Podcast: Play in new window | Download
We got together, Ryan, Marshall and I to record a podcast talking about the BAFTAs and where we think the race goes from here. If you want to listen, here you go. Or subscribe here.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
We got together, Ryan, Marshall and I to record a podcast talking about the BAFTAs and where we think the race goes from here. If you want to listen, here you go. Or subscribe here.
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The pundits, including Sasha Stone herself, have created the bubble to make people on the internet believe that the awards season this year was all about “Dunkirk” vs. “Get Out” vs. “Lady Bird”, when the actual race has always been “The Shape of Water” vs. “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” since the very beginning.
The pundits, including Sasha Stone herself, have created the bubble to make people on the internet believe that the awards season this year was all about “Dunkirk” vs. “Get Out” vs. “Lady Bird”, when the actual race has always been “The Shape of Water” vs. “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” since the very beginning.
I love the Oscar chat, too.
I love the Oscar chat, too.
3 Bills winning BAFTA ..Oooooo.but who knew ..who could have seen that curveball coming ?
Now it’s a showdown between an Ode to Classic Film , and an Ode to Vigilanteism
Just watched “Shape of Water”, finally – and I think it´s…um…okay. Visually remarkable, of course, but all in all a bit too artificial and also predictable, story-wise. Nothing that happened on screen did surprise me, but still I´d say it´s really excellent directed. And Sally Hawkins – she´s amazing, but probably the only really award-worthy performance in that film. The film reminded me a bit of “Amelie”, in terms of the films fairy tale mood, which was sometimes a bit too cute and kitchy for my taste. “Pan´s Labyrinth”, however, remains del Toro´s masterpiece, IMO.
And what does this mean for my Oscar predictions? Honestly, I don´t know. I really don´t know if the Academy will embrace the fantasy elements and the old fashioned look of it THAT much to give it their top prize, but I´m really undecided right now. Need to re-think this crazy Oscar race… 😉
“Visually remarkable, of course, but all in all a bit too artificial and also predictable, story-wise.”
“The film reminded me a bit of “Amelie”, in terms of the films fairy tale mood, which was sometimes a bit too cute and kitchy for my taste.”
All this. I suspect Oscar voters that see it late on will be similarly underwhelmed. But, who knows, maybe something similar will happen to Three Billboards?! I doubt it, though. Not to the same degree. That movie is much more entertaining than Shape, even if you have a problem with its writing. A la Birdman, Argo, The Artist, The Departed, Crash, Chicago, Gladiator, Shakespeare in Love… Even The King’s Speech. Even Driving Miss Daisy and Braveheart, to bring in the most relevant precedents, stats-wise, for this year’s race – they were clearly the more entertaining movies of the ones that were vying for the top prize in those years. (Those that had any shot to win, I mean.) And those are just the first examples that come to mind. “Are you not entertained?!…” 🙂 Entertaining movies do quite well when it comes to winning Best Picture. It’s not always the entertaining movie that wins (obviously, looking at last year or the year of The Big Short, though if you think the choice was between Spotlight and The Revenant, I don’t know how anyone can call The Revenant entertaining, and the year of 12 Years a Slave, or that of The Hurt Locker), but they do really well. They certainly do a million times better than fantasy movies, or movies that are just too weird. And, think about it: it was the most entertaining entry in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (or at least the one that focused the most on entertainment value and had the most epic feel of them all, as far as I’m concerned) that actually won, the only fantasy movie that’s ever won, unless you consider Birdman fantasy, which it really isn’t, because it’s not supposed to be taken at face value – and unless I’m forgetting something.
I’d know. 🙂 This is the reason my taste is so similar to the Academy’s. If two movies are equally good, I’m almost always going to prefer the more entertaining one. And why not?! Seems as good a criterion as anything. Of course, Get Out is maybe equally entertaining, but I’d still say Billboards has a slight edge, even here. But this is debatable. But Shape is most definitely nowhere near as entertaining as those two. Like I said, it’s mostly just weird. Even Spencer’s character is a lot more sassy than funny, and Shannon’s more creepy than anything.
Listening to the podcast too, now I wonder if a film (Shape) is going to win BP and Best Original Screenplay Oscar were we have “Sex with a Fish”, it’s mostly just weird for a lot of Academy members.
I’d still say Three Billboards has a slight edge for both categories.
Yeah, I don’t buy it either, anymore. But, purely stats-wise, it still has its chances.
But certainly not Monster-wise…
🙂
erg. I wish you guys would pls quit it with the “fish sex”! :))
like I think I said on the podcast, what fish have you ever seen that has hands and legs and a penis?
(I want to ask “what fish have you ever eaten that has a penis” but that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms.)
Funny thing: I wouldn´t describe this amphibian creature as a “fish” at all, to me it behaved like a cute little puppy! That was one problem I had with the film: the “Monster” was way too cute: You love it from the first moment you see it! It would have been far more intresting and challenging if it would´ve looked more like a beast or something that would make the audience feel disgusted, something that would create ambivalent feelings. But no, it´s certainly a Monster á la “Monster Inc.”!
The funny thing is that I easily find enough reasons against ANY of the top contenders winning the Award – but some film HAS to win! 😉
I´m still very sceptical about “Three Billboards” because it doesn´t fit the “consensus candidate” that usually wins with the preferential ballot. “Lady Bird” could have been that special candidate but there´s no real passion behind it. And “Get out”? I´ve posted several times that I believe it´s too weird for the common Academy´s preferences. BUT: That wouldn´t be valid if we assume that the Academy has changed that much based on recent membership upgrade with more youth and more diversity that they are ready to embrace some new stuff!
Are they ready for “Get out”? While this would be a great choice (my second favourite of the nominees so far behind “Phantom Thread” – haven´t seen Lady Bird and CMBYN yet, unfortunately), I just don´t believe it.
Even though I´m kind of underwhelmed, I think I stay with my original prediction “Shape of Water”.
Re “Lord of the Rings”: My favourite of this trilogy is part one, by far. I didn´t like the final 30 Minutes of “The Return of the King” – kind of messy and tedious. In 2003 my vote would have been “Lost in Translation”, but in 2001 “Fellowship” was by far more deserving than the mediocre “Beautiful Mind”.
As for 3B not being the kind of consensus candidate we’re used to, I disagree. It’s an acting showcase, a movie with a very entertaining and interesting screenplay (remember Birdman? It was all of those things, same as The King’s Speech, Argo, and so on), even if criticized by some, and a movie everybody in the industry clearly loves, even if not quite enough to even give McDonagh an undeserved directing nomination for it…
Probably we are all in a bubble at Awards Daily and believe that Three Billboards has too many haters to win… At AD it certainly has zero chance to win a Preferential Ballot, but at the Academy? That´s the question. Experts keep on talking about many negative reactions from Academy members, but these reports are rumors and we are not able to verify this – at least not until the final envelope is opened.
You know, I´m kind of biased because I think 3B is a lousy film and doesn´t even deserve the nomination, but hoping and predicting are two different things – and the films I really would love to see winning (Phantom Thread and Get out) don´t have a chance at all, in my book. (haven´t seen Lady Bird and CMBYN, yet – but they neither have a shot).
Get Out looks like it has a decent chance.
“My favourite of this trilogy is part one, by far.”
Same for me, though not by far. I like the second one almost as much, and I like the third one almost as much as the first two, but still the least of the three.
In hindsight, I, too, would give Fellowship the win over A Beautiful Mind, but I also love the latter. They both have their flaws, but both are powerful as hell! It was just a great year for BP, as far as I was concerned… 🙂 (Not least of all because Moulin Rouge! was also there.)
I´ll put it this way: 2001 was certainly a great year for movies, but it didn´t really correspond into a great list at the Academy Awards, at least as far as I´m concerned: My favourite films from that year: The Royal Tenenbaums, Mulholland Drive, Memento, The Others, The Son´s Room and Ghost World – neither was nominated for Best Picture. From the films that did get a Best Picture-nod, I only liked “Fellowship of the Ring” and – to a little lesser degree – “Gosford Park”.
My all time favourite Oscar year in terms of Best Picture-nominations, however, is certainly 1971: French Connection, The Last Picture Show, A Clockwork Orange and Fiddler on the Roof – all really great films! 🙂 My vote would have been The Last Picture Show (and McCabe and Mrs. Miller should have been the fifth nomination).
I love Ghost World so much!… Only seen two of the rest (I was too young back then to watch a lot of movies, and I’m behind on the catching up project), Memento and The Others. The first one is only OK for me, the second I liked more the one time I saw it. I probably wouldn’t nominate either.
Yeah, 1971 is a great year, no doubt! My favorite remains a pretty obvious one: 1994. (1995 Oscar year.) Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, Four Weddings and a Funeral. In that order, from best to “worst”. Three all-time masterpieces, one excellent movie and one very good one. Hard to beat that.
🙂 Yeah, I remember 1994 very well. It was one of the first Oscar seasons I passionately followed. It was mainly because of “Pulp Fiction”, the only film ever that I watched four times in theatres. I was anxious to see it from the time it was screened (at honored) at Cannes Festival, and when I finally saw it two or three months before the Oscar show I desperately wanted to see this film win. I kinda liked Forrest Gump, but was repelled by it´s pro-conservative political agenda. Of course, from the moment Forrest Gump won at the Globes (for Best Drama, go figure!) and received 13 Nominations (and Pulp only 7) I pretty much resigned and saw which way the cat jumps… 😉
But I agree with you, it was really a very good year, I like Forrest okay and the rest of the bunch is totally fine – no weak entry that year.
3 Bills winning BAFTA ..Oooooo.but who knew ..who could have seen that curveball coming ?
Now it’s a showdown between an Ode to Classic Film , and an Ode to Vigilanteism
Just watched “Shape of Water”, finally – and I think it´s…um…okay. Visually remarkable, of course, but all in all a bit too artificial and also predictable, story-wise. Nothing that happened on screen did surprise me, but still I´d say it´s really excellent directed. And Sally Hawkins – she´s amazing, but probably the only really award-worthy performance in that film. The film reminded me a bit of “Amelie”, in terms of the films fairy tale mood, which was sometimes a bit too cute and kitchy for my taste. “Pan´s Labyrinth”, however, remains del Toro´s masterpiece, IMO.
And what does this mean for my Oscar predictions? Honestly, I don´t know. I really don´t know if the Academy will embrace the fantasy elements and the old fashioned look of it THAT much to give it their top prize, but I´m really undecided right now. Need to re-think this crazy Oscar race… 😉
“Visually remarkable, of course, but all in all a bit too artificial and also predictable, story-wise.”
“The film reminded me a bit of “Amelie”, in terms of the films fairy tale mood, which was sometimes a bit too cute and kitchy for my taste.”
All this. I suspect Oscar voters that see it late on will be similarly underwhelmed. But, who knows, maybe something similar will happen to Three Billboards?! I doubt it, though. Not to the same degree. That movie is much more entertaining than Shape, even if you have a problem with its writing. A la Birdman, Argo, The Artist, The Departed, Crash, Chicago, Gladiator, Shakespeare in Love… Even The King’s Speech. Even Driving Miss Daisy and Braveheart, to bring in the most relevant precedents, stats-wise, for this year’s race – they were clearly the more entertaining movies of the ones that were vying for the top prize in those years. (Those that had any shot to win, I mean.) And those are just the first examples that come to mind. “Are you not entertained?!…” 🙂 Entertaining movies do quite well when it comes to winning Best Picture. It’s not always the entertaining movie that wins (obviously, looking at last year or the year of The Big Short, though if you think the choice was between Spotlight and The Revenant, I don’t know how anyone can call The Revenant entertaining, and the year of 12 Years a Slave, or that of The Hurt Locker), but they do really well. They certainly do a million times better than fantasy movies, or movies that are just too weird. And, think about it: it was the most entertaining entry in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (or at least the one that focused the most on entertainment value and had the most epic feel of them all, as far as I’m concerned) that actually won, the only fantasy movie that’s ever won, unless you consider Birdman fantasy, which it really isn’t, because it’s not supposed to be taken at face value – and unless I’m forgetting something.
I’d know. 🙂 This is the reason my taste is so similar to the Academy’s. If two movies are equally good, I’m almost always going to prefer the more entertaining one. And why not?! Seems as good a criterion as anything. Of course, Get Out is maybe equally entertaining, but I’d still say Billboards has a slight edge, even here. But this is debatable. But Shape is most definitely nowhere near as entertaining as those two. Like I said, it’s mostly just weird. Even Spencer’s character is a lot more sassy than funny, and Shannon’s more creepy than anything.
Listening to the podcast too, now I wonder if a film (Shape) is going to win BP and Best Original Screenplay Oscar were we have “Sex with a Fish”, it’s mostly just weird for a lot of Academy members.
I’d still say Three Billboards has a slight edge for both categories.
Yeah, I don’t buy it either, anymore. But, purely stats-wise, it still has its chances.
But certainly not Monster-wise…
erg. I wish you guys would pls quit it with the “fish sex”! :))
like I think I said on the podcast, what fish have you ever seen that has hands and legs and a penis?
(I want to ask “what fish have you ever eaten that has a penis” but that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms.)
Funny thing: I wouldn´t describe this amphibian creature as a “fish” at all, to me it behaved like a cute little puppy! That was one problem I had with the film: the “Monster” was way too cute: You love it from the first moment you see it! It would have been far more intresting and challenging if it would´ve looked more like a beast or something that would make the audience feel disgusted, something that would create ambivalent feelings. But no, it´s certainly a Monster á la “Monster Inc.”!
The funny thing is that I easily find enough reasons against ANY of the top contenders winning the Award – but some film HAS to win! 😉
I´m still very sceptical about “Three Billboards” because it doesn´t fit the “consensus candidate” that usually wins with the preferential ballot. “Lady Bird” could have been that special candidate but there´s no real passion behind it. And “Get out”? I´ve posted several times that I believe it´s too weird for the common Academy´s preferences. BUT: That wouldn´t be valid if we assume that the Academy has changed that much based on recent membership upgrade with more youth and more diversity that they are ready to embrace some new stuff!
Are they ready for “Get out”? While this would be a great choice (my second favourite of the nominees so far behind “Phantom Thread” – haven´t seen Lady Bird and CMBYN yet, unfortunately), I just don´t believe it.
Even though I´m kind of underwhelmed, I think I stay with my original prediction “Shape of Water”.
Re “Lord of the Rings”: My favourite of this trilogy is part one, by far. I didn´t like the final 30 Minutes of “The Return of the King” – kind of messy and tedious. In 2003 my vote would have been “Lost in Translation”, but in 2001 “Fellowship” was by far more deserving than the mediocre “Beautiful Mind”.
As for 3B not being the kind of consensus candidate we’re used to, I disagree. It’s an acting showcase, a movie with a very entertaining and interesting screenplay (remember Birdman? It was all of those things, same as The King’s Speech, Argo, and so on), even if criticized by some, and a movie everybody in the industry clearly loves, even if not quite enough to even give McDonagh an undeserved directing nomination for it…
Probably we are all in a bubble at Awards Daily and believe that Three Billboards has too many haters to win… At AD it certainly has zero chance to win a Preferential Ballot, but at the Academy? That´s the question. Experts keep on talking about many negative reactions from Academy members, but these reports are rumors and we are not able to verify this – at least not until the final envelope is opened.
You know, I´m kind of biased because I think 3B is a lousy film and doesn´t even deserve the nomination, but hoping and predicting are two different things – and the films I really would love to see winning (Phantom Thread and Get out) don´t have a chance at all, in my book. (haven´t seen Lady Bird and CMBYN, yet – but they neither have a shot).
“My favourite of this trilogy is part one, by far.”
Same for me, though not by far. I like the second one almost as much, and I like the third one almost as much as the first two, but still the least of the three.
In hindsight, I, too, would give Fellowship the win over A Beautiful Mind, but I also love the latter. They both have their flaws, but both are powerful as hell! It was just a great year for BP, as far as I was concerned… 🙂 (Not least of all because Moulin Rouge! was also there.)
I´ll put it this way: 2001 was certainly a great year for movies, but it didn´t really correspond into a great list at the Academy Awards, at least as far as I´m concerned: My favourite films from that year: The Royal Tenenbaums, Mulholland Drive, Memento, The Others, The Son´s Room and Ghost World – neither was nominated for Best Picture. From the films that did get a Best Picture-nod, I only liked “Fellowship of the Ring” and – to a little lesser degree – “Gosford Park”.
My all time favourite Oscar year in terms of Best Picture-nominations, however, is certainly 1971: French Connection, The Last Picture Show, A Clockwork Orange and Fiddler on the Roof – all really great films! 🙂 My vote would have been The Last Picture Show (and McCabe and Mrs. Miller should have been the fifth nomination).