“Produce great men, the rest follows.” Walt Whitman
The year’s most powerful film tells the story of Solomon Northup, a free black man stolen into slavery where he suffered under unimaginable conditions before finally finding a way to free himself again. He lost 12 years of his life, but somehow endured what can only be called crimes against humanity that built this “free” country of ours. 12 Years a Slave isn’t just a film about slavery — it’s the first film about slavery to get close to winning Best Picture since 1939, when Gone with the Wind swept. When that film premiered in Georgia no black actors were allowed to attend because of segregation laws. Hattie McDaniel had to persuade Clark Gable to attend because he’d threatened to boycott otherwise. Gone with the Wind seemed to be the ultimate film about the Civil War as far Hollywood and the Oscars were concerned. The next seventy or eighty years would be a continual fight for diversity in Hollywood and at the Oscars. Most black actors for decades after Gone with the Wind were relegated to playing “happy servants” and “mammies.” That would eventually change but it still wouldn’t be until 2001 that the first (and only) black actress would win for a leading role.
12 Years a Slave is about many things. It’s about oppression, survival, endurance in the face of horrific circumstances — but to me it is also about Hollywood. Coming just one year after Quentin Tarantino’s revenge fantasy Django Unchained, and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, 12 Years a Slave has kind of done the impossible — it’s a black film about black characters made by black filmmakers that has achieved enormous critical acclaim and made a decent haul at the box office, considering. The early frontrunner for Best Picture already bored some critics by year’s end, as the majors went for other movies that were newer -— movies like American Hustle and Her. But after the critics on the coasts weighed in, the majority of critics throughout the country threw their unanimous support around McQueen’s film, not a traditional Oscar winner for Best Picture, by any means, but now with enough support to very likely go the distance.
Enter disgruntled white people who will protest the inevitable. But let’s skip over them for now and move on to 12 Years a Slave’s biggest challengers. There are two of them — Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity, and David O. Russell’s surprise hit, American Hustle. I can make a strong case for both of these films to go all the way and there is a very good chance that either of them will. I’ve even heard people proposing a split vote between them – Cuaron for Director and American Hustle for Picture.
The only problem with these two movies is that they can’t, in any way, touch either the historical importance of McQueen’s film, or the potential to completely alter the Academy’s own oppressive history. So you’re thinking they had a similar opportunity with Brokeback Mountain and the voters went for Crash because they could not watch nor did they “like” Brokeback. That year was one of a few key years where the critics were overwhelmingly at odds with the industry. The end goals, it seems, of the two factions oppose each other. Critics vote more for artistically daring films (most of the time) while the industry votes for what they “like” best. This plays out because the consensus of voters is so large compared to critics. If the Critics Choice is the largest voting body of critics in the country you’re still talking only 300, as opposed to 100,000 SAG members, 4,500 Producers Guild members, 14,500 Directors Guild members and 6,000 or so Academy members.
The consensus always rounds down to the lowest common denominator — or the one film most people can agree on is best. They decide this mostly agenda-free but they do like to vote with their hearts, about films that have characters they care about, where they were entertained for a few hours. They don’t really ask for more than that. Voters fall briefly but passionately in love. Love, as we now know, is blind.
But love is exactly what people have been saying about Gravity, and now about American Hustle. You might hear various counter phrases about 12 Years, like “voters like it but they don’t love it.” For weeks now various Oscar pundits have been reporting that Academy members have gone crazy for Gravity — so much so that they can’t see any other movie. Gravity would also make history in a slightly different way — it would be the first 3D movie to win and the first film in 86 years of Oscar history to win with so few actors. It would be the first Oscar winner with a Latin American director. It is one of the few films to star a woman in the race (see part two of this column coming soon) and offers audiences true uplift by the end. Gravity is one hell of a ride — deeply life-affirming by the end of it. It is starkly contrasted with J.C. Chandor’s All Is Lost, which isn’t anywhere near close to winning the Best Picture race but can be regarded as having a similar thrust — the real difference is that in All Is Lost the main character (Robert Redford) is nearing the end of his journey but he’s fighting to stay alive, even for what the last remaining years might afford. Both films are ultimately about the compulsion to love this crazy life because the alternative is oblivion — space or the vast ocean, neither place designed for human beings.
American Hustle is a big, broad ensemble piece with director David O. Russell’s biggest talent on display: his gift for writing great dialogue and his ability to get the very best performances from his actors. All of the actors are aces — bouncing off each other with chaotic atomic fury. You never really know what each of them is going to do next. The film bops around all over the place with no deliberate focus on plot. It is best described as a screwball comedy less about ABSCAM than it is about seeing these actors tricked out in disco attire. Amy Adams once again brings the sex as she once did in Russell’s The Fighter — here she is on fire seducing two men at once. But it’s really Jennifer Lawrence’s show. The ditsy, funny actress is well placed within Russell’s cheery chaos. She never stops to wonder what she’s doing or why — she simply dives in. Both Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper are formidable as well. Actors will love American Hustle and actors drive the Academy. You could very well see a SAG ensemble/Editors Guild powerhouse heading into the Oscars which might general the unpredictable but often played “split vote” scenario. Or David O. Russell could win Director and the film win Picture. It is a promising contender right now, no doubt about it, after taking the New York Film Critics prize for Best Picture.
One of the best films of the year is Paul Greengrass’ Captain Phillips. It’s received no love from the critics awards and yet it remains strong in the race driven by two memorable performances,Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi. It’s a thrill a minute, vigorously directed and though some critics have said it’s an America: Fuck Yeah movie, the truth about it is that it really isn’t. It’s much more about the imbalance of power, the enormity of our imperialism around the world. It tells the story of Captain Phillip’s decision to sacrifice himself to save his crew, and how he managed to stay alive without killing anyone. That is, until the NAVY arrived.
The Coen brothers’ marvelous Inside Llewyn Davis has managed to stay vital since all the way back in May when it screened at Cannes. It stayed in the conversation because of T Bone Burnett’s faithful commitment to honoring the roots of folk music by promoting little known, but talented folk musicians in the HBO concert doc, Another Day Another Time. The soundtrack, and star Oscar Isaac’s singing have given the film continual and renewed vitality. The film just won Film Comment’s poll of the best films of the year. It tells the story of the wayward Llewyn Davis, a folk singer who got nowhere, despite putting his whole life on hold to make his dream come true.
Her, Spike Jonze’s lyrical, haunting romance for the modern age is at once a comment on how our lives have become all about our operating devices, our alienation from each other towards a world we think we can control. We watch Joaquin Phoenix’s romance blossom with his OS (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). We think we know which way it might go. Surely the human will outgrow the electronic device. Surely the lack of physical connection will be their ultimate doom. But the clever Jonze takes us in an entirely different direction. That is what makes this film great. It isn’t just about our modern age. It’s about love. It’s about the nature of intelligence. It’s about appreciating what you have when you have it because it could be gone before you realize it’s out the door.
Alexander Payne’s stark, funny, sad Nebraska is about how our lifetimes are shaped by what we do, not what we want to do, with our lives. Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans, said John Lennon, and that’s really what Payne’s film, with a screenplay by Bob Nelson is about. Bruce Dern plays Woody, who has just the one solitary dream to win the million dollars Publisher’s Clearing House promised him. In this country we are nursed to believe we are all potential millionaires if only we could figure out the secret to getting rich. The lotto, stocks, buried treasures — it’s all there for the taking in the land of opportunity. Woody chases the phantom that we’re all chasing, though he’s ridiculed for it by his old pals. It’s a film about family, ultimately. It’s a film about forgiveness and acceptance. It’s also a film about the America that exists once you scrub away the shimmer. Payne deliberately cast the film with ordinary looking folks — there isn’t a hottie to be found anywhere. Even the waitresses and the girlfriends look like women you’d see in Nebraska rather than in casting offices in Hollywood. Nebraska wasn’t written by Payne but it nonetheless closes his trilogy of road movies of a grown man finding himself, starting with Sideways, continuing with About Schmidt and finishing with Nebraska.
Dallas Buyers Club is about Ron Woodruff’s fight to help bring AIDS victims some relief with illegal medication. It’s also about homophobia really influencing much of how that research went down. It’s about Matthew McConaughey’s performance, and his co-star, Jared Leto. It is a moving, important, historical account of the history of finding a cure for AIDS — and how the FDA is all too often driven by corporate greed.
And then there’s Martin Scorsese’s wild ride, The Wolf of Wall Street — a film so good it almost carves out its own category. It doesn’t even attempt political correctness. It is told from the wolf’s point of view, after all. It is a high dive into a murky place where American dreams fester in the fecundity of false promises. It is filmmaking at its absolute best. Does it have a shot at the Oscars? No man can say.
Let’s take a look at how the top tens are faring going by the groups that give out top ten winners or nominees in the pre-guild phase. The Screen Actors Guild have rung in but the other big ones have yet to be announced.
NBR | AFI | Globes | Critics Choice | SAG | SEFCA |
12 Years a Slave | 12 Years a Slave | 12 Years a Slave | 12 Years a Slave | 12 Years a Slave | 12 Years a Slave |
Gravity | Gravity | Gravity | Gravity | Gravity | |
American Hustle | American Hustle | American Hustle | American Hustle | American Hustle | |
Inside Llewyn Davis | Inside Llewyn Davis | Inside Llewyn Davis | Inside Llewyn Davis | Inside Llewyn Davis | |
Nebraska | Nebraska | Nebraska | Nebraska | Nebraska | |
Her | Her | Her | Her | Her | |
Captain Phillips | Captain Phillips | Captain Phillips | Captain Phillips | Captain Phillips | |
Wolf of Wall Street | Wolf of Wall Street | Wolf of Wall Street | Wolf of Wall Street | Wolf of Wall Street | |
Saving Mr. Banks | Saving Mr. Banks | Saving Mr. Banks | Saving Mr. Banks | ||
Fruitvale Station | Fruitvale Station | ||||
Lone Survivor | |||||
Walter Mitty | |||||
Prisoners | |||||
The Butler | |||||
Dallas Buyers Club | Dallas Buyers Club | ||||
August: Osage County | |||||
Philomena | Philomena | ||||
Rush |
12 Years is where Lincoln was last year and will likely be one of the only films to hit everywhere across the board. Does that mean it’s the winner? It’s too soon to know. Those who object to it strongly object. It isn’t exactly the film voters will dive across the room to put into the DVD player over the holidays.
Welcome to the new normal of the Oscar race. It is no longer required that you pick the best film of the year by artistic merit or by importance. Somehow along the way we’ve discarded importance and artistry in place of likability. Academy members pick what they like and resist the urge to vote for what they “should” vote for. It’s the publicist’s job to temper that response however they see fit. A tough road to hoe if you’re Fox Searchlight. If you’re American Hustle or Gravity you only need encourage voters to not feel that obligation. It’s a tightrope no matter which film you’re working for.
Nonetheless, it’s nearly impossible to look at the state of this race and not conclude that one film is becoming too big to ignore. For all of the reasons we know to be true — for history’s sake, for the future’s sake, and the least of which is McQueen’s stoic, clear, truthful representation at a repugnant dimension of our American story, how can the Academy look away?
NOTE: Part Two, The Vanishing Stories of Women is soon to follow.
Best Picture
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
Gravity
Nebraska
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
The Wolf of Wall Street
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Saving Mr. Banks
Alt: Fruitvale Station, Philomena,The Butler
Best Actor
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Robert Redford, All is Lost
Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Alt: Forest Whitaker, The Butler, Leonardo DiCaprio, Wolf of Wall Street
Best Actress
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Meryl Streep, August: Osage County
Alt: Brie Larson, Short Term, Amy Adams, American Hustle
Best Supporting Actor
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Barkhad Abdi Captain Phillips
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Daniel Bruhl, Rush
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Alt. James Gandolfini, Enough Said, Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street
Best Supporting Actress
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Oprah Winfrey, The Butler
June Squibb, Nebraska
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
Alt. Octavia Spencer, Fruitvale Station, Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Best Director
Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street
Spike Jonze, Her
alt. Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips, Alexander Payne, Nebraska
Joel and Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis
Best Original Screenplay
Eric Singer, David O. Russell, American Hustle
Spike Jonze, Her
Joel and Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis
Bob Nelson, Nebraska
Ryan Coogler, Fruitvale Station
Alt Woody Allen, Blue Jasmine, Nicole Holofcener, Enough Said
Best Adapted Screenplay
John Ridley, 12 Years a Slave
Tracy Letts, August: Osage County
Terrence Winter, Wolf of Wall Street
Steve Coogan, Philomena
Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater, Before Midnight
alt Billy Ray, Captain Phillips
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“Welcome to the new normal of the Oscar race. It is no longer required that you pick the best film of the year by artistic merit or by importance. Somehow along the way we’ve discarded importance and artistry in place of likability. Academy members pick what they like and resist the urge to vote for what they “should” vote for.”
Sasha, it has been like this for years and years hasn’t it? 😀
“Cinematography? Guys, c’mon. Gravity is 9O% animation. I don’t understand where the cinematography comes in if it’s all about 3D photoshopping. Maybe it’s over my head. I humbly confess I do not understand cinematography that does not require a camera.”
I had this very debate with my wife, and to be honest as I was talking I was aware I kept switching from one side of the fence to the other. I understand if you visually create something more with effects than a physical camera it is questionable to whether or not it should be warranted for cinematography {as I felt when “The Fellowship of the Ring” won the cinematography Oscar}. On the flip side, it looks amazing, and this is not the acting or the editing I am talking about. One thing I did say in my “debate” was the vastness of what was in the frame – what we see, and the movement of that frame within the atmosphere of the movie itself. Perhaps not a skilled man with a camera in his hand necessarily, but impressive cinematography all the same. This could have a article all of it’s own Ryan…
I haven’t read all of the comments yet in this thread but I intend too because these conversations regarding the impact of film on our society as a whole in my opinion are valuable. For they are barometers of our society and how we view ourselves and how art can and does have an impact on our lives.
This is an interesting conversation regarding 12 Years a Slave, which I still happen to believe is the front runner for Best Picture. I will be shocked if it doesn’t win. I regard 12 Years as not only an achievement for the black community as a whole but more so as a black achievement in film. I don’t think however there is any comparison to 12 Years and Lincoln. That’s a stretch. I still believe that Lincoln loosing was more of a backlash about Speilberg than anything else. We have this love hate relationship with success in this country and we enjoy bringing someone successful down a peg or two.
The only thing that disturbs me about 12 Years is the audience response to the film and I’m not sure exactly what to attribute that too and in my opinion that lack of audience lustre may very well be McQueen. Don’t get me wrong I think McQueen is a fascinating director and very talented but there’s always just something missing.
What more interesting is that in this conversation the impression is given that audiences are responding to this film yet the box office belies that statement. 12 Years a Slave has made thru the 22nd of December only 37 mil after 9 weeks of exposure. Yes it’s only playing right now in 301 theaters but The Best Man Holiday is playing in 351 theaters and after 5 weeks has grossed about 69 mil. Even in it’s widest exposure of over 1100 theaters 12 Years only pulled in 6mil. Tyler Perry’s Medea’s Christmas in it’s first week has pulled in almost 28 mil. Granted Tyler Perry’s film had a much wider opening in theaters than 12 Years ever had but my god look at the subject matter. What’s more interesting in box office is that Lee Daniels The Butler has earned 116 million and it’s opening was also quite wide and in it’s first week earned 24 million. It would seem to me that Black audiences are not embracing this film. Perhaps had 12 Years been released before Tarantino’s fantasy revenge saga it might have done much better at the box office. You can’t fault the audience’s lack of response on the performances, you can’t fault the audience’s lack of response on the quality of the film overall yet there is a lack of response. Perhaps it’s the state of affairs in the country at the moment and perhaps that has impacted the film more than anything else. I truly believe this film should have earned at least 100 million by this point and yet it hasn’t and for the life of me I can’t figure why and you certainly can’t blame that lack of response on just white people.
It just doesn’t seem to me that black audiences are responding to the film. With all the attention given to this film by critics and bloggers and those who have seen it you would think that Black Audiences would have flocked to this film and yet that doesn’t seem to the case. I mean in my mind this should be to Black Audiences what Schindler’s List was to Jewish Audiences, and in fact should have crossed the boundaries of color and yet it hasn’t. I mean come on white audiences loved watching Jamie Foxx whip some ass in Django.
The other comparison that I think really has no play in the story of 12 Years is that no one will be able to watch Gone With The Wind again and see it in the same way that they may have seen it before. Gone With the Wind wasn’t about slavery. The civil war was indeed the backdrop of the film but it wasn’t about slavery it’s about survival. That is the only thing in my opinion that is a fair basis of comparison of the two films. They are both about survival.
A little off topic, but it seems there’s a backlash against HER being original.
http://aidyreviews.net/re-imagining-of-electric-dreams-jonzes-her/
There’s a thread on imdb where others claim that it’s a ripoff of earlier TV series and movies.
Yup! ‘s all good… 🙂
I saw a poster for 30 Seconds to Mars today. They play in Helsinki on March 8th and it got me thinking if Jared Leto is available during the Oscars. Yes, of course he is. There’s a very convenient gap before the Helsinki show 🙂
Sure, it’s clear you have problems with GRAVITY. No biggie.
Some great points have been made for both sides… but I was supposed to start work over two hours ago. I can’t put it off forever… 🙂
So I’ll mostly just try to explain (briefly) why I think certain specific problems with Gravity – which mostly mirror Ryan’s complaints, since he’s already made so many great posts about the movie’s flaws in this thread that it would be hard to come up with anything in addition to that – substantially detract from the overall experience for me: the lame howling scene, the lack of real suspense, the lack of a character I can genuinely care about etc. – these are all, esentially, writing issues; what the uninspired dialog and cliched character backgrounds do, unfortunately, at least for me and others like me, is take us out of the tension of the situation and the movie’s universe, make us detached, uninvolved viewers, because the whole thing just doesn’t feel real or plausible (even within its own universe) because of them, despite the visual treat. It’s a wasted opportunity, really. And this, in turn, undermines the impact of the otherwise very well executed ending and the whole emotional journey for Bullock’s character. Not that the message is all that original or interesting, anyway, as Ryan has already pointed out – he really has already probably said pretty much everything worth saying on the subject :). So I guess the experiment fails for me, Bryce.
But it’s all subjective, of course. The nature of art… Rey likes the howling scene. He’s convinced where we’re not. Can you really prove him wrong? No. All you can do is argue for or against it. Is it undoubtedly, 100% good or bad? No. It works for some people and doesn’t for others. Some see enough greatness in Gravity to ignore this and other flaws, and that, if you ask me, is perfectly valid. I, for one, don’t, and that’s why I think it’s overrated and I’d very much rather it didn’t win Best Picture. Like I said, I have’t even seen any of the other major players yet, except for Captain Phillips, so you can’t actually accuse me of bashing it just because I want 12YAS or some other picture to win instead; and Captain Phillips doesn’t seem like a particularly threatening contender for the win at this point, I think you’ll agree. In fact, Gravity was the first BP contender I saw this year, and my expectations were definitely high, but not unreasonably so. I watch a lot of movies, so I’m well aware of how many different ways a great concept can go wrong. What I ended up seeing was somewhere in between, but definitely not a great movie as far as I’m concerned.
“People get too caught up in who the person is and they try to elevate their work because of it” – very well put! I definitely agree Bullock’s performance isn’t all that great, but that’s probably also mosty due to the bad writing. I’m pretty sure with better writing her performance would have been much, much more impressive as well. But we can’t know for sure. I would say she did about as well as the material permitted, but you can’t really separate the two. It’s unfortunate for her that she didn’t get better lines, but what can you do?! The quality of the character’s dialog is part of the performance, like it or not.
“If Gravity is what passes as a “profound” movie these days, we’re setting the bar a bit low.” Don’t worry – James Cameron is on the case! 🙂
(This might sound like a rather lame comment if you don’t get the reference, though…)
Roger Ebert listed “Hoop Dreams” as his #1 for the 1990s, and that heartfelt choice helps me feel okay putting a documentary at my #1 when it’s just that great.
Yeah for some reason I feel compelled to list it as #1 right now. “All Is Lost” doesn’t feel quite like a #1 to me, and I still haven’t seen “that” movie this year that is fictional (which was “Lincoln” last year). So far, “that” movie that changed me this year is a documentary and I just feel I have to list it. It is such a work of art on its own anyway.
Jerry,
then you have it 3rd in my book! As much as I admire THE ACT OF KILLING, I can’t help, but always make a different list for non-fiction! Of course I agree about CHILDREN OF MEN.
Disillusion with life. Spiritual crisis at the 11th hour! 🙂 How about we give GRAVITY a 24 hour break? W have 30 more days until the PGA crowns 12 YEARS A SLAVE –you to keep tearing apart its shortcomings and I to disagree. And I look forward to the discussion! But we should talk more about 12 YEARS A SLAVE. And yes in positive light. Even when I’m not its biggest fan I’ve tried several times discussing its nuances or lack thereof and nobody has followed my lead. I mean who would? half the time my comments are meant as silly humor, I realize that 😛
But to my point is about one of my favorite shots in 12 YEARS A SLAVE, not particularly for its beauty, but to the film’s credit, because of the conflicted feelings it created in me. I’m referring to the shot from the sky of the carriage with the abducted among those Solomon at night, in the darkness, in the rain (what a vision). Is this shot, like in THE GODFATHER, God’s point of view, or like in FARGO created for just for beauty’s sake. If it’s the former, which I believe, then it’s thematically and visually completely consistent with what happens later in the film. Ford and Epps citing scripture in different settings, and for different purposes and justifications. We can talk about the difference of those moments and if it matters at all. But if so, is this McQueen’s way of telling us that these crimes happened under the watch of God, and therefore, of forcing us to ask what kind of God is this? A cruel God? And indifferent God? I have no idea whether McQueen is religious (I am), we need a biography. Do I watch too much Bergman? Or is it just a trademark shot of McQueen’s, remember the first shot (or one of the first) in SHAME, Brandon in bed.
I’m off to AMERICAN HUSTLE!
Bryce, I loved “Gravity”! It’s just that I think “Children of Men” is one of the best and most important movies of our time.
I haven’t seen American Hustle, Her, Wolf of Wall Street, or Inside Llewyn Davis. But currently “Gravity” is my #4 after The Act of Killing, All Is Lost, and 12 Years a Slave.
At any rate I should minimize describing GRAVITY as an avant-garde experiment which I only deemed appropriate for this thread, but limited for future discussions. It is that indeed, but that’s far too reductive. Its humanist propositions demand more attention than any systematic use of skill.
At any rate I should minimize describing GRAVITY as an avant-garde experiment
🙁 bummer. that’s how it works best for me: In the abstract. Not even in a radical way. I mean simply as visual poetry and possibly some mythic symbolism about loss — loss of our consciousness, loss of our faculties, precarious risk of losing our souls. Or the transformations our souls undergo as we move from one plane of existence to another.
As a life raft story, though? eh. As a lesson about willpower? erm. I read The Little Engine That Could when I was 6.
Antoinette,
Awe. thanks. I’ll be alright. Don’t forget Bullock, at this point, the most underrated performance of the year. All things considered.
Poor Bryce. He’s the only one who stuck to his guns on GRAVITY. There were a bunch of people here saying it was the best thing since sliced bread. Now they’ve left him in the lurch to fend for himself. 🙁
Do I get on moderation because I comment too much? :p
Tero, I haven’t, but I’ll be sure to report my reactions. Dfinitely before this weekend in case Sasha, Ryan, etc decide to do the next podcast sooner rather than later.
I’m a little fatigued of 2002 and 2013 so I indulged after work and pressed play on NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE
Ryan,
I know way too many of those, and back to GRAVITY, hey it happens. Happened to me with MARGIN CALL. Nobody is convincing anyone to like something. I just saw a hate-fest against GRAVITY and you were the only one properly articulating your issues with it so that’s why I mainly responded to you. I’m not going to rebut “GRAVITY is for morons.” I’m also increasingly tried of people bringing up SOLARIS and 2001, they should elaborate more. I wanna see if they actually have decent grasps and/or interpretations of those films.
Now I’m bummed because I’m almost certain to miss SAVING MR. BANKS, but no way I’m failing to see AMERICAN HUSTLE.
Jerry,
GRAVITY is more of a experiment with getting rid of narrative baggage as much as you can without losing the audience’s empathy for the main character (in my view the most interesting movie character in 2013, the one I loved the most, Dr. Stone). It’s a stretch test. CHILDREN OF MEN uses the most powerful tools available to genre for social commentary. I get you didn’t buy the former. Just saying that I admire both equally mostly for different reasons. On the technical side it’s more just a matter of taste –if you despise CGI under any circumstance, then there is no debate to be had. I already lost.
Talk about a club with a small membership — be a conservative ’round these parts!
Meanwhile, I am sooooo tired, I hope that I don’t fall asleep in a couple hours during “American Hustle.”
Cuaron is made famous for “Gravity,” but it will be “Children of Men” we look back to and realize that was when he most deserved to win Best Director. I look forward to any filmmaker portraying the 21st century in crisis as vividly and with such disturbing-familiarity as “Children of Men.” And if we are talking of long shots, shall we remember the longest of long shots in the war-zone, which was in actually choreographically more difficult than the 1st shot of “Gravity”? That was a film where the style of visceral terror corresponded to real-life socio-economic-political terrors reminiscent of the 20th and still persisting in the new global 21st century. It is “Children of Men” that should be recognized ultimately as perceptive of political structures and people-en-masse and the realization of slow apocalypse.
Cuaron is made famous for “Gravity,” but it will be “Children of Men” we look back to and realize that was when he most deserved to win Best Director.
Isn’t this typical of the way the Academy seems to kick the spunk out of bold directors early in the peak cockiness of their careers, and the Oscars continue to try to tame the most daring directors until they have them trained to make “Oscar movies” — that’s all I want to say about that right now because it’s too depressing to think about.
Bryce, seen TMWaP yet?
it is to THE QUEEN what Madonna’s W/E is to THE KING’S SPEECH: a stylish yet charmless endeavor that lacks the subtlety and warmth of its counterpart.
There you go!^
Ryan, I had to think back to VERTIGO, and now I know what you mean. Yeah, I should come up with a more all-encompassing term for the shots in GRAVITY. Free ranging? :/
I wanted to touch of some UBourgeois’ points, but only regarding the dismissal of GRAVIY as a series of cheap tricks, but would it be relevant to the discussion if I don’t annex a comparison to 12 YEARS? It’s better to just promote the idea that these films have nothing to do with each other. GRAVITY is bare-bones narrative by design. 12 YEARS is a fact based formal chronicle. We have 30 days until the PGA announces its winner, 30 days.
@Bryce
No I haven’t seen IN THE HOUSE. Not a big fan of Ozon actually, except 8 WOMEN of course, but it’s received a lot of praise lately so I might give it a try.
I did watch DIANA today though! It was shallow and boring at times but not half as atrocious as British critics made it out to be. I guess they were so shocked to hear Lady Di say swear words and to see her in bed with her lover, that they set out to kill the film before anyone else could see it. Imo. it is to THE QUEEN what Madonna’s W/E is to THE KING’S SPEECH: a stylish yet charmless endeavor that lacks the subtlety and warmth of its counterpart.
But Naomi Watts was very good as usual. She did her best to bring life and credibility to a mediocre script. Unfortunately, despite the hairstyle and clothing, she lacks Diana’s stature (tall and athletic) and distinctive voice and so despite her best efforts (again her acting was not at fault, it was very commendable actually), the whole thing felt like a fraud.
I missed like this whole discussion, but I want to respond to something Ryan said a while back – “But if all a movie has on its mind is to skillfully tell me a gripping story, then I don’t hold that in very high esteem.”
I don’t understand this mindset. To me, it contradicts what narrative artistic expression is. What exactly can a film do but skillfully tell you a gripping story? You talk about the historical and thematic significance of 12 Years, which there is much of, but what is so separate there? 12 Years has a gripping story, made all the more so by the fact that it’s true, and it’s skillfully told not only by being masterfully acted and shot but by focusing on the despair and hopelessness of the situation. I don’t understand what, exactly, 12 Years is doing outside of skillfully telling a gripping story, but that is one of the highest praises I can offer a film.
There is a dismissal of Gravity as a “lesser” work of art here (the word “popcorn” is thrown around a lot), and I don’t understand why. I’ll admit to not being Gravity’s biggest fan (it’s a bit lower than 4 on my list), but I don’t think I can even construct an argument for it being “less worthy” a film based on merits outside of its craftmanship. It’s like saying Life is Beautiful or Crash are more meaningful films than the likes of Raiders of the Lost Ark or Die Hard, which I don’t think anyone could justify. Now of course 12 Years is miles better than Crash, and Gravity isn’t quite Raiders, but the distinction is just as absurd. Judge films by their excellence of craft, including (if applicable) mastery of storytelling, not on how important it feels. Any real significance the film carries should be self-evident anyway.
Also, as an aside, please please PLEASE do not say that 12 Years made you feel what it means to be enslaved. I really sincerely hope we both know that isn’t – and can’t be – true.
UBourgeois, that was really wrongly poorly worded what I wrote about enslavement. Of course you’re right. It did not make me feel enslaved. Closer to what I meant to say is that 12 Years a Slave gave me a more visceral nightmare sensation of the hopelessness of enslavement than I have ever seen or felt before. It made every other movie about slavery I’ve ever seen feel like sick sugarcoated propaganda.
I didnt know it was possible to despise Django any more than I already did, but I found out that I could and now do.
Christophe,
Thanks for the heavy-lifting! Did you ever see Francois Ozon’s IN THE HOUSE? The trailer is wicked, but I’ve been burned too many times by that director. I remember you’re a fan of 8 WOMEN. He’s currently 4 to 1 with me (bad to good)
@Bryce
Just read Denby’s review, it’s not spoiler-free but it’s not spoiler-heavy either, doesn’t reveal anything too important though you might want to skip a couple paragraphs when he starts describing things… the whole point of his review is that it is a relentless, hectic film that revels in the same exuberance it’s supposed to be exposing, lacks depth, and is kind of boring and repetetive. The performance of DiCaprio reflects that: physical, aggressive but lacks subtlety and development. He doesn’t necessarily complain about people being “inspired” by the film to reproduce Jordan’s behavior, but he does complain that people say they’re dying to see this film, once he’s told them how disgusting and over-the-top it is.
I do have trouble understanding how Gravity can save cinema. Doesnt seem to me cinema needs rescuing.
Agree 100%
So I understand that Gravity made 2013 very special for you. I respect that. I truly do. But how is anything Gravity did this year going to carry over to 2014 or 2015? I am fairly depressed by this idea that somehow 3D is saving movies.
I believe it’s not all about the 3D though I understand how it helps greatly the “GRAVITY experience” And absolutely, nobody needs GAVITY 2, but I think other techniques developed for GRAVITY like the mechanical cam arm for instance will be replicated by other filmmakers, and not necessarily for space films. Like all technology it’ll become cheaper so expect even some mid-range budget efforts to replicate the rotating unbroken shots. I’m inclined to think that stuff like this is what Darren Aronofsky meant when he said that we’ll be learning from GRAVITY for years to come. But yeah I don’t expect this to be like the start of a streak of space pictures, I should hope not.
I can see that, Bryce
The reason I question it is not to smear the idea but merely in hopes that somebody can explain to me.
I mean, I do get it how styles are adaptable and techniques are expandable.
There are swooping camera moves in The Desolation of Smaug that look like swooping camera moves in The Great Beauty. And I love that. I don’t need to know where they sprung from but I do know those moves did not exist 5 years ago.
“rotating unbroken shots”
somewhere Hitchcock stirs, mumurs ‘VERTIGO,’ rolls over in grave, rests in peace some more.
Ryan, I don’t believe 3D is saving cinema but it’s opening new doors. Look at (yes I’ll say it) Avatar, Hugo, Life of Pi, Gravity and Prometheus. Even some Pixar movies. For every 1 great film in 3D there are 12 pieces of shit. And yeah the jacked ticket prices are a bit absurd but I understand the need to make money back. This I’ll say, your views on 3D probably mirror those who thought sound in movies, or color in movies, or digital photography was overkill. “Overkill” might be too strong a word but I hope you understand my point.
“For every 1 great film in 3D there are 12 pieces of shit.”
Sounds about right. And, well, that’s a way better ratio that 2D films can boast about.
I don’t have anything against 3D when it’s used as a creative element. I saw two 3D movies in the past 2 weeks and glad I did.
3D movies were threatening cinema. As Alfonso Cuaron said earlier this year, “Most 3D films are crap.”
I agree with Corvo in some way. Gravity really showed audiences that there’s a way to really utilize 3D and not just as an easy money-making trick. Cuaron really utilized it to draw the audiences into the movie. It’s not the first one to do that of course, but I think it’s the one that accomplished that most.
It’s not the first one to do that of course, but I think it’s the one that accomplished that most.
Would it be any fun to list the 3D films in which the 3D is so good the movie feels incomplete without it?
I’ll start!
Coraline
Gravity
Hugo
Up
Prometheus
Life of Pi
Desolation of Smaug
Avatar (included not because I think Avatar is in the same league but only because without 3D Avatar looks like a 1980s Saturday morning cartoon)
“Hater” is such a strong word 🙂 I do think 12 Years is in front of winning that Best Picture, but I wouldn’t say Gravity doesn’t have a huge chance of beating it. If it is in front of winning director, editing, cinematography, visual effects…then I think it has substantial support among the guilds and the aspects of the voters.
As for Ryan’s critique of Sandra Bullock’s performance. I’ll have to disagree with you. The howling scene is an emotional scene and she played it perfectly. I would never say an actor deserves a nomination if the movie a lot of money. Bullock deserves a nomination because she was convincing, I was scared with her throughout the film, she carried a whole film nearly by herself, acting alone is often even more difficult than acting with or playing off another actor. Basically, she really nailed this role.
Anyone read Denby’s WOLF review yet? I heard it’s a minefield with preoccupations of people who will be inspired by it? Should I?
read Denby’s WOLF review yet? I heard it’s a minefield with preoccupations of people who will be inspired by it?
Let’s remember there was a whole generation of douches who were inspired by Michael Douglas’s GreedisGood speech. So I hope Denby is smart enough to know we shouldn’t blame a movie for the way idiots want to misinterpret its message.
Ryan, course! And there are no cool clubs. I know I am part of the McQueen fan club and have been so since HUNGER. I suspect many are victory bandwagoners. I remember being overwhelmed in our AMERICAN BEAUTY convo and I don’t mind one bit. Now let’s carry on
On Emmnauel Lubezki’s monumental photography of GRAVITY, and how it was achieved. 😉
I remember being overwhelmed in our AMERICAN BEAUTY convo
You shouldn’t have been Bryce. You know that you have an army of people on your side who admire Gravity and American Beauty as much as you do. Movies can lose me and I’m hard to win back once the spell is broken for me, but that’s only a reflection of my own resistance — not a slur on anyone else’s regard.
Felipe, Avatar unjustly took the Oscar from The Hurt Locker and Hugo shouldn’t have beat The Tree of Life. However, in the defense of Hugo I felt it was 2nd best and the photography had more “real world” elements than the others. Life of Pi I loved dearly and I was able to overlook it’s win but I feel Avatar was the worst of the 3 to win.
Rey, I’m not nitpicking Gravity at all for the wrong reasons but I see it for what it is. It was one of the best of the year, it’s been my most anticipated since 2008 and I’ll never forget the experience I had seeing it in IMAX 3D. But Gravity doesn’t have a huge chance against 12 Years a Slave for best picture (that’s more American Hustle or Her). But Gravity is in the #1 position for best director, visual effects, sound editing, sound mixing, cinematography and score. Still think we’re haters?
I’ve got to say, I somewhat agree with the sentiment about the cinematography. What Cuarón and Lubezki did is wonderful, but it’s not quite cinematography. It’s a mix of things.
And I really loved the camera work of 12YAS.
I’m torn. I was enraged with Avatar’s win, displeased with Hugo’s and Life of Pi’s. I think that the achievement in Gravity is greater than any of those, but I don’t quite know what to call it.
Ryan, very well put. I thought Bullock in The Blind Side was serviceable at best but that wasn’t her fault but rather the fault of the script and direction. Her performance in Gravity is far, far better but I wouldn’t give her an Oscar nomination either I don’t believe because once I see all other performances I know I’d bump her. And yes, just because she’s a woman who is 49 or 50 and can make a shit ton of money doesn’t mean she should be given a cookie in the form of an Oscar. When Gravity came out I thought she did an awesome job and I didn’t think anything at all about her being a woman of a certain age until it was constantly hammered in my head by the internet, just like I don’t see McQueen as a black filmmaker, Ang Lee as a Taiwanese filmmaker or Cuaron as a Spanish filmmaker. People get too caught up in who the person is and they try to elevate their work because of it. Bullock was fantastic and I truly wish I was in her shoes when she filmed the movie and then got to see the finished product. She did something that really isn’t done too often and for that I congratulate her but let’s not put her in over someone who gave something a bit more raw.
I believe that people like Lubezski and Deakins are the most overdue in the film world and I would be happy with Gravity winning cinematography…but I would be thrilled if Bobbitt won. I’d hate to think that win would also be because of his work on Hunger and Shame but…yeah it would.
On different note, I’m seeing SAVING MR. BANKS and AMERICAN HUSTLE tonight so I can’t wait to report to you guys what I think. And I haven’t seen SMAUG yet 🙁
I think Gravity should win because it’s the film we need to save cinema, to preserve cinema as a collective experience. It’s entertaining, moving, daring. Pure magic. Cuaron succeeded in bringing back the glorious cinema of yesterday (the wonder of viewers) without being nostalgic and without being chilidish. Gravity is a thoughtful, adult achievement. I loved every frame of it.
Corvo, your feelings are heartfelt and valiantly sincere. I do have trouble understanding how Gravity can save cinema. Doesnt seem to me cinema needs rescuing. And i dont see how Gravity can be replicated or imitated. So I understand that Gravity made 2013 very special for you. I respect that. I truly do. But how is anything Gravity did this year going to carry over to 2014 or 2015? I am fairly depressed by this idea that somehow 3D is saving movies. I rather think 3D is threatening to turn movies into wowees. Sure, the studios are lovin it, cha-ching. Pity Fruitvale Station and Short Term 12 weren’t in 3D so people woulda gone to see them for twice the ticket price. All the same, this is a great opportunity for me to say im glad everybody enjoyed Gravity and I guess I’m glad a bunch of superrich ppl got superricher. Hooray Magic 3D Academy Funtime Happymoney Oscar Show!
I’m in the thread minority when I say I’m delighted by Clooney talking about Mardi Gras. Everyone here hated it.
Someday you can tell me the point of Clooney’s smalltalk. If it’s like Royale with Cheese, then ok, but I wish it had more cleverness. If it serves another function then I am too dense to get it.
I still wonder about Dr. Stone. I prefer to wonder for this film. What her experiment was? what kind of scientist is he (she said she works in a hospital basement) anyways I could go on. I think all of GRAVITY’s dialogue is shorter than some of the posts here. Someone should go find the scripts and find the disgusting dialogue and offer one or two sentences on why it’s so terrible. Maybe Cuaron should just go back to writing in Spanish.
It’s okay Bryce. These guys see Gravity as 12 years’ biggest competition (as they should), so they’ll nitpick and lower it. The way some of the commenters here describe the movie, you’d think it was just another Transformers sequel or something. All you have to do is go to Rotten Tomatoes AND Metacritic and see it was widely-acclaimed well before the box office.
“widely acclaimed” and “boxoffice” have ZERO relationship to each other the same way “metacritic” and “boxoffice” have ZERO relationship to my personal feelings about any movie. And hey, Bryce, The Couselor will be among my favorite dozen movies of the year. And furthermore I’d give Cameron Diaz an Oscar before I’d let Sandra Bullock have another one. I have seen your many astute lists ranking movies from many years, Bryce. Your lists and my lists have a lot of overlap. 85% of my favorites show up among your favorites. Frankly it would be creepy if we matched up in agreement 100% of the time. You’d be kicking and pushing me off you. Sure it is rare that we veer apart on such a universally praised film like this. But obviously it’s me who is the outcast from the cool club in this case. I’m fine with that. I’m just tired of pretending and keeping my mouth shut. Tired of nodding in agreement on the outside while I wince on the inside.
Well I’m alright being the moron who has a new experience every time I watch GRAVITY. I can only speak of my truth.
Thank, Ryan, for your very astute Gravity posts. I also find it a fun thrill ride of a space movie–but, but, I actually was rolling my eyes a few times even during a first viewing. Unflappable George. The somewhat repetitive rhythm of the film–Pause to Reflect. Danger! (“No, no, no!”). Escape from Danger. Pause to Reflect. Danger! (“No, no, no!”). Escape from Danger. Etc. The Sandy Monologue.
I’m baffled by the many people who compare Gravity to 2001. To me the two films resemble each other only in the most surface ways, often with certain visuals that seem a touch imitative on Gravity’s part. 2001 is strange and mysterious and elusive. It’s a slightly different movie every time you watch it. Gravity is fairly blunt and straightforward and doesn’t leave much to the imagination–its images and theme seem so obvious to me that you’d have to be a moron not to “get it.”
If Gravity is what passes as a “profound” movie these days, we’re setting the bar a bit low.
I’ve read several AD posts from people who claim they will not watch 12 Years again but will watch Gravity over and over again. I guess I’m the opposite. 12 Years is the movie I will carry with me for years to come and will frequently revisit. As for Gravity, I’ve pretty much gotten everything I’m going to out of that movie.
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 Trailer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9a4PvzlqoQ&feature=player_embedded
Finally excited about American animation! It’s been waay too long.
I don’t mind being outnumbered. Heck, I like THE COUNSELOR. I think this all 12 YEARS A SLAVE merits vs. GRAVITY non-metis is awards driven. I’m not saying anyone has any interests here. Just favoritism. Which is OK I do it all the time. I guess this time is GRAVITY’s turn to be the suspect. It’s all fair. But the whole comparison is an inorganic as I’ve seen. GRAVITY is Avant-garde. If the novelty worn out for you Ryan, that’s just fair. There’s many like me for whom the novelty will never worn out and will probably increase in time. Also I’m in another small minority who happens to think 12 YEARS A SLAVE is nowhere near a great film. The novelty worn out for me. Allow me to be vulgar and say that wept and was destroyed by the sequence where patsy is whipped. I was a mess. But that will only happen once to me. The next time I only could think about how it was shot and I thought well that’s interesting and the rest of the movie’s deficits became even more apparent. The writing. I won’t cite specific passages of dialogue because it’s a hot thread. To me Sandra Bullock’s nod was secured when her performance was critically acclaimed during festivals in North American and Europe, way before the Box Office.
Bryce I am absolutely willing to evaluate Gravity as an avant-garde animated experimental film and i can dig it as a parable more than I can ever buy it as a real narrative. On a symbolic art-theory level it reminds me very much of a Paul Klee fantasmogoria painting and I am very very willing to admire it on that level. I have said that since the first week I saw it. It works for me as mystical thing of beauty. But only if Bullock and Clooney stfu.
Megan Fox is not over 35! She is only 27 and was even younger when she did Transformers! At 27 you’re still a babe nowadays, right? It’s like the new 17, right? So comparing her to Bullock (49) is not really fair. Bullock is way over 35, while Megan Fox still ages away from 35!
But otherwise, I do agree with you actually, it’s just that particular point of your explanation that I find dubious.
I only meant that Megan Fox is a female hollywood person who helped entice people to buy $500M in movie tickets. I had already moved past the age thing. Sorry for the confusion. Besides, to me, Megan Fox looks older and more haggard than Sandra Bullock ever will.
I do honestly think that VFX wizards could cut and paste any of 3 dozen decapitated famous female heads inside that space helmet and Gravity would still make $600M with any of those 36 famous heads acting flustered and saying “fuck!” and barking like a dog.
I enjoyed both 12 Years and Gravity. And really, both have merits to win the Best Picture trophy. 12 Years is relentless in its depiction of this man’s journey through slavery. It was well-directed, the acting was top notch, and it was an unbelievably emotional film. There was not a dry eye in the theater when I saw this, including mine.
But if I were to pick. I would have to give my vote to Gravity. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone to a theater and came out thinking that that movie deserved to be seen in such a big screen. It makes all of the big 3D big summer films look cheap frankly. Like 12 Years, it was also well-directed, and Bullock’s performance was also top notch. I do believe that 10-15 years from now, Gravity will still be considered a landmark in film making. And beyond the “thrill ride” aspect, the emotional impact of the film also got me. There’s so much to digest and think about in that last 15-20 minutes of the film. The script is better than what most people are giving it credit for.
Anyways, both films are great and I would be happy if either movie wins. I haven’t seen American Hustle so I’ll have to see if I’d be okay with that one winning over 12 Years and Gravity.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/pole-fault-voice-poll-crowns-the-wrong-best-actor
– How do you spell Chiwetel?
– O-S-C-A-R (Isaac)
(yuk, yuk)
Am I here for your amusement?
Ha! – Tony – you bet! And I thank you guys for that everyday.
If (when) 12 Years loses the Oscar for BP, it won’t be for racial or political reasons. It will be, as Julian intimated, because it is not a safe or easy film to watch. It will join the ranks of Apocalypse Now, Raging Bull, Zero Dark Thirty, Bonnie and Clyde, and Good Fellas.
^^
Agree. It’s not an easy movie to sit through, but it’s triumphant in the end.
But — if the OSCARS really want to be “historical” and see big headlines around the world, it will proclaim 12 Years the best movie just for historical reasons.
I missed the fun too! I OD’ed on egg nog cookies last night while watching Upstream Color, of which I’m halfway through. Ryan, you were definitely right about that movie. I bought it and sat on it for a long, long time. I watched Only God Forgives the other night and now this, which makes for an interesting back to back movie night. I can’t wait to finish it tonight but I can tell it’ll make my top 10 (maybe top 5) of the year.
Also Ryan, with your distaste (maybe not the right word) for Gravity probably winning best cinematography is something I get. I got it when Avatar won that Oscar over The Hurt Locker. But this I’m wondering, if you feel most of the cinematography is fake or a cheap trick then do you feel Bullock doesn’t deserve the best actress Oscar as well? Forget that Blanchett will probably win that. Bullock’s performance can be seen as a cheap trick because she doesn’t know what she’s looking at most of the time, or unless Cuaron went into very very very very very specific details about her surroundings. So really then if her acting isn’t quite a reflection of her surroundings, which is the most important part of the film, then how can anyone justify her winning the Oscar? Keep in mind this isn’t how I view it, just something interesting to think about as VFX continue to take over movies and anything practical is fading away.
I don’t really resent Gravity nearly as much as my little flounchy fit-throwing would suggest. I am generally not swept up in performances where actors never say anything that sticks to my ribs. I respect the convincing panic-face in Gravity and the convincing mopey-face in The Artist because I do believe it takes special talent to electrify audiences with shallow puddles of fiddling around inventively for 2 hours. But there is nothing there for me to really measure emotionally when there is no attempt in the scripts to develop a character. They seem more to me like elaborate skits rather than flesh and blood people about whom I can give a shit. Especially when it’s obvious 300 miles away that all the peril and jeopardy is all a game and nobody onscreen is already destined to be a winner. All too pat and fixed and actually far too cutesy to take seriously. I will say something that lots of people will hate me for saying: Dr Ryan Stone braying a dog-mule-wolf or whatever was the most embarrassing moment amy major actor displayed to me in any major movie all year. In fact that whole conversation with the eskimo or whatever he was felt false to me the first time and increasingly cringeworthy on every subsequent viewing. No, I would not nominate Sandra Bullock at all this year if I had an Oscar ballot of my very own. Sincerely, Bravo Bravo for being a woman over 35 who can draw crowds to earn $700 million. But, seriously, Megan Fox did that too and nobody is giving her 2 Oscars. The performance is not there for me because the script is not there. Check the “memorable quotes” for Gravity on IMDb. There friggen aren’t any memorable quotes. I swear to god, one of Bullock’s memorable quotes is “Fuck!” Thats just embarssing. Hurray, Sandra Bullock is a boxoffice phenom, but so is Sylvester Stallone. I know, I know, now everybody hates me. But yeezus, there are some spectacular performances by 20 other incredible women this year who did not happen to have the good fortune to get cast in the billion dollar carnival ride of 2013. I wouldnt have Sandra Bullock in my top 10 female performances of the year. #11 or #12, maybe. But of course as soon as Gravity passed $200 million her Oscar nomination was guaranteed. Just exactly the same way it was for that shimmering piece of shit The Blind Side.
Distaste is not the right word to describe how I feel about Gravity. I enjoyed certain sequences a lot, a lot, a lot. I would watch some of those shots 50 more times and I will. As soon as I am able to FFW past the 45 minutes of tedium interspersed and mixed in with the wow stuff.
I had a blast at Gravity, and I might even concede graciously that Cuaron should have an Oscar for his technical prowess alone. It’s wizardy. But, for me, its all an empty magic trick when I try to think what i’m left with when I take those greasy glasses off.
Cinematography? Guys, c’mon. Gravity is 9O% animation. I don’t understand whete the cinematography comes in if it’s all about 3D photoshopping. Maybe it’s over my head. I humbly confess I do not understand cinematograohy that does not require a camera.
(I’m 50% sure that I’m off on that “Goodfellas” line. Regulars will know that I’m not a big fan of mafia movies, and will hopefully be kind.)
Am I here for your amusement? 🙂
AMPAS has been pretty comfortable with violence lately — “The Departed,” “No Country for Old Men.”
Of course, they love “feel good” the most. Lucky for all of the frontrunners that “Saving Mr. Banks” isn’t as good as it could have been.
Damn, looks like I missed all the fun.
If (when) 12 Years loses the Oscar for BP, it won’t be for racial or political reasons. It will be, as Julian intimated, because it is not a safe or easy film to watch. It will join the ranks of Apocalypse Now, Raging Bull, Zero Dark Thirty, Bonnie and Clyde, and Good Fellas.
Although they lag a bit behind the wheel on the subject, I don’t think Hollywood is scared of the subject of race. BP winners Crash, In the Heat of the Night, and Driving Miss Daisy were all racialy-themed, albeit in an easily digestible way.
Others that were nommed for BP and lost were beaten by “better”, or at least more successful fare:
Sounder
To Kill A Mockingbird
Lilies of the Field
The Defiant Ones
A Soldiers Story
The Color Purple
Ray
Beasts of the Southern Wild
There is another, more superficial reason that the likes of The Artist, Argo, Rocky, The King’s Speech, and Chariots of Fire win BP over the competition – they don’t rock the boat, force you to think, and the average viewer usually leaves the theatre feeling happier than they did when they went in.
McQueen will not lose the Oscar because of the colour of his skin; if he loses, it will be because he scares the shit out of the average AMPAS voter, artistically and personally. They don’t know what to make of him, simple as that, just like Kubrick, Malick, Altman and, for the longest time, Scorsese and the Coens.
_____________
Love some of the comments in this thread. My fave so far is Christophe – Why on Earth did France have to be dragged into this?
_______________
Last, the whole Brokeback thing. Of course it was homophobia, with an accent on the fear aspect. Maybe Olivier jingled Tony Curtis’ bells while filming Spartacus, maybe Ernie B stumbled into a room at a party Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter were making their own desert table and realized he would never, ever, be invited to have any of that. It’s wellknown that John Wayne had huge homophobic issues with Monty Clift on Red River, to the point of bullying. It’s not better or worse in Hollywood than any other boardroom, schoolroom or lockerroom.
AMPAS will vote for the film each voter feels best represents him/herself and their industry. They will vote for an annual face to present to the public…for your enjoyment.
Nothing more needs to be said.
Glad Ryan agrees with me that Gravity was just average (among good films, of course). For me it’s not even as high as it is for him (8th/19 seen so far), and I haven’t even seen any of the major Oscar players yet, except for Captain Phillips, which I liked quite a bit (4th).
I love that he points out how Cuaron’s movie isn’t even all that suspenseful or exciting, which is exactly how I felt when seeing it. I mean, I enjoyed it (though not particularly), but it didn’t do anything special for me at all. Even the technical aspects of it, while good, didn’t blow me away. And the writing was pretty bad, at least for my tastes.
^^
Disagree. Gravity was a blast. Loved it.
Gravity was a blast and the writing was pretty bad and I loved it the first two times and then after that it got tedious really quick and I’m glad I dont have to get a 3DTV like I almost get lured into buying once a year for the sake rewatching a meaningless movie that is flat as a flitter when the novelty inevitably wears off.
“glittering in marvelous Technicolor—truly marvelous color, we repeat—this huge motion picture!!”
It is filmmaking at its absolute best. Does it have a shot at the Oscars? No man can say.
^^ Trust me Wolf will be a nominee. Marty is campaigning HARD, and he’s taking the movie to the WH for a screening….just like Spielberg and others did last year.
I think it’s unfair because the WH said no more screenings, but I guess Marty is a big contributor and they couldn’t say no. I wonder how the Pres and family will feel about the debauchery scenes (I haven’t seen it).
AMPAS, just know that if you award GRAVITY you will be awarding the best film of the year period, this is about art. Don’t you worry about NAACP backlash or GLAAD backlash, but you do not want Univision backlash. Because I’m personally writing Jorge Ramos about these happenings. I know many who’re crying foul if Alfonso Cuaron doesn’t become the first latino director to win the the Oscar. We’re proud of your thick spanish accent! You remind me of Papá!
Para su consideración:
GRAVEDAD, ¡Producida por un latino!
GRAVEDAD, ¡Dirijida por un latino!
GRAVEDAD, ¡Escrita por dos latinos!
GRAVEDAD, ¡Con la cinematografía de un latino!
GRAVDEAD, ¡Editada por un latino!
GRAVEDAD, ¡La mejor pelicula del año!
Vamos Alfonso, muchachos ¡Sí, se puede ! ¡Sí se puede!
Now excuse me while I re-read Las venas abiertas de América Latina, I’m going to need the indignation the rest of the awards season. ¡Abajo la opresión!
12 Years a Slave is about many things. It’s about oppression, survival, endurance in the face of horrific circumstances — but to me it is also about Hollywood. Coming just one year after Quentin Tarantino’s revenge fantasy Django Unchained, and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, 12 Years a Slave has kind of done the impossible — it’s a black film about black characters made by black filmmakers that has achieved enormous critical acclaim and made a decent haul at the box office, considering
^^
Agree. It’s also a story about triumph and the human spirit. The most haunting part of the movie was near the end when Solomon is standing in the field and nature sounds are around him. You can see in his eyes that he’s given up and accepted that this is life. No one will come to save him. And then to see him walk across the field with the others, and the sheriff comes riding in….to see his spirits lifted. That’s a great scene.
Halfway agree with Ryan and you’ll be a Nantucket, which is fine; but, halfway agree with me and you’ll be a Captiva!
The lymericks are better if you come with me tho.
Yep, exactly. Yum! 🙂
Don’t you love it when a crappy movie wins Best Song or something like that, and then the DVDs get slapped with “Oscar winning” yadda yadda.
If that means that some racists won’t vote for a movie like 12 Years, that’s not really different than a lot of liberals not voting for a racist movie, is it?
Very very true. Maybe we’ll see a really racist movie be nominated for Best Picture next year and we can test this theory. Imagine the fun we’ll have!
🙂
Basically, I think the use of graphic violence (I haven’t see it with my own eyes, mind you, I won’t get the chance until february…) is a substantially greater obstacle for 12 Years than its message or political relevance. There are lots of “message voters” in the Academy, particularly in a “politicized” season like this, where the black American history is something that’s dealt with in no less than three movies on Oscar’s radar. If anything, the message of the movie is its one big advantage (especially if you compare it with American Hustle and Gravity, its two main competitors as of right now)
What I like a lot are these TV ads that tell us American Hustle is “The Winner of 7 Golden Globe Nominations”
That’s why being nominated is already an honor because for advertisers, winner, nomination, what’s the diff?
Taji is always adorable.
I don’t want anything messing up my dark chocolate, not even peanut butter. Ditto for American coffee or espresso — no cream, no sugar. Ditto for my smokes — no menthol.
Captivas are those soft bendable cookies, yes? Chewy. Like eating a thick slice of raw chocolate steak.
Glad Ryan agrees with me that Gravity was just average (among good films, of course). For me it’s not even as high as it is for him (8th/19 seen so far), and I haven’t even seen any of the major Oscar players yet, except for Captain Phillips, which I liked quite a bit (4th).
I love that he points out how Cuaron’s movie isn’t even all that suspenseful or exciting, which is exactly how I felt when seeing it. I mean, I enjoyed it (though not particularly), but it didn’t do anything special for me at all. Even the technical aspects of it, while good, didn’t blow me away. And the writing was pretty bad, at least for my tastes.
I know we’re in the minority and all. Anyway, for me, Gravity will probably remain (even after I’ve seen the other nominees) my public enemy no.1 for this year (as Argo was last year), because it has a real chance of winning while also being, in my opinion, heavily, heavily overrated and I would be very, very upset if it did end up winning Best Picture. That’s why I’m loving all the 12YAS success of late – because it can’t be worse than Gravity, I’m sure. It’s statistically highly unlikely. I really hope my least liked BP nominee won’t win it two years in a row… I wasn’t so keen on The Artist either, but at least that one wasn’t the worst of the bunch, plus none of the others was that much better, whereas Argo was far, far worse than Life of Pi, for example).
Now, I don’t agree with ALL of Ryan’s points in this thread, but others have already combatted those and my post is already too long as it is…
I think maybe I OD’d on Gravity. I saw it 3 times in a span of about 10 days and by the middle of the 3rd viewing it was starting to bug me. That 3rd viewing, I came crashing back down to Earth about a half hour before Bullock did. I looked around. Started thinking. “Now we splash down in a lake 10 feet from shore? The entire treacherous surface of planet Earth and we accidentally splash down in a placid lake where we can practically stand right up and wade out?” Lucky. Also lucky that everybody else on the shuttle was killed. Although that would’ve made an interesting movie, wouldn’t it? to have all 7 members of the crew trying to race one another to the other space stations, maybe trying to kill off the runts as they went along, since there’s only room for two in the lone escape pod. Wonder what would happen to the black crew member. haha, kidding. A black astronaut! Not likely.
Wouldn’t it be alarming if you did, though? For both of us.
You’re a smart cookie. Please come around and halfway agree with me more often.
The dark chocolate started with me several posts above. In terms of readily available cookies, go for Pepperidge Farm Captivas — they’re really more like chocolate brownies with chocolate chips in them.
Taji trumps your Captivas with a pair of double chocolate Nantuckets.
#50shadesofgreyprivilege
In all seriousness, my pro-USA attitude boils down to the laundry in a hamper analogy. We’re probably the least dirty shirt in the bunch.
Haha. Touche, mon ami.
I love (written sarcastically) how I’m the villain again. I thought 12YAS was a really good movie. I’ve recommended it to people. I think that it should win Best Picture. (Only “American Hustle,” once I’ve seen it, has even the potential of unseating it.) I want the focus to be on its merits, not on the color of its director or on making history. I find that stuff to be patronizing; it’s soft bigotry. Yet, I am the villain.
I’ll pull a Ryan: Nicer tropical paradise? Easy for you as a privileged white American to say. What about the poor native Thai masses?
On the receiving end at least, no man of any sexual persuasion is blowjobaphobic.
Easy for you as a privileged white American to say. What about the poor native Thai masses?
I’ll pull a Tony. Thailand has poor people like every other country in the world. I didn’t take money away from Thailand. I brought money to Thailand, I generated more money in Thailand and spent it all Thailand. I paid my taxes there too. A lot of taxes.
Go AMPAS, tear down those racial barriers & make Alfonso Cuaron the first Hispanic best director winner… then tag along Gravity for best picture!
Just saw Philomena & it’s Phenomenal! Hope Stephen Frears wins an Oscar someday.
How did it feel being Germany’s overland territory for awhile?
Why on Earth did France have to be dragged into this? Typical AD xenophobia, I guess. Ooh yeah, racism is bad, but xenophobia is OK around here or so it seems.
The worst thing about France is the extremely high level of taxation (world champions woohoo!) due to our ruining socialist policies.
But overseas territories are a great thing: St. Barts, Bora Bora, Réunion and many others make for amazing vacation spots, full of American tourists, so if you’re not happy they’re French, then stop going there!
Chritophe, I didn’t bring up France. Tony felt he needed to point out how France had colonial problems in the past, and all I said was yeah, and when somebody tried to get political and make a movie about one of those colonial misadventures, everybody in the world learned about it and praised this important work of political cinema but France banned it. Because politics in movies upsets people in power in every country in the world, and that’s what I love about political movies.
The only negative thing I said about France was about French censorship, not French people or French culture, so if you want to get defensive about me disapproving of the government banning The Battle of Algiers, go ahead and call me a xenophobe for that. Ryan Adams the xenophobe who left America for 7 years because he was sick of his country’s puritanical blowjobaphobia so he went to live someplace else, a nicer tropical paradise.
And while I was away for nearly a decade I avoided American expats like the plague and almost all my closest friends for 7 years were Thai or French. Because that’s how this xenophobe rolls.
Just for the record, even thought I think that’s a misused term, I would consider myself mostly a liberal.
Dark chocolate? Now I wish I had bought those cookies on my way home. Couldn’t you have used broccoli as your example?
I missed the part about the dark chocolate. Where did that come from? Now I’m craving cookies too.
Liberals want everything to be political, and of course, they’re happy with movies about politics, given who’s working in Hollywood today. (I won’t be holding my breath for a movie with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as pro-life activists who are the protagonists. It’s more likely that Matt Damon will make another anti-fracking bomb.)
It isn’t a choice between just politics and car chases. Movies about the relationships between family members or between friends are the ones I like best. Still, I wouldn’t want all movies to be like that, just as I wouldn’t like dark chocolate to be 100% of my dietary intake. 99%? Hmmm….
—
I’m not going to stick up for Nixon, but I will for Reagan, who went into office with a substantial resume and left office with a substantial list of accomplishments. Obama had the thinnest resume among all modern presidents going in, and he can thank Nixon for setting the bar so low for exits from the presidency.
Ryan, I do. As I respect yours (and Sasha’s, of course; even thought she is not part of this conversation, it was her column that started all this.)
This comment of yours, which I agree with, is what makes me sad: “The quality of movies often seem like the last thing the Oscars care about.”
But I said that in the first place because, as I was getting deeper into the comments session, the more I was reading about racism, Republicans, imperialism and health care plans, and less about cinematography, acting, editing etc etc.
But it is to be expected. You put two people in a room and you have politics. Dang, sometimes one person alone, depending on who that person is, and you have politics already.
Felipe, (although there are still 3 or 4 major movies I need to see this year) I should make clear that I feel the acting, directing screenplay, cinematography in 12 Years a Slave are the best of the year.
I greatly admire Emmanuel Lubezki and I get off really hard on long takes and trick shots — but nobody beats Sean Bobbitt’s framing compositions, lighting and color palate for me this year. Lubeski has shot 10 better movies than Gravity in his career, but everybody is trippin on the flashy flourish of his impressive whizbang work this year, and it was practically preordained from day one that this will be Lubezki’s year to get an Oscar.
So already, in just one category I will need to concede that this is a done deal and, to me, it has nothing to do with quality or art. It’s all about fancy trickery and prettiness and wow-how’d-they-do-that! of a fun thrill ride that for me amounts to little more emotionally than a 90-minute car chase demolition derby in space.
Here I must seriously confess that I don’t even know what Lubezki was shooting except Bullock and Clooney dangling from wires in a green room, because we all know for certain that those orbiting objects were not sets, none of those massive structures were built and thus they could not be photographed. So, sure, Lubezki choreographed some virtual “camera moves” for a virtual lens that only exists inside of a computer, but nobody believes Bullock and Clooney were filmed nonstop for 8-minute tracking shots as they hung from wires in a parking lot someplace.
No. Closeups of their faces were shot from all angles at various times throughout the workday and then all their heads were plugged into a computer to fake the unfactual fact of them floating around — but really it’s nothing but glorified photoshop.
And it’s spectacular! I loved it! But Best Cinematography? No. Not for me.
The Associated Press awards the best news photography of the year but no photograph is eligible if it has been digitally enhanced. So not a single shot in Gravity would be eligible for a photography award by those stands. Is Gravity cinematography? I dunno what it is. It’s something. But it is not lighting a set or waiting for the right shade of sunset or devising angles or compositions that show me anything new the way 12 Years does.
Now watch how 20 people are going to jump all over me for trying to say I don’t think Gravity’s cinematography was all that. Because everybody wants Lubezki to win and they’ve been saying he will for months so that means the mob mentality has latched onto this beautiful gimmickry as the cinematography winner of the year, and anybody like me who thinks otherwise must just be trying to be different or stir up an ornery fight.
So here we have a hive mentality that is baffling to me, because I just don’t see where Lubezki and his nonexistent space camera are at in most of the shots in Gravity. At one point the camera lens is inside the eyeball of Ryan Stone, and then the camera pops out of her eyeball and it’s inside her helmet, and then it slides through the glass of her helmet and its on the outside of her bubble helmet looking in.
Is this cinematography or it is sorcery. I think its neither. I think its a special effect.
But Lubeski is going to win an Oscar for it anyway because too many voters are going to be lazy and they’ll look at Sean Bobbitt’s brilliance in 12 Years and they are going to gripe about the framing being off-center or pushing the focal point off-screen because it’s so much more “fun” to be impossibly inside Bullock’s eyeball and then *poof!* the “camera” is zooming all around in space again.
And ooooh, its so tense and worrisome to watch Bullock float away towards the moon. Bye, Dr Stone! Sorry you’re gonna be dead now! Well, no, because we all know that there is 80 minutes left in the movie so we can quit worrying because NONE of these perils are real or remotely risky.
Unlike 12 Years which depicts a real situation that breaks my heart to even contemplate.
So yes, WHERE IS THE MEANING in Gravity? What difference does any of that fakery make? For me, none.
Its fun. Its a blast. It’s a wild ride. it’s a car chase and car wrecks in space. But it means very little to me.
Gravity is probably my 4th favorite film of the year so I wont puke if it wins. But it means next to nothing in retrospect. Whereas 12 Years made me feel the torment of enslavement for the first time in my life. And it represents the release from a hell on earth for millions of descendents of slaves. Its cinematography doesn’t just put motion-sickness butterflies in my stomach — it grabs me by throat and whips me and stabs me with its deep significance to American society.
So now I get to watch 12 Years lose the cinematography Oscar to a video game that the player can’t even lose. A video game so predictably thrilling, that we KNOW from the beginning that Bullock is going to be just fine.
So that is my frustration and the source of my boredom with stories that only want to be well-made stories.
I like to think stories should mean more than “Whew that was close! I almost pretend-died! did you see how I almost gave up? lol j/k how can I give up when the movie has 35 more minutes and I am sandra bullock and this is not a hitchcock movie, you sillys. Of course i survive, because how sick would it be if I didn’t?”
Meaningless. Meaningless fairy tale with fancy sci-fi decor. My 4th favorite movie of the year has no significance beyond the fun of it, so it might be the perfect BP winner, yay.
Movies are just movies. If they entertain the most, why can’t they be called best? Avatar would have been a great winner because of that. so would Gravity or American Hustle. Why can’t “best” be what gets people in seats again and again, is an original story, and is universally loved? Why does it always have to have “importance” for some people, otherwise they say the academy made the wrong decision? Also, why do so many people want things to be worse than they are? No BBM=homophobia, no 12YAS=racism, no Bigelow for ZDT (who already won-remember?) = sexism? None of those are true! Stop trying to make up horrible things in your heads. These are movies. That’s it. They are for entertainment. I believe that is why it is referred to as the “entertainment industry!” The members of the academy get to choose whatever they think is best. That’s it! Then they get to choose what they think is best out of the nominees (which none of them may be their personal favorite anyway-there are very few nominees for “best” each year). Oh, and how can a movie be entitled to win? 12YAS “should win?” Get real. Oh, and slavery was over long ago in this country. Nobody feels guilty about it. There’s no reason too. Remember, this is a young country and they were only adopting existing practices in other countries. Americans did not create slavery. Now here I go rambling like everyone else (I’m recovering from a surgery and am bored) because this thread is so annoying with so many people saying academy members are horrible people because so many are stuck in their ways. Who cares! They can give their little statues to whomever they want. It impacts nothing important in this world at all. The oscars are insignificant in this world.
I don’t think that fun car chases are the basis of a gripping story, but I digress.
I agree with you. All else being equal, I would rather a film that informs me, makes me think and, maybe, transforms me into someone “better” (whatever that happens to be).
But note I said “all else being equal”. I still want the story to be gripping, yes, and well told.
But not car chases. Foot chases are so much more fun! Or subway chases!!
I think we all have different opinions about what the role of art is. I don’t disagree that *some* movies could have greater impact on politics or, even better, society. Which ones? Well, I guess each one of us has different opinions about that as well.
However, I would still rather see 12YAS win because it has unequaled storytelling, not because of anything else. Because if art starts to be judged primarily by its political value, a society can very easily go down a slippery slope on how to handle art.
(And, just to be clear about this: 12YAS is very much on my list of favorite films of 2013; not at the top, but I would never begrudge its awards. They are deserved.)
Because if art starts to be judged primarily by its political value, a society can very easily go down a slippery slope on how to handle art.
I’m not saying a movie has to be judged primarily for its political value. But if all a movie has on its mind is to skillfully tell me a gripping story, then I don’t hold that in very high esteem. There are too many other movies that give me so much more than a fun car chase.
If Solomon Northup was alive today we could ask him if he’s happier that he gave the world an enthralling adventure story or happier that his story was instrumental in changing American society, helping to alter his country’s political landscape.
No way to know how many black people in the South read Solomon’s Nothup’s memoir. How many could even read at all? I have no idea. Was his book published to shock or entertain white folks in the North? Or was it written to expose the political nightmare that was crushing the lives of people too busy picking cotton for their millionaire masters to read his book for entertainment or literary value?
Why is there over an inch of useless black blank space at the top of the site before any content? Is it just my computer and Google Chrome that displays it as such?
Just the layout of the page elements during awards season, Scott. It’s real estate reserved for FYC ads and those FYC ads run in cycles that require space be made available to them when they do.
This is, indeed, so sad. It should be about movies. Instead it’s about politics.
In many ways, movies are politics. Movies reflect the politics and societies of their time. It would be awesome if movies had a greater effect on politics, and they sometimes do. But more often it’s politics that affect how movies get made.
Is it sad? A little. But I also think the battle and clash of movies and politics can be fascinating, thrilling.
All the movies that I believe are the greatest ever made all make political statements. At the very least if a movie has nothing to say about society, I don’t have much use for it.
Felipe, I hope you know I respect your point of view.
But your comment does confuse me a little
Are you sad about seeing politics brought up on this page?
Or are you saying you wish the Oscars could be about movies instead of being about politics?
Because it’s hard to ignore that the Oscars are about all kinds of things, yes? The quality of movies often seem like the last thing the Oscars care about.
It is fortuitous that we are in a year of 9 or 10 movies being nominated for Best Picture. This seems like an exemplary year in cinema, so many great stories being told by filmmakers at the peak of their powers. An embarrassment of riches! Can you imagine if it was just 5 being celebrated? Hopefully no filler nominees to pad out the list.
It seems to me that 12 YAS will indeed win BP on Oscar night and so it’s only fair to point out that it was none other than KYLE BUCHANON who tipped us all off with his atmospheric , propethic , review from Toronto back in early september
He surely deserves the movie critic version of the ”Oracle of Delphi ” …. BRAVO ! !
Sasha’s review from Teluride was prescient and right on the money too
REX REED was the first to warn us about LINCOLN when he called it a ”colossol bore ” and he was right about it not winning Best Picture Oscar …he is also right when he wrote about GRAVITY that is was ”just popcorn munching fun ”and awarded it 75 at Metacritic
BBM/Crash ZZZZZZzzzzzz…….
no one has anything else worth (re)reading on the topic. there is absolutely nothing to say that has not been said here and a thousand other places a thousand times over – and more.
*******
Of course the Academy is racist and sexist. and homophobic…. they rise above it sometimes and sometimes they don’t, just like everyone else. I don’t think they are moreso than society generally, probably less.
seems to me that AH is more ‘likable’, but I do not agree that the Academy always goes that way.
Of course the Academy is racist and sexist. and homophobic….
No. I disagree. I’m sorry, Bob, but that’s wrong and we shouldn’t say that. I never say it that way.
yes, SOME members of the Academy are racist and homophobic. Ernest Borgnine was homophobic. Todd Haynes is not homophobic. Mel Gibson is homophobic. Rupert Everett is not homophobic.
This is the same simplistic argument that makes people say silly shit like: “How can America be racist if Americans elected a black president?”
Are you kidding me? Americans did not elect a black president. Only 52% of Americans elected a black president. Does that make the other 48% racist? No.
(my estimate is that only about 20% of Americans are virulent racists. And guess what? That’s enough to elect racists to Congress. That 20% of the most ignorant Americans is sometimes all it takes to elect homophobes nincompoops and cowards like Nixon Bush and Reagen as president).
If those 20% of American racist homophobes would all please die tomorrow then America will be a better place.
If 50 racist racist homophobic Academy members will Please Die Next Year, then the Oscars will make better choices after the number of bigots is reduced.
Because I believe almost all the Academy members are really cool people. They just need to wait for the sick-minded members to die off and then we can stop talking about racism and homophobia at the Oscars.
Snore all you want, Bob. These things are important to me. Go take a nap if I’m boring you, alright? I’ll wake you up when I’m done.
The best actor category is the most competitive of all and Redford was supposed to be a major threat with support coming from fellow actors ; however , his lack of a SAG nomination , for me , seems decisive and prophetic , in a similar way with Oprah not getting a nomme for the G Gs…
DERN aint winning , nor is Mconaughey , since LETO stole his thunder and so it seems to me to be a two horse race between EJIOFOR and DICAPRIO …the WOLF seems to me to be Dicaprio’s best performance of his career and he’s clearly going to win at the Golden Globes , But EJIOFOR has a decisive advantage , the momentum of a winning movie behind him
As any good political analyist , or salesman ,surely knows ”You cannot beat a SOMETHING with a NOTHING ”
12 YAS has a ”something ” , an evocative peep into the blood splattered past at a gruesome injustice and generational crime against black folk ……GRAVITY is merely popcorn eating light entertainment ; a white knuckle ride for sure , but in the greater scheme of things a NOTHING ….AMERICAN HUSTLE is a 1970’s con caper , with the big hair , flashy clothes , nostalgic disco , rock music , but still just more light entertainment …WOLF is something similar
None of these movies has the pure moral message , the gravitas , or the wind of history billowing in it’s sails like 12 YAS has and as such it is an OBVIOUS WINNER
GRAVITY is merely popcorn eating light entertainment
But that’s how I feel about THE ARTIST.
5 words: The Greatest Show on Earth.
Know what made The Greatest Show on Earth such a thrill ride? Technicolor. The magic of Technicolor.
— Bosley Crowther, The New York Times, wetting his pants over Technicolor.
The Greatest Show on Earth, Best Picture of 1952
A piece of entertainment that will delight movie audiences for years!
2 or 3 years, anyway.
Oscar night will indeed look very similar to this
Best Picture ….12 YAS
Best Actor …Ejiofor
Best Supporting actor …LETO’
Best supporting actress ..NYONGO
However , I don’t think MCQUEEN should win Director , but let’s face it , with 12 YAS winning , BP , BA, BSA it will be very , VERY difficult to ignore Mcqueen and to make history by rewarding the first black man to win a Directing Oscar ; therefore . I think Sasha is right on the money with her predictions …12 YAS will sweep
I agree with everything Sasha has noted in this wonderful, rousing piece.
Just imagine what the winner(s) are going to have to deal with if they win and “12YAS” doesn’t. David O.Russell and Alphonse Cuaron, I’m looking at you. Do you really want to live with that on your consciences?
Er, where IS Paul Haggis’ career today? He directed “Crash.” I was so hurt by “Brokeback”s loss. It seems as though nothing could stop it. But people like the late Tony Curtis and the equally late Ernest Borgnine’s homophobic comments did. It was an incredibly sad night here at Oscarwatch as it was called there. But Sasha was an tremendously comforting presence that awful night. Oscar’s worst.
I’ll never forget how valiant and eloquent she was. And still is. On a daily basis. Brava!
Sasha is one of the more wiser movie reviewers around and I trust her judgement , however , comparing 12 YAS to Brokeback is just ridiculous…Brokeback was an iconoclast movie that was destructive to the iconic image of the great hero of the silver screen , the American Cowboy …times , they are a changing , but not that much ; you couldn’t expect those 60-ish white males who grew up watching legendery Westerns staring Wayne , Marvin , Cooper , Douglas etc to vote for a pair of gay cowboys , for christsake …that kind of change was just too radical and those voters were hardly going to sit through such a movie about ”Homo on the Range ” and so it’s hardly surprising that the Academy went for CRASH , by default
I just don’t like the underlying notion that both Sasha and Ryan are insinuating if 12 Years a Slave doesn’t win. Essentially, they are preemptively stating that if it doesn’t win, that it, in some way, has to do with white people being resistant to a black director or a movie about slavery winning. Just stop. This type of language only exacerbates the race discussion.
If Nebraska, American Hustle, Wolf of Wall Street, Her or Gravity win Best Picture over 12 Years a Slave…Sasha and Ryan will go on their website and proclaim that the Academy is full of old white people who once again voted for movies produced by white people about white people. It isn’t even fathomable in their minds that members of the Academy could actually believe that 12 Years a Slave wasn’t the best film. Because there is and can be a difference between historically significant and best film of the year, contrary to Sasha and Ryan’s divisive language.
And since this discussion delved into Ryan defending liberals (as he and Sasha typically do), I’ll just state this fact (and yes, it is indeed fact, not partisan opinion, as I am far from a Republican): Republicans did far more to usher in racial equality in this country, particularly in the 21st century, compared to Democrats. And the 95% of African Americans who voted for Obama…you just pass that off as if it has nothing to do with race. Another textbook definition of hypocrisy.
Essentially, they are preemptively stating that if it doesn’t win, that it, in some way, has to do with white people being resistant to a black director or a movie about slavery winning. Just stop.
I’ll just say it straight up. If 12 Years a Slave loses the Best Picture Oscar by 800 or 600 or 400 votes, then I say any other movie that wins BP has won the Oscar fair and square.
But if 12 Years a Slave loses by 50 or 100 ballots, then I’m not naive enough to think there aren’t 100 racist members of the Academy.
We’ll never know the vote tally, no matter which movie wins. Knowing would hurt. but the doubt is almost as bad. So I’ll just be very happy 15 years from now when the racists in the Academy (and America) have dwindled in number to a handful who can no longer swing an election.
How do we know there are old bigots in the Academy? Because disgusting old bigots like Ernest Borgnine and Tony Curtis used to publicly brag about being bigots. Those two are dead and gone now. Bless their souls and Good Riddance.
The more bigots in America die off, the less bigoted America will be. That’s just logic, and I wish the dying off of bigots would accelerate so we wouldn’t have to wonder anymore if Crash won Best Picture by 2 votes.
[just self-censored my own comment – which included the words “spoonfeed,” “handjob,” and “lube” – because I don’t want even one voter reading this thread to use a snarky commenter like me as a reason to vote the wrong way]
Older voters! You are incredibly attractive. Sexier than early Brando, I’d say. And you’re so smart! Wow, more people should really listen to you, especially your kids, who should stop asking you for money.
Oh, BTW, have you seen 12 Years a Slave? No biggie either way. Heckuva film. Not even slightly about making white people feel guilty. It’s more like Saving Private Ryan for slavery, not that it’s even close to that Spielberg masterpiece. Remember how in Ryan Spielberg managed to condense all these themes about sacrifice and heroism and duty into this story about this oddly exceptional case of “the mission is a man”? Yeah that’s pretty much 12YAS, it takes this almost unbelievably exceptional case and uses it to explore all these themes – like about paralysis, like in all these shots of frozen trees and frozen slaves and stuff. It’s not Hate Whitey at all! Actually it kinda implies that white people were stuck as well in the 1840s, that no one could see a way out – well until Brad Pitt came along to save Louisiana again like in Benjamin Button and real life. God, power of stars, huh? It’s really a powerful film.
Gravity is cool, though, if you want the future to be only films made for IMAX at Six Flags. I mean, that’s fine. I also heard from Lily Tomlin that David O. Russell hates old people, which is why he cast a 22-year-old as a 30-year-old in his last 2 films. Just a rumor, may not be true.
Damn you’re sexy. I mean it’s really noticeable! Just had to mention it again. Thanks,
– Person who rents all your old movies
They don’t have to explain why they voted for such and such movie, and such and such actor.
I think I explain myself in my 3rd comment
I’d be happy to. (I guess it could be done by e-mail, too, though it’d be a mother of an upload and download.)
Jingoistic – ha! My players play all regions, the problem is that only one of my TVs plays PAL, and I’d hate for the other TVs to be jealous.
AFK for a couple hrs.
OT: I just did a CD for a holiday party with kids and adults (which I probably won’t be attending). I knew that I had to keep it secular. Here’s the track listing:
1.) Sleigh Ride (Ella Fitzgerald)
2.) That’s What I Want for Christmas (Nancy Wilson)
3.) All I Want for Christmas Is You (Mariah Carey)
4.) Carol of the Bells (Harry Simeone Chorale)
5.) Jingle Bell Rock (Bobby Helms)
6.) Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Judy Garland)
7.) The Christmas Song (Nat “King” Cole)
8.) Christmas Time Is Here (The Vince Guaraldi Trio w/Peanuts Kids)
9.) Christmas, Baby Please Come Home (Darlene Love)
10.) Santa Baby (Eartha Kitt)
11.) Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree (Brenda Lee)
12.) Christmas Don’t Be Late (The Chipmunks)
13.) Ole Santa (Dinah Washington)
14.) Baby, It’s Cold Outside (Johnny Mercer w/Margaret Whiting)
15.) Put a Little Love in Your Heart (Al Green w/Annie Lennox)
16.) Silver Bells (Doris Day)
17.) Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (Lena Horne)
18.) You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch (Thurl Ravenscroft)
19.) White Christmas (Bing Crosby)
20.) Snowbound (Sarah Vaughn)
21.) DC Chrsitmas Medley (Destiny’s Child)
22.) I’ll Be Home for Christmas (Kristin Chenoweth)
23.) Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Gene Autry)
24.) Papa Noel (Brenda Lee)
25.) Jingle Bells Cha-Cha-Cha (Pearl Bailey)
26.) Merry Christmas Baby (Christina Aguilera w/Dr. John)
Mixtape please.
Send me a copy of the CD and I’ll send you this excellent remaster of Two Women that will play on your jingoistic region 1 dvd player.
There are racists. There’s been a tiny surge of them recently but they’re on their way out. The people have spoken. Look at this year in movies. Just look. It’s been a great year for movies featuring African Americans. Whether 12 YEARS A SLAVE wins or not, it doesn’t matter. Whitey is in decline. Stop giving him more importance than he has. Concentrate on the leftover racists in real life and let the Academy vote for the movie they think is best. Trust them for once. And if they vote for something else, so be it. It doesn’t “mean” anything. And it won’t mean anything for our future either.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN lost perhaps because of those who wouldn’t even watch it because of their homophobia. But there’s a chance they might have liked shitty ol’ CRASH better even if they had watched it. What difference did it make? Well people are getting gay married like bunnies. The influence of that film was not blighted at all because it lost.
I sometimes think racists and homophobes are like Beetlejuice. You have to keep calling for them to get them to even bother. So just let them stew in their own juice. Stop inviting them to our party.
Tony,
I made a comment a couple weeks ago, about that, part of the reason why the Oscar voters don’t reveal their ballot, is so no one can see who voted for whom or what movies. Everyone can stay anonymous.
You know I’m talking about black people voting for McQueen (and Obama) just because they’re black. It’s just as wrong, and it does happen.
“”You know I’m talking about black people voting for McQueen (and Obama) just because they’re black. It’s just as wrong, and it does happen.”” Ahhh, ok you mean all the black directors in the Academy are going to nominate McQueen. All 2 of them are going to vote for McQueen. Is that your concern? You’re mad about the 7 black writers in the writers branch who are all going to be proud of John Ridley. I see. ok. Yeah, that’s a scary thing when black filmmakers threaten to show any pride and solidarity and brotherhood. I can really see what you’re worried about. Hopefully David O Russell will win an Oscar for writing words like “You gotta break some eggs to make an omelette,” for blonde actresses to say. And then you can relax on Oscar night. Status quo secure.
Re the cancer example:
Lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer — they all get a lot of air time, because they happen frequently. Penile cancer is very rare, so virtually no air time.
With regard to race, Sharpton and Jackson turn everything on its head. 10 black kids murdered by other blacks? Nothing to see here. 1 black kid murdered by a white kid? Look out!
—
“His blackness” is not an “interesting fact” to me. It’s just a plain ol’ fact. The movie was good; the color of the person who made it doesn’t add or subtract from the movie’s quality. If Steve McQueen is a good person, I’d like to hang out with him. If he’s not, then no. Ditto re Cameron, Bigelow, Spielberg, Scorsese, Daniels, Russell, anyone else.
hasn’t the Academy always gone for what it liked best? that’s the vast majority of Best Picture winners since the very beginning of the Oscars, with only a few exceptions. I think it’s hard to make anyone vote for a movie they don’t “like”- and i still think afonso cuaron is ahead for best director, partly because on top of what he’s accomplished (which even most critics are acknowledging) and the fact that he’s been around at least 20 years, and is well known, respected and liked.
if cuaron wins director would it really split with 12 Years getting only picture? that scenario looks doubtful to me
I’m concerned that like Brokeback some Academy voters aren’t going to watch 12 Years a Slave all the way through or not at all. I hope that doesn’t happen.
I’m thinking BAFTA is going to have some influence in picking the Best Picture award this year. Thinking the Brits aren’t going to love American Hustle as much as the States. Maybe I’m wrong.
Isn’t it just as bad if 25 people vote for it ONLY because it’s by mostly black people? African-Americans support Obama at nearly 90%, whereas the rest of the country is around 40%. Same policies, etc. but with a white, Latino or Asian president? I don’t think AA support would be at 90%.
“”Isn’t it just as bad if 25 people vote for it ONLY because it’s by mostly black people? “”
That would not be good. Do you think thats likely Tony? In your experience do you know a whole lot of old white people who voted for Obama ONLY because he’s black? Do you not think many many more people voted for Romney ONLY because Obama is black. Do not be naive.
“” I don’t think AA support would be at 90%. “”
How do you account for AA support of Clinton. Kennedy. Oh wait, I bet I know. African American voters vote Democratic. African American voters are registered Democrats. Because African Americans see white republicans whining about how African Americans vote for democrats and they do not want to be associated with whiny pouty white republicans who denigrate the integrity of black people and insult the motives of black people and then you act all confused about why black people don’t vote for snottyass republican candidates.
Liberals define “racism” as “white people discriminating against non-white people. Period.” (Sounds a lot like “you can keep your doctor/plan. Period.”) Wrong and wrong.
My point about France is that it is a relatively small country far more imperialistic than the large, powerful USA. The charge of imperialism unfairly gets hurled at us much more than at them.
Good post, Robert A.
It really is down to those three. If I had to choose, I’d pick “12YAS” over “Gravity.” (27 hours until “AH!”)
—
“The Hurt Locker” certainly proved that box office doesn’t matter, but I’m still amazed that “12YAS” is struggling to get to $40M. (Nominations may not help much; they didn’t add much to “The Artist.”)
Best Picture nominees 1967 notably:
In the Heat of the Night
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
Then, inter-racial marriages still illegal in many states during release of film.
Hypothetical Speaker #1: “You should go see this very good movie, ’12 Years a Slave.’ It’s by the same guy who did that other good movie ‘Shame’ a couple years ago.”
Hypothetical Speaker #2: “You should go see this very good movie, ’12 Years a Slave.’ It’s by this black guy.” (Subtext: Can you believe that a black guy directed a really good movie and might win an Oscar for it?)
I’d rather be Speaker #1.
Speaker #3: “You should go see this fantastic movie, ’12 Years a Slave.’ by an amazing black director who’s already made 3 brilliant movies that would never have been made in Hollywood.” Speaker #3 is not hypothetical because Speaker #3 is me and I’m not shy about saying a director is black, because I have sense enough to know his blackness will be an interesting fact to the black friends and white friends who go to movies with me. I also get an enormous fucking kick out of praising black directors in front of any white racists I know. And I know a lot of them.
“12 Years is where Lincoln was last year and will likely be one of the only films to hit everywhere across the board.”
There are also a couple of key differences between 12 Years and Lincoln, differences that I think place 12 Years in a stronger position than Lincoln was in last year. Remember that Lincoln won very few BP and Best Director prizes during award season, not just from the major critics but also the smaller critical groups. (I think Lincoln took 2-3 smaller BP prizes during the entire season.) 12 Years has been pretty much cleaning up the BP prizes outside of the two majors (NY and LA), which makes it feel like a stronger competitor for a BP win.
Also, Lincoln, rather unfairly (and I wasn’t even Lincoln’s hugest fan), got saddled with the “talky/boring” label, something that isn’t being said about 12 Years. Sure there are some mumblings about the violence in 12 Years, but once upon a time Silence of the Lambs and No Country for Old Men were considered “too violent” to win BP. Finally, Lincoln was directed by Spielberg, so there was a little bit of that “been there, done that” feeling to his newest “important” film (again, probably unfair), whereas 12 Years just feels more “new”–in terms of the director getting Oscar attention, the cast and so on.
As for all the reports of the Gravity love at AMPAS screenings, you have to take such reports with a grain of salt. One of my most hilarious memories at AD was back in 2009 when a guy named Hunter kept posting about reverential AMPAS screenings for Sherlock Holmes, and how SH was going to flip the script on the BP race. Last year around this time, weren’t we hearing reports of the cheering, weeping throngs of AMPAS voters responding to Les Miz?
I agree that BP is down to 12 Years, Gravity, and AH. I don’t see how any other movie wins, at this point.
I used the term. The article implies it. I’d rather be forthright (and polite).
I often think that the Best Picture category should be dropped; maybe keep releasing a list of “nominees,” but that’s all. It’s hard enough to compare the individual parts — script vs. script, actor vs. actor, visuals vs. visuals. “Shakespeare in Love” vs. “Saving Private Ryan”: which is the “better” movie? It’s kinda silly.
Academy members pick what they like and resist the urge to vote for what they “should” vote for.
That’s right. They’re supposed to vote for the best film, not the best film that will make them feel guilty if they don’t. The Oscars is not about fixing history. It’s about rewarding the best film and those who worked on that film. That’s all. There’s no reason why 12 YEARS A SLAVE couldn’t win just based on that. It’s a quality motion picture.
[I should be at a showing of “American Hustle” right now, but when I tried to buy a ticket last night, it was sold out for the whole day. I’ll be going tomorrow night.]
For weeks now various Oscar pundits have been reporting that Academy members have gone crazy for Gravity — so much so that they can’t see any other movie.
Actually I would have guessed that people who love GRAVITY were blind before they saw it. *rimshot*
Absolutely correct, Karl.
A generally good read inevitably gets a bit tarnished with unnecessary junk.
The USA, like all countries, isn’t perfect. Our good points far outweigh our bad points. Imperialism? Yes, we have an empire of military bases. Look at dinky France with its TERRITORIES in places such as continental South America.
Yes, racism exists — and in all colors. I don’t think this supposed contingent of “disgruntled white people who will protest” a BP win by 12YAS is nearly as large as you imagine it to be. By harping on the historic nature of a win by a film about slavery made mostly by black people, you cheapen its win, should it happen. You make it seem more about affirmative action than merit. Please keep the focus on its considerable merit, not the color of Steve McQueen’s skin.
“You make it seem more about affirmative action than merit.”
And yet it’s You Tony who sneeringly brings up the term “Affirmative Action” (as if it’s a filthy disreputable thing) and in the process you don’t make it “seem like” that’s what it looks like to you — you specfically demonstrate that this is on your mind.
“Please keep the focus on its considerable merit, not the color of Steve McQueen’s skin.”
I can focus on merit and cultural significance and skin color and historical milestones and a multitude of things 12 Years a Slave represents for me.
Don’t tell me what to focus on. Saying “please” does not make your arrogant instruction sound any less condesceding and paternalistic. PRO TIP: No need to be pretend you’re being polite when you’re belittling someone’s personal feelings. Watch how I do it.
Look at dinky France with its TERRITORIES in places such as continental South America.
Yes, let’s look at France. Let’s watch The Battle of Algiers. Except if you lived in France we couldn’t watch it for 5 years after it was made because even though The Battle of Algiers was winning praise and awards worldwide it was banned in France for 5 Years. By political forces controlled by racists, and I have no doubt there were people in France saying tut-tut, stop thinking about racial injustice and skin color, s’il vous plait. But other people wouldn’t shut up about because it meant something to those people so they wrote and said whatever they wanted to say.
“Yes, racism exists — and in all colors.”
What’s your point? Everybody is a little racist sometimes? You sound like Avenue Q. A musical that talked about race instead of always trying to hush people up about it. Because talking about it shines a light on it, as much as you would prefer we all just ignore, because cancer exists everywhere, what are we gonna do. Just accept cancer because it’s prevalent? That might be the convervative attitude. Liberals want to enable ways to fix problems (Obamacare) not just give up thinking about it. What would you have us do, Tony, “please don’t focus on the sickness” because sickness is commonplace?
“I don’t think this supposed contingent of “disgruntled white people who will protest” a BP win by 12YAS is nearly as large as you imagine it to be.”
Who cares how large the contingent of disgruntled white people is? Is there an acceptable or justified number you have in mind, Tony.
Anyway, you miss Sasha’s point. It’s not about the people who will be pissed if 12 Years wins. Its the people who are already disgruntled that it might. (I know one of them. He’s my father.) And in a year when competition is so tight, elections can be decided by a handful of disgruntled voters. Do you not grasp that, Tony? If a movie loses out on winning BP by 25 ballots and those are ballots held by 25 disgruntled old white disgruntled racist farts, is 25 an insignificant contingent of people in your view?
“Nebraska wasn’t written by Payne but it nonetheless closes his trilogy of road movies of a grown man finding himself, starting with Sideways, continuing with About Schmidt and finishing with Nebraska.”
About Schmidt was first, then Sideways, concluding with Nebraska.
Steve, I hear ya. And yeah, agreed, all those are essential, my point being there is no single definitive work about any period in history. I worded it poorly.
Not “corrective” Bryce – that wasn’t his intent – and it doen’t change the game, but anybody with 1/2 a brain who watches 12 Years, then goes back and watches GWTW, will certainly pick up on the fact that something’s wrong with this picture.
there are no definitive texts much less works of art about human atrocities.
Yikes, Bryce. Solzhenityn, Elie Wiesel, hell, even Charles Dickens, would be shocked to hear that.
he has extinguished the candle that was the romance of the antebellum South and slavery. The fact that white audiences can never watch a cinematic icon like Gone with the Wind with the same eyes ever again is both justice and a cultural achievement.
I think you’re slightly overstating a movie’s corrective faculties. If you think it’s culturally significant as a work of art that I can understand. It’s like Travers and his “game-changers!”
Now, This is not a response to your comment, Steve, but just in general, there are no definitive texts much less works of art about human atrocities.
“there are no definitive texts much less works of art about human atrocities.”
Shoah
The Fog of War
The Art of Killing
and 300 other documentaries
“12 Years a Slave” is simply to big to ignore. Despite the fact that it is an astonishing piece of film, the Academy will just not pass up the opportunity to pat themselves on the back and award the film and McQueen and assuage themselves of guilt.
Whatever the outcome this year at the Oscars, McQueen has accomplished something major – he has extinguished the candle that was the romance of the antebellum South and slavery. The fact that white audiences can never watch a cinematic icon like Gone with the Wind with the same eyes ever again is both justice and a cultural achievement.
On another note, have we ever had a slate of frontrunners that represent so faithfully such a wide range of recent decades? We’ve got the present, the 80s, 70s and 60s, and Saving Mr Banks and Llewyn Davis are even set in the same year, 1961. All the periods – except 12 Years – are within memory of most of the voters and some of us. I think this as a factor that could come into play with them. I know it’s consideration when I’m deciding what to see first in the oncoming rush.
Unfortunately, Saving Mr. Banks was not nominated at the Globes, so it shouldn’t appear as such in your charts.
It’s weird that Academy voters are going crazy for Gravity, they’re usually so quick to dismiss that sort of film, but after all it’s not really Sci-Fi so I guess that makes it OK. Imo it was nothing more than a well-produced thrill ride.
McQueen’s film, not a traditional Oscar winner for Best Picture, by any means
Actually I’d say it’s pretty traditional and Academy-friendly if it weren’t’ for the most violent sequence. The subject matter is of tremendous importance, but as a movie it’s very formal. Examples: OUT OF AFRICA, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, MILLION DOLLAR BABY