In case you were wondering why Oscar pundits like Scott Feinberg and now, the LA Times’ Glenn Whipp are so cool on Gone Girl’s Oscar chances because stories like this reveal how Academy members think. This has been an ongoing issue for decades, of course, which is why Vertigo – hailed as the greatest film of all time only received two Oscar nominations. One for Art Direction and one for Sound.
The mistake is to listen to what these older middled aged mostly male voters think about movies and somehow deduce that it means something beyond: it’s a divisive film. There are those who love it and those who hate it. And then there are these members who really don’t feel anything about it except to shrug and say “that’s it?”
I remember walking up to the Mona Lisa in the Louvre with hundreds of people gathered around trying to take her photo and all around me I heard people say: “That’s it?” I thought about that painting a lot the rest of that day wondering whether its greatness depended on what any old person off the street thought versus what art critics thought at the time and now.
Gone Girl isn’t even a critics’ darling by this point but it is entertaining. I remember when Martin Scorsese’s The Departed came out everyone said the same thing: it’s a good movie but it’s not an Oscar movie. Some even said “that’s it?” But The Departed fits more nicely into the Academy’s wheelhouse, in a way, than Gone Girl does. How many films in the Best Picture race can you count that were written by women? Can you even think of a single one that was a female adapting a novel that she wrote?
The success of Gone Girl will be pinned on Fincher but to me I look at this piece by Whipp, and some of the harsher reviews by people like Manohla Dargis and I just think: Same fucking shit, different day. Voters will be inclined to pretend that Fincher is the one who “ruined” the book while neglecting to realize that Flynn wrote the screenplay. Same fucking shit. Different day.
“I didn’t want to know anything about the movie before I saw it, but I kept hearing people talking about Ben Affleck’s penis,” one academy member, a screenwriter, said. “Now I know why. It’s a more fully realized character here than the one Pike plays.”
That complaint was echoed by multiple academy members who had read the book and came away dissatisfied with the character balance in the adaptation.
“It probably couldn’t be helped,” one voter said, “because of the way the book alternates between her story and his. The movie, it’s mostly Affleck. You don’t hear enough of her voice, and it throws the whole thing off.”
“Gone Girl” screened for New York-based academy members Tuesday, with star Rosamund Pike interviewed afterward. There was no Q&A following Saturday’s screening at the Goldwyn. The audience clapped when the closing credits began to roll, but there was no applause when they finished. Contrasted to most movies that go on to win a best picture nomination, it was a rather subdued reaction, particularly given the buzz that was in the room when the film began.
Fincher’s technical prowess – the precise camera work, the immaculately composed shots, the razor-sharp editing – remained unimpeachable for some. “This is first-class filmmaking,” one academy member said. But … “But, like a lot of his other movies, you admire it more than you enjoy it.”
In short, when it comes to the academy, “Gone Girl” could have some issues. Many critics love it. The Internet is obsessed with it, dissecting its gender politics, its ending, its fidelity to the book. But, perhaps owing to the hype, not to mention the aforementioned gender politics and that wackadoodle ending, audiences might be divided between ardent believers, the unimpressed and the nonplussed.
“What did I just see?” one Oscar-nominated producer asked, walking along Wilshire Boulevard to his car. “That’s it? Really? I’ve seen better social commentary in a good episode of ‘Bob’s Burgers.'”
The shame in my business to read stories like this that equate quality with Academy tastes. People who watch the Oscars can’t seem to decide if “they” are worthy of admiration or not. When they want to see a movie fail in the race they act as though it is some kind of great honor to be nominated. When they love a movie that “they” reject they deride the Academy as a bunch of know-nothings. You can’t have it both ways. Believe me, I’ve been trying for 16 years.
Here’s what I know about Academy members. They like you to be good but they don’t like you to be good. Believe me, I was here when Martin Scorsese had not yet won an Oscar. Martin Scorsese who directed Taxi Driver in 1976, who didn’t win a directing Oscar until 2006. And the only reason he finally won for The Departed was because it was a movie voters could kind of get. It was also easily the best of the five that year. The Oscars are really nothing more than a cut above the People’s Choice awards. In fact, the Hollywood Foreign Press has a better track record than the Oscars throughout film history, having awarded such films as A Place in the Sun, Chinatown, etc.
Gone Girl was never meant to be an Oscar movie. The only reason it’s even in the conversation is because of people like me who desperately want it to be in the conversation because the last thing people like me want to do is spend the next few months hand holding a bunch of crybabies. There is nothing more thrilling than having a dark film like Gone Girl in the Best Picture race from my perspective. Ditto Foxcatcher, Birdman, Maps to the Stars, Mommy – bring back the great films, please for the love of all things holy. When did the Oscar race turn into such a mushy, developmentally disabled affair?
The complaints seem to vary (as they do with ticket buyers and critics) that they didn’t think Rosamund Pike was given enough screen time, that she was more fully realized in the novel. The same could be said for Wendy in The Shining, Mrs. Brody in Jaws and on and on it goes. A cinematic rendition of a novel is different from a novel. The experience is different. When I read The English Patient it forever turned me off of the movie. The book is so wonderfully written, and the Kristen Scott-Thomas character is so different than she is in the book. But you know what? In the end, a movie is a movie and a book is a book and these voters should know that.
Whipp calls Gone Girl’s Cinemascore of “B” “middling.” And indeed, to WIN Best Picture you really need an A. Shit movies get A grades but Best Picture winners often do too. Argo got an A+. The King’s Speech an A or A+. Titanic got an A+. The Departed got an A-. But hey, Dolphin Tale 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy both got Cinemascores of A — let’s nominate them for Best Picture. Cinemascore really measures audiences expectations versus how those expectations were met. Expectations for Gone Girl were upended, by design.
BUT – all of this to say that Gone Girl’s chances of winning Best Picture are nil. And it’s too early in the race to decide whether the industry will count it among the best pictures of the year for a nomination.
But here’s what I will tell you:
If you’re a smart pundit you will cross Gone Girl and everything about it off your list. Don’t you be like me. Don’t measure your hopes and dreams by a consensus vote. If they’re already shrugging at this point in the race, trust me, you don’t want to see how this thing will play out.
However, please also do me this favor: delide what’s best on your own, without hugging up close to the Academy because their little gold statues must mean something. They don’t. What they mean is power and popularity in Hollywood. Nothing more, nothing less. They can sometimes make careers, especially in categories like Documentary Feature and the Shorts. Overall, though? This is the Homecoming Dance with a little taste.
2014 will likely be filled with great movies, more than enough soft weepies to fill the Academy’s slate of nine. Forgive me if I continue to write about a film that thrilled me from start to finish. I don’t write about films I think the Academy will pick. I would shoot myself in the face if I did.
But you should follow more objective “Oscar pundits” like Scott Feinberg, Anne Thompson, Kris Tapley, Pete Hammond — they don’t get their hearts involved and they will help you win your office pool. They can tolerate Academy members, too, so they talk to them. Me, I’d much rather talk to the bartenders and waitresses at Academy parties.
To recap: This is me telling you not to predict Gone Girl for anything. Nothing. That way you can’t blame me when it fails to receive a nomination. As for me, I can’t imagine any group with the honor of bestowing high achievements in film not honoring this movie as one of the best (if not the best) of 2014.
David Fincher, like Stanley Kubrick, like Steven Spielberg, like Martin Scorsese, like John Ford makes America proud. His canon speaks for itself, though these Academy members are right. He’s never going to make the kind of movie they want him to make to win one of their ornaments. He’s never going to make a movie that makes us all feel good about ourselves and our world. Please tell me Oscar voters still get that.
So if the worst you can say about Gone Girl is that the Academy members didn’t like it and it only got a Cinemascore of a B? Well, that isn’t so bad.
And with that, the scene that has always summed up the Oscar race for me.
Eheh, eheh, ehehhhh…
Don’t give an actual shit. Numbskulls. Read the box office figures and weep, AMPAS.
I’m not sure it will do well at all at the Oscars. Fincher is just too good for that crowd. I’m not sure yet what I think about the movie (probably will take years to sort it all out). Still, here are initial thoughts:
http://www.hollowsquarepress.com/movies/gone-girl
The AFI Fest brought lots of buffoonery to the table in terms of predictions.
Colin Farrell was well on his way, along with Christian Bale, and the entire cast of August: Osage County.
Here’s another viewpoint on ”Gone Girl” that isn’t based on the ”reaction” of older, white Oscar voters.
Nikki Gloudeman at Huffington Post writes about it plays into ”the damaging archetype … of the life-destroying crazy bitch. … Contrary to pop culture … women do not routinely run around making up rape claims. … In reality, the vast majority of rape cases claim victims who are women.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nikki-gloudeman/gone-girls-rape-problem_b_5942510.html
To be fair, I wept too. Your eyes get watery when oxygen isn’t reaching the brain, like when you’re getting choked…not that I would know, but LES MIZ is an asphyxiating experience unlike any other.
My comment is missing “Poland” in the second category of Oscar pundits, but I’m sure you figured that one out.
Well in Tapley’s defense his tweet was just expressing his own feelings towards the movie and the crowd’s reaction. Feinberg’s was just stating a fact, though it was a bit premature. Wells though…he got caught up in the moment and tried calling the race then and there.
Feinberg’s was just stating a fact, though it was a bit premature
Feinberg is fluent in Machiavellian Oscar-speak. Oozing droplets of Oscar pre-cum to surreptitiously fertilize his pets, and then carefully cleaning the DNA evidence off his hands.
Does Feinberg fabricate speculative Oscar stats for every movie he sees?
We can search in vain to see where Feinberg ever said:
“If Bigelow wins for Zero Dark Thirty, she will be the second female Best Director winner in history.”
“Kris Tapley: GOD. I wept. Film’s a triumph. They’re on their feet here. NYC crowd ate…it…up. #lesmiserables”
Not exactly Kris’ finest hour…;)
“Gone Girl was never meant to be an Oscar movie.”
A best-selling book adaptation directed by a recent two-time Oscar nominated director starring a two-time Oscar winner that opens the New York Film Festival sounds a lot, to me, like it was meant to be an Oscar movie.
While I admire your passion for a film you love, I’m not exactly sure why you feel the need to defend it. It’s making good dough, has lots of previous Oscar winners and nominees involved (we all know the Academy prefers to stick to names they know well), has solid reviews, will inevitably make a bunch of top 10 lists and win one or two prizes for its lead actress. Sure, there are a few complaints but that just means people are talking about it. It’s not going to be easily forgotten. Fincher probably won’t be nominated for Director but Lead Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Editing and possibly Score seem like sure things. Right now, I’d bet on Picture too.
Of course you have every right to champion any film you wish but it really doesn’t seem to me like this one is in trouble. Lots of smaller, less-publicized films (Night Moves, Palo Alto, The Immigrant, Under the Skin, The Double, Abuse of Weakness, to name a few) could benefit from all this fanfare. From my years of following this blog on and off, I really don’t think your tastes really deviate that far from the Academy’s. Most of the movies you strongly champion end up with multiple nominations. By that logic alone, I expect at least 4 or 5 noms for Gone Girl.
Also, there were many reports last year of voters hating Wolf of Wall Street and we know how that turned out.
Thanks Kane and Ryan, that makes me feel better. Basically, Sasha’s cancelling Christmas because the kids are misbehaving. I get it.
Go team Rosamund!
Ryan, I remember those tweets all too well when Les Mis premiered. I wanted to see it because I’ve never even read or seen any version of it before but I thought, “Doesn’t this look interesting and good?” Maybe a week after the premier it all sort of died down. That NYC premier seemed like it was in a vacuum. I don’t doubt the enthusiasm in that moment and I know the film had its fans and champions but not one other time did I ever think, “This is a movie to take all the top prizes.”
I would be shocked if Pike isn’t Sasha’s #1 pick throughout the rest of the year and champions her as such. Then again…Still Alice…
Leni, Sasha focused on literally a handful of those thousands and thousands of members. Do not cross Pike off your list. She is definitely in the running (maybe in the lead alongside Julianne Moore) for a nomination.
Oh! And the soundtrack. I really hope you’re wrong!
Hey Sasha – does this mean we are crossing off Rosamund’s chances too? This article made me disappointed. I hope you’re wrong. I don’t want to agree with you, even though you might be right. I thought Rosamund was fantastic (as well as the writing, directing and other acting)… It’s my favourite of the year. Well, maybe Boyhood is my favourite for best picture, but Gone Girl was really moving in a whole other way.
Leni, don’t despair. I’m not going to try to dissect the complex psychology at work in this post…
but let me just say: Women! [ducks]
Before you think Sasha is writing off Rosamund Pike and Gillian Flynn, take a look at the Contender Tracker on the main page.
Before you think Sasha is writing off Rosamund Pike, wait to see what the first State of the Race on Best Actress says.
And before you believe what 5 New Yorker Oscar voters say to Oscar court jester Glen Whipp, remember the Manhattan Academy screening of Les Mis from which New York Oscar voters and several Oscar experts emerged soaked in tears and bleating like stabbed sheep about how it was the best musical ever produced in the history of the universe.
November 23, 2012
yeah, meet the guys Sasha is telling you to trust for you Office Oscar Pool.
Leni: do not despair.
This is why I don’t read books. Anyway, it seems like everyone is in agreement that Fincher is the star of this show. Like his direction is better than the sum total of the movie. I think I agree with that. And it doesn’t seem like a bad thing even if it’s unusual. Maybe he can win Best Director without his movie even getting a nomination. It could happen.
uh, not sure if Ryan Adams comment was meant for me, guess it can’t be cause it’s so off my point I don’t even get half of it. I wasn’t attacking ignorant America, I don’t believe that, the opposite in fact, however I do believe in an ignorant Hollywood fraud machine, but I’d assumed everyone would be pretty clear how far removed from America the Hollywood dream machine is. Anyway Re GG I’ve the same stance on the British feminists I’ve read who seem to have also taken GG seriously and gone on the attack. By the way I don’t think irony has got much to do with intelligence, isn’t it more about not taking yourself so damn seriously.
David Fincher certainly agrees to what Woody Allen said in Annie Hall ” I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member ”
This Oscar game is nothing less than a popularity contest, a beauty pageant….. that explains why EG Robinson never got an oscar nomination during his 4 decade career, and why Mister Jack leads the pack with its 12 nods, why Hitchcock never got his due and why William Wyler got 3.
The problem is that you want members of the academy (you forgot White) to see things the way you do …..they won’t …..they never will…… and why ? ……. The answer lies in the under estimated “thank you for smoking ” ……Everybody’s got a mortgage to pay……” ………..everybody ! Sean Penn included ! …..in this game there are no Jimmy Stewart …
Come oscar time, everyone has to choose between a comfortable life and the beauty of art …… don’t get me wrong Sasha : they always know what the right path is, without exception, they know …….but they never take it, and You know why? Because It’s too…damn…hard ! ……mainly because they are not in your shoes and mine, something more important is at stake : their future, their career …… sad but true
I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I am very pessimistic about all the “major” Oscar pundits not named Sasha Stone. Main reasons for not ever having the slightest need to visit their sites:
Boring: Tapley, Karger, Thompson, Hammond
Boring, tiresome, annoying
crazy (but in a boring way), racist, tedious: Wells
vigilante, boring, writes like a fifth grader: Feinberg
basic, boring: Whipp
And they all seem to be various degrees of corrupt, some more than others, except maybe for Wells? But no points for that. They rarely talk about movies, and as for predictions Sasha always updates us with those aggregators Gold Derby, etc, so I’m bound to see what they’re “predicting” anyways.
Since 2005, only 3 American directors have won BD, so for all its flaws, Oscar can never be accused of xenophobia. I get where I think Sasha is coming from here and agree that most of America’s visionary directors have been given the short end, oscarwise. Thing is, I can’t really take issue with any of their choices other than the Hooper/Hazanavicius one-two punch of silliness when they were rewarded for out-Hollywooding their counterparts.
Everybody likes to see the homeboy succeed. Canada hasn’t had BD since whatisname did that boat movie (*ducks*), and we’ve got a couple future threats circling right now in Dolan and Vallee. Cameron, Cuaron and Lee all prove that by the time you get to Oscar-level success, country of origin just doen’t matter. Maybe that’s the way it should be.
Will Fincher and PTA join Kubrick and Altman? Would anybody be surprised – or even bothered – by that?
It’s funny how sometimes the various pundits seem more intent on saying out loud how lousy (even inconsequential) prognosticators they are (because, I assume, they somehow want to distance themselves from the evil machinery of the business, is that it?)
Tapley is like that sometimes, too, it’s not just Sasha (Feinberg is his own man in that sense; he insists he is so good at predicting, that everything else he writes about seems of little or no value to him, which makes him a useless alternative if you care about movies first and foremost)
Yet – and this is the thing – everyone makes predictions all the time! Why not step back then? Why not set an example and stop predicting the nominees until the last week prior to the nominations announcement? And ignore it until then? Otherwise stand by the fact that predicting is a part of the business of Oscar-blogging and don’t feel ashamed by it. Admit that it’s one of the fun things about Oscar season: To see if you get it right… (and, maybe, admit that you would like to be better at it..;))
I think I understood what Sasha meant perfectly well, but thanks for spelling it out. It just confuses me whenever you have to resort to the concept of America (or Denmark or any other national entity) in order to make a claim for the value of artistic expressions. I don’t care what Lars Von Trier thinks of Denmark (he’s not a politician, so it has no effect on me) and I don’t care what my fellow Danes think of him in return. If they’re into art films they will surely have an opinion about him, if not, they think that he’s a weirdo just like everybody else. I’m not a patriot, period, but I do feel deeply Danish, because of the obvious fact that Danish is my first language. The language means the world to me, that’s like the perfect gift at birth, something to cherish. But I think it’s possible to separate that from any bigger sense of nationhood or whatever. The year Susanne Bier won an Oscar I was rooting for some of the other films (can’t remember which, so I can’t have been too impressed with that years’ contenders!), because I liked them more. So my sense of patriotism is limited, I would say. Maybe that’s why I find it odd to bring up an “make America proud” sentiment? Why is that important with relation to Fincher’s film? Ok, it’s a small thing, and I do appreciate Sasha’s passion, America-centric though it certainly is.
Do I loathe America? No way. I love so much about American culture. The movies, the music, the books (not least the books! I’m a fervent reader of American literature, which generally speaking, kicks ass!). Not so much a fan of American political culture, maybe, nothing new there, I guess. If you’re brought up in Europe you’re bound to feel disaffection for the American political culture, but you have every right to feel the same way about ‘Old Europe’ (maybe for slightly different reasons). It would be incredibly hypocritical of me, not to say downright disgraceful, to look down on the American contribution to the world and to 20th century popular culture in particular. I’m not that stupid. Ignorant, maybe, but not stupid.
Hey, and thanks for fixing my typos! (I was in a hurry, I guess it shows…)
“But you should follow more objective “Oscar pundits” like … Kris Tapley, Pete Hammond “
oh shit, no no, god no, don’t lead people astray like that. Come around here in January and I’ll pull random names out of a hat and we’ll come up with better guidance that you’ll get from Tapley or Hammond.
Kris will have some good “predictions” the day before the Oscars. But in January, don’t rely on Kris to know any more that I can tell you. I’ll come up with something.
Assuming most Academy members are Hollywood based, I do recall LA having a distinct problem with irony. Movies there are taken so seriously I doubt they’d get a film that screwed with the projections they take for granted. To Die For springs to mind and a sense of a kind of smart, sharp, hip film that misses the Academy come award time. WOWS, though ironic, was less self aware than GG, it wasn’t as coldly academic till the very end. Hollywood’s a dream factory and unfortunately it could well be there’s just too much hate in Gone Girl to be seen clearly through that mirror.
Another thing: the Oscar prospects of Gone Girl have NOTHING to do with whether a woman adapted it from her own novel or not. If anything, that’s an advantage, because it happens all too rarely in the upper reaches of the Hollywood food chain. So there’s a nice little story there.
What might hurt the film is what hurt so many films alike it: that it’s a genre film and that it’s unpleasant to sit through (if your inclined to dislike dark movies).
If it wasn’t meant to be an Oscar movie, the why was it released now? and why have pundits been talking about it forever? Of course, the people behind this movie wanted it to be an Oscar movie, but that’s not the same as saying that it will be an Oscar movie. I agree with Ryan, though, this looks like anything between 4 and 7 nominations (with adapted screenplay, editing and best actress as the surest bets). I also think it will make it in the BP lineup if there are 8-10 nominees. The Box office success of the movie is obviously really helpful in this regard.
[julian the emperor — I patched up half a dozen typos for you. Mainly because you wrote “I agree with Ryan…”]
“David Fincher, like Stanley Kubrick, like Steven Spielberg, like Martin Scorsese, like John Ford makes America proud.”
I sure hope Fincher doesn’t give a rat’s ass about whether he makes America proud! What has that got to do with anything?
– “David Fincher, like Stanley Kubrick, like Steven Spielberg, like Martin Scorsese, like John Ford makes America proud.”
– I sure hope Fincher doesn’t give a rat’s ass about whether he makes America proud! What has that got to do with anything?
I’m not always the best authority on the meaning of everything that gets published here. But I read Sasha’s line to mean this: Spielberg, Scorsese, Ford, Fincher — these are the kind of directors that should make American filmlovers proud.
Like, the same way I assume many Russians filmlovers are proud of Eisenstein’s contribution to cinema. and the way filmlovers in Sweden can be proud of Bergman’s achievements.
Or the way filmlovers in Denmark have every reason to be proud of Dreyer and Von Trier, yes? Does that not make good sense?
Whether or not Ford or Bergman or Eisenstein or Fincher give a rat’s ass if their fellow countrymen are proud of them is rather far beyond the point.
Sasha says nothing at all in her sentence about how Fincher should feel about anything.
Sasha’s simply saying that she and many other American filmlovers have good reason to be proud of American filmmakers and the legacy of American film history.
What’s the problem with that?
(Is it because, to some people outside America, “AMERICA” represents something they scorn — so who cares whether or not some of the ignoramuses in America don’t appreciate American artists? …I wonder if there are any ignoramuses in Denmark who don’t give a rat’s ass about Von Trier and vice versa? Do you know anyone like that, Mads? And if there are people in Denmark who Von Trier doesn’t give a rat’s ass about, does that mean you hope Von Trier doesn’t give a rat’s ass about any of the Danish people who rightly admire him? I don’t know the answer to that question. I’m asking.)
What has that got to do with anything?
What has anything got to do with anything? Nobody here has to worry that anything we think or write is required to meet some lofty standard of significance.
Lots of Americans are proud of America’s contribution to world cinema. I’m not going to apologize if that annoys you for some reason.
I know, I know, you don’t think much of America overall. Sometimes times neither do I. But please try to think of something good about America whenever you bristle up at the idea that any of us could possibly be proud of anything that any Americans have done.
And maybe try to consider that Americans or Russians or Swedes or Danes who achieve great things might not abhor the idea that some of their countrymen proudly admire those great achievements.
k? Will you consider that possibility? As a gesture of international tolerance? 🙂
(Maybe what Sasha wrote got lost in translation. Have I made it any more clear? Hope so, my good friend.)
“And I believe the one they call Al can back me up.”
That’s me, the one they call Al. Haha!! 🙂 Or as Paul Simon sings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULjCSK0oOlI
I do remember that bet Cirkus. I don’t remember what the winner gets though. I believe you said that Gone Girl would receive Zero nominations.
I don’t remember what the winner gets though.
I think we agreed if Gone Girl gets zero nominations then whoever predicted that outcome gets to kiss my ass. But if Gone Girl does get some nominations then whoever says it wouldn’t still gets to kiss my ass.
Can I just ask what it is with the implicit Benjamin Button hate weaved in with all the Fincher love around here (and elsewhere)? I’ve never had anything but good opinions about that movie, and I think it fits in very neatly with the rest of Fincher’s body of work, even if it serves as the odd happy(-ish) film. Setting it up as part of this “Oscar Fincher vs Real Fincher” dichotomy is weird. I think people are taking the whole film at face value (backwards Forrest Gump) and ignoring a lot of the nuance, which, oddly enough, is what a lot of people are accusing Gone Girl’s detractors of doing.
Well I wrote off Gone Girl months ago and the proof exists in these talk backs on articles from that time. I even made a bet with the “this is me, Ryan Adams.” And I believe the one they call Al can back me up. I literally just got home from finally seeing it, and my opinion hasn’t changed. Maybe it gets actress, and possibly cinematography but that’s it. I think score is out of the question too. Now I did enjoy the film but didn’t love it. I actually laughed a lot which I didn’t expect to do. But yeah, I’m agreeing with Sasha. And the fact it is already released wide only means it will be all but forgotten by the end of the year.
Well! I am a bit frustrated because Gone Girl was a good movie. But so were Se7en and Zodiac. The list goes on: The Shining, Shawshank Redemption, Vertigo, North by Northwest and last year’s Prisoners. None of those movies ever won anything but they are all regarded as masterpieces.. So what’s the big fuss? If anything it just makes this very confusing because any movie night not be an Oscar movie and still be a masterpiece and vice versa – it can be an Oscar movie and be quite shitty. So that is why this whole game is getting a bit tiresome.. If people are going to discuss great movies – then so be it. But if we’re going to whine about why this movie is not an Oscar movie or vice versa – I am afraid that this is a game than we’re not going to win. Case in Point: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button vs Zodiac. You tell me which movie you prefer and which movie the Academy obviously preferred. 😉
So that is why this whole game is getting a bit tiresome.. If people are going to discuss great movies – then so be it. But if we’re going to whine about why this movie is not an Oscar movie or vice versa
Vily, nobody who’s tired of the prediction game has to play it. There is always plenty of discussion here that doesn’t involve trying to guess what the Oscar voters will do. Just skip past the guessing game when you get sick of it. That’s what I do. Usually in January and February when everyone is finalizing their best guesses, I rarely ever make a list.
I’m terrible at guessing what Ed Asner and his likeminded pals are thinking. (Frankly, the inside of Ed Asner’s head is no place I want to go). I’m a little better at guessing what Soderberg and his friends might be thinking. But I don’t kid myself that I can read the minds of 6000 different people.
(and I don’t pretend the voters get together with any cohesive scheme of what to what they’re choosing. They do 6000 different things in the privacy of their own homes, and then they hire a team of accountants to sort out the mess they’ve made. Sometimes their mess falls together in a satisfying outcome. Other times it adds up to baffling silliness. It is what it is. It’s either, wow, surprising cool, or else wow, surprisingly uncool. The only time their choices bother me is when I forget to remind myself that their opinions are no better than my own.)
The slant of my Oscar talk is mainly concerned with what I wish would win, but when I’m wrong I’m never humiliated or embarrassed that I can’t fathom the shifting balance of a group that can name a masterwork like 12 Years a Slave the Best Picture one year and reward lightweight fluff like The Artist as the “best” another year.
I’m also really bad about guessing which way the wind will blow tomorrow, but I’m always happy when it blows a nice breeze in a direction that feels right to me.
No reason for you to be frustrated. Most of us here are realists about the Academy. We know they’re inconsistent. But the subject came up today about Gone Girl’s chances for nomination. Some people seem to be unusually discouraged or pessimistic — I’m only saying that I am not one of those people.
If Gone Girl is nominated for Actress, Screenplay, AND Editing, it’s getting in for Picture as well. On an individual basis, any one of these by themselves, or two put together, don’t necessarily mean anything (though an argument for Screenplay and Editing could be made), but, in a field of nine, those three together spell Best Picture nominee. I’d say it has an excellent chance at Sound Mixing as well.
The real question is, can this movie win anything.
I’d say it has an excellent chance at Sound Mixing as well.
Cinesnatch, yes, yes. I meant to say Sound Mixing is in the range of possibilities. I said 4-7 nominations but forgot to say what the 7th category might be. Thanks for reminding me.
“He’s never going to make the kind of movie they want him to make to win one of their ornaments. He’s never going to make a movie that makes us all feel good about ourselves and our world. ”
If that’s true then what the fuck was Benjamin Button?
(Answer: a fucking nightmare of a film, save for a few saving graces [P. Henson, Swinton, opening montage]
Thanks for the link, Sasha.
—
‘“[The near-overflow turnout mirrored “Gone Girl’s” robust commercial debut this weekend (box office analysts predicted a take of $37 million to $42 million), while the muted response from Oscar voters and their plus-ones in the room fell squarely] in line with the middling B grade moviegoers gave it, per market research firm Cinemascore.”’
If you ask me, the so-called middling B grade won’t trouble me too much. Just because the survey results by which the subjects were said to be (average) moviegoers turned out to be in a mid-B range [edited by myself prior to posting] — it doesn’t mean the industrial viewers/voters in total won’t give it a warm welcome, or not, at the end of the day. Average moviegoers for good measure might also gave Transformer, or UFO Gods forbid, [gasp] the Hangover flicks, an A- or A based on the survey result by any given research firm, I would guess.
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And if any (from the LA Times’ article), Fincher seems to have done a good, if not great, job #technically.
‘“ . . . This is first-class filmmaking,” one academy member said. But … “But, like a lot of his other movies, you admire it more than you enjoy it.”’
I find it a bit ironic that this academy member seemed to admire Fincher’s technical and directorial prowess but still in wants of enjoyment leaving the theater. To me, Fincher’s films are usually enjoyable, a solid fun to watch especially in theater; I also love the dark tone featured in his movies. So, it was quite a surprise for someone else to find his films lukewarm despite the person seemingly admiring the man’s overall directorial skills.
–
Anyway, I think it is too soon to dismiss it or (for any mastermind to pretend) to lose hope for certain results. But I suspect Sasha’s doing #something here (not implying anything positive or negative in particular) just like she did #that Hustle article last year (or the beginning of this year).
Brilliant post, Ryan
http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2013/12/stab-me-with-a-pencil/
The oddsmaker who spoke with a bunch of Academy members voting for Saving Mr. Banks into the Best Picture win, and Emma Thompson to the Best Actress.
One month later it gets a Best Score nom.
Articles on random Academy members are probably the worst thing in the Oscar season for the reasons already listed.
Ryan Adams puts it out best that five people mentioned disdain for a movie. Cool. Glad there’s still 5995 other people out there. If the movie ended with a 45 metacritic rating, $4 million opening, and a Jersey Boys awareness level on twitter, then yeah, I’d probably bet against it.
This is me telling you not to predict Gone Girl for anything. Nothing.
Can I play too? This is me, Ryan Adams, telling anyone who wants to listen that it would be silly at this point NOT to predict Gone Girl for nominations in these categories:
Best Actress
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Score
Best Editing
(those 4 seem to me to be virtually guaranteed)
and I think it’s quite plausible to talk about additional nominations for
Best Picture — in spite of the naysayers, I think this right on the cusp of likely
and Best Director
(but those last 2 depend on whether or not Unbroken and Wild and Theory of Everything and blank and blank are are as pedestrian and tedious as I expect them be based on the pedestrian trailers and the tedious filmmakers who made them who never made a great movie before now, so why should I expect any of them to surprise me out of the blue this year?)
yes, shock, this is me, Ryan Adams refusing to “reserve” half the BP slots for 5 movies I haven’t even seen, 5 unseen movies that (to me) look like cookie-cooker Oscar-friendly pablum. In fact, I’m dreading having to sit through some of those movies, but I guess I have to. (or do I? I never felt obligated to see Crazy Heart or blank or blank and I don’t feel like my cinematic education has any bad gaps).
This is me, Ryan Adams looking at all the dozens and dozens of fantastic exciting Oscar nominees from the past several years — and I don’t see 80% junk and 20% brilliance. I see the opposite. I see 80% brilliance and less than 20% junk.
And that’s why I don’t talk about the Academy as if they’re a bunch of 6000 big whiny babies. I know that’s not true because I can name the names of 1000 Oscar voters off the top of my head who have given me some of the best hours of my life.
*(I do believe there may be as many as 1000 Oscar voters who, if you gave me a list of their names, I would say “who?” or “is he still alive?” or “yeesh.”)
But I know enough about math to understand that the segment of disreputable members of the Academy who might deserve my scorn only account for 15% or 20% of the voters. That’s still too many. But that 15% is apparently unable to stand in the way of 10 or 12 Oscar winners every year for 85 years that I can gladly endorse (even though I do gripe a lot about the 4 or 5 winners every year that I, personally, do NOT endorse).
The very last thing I worry about is which washed-up alcoholic has-been nobody who hasn’t made a movie since 1985 is schmoozing with Glenn Whipp.
Because my gut tells me that voters like those low-brow nobodies are rare in the AMPAS, and they’re getting more rare every year as they die off. RIP soon, I hope.
Every lazy-brain voter who thinks he’s being clever by joking about Affleck’s penis is outnumbered in the Academy by 10 or 20 other distinguished filmmakers who got where are by making all the great movies that all of us grew up loving, and all the other thousands of Academy members who are making movies every year that lift our spirits and enrich our lives. Every year.
this me, Ryan Adams, saying I’m not going to piss on the Academy for not giving any Oscars to The Butler 8 months after that same Academy gave 3 of its highest honors to 12 Years a Slave.
this is me, Ryan Adams, telling you that my opinion should mean no more to you than the opinion of any stranger off the street, and reminding you (as if I need to) that my personal opinion should mean NOTHING compared to your own personal opinion.
this is me, Ryan Adams, telling you that “I think” it’s entirely reasonable to expect Gone Girl will get between 4 and 7 Oscar nominations —
— and if you want to base your goofy Office Oscar Pool picks on what I think, then go right ahead, and if I’m wrong, blame me all you want. So what? Buy a voodoo doll of Ryan Adams and stick 150 pins in it — it will have no effect on me.
Blame me, thank me, nag me, hug me — whatever. It’s not going to bother me or make my day one way or another.
I’ve been lucky enough to hang around here sharing the anticipation for our hopefuls and sharing opinions about hundreds of brilliant films with all of you for a lot of years… and one thing I know: THESE NEXT FIVE MONTHS LEADING UP TO OSCAR NIGHT ARE ALWAYS MORE FUN TO ME THAN OSCAR NIGHT ITSELF. Oscar Night I barely have time to have any fun because I’m too busy typing and cheering and sighing with sick relief and (very rarely) groaning.
But this past year on Oscar Night, I had a blast. 95% of the winners, I was fine with, and half of them made my heart swell with pride — I was immensely proud of the Academy for its many milestones, proud of the voters who have great taste whose numbers prevailed over the relatively few voters who have shitty taste. Proud and eternally grateful to Sasha Stone for giving me the opportunity to play around on the fringes of this process, and grateful for Sasha’s tolerance, putting up with me when we disagree (which, anyway, is rarely).
What the fuck good is fighting for the Oscar winners we love — and feeling that giddy thrill of watching many of those filmmakers triumph! — if 8 months later we’re behaving like the Oscars never do anything right and trying to portray them as philistines incapable of recognizing a quality film when they see one.
This is me, Ryan Adams, refusing to believe that Oscar voters are a pack of idiots based on 5 dumb quotes from 5 nasty shitheads in the Academy who are dumb enough to think they’re smart if Scott fucking Feinberg quotes their dumbass wisecracks.
I think you’re putting too much weight onto one article that is like a lot of articles of the past. This is why the new voting system and the 5+ field is better. It supports movies that people feel passionately about and has done a good job of expanding the field to films that are not traditionally Oscar.
““This is first-class filmmaking,” one academy member said. But … “But, like a lot of his other movies, you admire it more than you enjoy it.””
Whatever you think about the rest of that article, I get a sense that quote reflects how a lot of AMPAS members feel toward Fincher’s work in general.
The film is getting a great deal of buzz. This is an overreaction. I think Pike even has a shot at Best Actress.
Well well, this is interesting. I think voters are more apt to like movies that are emotionally moving, or sweeping cinematic epics (Gravity). I haven’t seen Gone Girl, but the run time of 2:25 is enough to make me want to wait for the video.
No way Gone Girl isn’t getting in for Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing.
Jake Bart:
Is Gone Girl making enough money even a reasonable concern at this point? It’s made more already than Nebraska, Her, and Dallas Buyers Club made in any of their entire runs. It’ll almost certainly out-gross every BP nominee of last year save for Gravity and perhaps Wolf of Wall Street at the rate it’s going. I don’t think the Academy is as concerned with films’ profitability as you seem to think.
It needs to keep making money, that’s what AMPAS really cares about. If it’s a big hit, they won’t be able to ignore it. I may be misremembering, but weren’t there reports of AMPAS members swooning over MR. BANKS last year? How’d that turn out? The two factors in getting nominated are perception and money. The perception component is taken care of for now, GONE GIRL is dominating the cultural conversation. What remains to be seen is whether or not it will keep making enough money for that conversation to continue into the winter.
It’ll never win, of course. That’s when AMPAS really (in most cases) reverts to its soft, gooey center.
A few things:
Gone Girl won’t be shutout and labeling the Academy as softies does not make it any more true. If Wolf of Wall Street, 12 Years a Slave, Amour, and Zero Dark Thirty, I think it dispels the running myth that the Academy only likes feel good crap.
Also I think bloggers and critics tend to sound pretentious when they mistakenly equate the notion of dark films with being the best tor being brilliant. I can name a tone of crap that is dark and terrible. Uplifting stories are not inherently inferior as often is suggested. Why does a movie get knock for embracing the positivity of life?
I like the fact that the “awards race” brings many movies to our attention that might otherwise fly under the radar. But I don’t like the limited size of the “boxes” created by these award-conferring committees/bodies that some of these movies have trouble fitting in….I look forward to seeing Gone Girl regardless (only a very busy schedule has prevented this from already happening….but it won’t be much longer….)…..and I may see Inherent Vice on the big screen as well…..again, regardless….
Count me as one of the people who doesn’t give much credence to what “insiders” are hearing during Academy screenings. Every year we hear information that turns out to be misleading. As people have already pointed out, last year we heard how AMPAS members were shrinking away from the horrors of The Wolf of Wall Street and it couldn’t get nominated in BP. We heard 12 Years a Slave was “too difficult” to win. In 2012 we heard how Academy members were all but somersaulting down the aisles in their love for Les Mis, and then LM never turned out to be much of a threat for winning Best Picture.
Same shit, different day.
I tend to think Fincher probably isn’t going to get nominated, but I would be stunned if Pike doesn’t get a Lead Actress nomination. Bryce’s guesswork is probably pretty accurate–Pike, screenplay, editing look reasonable, with maybe score and BP as well. After that, it gets shakier, But there’s no way the movie receives no nominations.
Good point about the HFPA, Sasha. For all the razzing they get, they DID honor Brokeback over Crash, The Aviator over Million $ Baby,
and The Social Network over TKS
Ryan is right, you can’t just write off GG right now. Too many Academy members in quite a few branches will enjoy or admire GG quite a bit.
The movie has great chances to get in with Actress and Editing, at the very least.
It could also get Writing & Score.
And if it goes over well, I even see BP and BD; if it holds interest, has a good campaign, enough voters give it #1.
“When did the Oscar race turn into such a mushy, developmentally disabled affair?”
Has it truly ever been another way? A few years ago, I sat down to the goal of watching every movie that ever won Best Picture. And there are dazzling, astonishing, wonderful movies in there: Rebecca, All About Eve, Unforgiven, The Godfather… Probably every single decade had at least one.
But there are also deeply terrible movies, and there have been since the very beginning: Cimarron, Cavalcade, Around the World In 80 Days, The Greatest Show on Earth, Crash… And that doesn’t begin to address the deeply mediocre but entirely enjoyable movies that have won: Slumdog Millionaire, Going My Way, The King’s Speech, Tom Jones, Kramer Vs. Kramer…
There are stretches where great movies win for several years (the 1970s was a great period) and others when lame ducks continue to take the prize (the current moment, it seems, but also much of the 1930s).
It ebbs and flows, and sometimes the Academy gets it right, but at least as often, it’s very, very wrong. Time will tell in the long run. It’s certainly easier to look back on these things with distance and see how they really shook out. But I guess my point is this: is Gone Girl an Oscar movie? Who cares?! It’s provoking a ton of discussion, and it’s making lots of money AS A SERIOUS, ADULT FILM (which I have to emphasize just because of how exciting that is). Will the Oscars recognize it? Maybe, but maybe not. But I suspect time will be kind to it.
Blah blah blah. What I really wanted to say is that it’s very fun to watch the Oscar race. And it’s very exciting to talk about great movies. And I think it’s easier to do that the more we keep in mind that those are two conversations that only sometimes actually cross paths.
I think it’ll get an Oscar nomination, but just barely. And it’s not as if Rosamund Pike’s performance could hold a candle to one like Glenn Close’s in Fatal Attraction, Not even close.
Whipp? Please –just looking through his last few “articles” quickly tells the story of an Oscar season “mall cop/gatekeeper” wannabe. He overreaches and tries too hard.
At this point, I’m counting on Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Actress nominations.Those are happening. I’m not prepared to pronounce yet, but I am confident it will deserve Best Cinematography and Best Score nominations as well, bu again I’m not sure since I haven’t seen so much. Biggest question mark is Best Director for reasons already discussed to fucking exhaustion — and I’d like to think Carrie Coon has a shot at Best Supporting Actress.
Speaking of GONE GIRL and a tad off-topic — I was certain that it was going to take something exceptionally affecting to release me from the oppressive stupor one is left under long after the film has ended. The antidote has just been the right dose of steadfast verisimilitude from the Dadenne brothers and their last humanist feat, TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT. Allow me a Traversism: It will kick you in the balls. How can we get a Marion Cotillard initiative going? It’s her absolute best…since RUST AND BONE.
Gone Girl is going to last. Can we say that about Argo or The King’s Speech or The Artist? Those films feel like novelties now. And maybe that’s what it always takes: Feeling shiny and new, while still adhering to a set criteria, if you want to win an Oscar for Best Picture. No, those films will have statuettes saying that they were named the best by one group of people. Gone Girl will be a cultural phenomenon. It was huge when it was just a popular crime novel, and it’s only going to become bigger with the release of a quality film. Gone Girl will be talked about in five years, ten years, twenty years while its reputation becomes close to legendary, all while Argo, The King’s Speech, and The Artist join the ranks of The Greatest Show on Earth, Dances with Wolves, and Chariots of Fire, as films whose reputations don’t last. Gone Girl is a film that is not just a story–though its storytelling immediately makes it a great film–but it’s a commentary of relationship dynamics and power, of the politics of perception versus truth, and the prices paid for the crimes we commit. Those themes are not only difficult questions asked, but they’re asked well enough that people will want to answer them.
Gone Girl has time on its side, which is worth more than any Oscar.
Ryan, unless you talk to Martin Scorsese (and Mr. Insider Pundit has exposed you for what you are) you have no idea how often he does or does not think about Ben Affleck’s penis.
It’s too early to foresee what happens. Anything is possible. There’s always rumor surrounding Academy screenings. And yes, a movie doesn’t need Academy approval to be great.
One of those insider pundits got so mad at me last year that he unfollowed me on Twitter because I dared to question it when he said everybody he talked to said Gravity would win Best Picture and everybody he talked to said they couldn’t bear to watch 12 Years a Slave.
Smartass me, I said to Mr Insider Pundit: “Maybe the Academy members who confide in you are not representative of the entire Academy? You don’t talk to ALL the Academy members do you?”
“At least I talk to SOME OF THEM” he shot back at me. And he unfollowed me. (Because nobody who lives on Beverly Drive ever talks to me).
Listen, there are 6000 people in the Academy, and many many MANY of them are filmmakers that we all respect and admire and adore. You know who’s not walking to his car after Gone Girl and making asinine jokes about Ben Affleck’s penis? Elderly Academy Martin Scorsese, for one.
Want me to name hundreds of older Academy members whose great taste and great judgement about great films is indisputable? I don’t have time to name them all because there are literally thousands of them.
Why the fuck are we even posting bullshit wisecrack anecdotal reactions from 5 ignoramus has-beens who walk to their car alongside Mr Insider Pundit? If they’re pals with Mr. Insider Pundit then they’re not Scorsese-level Academy members.
Sasha, you know better than to overreact like this. No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Wolf of Wall Street, The Social Network, all those movies got in and they were hard to sit through at times. Not to say they are bad but they aren’t pleasant, and believe me I love them all to pieces. But if it gets nominated, it gets nominated. Forget the whole, “How many movies have been nominated with women adapting their own novels?” Well, how many movies have been nominated with men adapting their own novels? NO. That’s not even the right question. The real question should be, “How many ‘dark’, like ‘really really dark’, movies have been nominated? Then how many have won?” Don’t look at it from a gender thing. Forget the woman novelist. Forget the middle aged males because that talking point is getting stale. You say it yourself, each year the Academy evolves and the race changes, mostly for the better. We can’t use gender, age or income as a factor anymore. What would you say if the Academy was made up of lower class women of various ages and they didn’t like Gone Girl? What would your article then be? The truth is, and you’ve said it yourself multiples times, they will nominate who they want to nominate. Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, was it nominated for picture and director? No. Was it nominated for 5 Oscars? Yes, more than Tree of Life. Did it win best editing in one of the craziest upsets in the editing category since…whenever? Yes. Was the Academy one of the few awards bodies to nominate Rooney Mara’s performance which, if I remember correctly, you called the best performance of the year? Yes. If they nominated Gone Girl for best picture, director, screenplay, music, editing, cinematography, lead actor and supporting actress but leave out Pike for best actress I think you would still find a reason to complain about the Academy. I know you want Gone Girl to be nominated and possibly even win it all. That’s going to be difficult in a year with so many great contenders, seen and those to still be seen. Me? I’m THRILLED it opened to $38,000,000. Sure I’ll be miffed if Gone Girl is shut out of everything. I was miffed big time when The Master was mostly shut out minus the acting. But I won’t psychoanalyze the Academy because at the end of the day they vote for who they want or feel is best for the awards. As long as Transformers 4 isn’t nominated for best picture I think we are in good shape.
I’m not worried (yet). I’m not dellusional enough to think it could actually win but I think nomination-wise Gone Girl is in good shape. Who cares if there are ‘reports’ about grumpy voters, it isn’t like they are ALL needed for a Best Picture nomination, thanks to the new rule, we only need 5 out of 100 to place it No1 and with Fincher and Academy darling Affleck headlining the campaign, that shouldn’t be a problem. As for the Cinemascore, I have five words for you : The Wolf of Wall Street. It got a C…and somehow it remained a cult-bound masterpiece that – despite the usual ‘it’s not for the Academy’ rumblings – got the big nominations (picture, director, writing, acting) AND delivered a leggy run in the US and grossed almost 400M worldwide. Long story short, for now, Gone Girl has nothing to worry about.
re: “The complaints seem to vary (as they do with ticket buyers and critics) that they didn’t think Rosamund Pike was given enough screen time, that she was more fully realized in the novel. The same could be said for Wendy in The Shining, Mrs. Brody in Jaws and on and on it goes. A cinematic rendition of a novel is different from a novel.”
This is a complaint I have about the film and I want to, sort of, defend it. While I agree that a cinematic rendition of a novel is AND SHOULD BE different from a novel, the reason Gone Girl as film fails for me is that it lost, almost entirely, what I thought made Gone girl as novel succeed so much. The story was never about Amy being a representative for her gender exacting revenge or consequences for Nick’s (representative for his gender) actions. The novel works as well as it does because both genders are to blame for their equal parts in a relationship that fails from beginning to end. The film, from where I’m sitting, leans heavily on Amy as villain and Nick as hero to be, in the end, pitied. Whether this is the fault of Flynn as screenwriter, Fincher as director or Pike as actress, I remain undecided. I mostly blame all of them — which is funny because Gone Girl is a story that *should* blame everyone.
In fairness to Mr. Wilshire Boulevard, the best episodes of Bob’s Burgers are pretty excellent, and often have a lot to say.
I’m not ready to wipe Gone Girl off the nominee slate just yet, even if I share a few of the criticisms that are outlined here. Remember last year, when these “Academy reactions” came out after screenings of The Wolf of Wall Street, and they weren’t just subdued – they were actively negative. A lot of people were ready to write the whole film off right there, because it wasn’t Academy-friendly. And what was the result? Nominations in Adapted Screenplay, Lead Actor, Supporting Actor, Director, and Best Picture. It was never going to win the big prize, mind, but it was certainly in the conversation. There was even a hot second there when a lot of people thought Leo might finally get his Oscar.
Gone Girl will probably go much the same way. Fincher’s established himself as a viable Oscar nominee with nominations for director for two of his last three films. Those last three films, by the way, got 26 Oscar nominations between them, and seven wins. Most the wins were techs, sure, but many of the nominations were above-the-line, including writing, acting, directing, and Best Picture. Gone Girl is looking to be Fincher’s most commercially successful film yet, and despite claims of being divisive, it’s getting pretty consistent praise (since when is a 79 on Metacritic or an 87 on Rottentomatoes “divisive”?). Even if you argue that Gone Girl is less Oscar-friendly than Benjamin Button or The Social Network (which it is), you’re going to have a /really/ hard time telling me that it’s a harder sell than The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which still got five nominations and a win. The Academy won’t fail to give this film its due recognition, let alone shut it out entirely.
“What they mean is power and popularity in Hollywood. Nothing more, nothing less. They can sometimes make careers…”
I would say this point leads to another reason not to be upset or disappointed if (or I suppose in this case, when) Gone Girl doesn’t end up with a Best Picture or Best Director nomination: the people involved don’t really need it at this point. This is the highest-grossing movie of Fincher’s career, will likely serve as launching pad for bigger starring roles for Rosamund Pike, and Gillian Flynn’s book was already a bestseller even before this movie put a wider spotlight on it. A few gold statues from the Academy aren’t going to do as much for Gone Girl as it would for something like, say, Whiplash, a tiny independent debut film from a new filmmaker. Business and power-wise, the Gone Girl people already “won.”
Ideally we should honor the best as the best, big or small, but if Fincher doesn’t get invited to the Dolby Theatre next year? Meh, more time for him to count the millions he made off Gone Girl and negotiate every red-hot directing offer currently being thrown at him.
I could see this playing out like Fincher’s prior film GwtDT; some acknowledgement but no major category nominations like Picture or Director.
Gone girl is a good movie , but not one of the ten best films of the year.
Didn’t Academy voters say similar things about 12 Years a Slave last year? And that ended up winning Best Picture. This article seems like an overreaction to me.