the risk of trivializing the material; we already have Django Unchained (which was fantastic). Or it could come across as being manipulative to evoke sympathy, and this is one film that needs to do nothing to make the audience sympathize with its protagonist. I'd argue the matter of fact depiction of the subject matter gives it an even greater impact.
 
Well yeah that's what everyone says about it. But it struck me as horribly bland. I'm as it a fan of long takes as anybody, but look to the Taiwanese masters on how to properly used duration and aesthetic in harmony to crack through to the truth or realism of a subject. My problem still lies in the film's classicism drawn out to lengths where I only see the movieness of it, not the representation it's trying to achieve. I really don't know how to explain thig properly though without debasing my own opinion to "it's prententious trying-to-be-what-art-fims-are drudgery." Which is a worthless piece of criticism but it's kind of how I feel. Icky.
 
OK, but it sounds like you'd rather it be more stylized as well as a more realistic verite/Dogme 95 type thing, which I feel are two opposite poles.

The criticism you describe does remind me of my reaction to Lincoln, which I felt was unbearably dry and the sort of boring and overly tasteful history film that will put high school students to sleep for decades to come (I give Spielberg credit for not over-sentimentalizing, at least by his standards) I thought 12 Years made the history it was depicting feel very much real.
 
I'll also just say, I like McQueen, but hardly think he's great. Shame really worked for me where Hunger didn't so much, and this obviously, stripped down of some of the characteristics that make me like him. I don't find the image-making or editing of 12 Years a Slave particularly noteworthy honestly. I mean maybe for your run of the mill historical bait-piece it's competent above average, but I feel the film is aspiring to be a hell of a lot more than that and misses the boat in a number of parallel ways and ends up being a lot of nothing. I went in really expecting to love this though so whatever.
 
bollox said:
OK, but it sounds like you'd rather it be more stylized as well as a more realistic verite/Dogme 95 type thing, which I feel are two opposite poles.

The criticism you describe does remind me of my reaction to Lincoln, which I felt was unbearably dry and the sort of boring and overly tasteful history film that will put high school students to sleep for decades to come (I give Spielberg credit for not over-sentimentalizing, at least by his standards) I thought 12 Years made the history it was depicting feel very much real.
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Well, I'm not saying it needs to be both. But it could certainly benefit from a little of one or the other. Or not necessarily stylization even (dogme verite is very much a heavy style itself for the sake of categorization), but I feel a lot of the elements which make a film worth even watching are stripped down in the name of that "matter-of-factness" instead of trying to find a focused and powerful form with which to communicate this story.

It's funny. A lot of people find Lincoln the same as yourself, but that film, to me, has a fully realized form, distinct to Spielberg for better or worse, and actively pursues and delivers on that form. Personally, I find it gorgeous and pleasurable to watch, and I get why a lot of people didn't respond positively at all. If 12 Years a Slave has an formal approach to it, it strikes me as pretty misguided and highfalutin with a great lack of either expressive style to enhance the content or a convincingly meaningfully structured document of history/events which benefits from such aesthetic restraint. I just don't think it's a very powerful story the way it's chosen to be presented here either honestly. Ehh. Anyway my main point isn't so much that it's aesthetically restrained so much as devoid of meaningful aesthetic altogether. Which kind of makes it middlebrow-ish and easily digestible in a sense.
 
Wow, I HATED Shame, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being its complete hollowness. Yes, I realize the film is about existential emptiness, but it just failed to make me care about its characters at all.
 
Yeah, I couldn't give two shits about Shame's characters. Can't say I do about those in his other films either.
 
I wouldn't say so. As I said, I really like Shame, but i'm very much in the minority in preferring that to his other two.
 
Yeah, I guess it's just that character writing is a dealbreaker for me. There are exceptions, but I can't love a movie with characters that I don't give a shit about. I can casually appreciate them, but that's it.

Not saying this is the case with McQueen's films, as I haven't seen them.
 
bollox said:
OK, but it sounds like you'd rather it be more stylized as well as a more realistic verite/Dogme 95 type thing, which I feel are two opposite poles.

The criticism you describe does remind me of my reaction to Lincoln, which I felt was unbearably dry and the sort of boring and overly tasteful history film that will put high school students to sleep for decades to come (I give Spielberg credit for not over-sentimentalizing, at least by his standards) I thought 12 Years made the history it was depicting feel very much real.
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Spielberg losing to Ang Lee last year is easily in my Top 10 Oscar moments of all time (that I saw happen live).

Let's revisit some others:

1. Marty!
2. Spirited Away
3. Shakespeare In Love beating Saving Private Ryan
4. Woody Allen surprise appearance post-9/11
5. Steven Soderbergh for Traffic
6. Almodovar wins Original Screenplay for Talk To Her (great anti-war speech at beginning of Iraq War)
7. Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain
8. Muhammad Ali takes the stage when When We Were Kings wins Doc Feature
9. Stephen Gaghan wins for Traffic screenplay (moving speech)


Had I seen The English Patient a second time before the telecast I would have been over the moon with its big sweep, as it was on this repeat viewing when I really fell in love with the film.
 
Bolded what I'd like to see win, not having seen all of the films obviously, but being smart enough to know without seeing them, obviously.

Second favs italicized.

Oscar noms are out.

Best picture
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
The Wolf of Wall Street

Best actor
Christian Bale, American Hustle
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club (terrible movie probably but c'mon)

Best actress
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

Best supporting actor
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

Best supporting actress
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave[
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
June Squibb, Nebraska

Best director
Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
Alexander Payne, Nebraska
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

Best original screenplay
American Hustle, David O. Russell, Eric Singer
Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen
Dallas Buyers Club, Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack
Her, Spike Jonze
Nebraska, Bob Nelson

Best adapted screenplay
12 Years a Slave, John Ridley
Before Midnight, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
Captain Phillips, Billy Ray
Philomena, Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
The Wolf of Wall Street, Terence Winter

Best animation
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Frozen
Ernest and Celestine
The Wind Rises

Achievement in cinematography

"The Grandmaster"
"Gravity"
"Inside Llewyn Davis"
"Nebraska"
"Prisoners"


Achievement in costume design

"American Hustle"
"The Grandmaster"
"The Great Gatsby"
"The Invisible Woman"
"12 Years a Slave"

Achievement in film editing

"American Hustle"
"Captain Phillips"
"Dallas Buyers Club"
"Gravity"
"12 Years a Slave"


Achievement in makeup and hairstyling

"Dallas Buyers Club"
"Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa"
"The Lone Ranger"

Original score

"The Book Thief"
"Gravity"
"Her"
"Philomena"
"Saving Mr. Banks"


Best Music (Original Song)

"Alone yet, not alone" from "Alone, Yet Not Alone"
"Happy" from DM2
"Let it Go" from "Frozen"
"The Moon Song" from "Her"
"Ordinary Love" from "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom"


Achievement in production design

"American Hustle"
"Gravity"
"The Great Gatsby"
"Her"
"12 Years a Slave"

Achievement in sound editing

"All is Lost"
"Captain Phillips"
"Gravity"
"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug"
"Lone Survivor"


Best foreign language film of the year

"The Broken Circle Breakdown" (Belgium)
"The Hunt" (Denmark)
"The Great Beauty" (Italy)
"The Missing Picture" (Cambodia)
"Omar" (Palestine)
 
I really haven't seen enough of the films. Would be easy just to say Gravity again but doesn't mean much.

Cooper's a'ight.
 
Loved Bale the most in that film.
I don't usually like him at all, but the last two movies I've seen him in (the fighter being the other) are starting to turn me around.

He just seemed like the most sincere empathetic character in the movie.
 
Cooper is the weakest thing in American Hustle. I don't find him that good of an actor. I think he is more suited for Hangover movies. I guess women like him because he is good looking.
Matthew McConaughey is a good-looking guy, and also is a damn good actor.
 
So yeah, I did quite enjoy Bradley Cooper in AH. Not as much as Jonah Hill, but maybe more than the others nominated. Watching Captain Hanks right now actually though, so we'll see about that dude.

The interplay between Cooper and Louie was maybe my favorite thing about the film, for what it's worth.
 
Lancemc said:
So yeah, I did quite enjoy Bradley Cooper in AH. Not as much as Jonah Hill, but maybe more than the others nominated. Watching Captain Hanks right now actually though, so we'll see about that dude.



The interplay between Cooper and Louie was maybe my favorite thing about the film, for what it's worth.
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Cuz Louie's the only thing resembling a straight man in the entire movie. Loved his bits too. He's also surprisingly good in Blue Jasmine, though the Diceman runs away with the show.
 
Cooper veers so wildly between serious desperation and broad comedy that it's hard to know what we're supposed to feel about him. Russell (as with all his other actors) lets him loose without a leash, and the shift in tones is not handled smoothly,

Russell winning any direction award (for this and for stealing the Scorsese Linings Playbook) would be a high crime indeed.
 
I just don't like Cooper. He's one of those actors who is really, really trying hard, and most of the time it simply doesn't work. Kinda like Ben Affleck. I admittedly did laugh at some of his scenes with Louis CK, but a lot of the times his performance seems forced and unnatural. The Place Beyond the Pines is another classic example of him being miscast.
 
Should be a predictable Oscar night...

Picture - 12 Years A Slave (or Gravity)
Director - Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity

Actor - Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Actress - Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Supporting Actor - Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Supporting Actress - Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years A Slave

Cinematography - Emmanuel Lubezki, Gravity
Costume Design - Catherine Martin, The Great Gatsby
Film Editing - Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger, Gravity
Makeup and Hairstyling - Adruitha Lee and Robin Matthews, Dallas Buyers Club
Production Design - Catherine Martin and Beverly Dunn, The Great Gatsby
Sound Mixing - Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, and Chris Munro, Gravity
Visual Effects - Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, and Neil Corbould, Gravity

Best Original Score - Steven Price, Gravity
Best Original Song - "Let It Go" by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

Best Original Screenplay - Spike Jonze, Her (or American Hustle)
Best Adapted Screenplay - John Ridley, 12 Years A Slave

Best Animated Feature - Frozen
Best Animated Short - Get A Horse!

Best Live Action Short - The Voorman Problem

Best Documentary Feature - 20 Feet From Stardom (or The Act of Killing)
Best Documentary Short - The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life



Choices in italicizes are obviously the one's I'm not fully certain about. The rest would require real upsets in order to lose.

Gravity probably deserves to win Best Picture given how many other categories it's bound to walk away with.
 
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