It will probably be a fairly easy contest to predict the DGA Awards. They are about as locked as they could possibly be. Because of that we probably can’t offer an actual prize for this contest, as I suspect there will be many. If on the odd chance there are any surprises anywhere we can potentially work with that. Either way, here you go.
First time director is surprisingly wide open. It’s arguably the most interesting category… I REALLY would love to see WANDAVISION win. It’s dedication and attention to detail of several varying styles is genuinely impressive.
Chicago 7 vs Molly’s Game
I prefer Molly’s Game much more. While he’s a great screenwriter, I found Sorkin can be so over the top w/ his directing. In Molly’s Game, the character that has the potential to be over the top is Molly, and Jessica Chastain execute the character perfectly, so I don’t feel annoyed w/ her character.
Meanwhile, in Chicago 7, almost all of the Chicago 7 are so over the top and annoying. By the end, I didn’t even remember that I’m supposed to root for the Chicago 7 because I’m too busy being annoyed by them.
He’s also over the top with his writing as well.
Yes, but when it’s executed by the right directors (e.g. The Social Network, Moneyball), it becomes a really great film.
I haven’t seen Moneyball, but TSN annoyed me b/c of the writing.
I wanted to like Moneyball a whole lot more than I did. BUT, it was nice to see Sorkin get away from “big statement” political topics.
Both movies are very bad. The problem in my opinion is less with over the top directing but rather with his screenplays being so over the top that there needs to be someone making sure what’s going on isn’t going to just wallow in Sorkin’s obsessions as a writer. Naturally Sorkin isn’t the person to do that because otherwise he wouldn’t have those scripts.
Both writing and directing are bad. On both films. I have nothing against Sorkin. I LOVED the west wing and sports night, really disliked Studio 60 and the newsroom. A Few Good Men and The American President were overrated nonsense while The Social Network and Moneyball were great (you can argue a large part of it is thanks to Bennett Miller and David Fincher who didn’t let the words swallow the films and spit them out as if they are disembodied from the characters). He is very much hit and miss thanks to his self indulgent self righteous self important instincts as a writer less concerned about character and story and more concerned about scoring ideological punchlines and how many words he can string together in one sentence begging to impress. The Trial of Chicago and Molly’s Game are giant misses and 2 terrible bores. How the trial got as far as it did befuddles me. All the performances are bad.
Seems like the general consensus here people also don’t like Molly’s Game. Might need to rewatch it, because I found it enjoyable back then.
Exactly, about TSN & Moneyball. As I said in my other comment, w/ the right directors, his script can be much better executed.
I watched A Few Good Men I think a decade ago, and I remember I loved it back then. But I was also still a kid back then. I might change my opinion if I rewatch it as an adult now.
Talking about director, anyone feels Nolan a bit underappreciated by critics & academy?
Til now, he’s only nominated for Oscar BD once (Dunkirk).
I feel like people in the future will look at his track records (Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, TDK, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet) and will appreciate his films more.
Of course currently he’s appreciated by audience, but not so much by critics & academy.
Highly underappreciated, in my opinion, he’s mind-blowingly good – but the consensus around here is probably leaning towards the opposite (that he isn’t underappreciated or even all that good)…
For me he’s one of the director that bridge the gap of good-to-great films and appeal to the masses that the academy keeps looking for.
All the more bizarre that they haven’t really embraced him…
In a weird way, I think he tries too hard. Maybe trying a smaller film without all the green screens would be an idea.
While I agree that a smaller movie would probably do him good, didn’t people make a big deal about how Tenet has less than 300 VFX shots?
Having a comprehensible plot and actual sound mixing might have helped.
Yeah, maybe… I don’t mind it at all, but maybe they do. Maybe he feels too blockbustery for them.
I want someone who tries as hard as he is, because I don’t think we would get films like TDK or Inception from someone who is playing safe. Of course by playing hard you’re more prone to errors, and tbf I don’t care w/ some flaws as long as it’s still great entertainment. The problem is, critics goes to watch film w/ the intention to look for flaws, while the general audience watch film to have entertainment. And the academy is far leaning to the critics right now.
What I mean by “trying to hard” is that when you make a film with an eye towards Oscar or “artistic importance” then the process is much less organic and mistakes get made. Dark Knight in particular was hurt badly by Nolan’s desire to make it into a BIG IMPORTANT STATEMENT about society. Up until that disaster of a third act it was an incredible crime thriller that happened to involve comic book characters.
Scorcese had a couple of patches like this and when that happened he went for a smaller project easy to bang out (After Hours worked spectacularly, Bringing Out the Dead not so much). I don’t find it a coincidence that when he made Departed there was no Oscar grab informing the process and even thought it was hardly his BEST film, it was nimble and entertaining as hell and was lucky to hit an Oscar competing field that really wasn’t very good as a whole. Unfortunately I think he tried too hard with Irishman.
“The problem is, critics goes to watch film w/ the intention to look for
flaws, while the general audience watch film to have entertainment.”
You’re spot-on with this. Critics are a bit too focused on the technical side of things.
Again with Nolan.
In the current voting climate, I think Memento would have snagged him a director nod. lnsomnia was good, but didn’t light the world on fire. Prestige….umm….that ending bugged people. Inception was nominated for Best Picture and a bunch of other nods. Dunkirk got Nolan his nod. Tenet and Interstellar sucked on toast.
Wither Dark Knight? I will argue that the shock of Heath Ledger’s death caused many of the film’s fans to overlook the ENORMOUS flaws of the film, especially in that incoherent third act. You get a villain performance for the ages out of Ledger but the film turns around and says “no, wait Harvey Dent is really the point of the picture”. That was nonsense. Combine that with an academy loathe to reward comic book movies and the Picture/Director miss really was no surprise to me. I believe the changes that the Academy made to try and placate the Nolan cultists irreparably hurt the prestige of the Oscar moving forward.
(by the way, the shock of Boseman’s death briefly obscured the many flaws Ma Rainey had as a BP contender, but the longer season ended up exposing them)
It would be an enormously good idea for Nolan to make a film out of his normal wheelhouse. Something smaller and more organic. And for god’s sake, no more out of nowhere “twists” that negate the first 2/3’s of the film.
No matter how you feel about the Academy (I personally think that there are already enough people pretending he’s a cinematic divinity so the Academy doesn’t need to raise him on a pedestal), I’d argue Nolan’s films have recieved a strong amount of critical appreciation especially considering the types of movies they are. Memento, The Dark Knight, Inception and Dunkirk got extremely good reviews, Insomnia while a very nice movie was understandably not the type of movie critics raved about in 2002 and Interstellar and Tenet are very divisive movies. Thus I don’t really see how exactly these specific movies could have gotten the better reviews you think they should have.
“I feel like people in the future will look at his track records (Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, TDK, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet) and will appreciate his films more.”
Even more? I feel like half the non-film-buff people I know in real life are convinced that he is the Greatest Filmmaker To Have Ever Lived. Every time I tell someone I don’t like Interstellar, at least three people jump on me about how I’m jUsT tOo DuMb To UnDeRsTaNd It.
He’s a good director, he made some good films (my personal favourite being Dunkirk, an excellent film, while The Dark Knight is insanely fun despite some flaws). But I definitely think he’s being overappreciated right now, not under.
I’m not sure you read the part of my comment that said he’s appreciated by audience, but not so much by critics & academy. And I feel like because he’s so appreciated by the general audience, in some way the critics and film buff getting annoyed and kinda underappreciate him.
Sorry, I made my point in a very half-baked way.
I was trying to convey that I think he’s massively overappreciated in general culture, and the Academy and critics have generally shown about the correct amount of appreciation for him. (See massive MC score and Oscar noms for Dunkirk, and less love for his less good (imo) films.) I sort of left out that second part.
I felt he should have won for The Dark Knight and Inception. Especially when you have the likes of Danny Boyle and Tom Hooper that won. But he is definitely undeserving of any award for Tenet in my opinion. It is his worst film ever. I hope he doesn’t go down the rabbit hole of making films with way too many twists and turns for its own sake. It’s his only film in which I cared for no one and what happens to any of the characters throughout a dreary 150 mins. This coming from me who also loved Interstellar and thought he should have been nominated for it.
I would’ve at least nominated him for both TDK & Inception. I might pick him as BD for TDK, though I’m not sure. As much as I like TDK, Slumdog is also an excellent film. And I would pick Fincher for TSN. Not Hooper. Not Nolan.
I disagree a bit about Tenet. For me, Batman Begins is easily his worst film. Tenet is overly complicated, but I can see the intention there. If he used a much simpler plot, it would be so much better. And yes, I love Interstellar as well.
Is his films flawed? Yes.
Is his films entertaining? Absolutely.
Is the flaws overpowers the entertainment value? For some critics who watch films looking for flaws, might be yes. But, for most audience who watched to get entertained, most probably not.
First time director is a real toss up. King, Marder and Zeller all have a good chance to win. A lot of people will be wrong in this category. Since it won PGA ‘My Octopus Teacher’ is a safe bet. At each awards show different docs are nominated. Cool.
Most boring award season ever.
Fennell should be nominated for, and winning First Feature
These don’t seem locked and as easy to pick judging from all the different predictions in the comments.
Nomadland
One Night in Miami
Octopus
Queens Gambit
The only two sure things feels like Nomadland and Queens Gambit.
That’s what I went with, but I’m probably wrong on the “other two” (the two you mentioned feel like locks).
A blind dude could predict these. Nomadland, Sound of Metal, Welcome to Chechnya, Queen’s Gambit.
And a bonus duo of picks..
Drama: The Mandalorian, Chapter 9: The Marshal
Comedy: Ted Lasso, The Hope that Kills You
STILL LMMFAO that a show whose 15 minutes expired a long time ago got 2 nominees in comedy *coughCYEcough*.
I did the same
HAHA you’re wrong on best doc cos its My Octopus Teacher
Are you that convinced?
Even the bookies think so … Octopus is an aquatic E T
There are odds for the DGA? On what betting site? I’m very interested…
Nope , I was talking about oscar but I think DGA goes for Octopus too ; the best betting site is Betfair EXCHANGE
Yeah, I know they (Betfair Exchange) have the best odds, usually, but do they also have the Oscar odds more (and/or earlier) than most? I’m on BetStars, which is terrible in this regard. They only do some categories, at least until very close to the ceremony, they only add odds at all very late in the race… I should probably switch but I’m too lazy to move money around, etc. – I’ve just been betting whenever odds are available, which isn’t often. Besides, I bet very little anyway, so it’s not even felt worth it to bother changing sites.
I bet over £700 on a number of website for Octopus to win ; if I’m wrong I’ll be fu***d royally
Oofff… That always makes me queasy, hearing about such bets. 🙂 Not much of a risk-taker myself – but I have a few friends here in Romania who most definitely are… They take their fair share of very nasty losses, as you can imagine. I don’t like that variance. I like peace of mind. 🙂
Gambling is a man’s occupation cos you must be able to take a beating and I should know cos I’ve lost 75 K on a single political bet back in 2016..but it’s true that what doesn’t kill you makes you strong .. I’ve nearly died of despair over my losses , but I’ve also won big before and those wins are the high-lightes of my life
Hey, if you can take it and you’re an overall winner, all the more power to you! 🙂 I’m a little girl when it comes to these things, I won’t hide it. :)) You’re not wrong there…
I’ve learnt more, and grown more, from my losses than wins ; after all, life is about living with loss ; everything shrinks when compared to that , unfortunately ….I’ve had an entire life of taking risks and faced a violent death on a number of occasions , so money is not that big a deal to lose
Moreover, when you learn to asses risk you intuitively understand the great truth about life , insomuch, it’s a series of random events, weird coincidences and near misses ; it’s how Evolution happened over millions of years and how fluke chance created lIfe over eons of Time ..every experienced gambler knows this ; we live in a coincidental Universe without the need for a God
I agree with most of that. 🙂 And well said!
This is just an extreme version of Life ; YOUTUBE The Deer Hunter / Russian Roulette Scene
:)) I know it well… Great one! Just amazing the kinds of movies that won BP in the 70’s!
I agree that since Octopus is nominated at DGA at all, it probably wins this too. Maybe even if it loses at the Oscars. PGA and DGA are so copy-pasty, in all sorts of categories…
I feel like DGA actually has a very distinct taste when it comes to documentaries. They don’t always go for the Oscar frontrunner even when that is possible but rather I’ve always argued that they seem to treat the category as a place to award people who found the most thrilling stories to film and who possibly risked a lot by doing it. I think My Octopus Teacher fits the former, Welcome to Chechnya is in line with the latter.
Oh yeah, I see the Oscar winner/front-runner is nominated and loses here quite often – I guess I misremembered their record. 🙂
who do you have for best actress at BAFTA ?
I don’t have a clear opinion at all (I guess I’ll have to form one when I have to make my picks for the contest and look at some quick stats) but right now I assume it’s McDormand who’s the most likely…
Is it bold to pick WandaVision? It was just so damn good.
Almost everybody at Gold Derby (and 16/16 Experts/Editors) is predicting The Queen’s Gambit. So it seems pretty bold…
I’d be shocked if Scott Frank lost
I mean, has The Queen’s Gambit lost anywhere in limited series or actress thus far?!
went with Nomadland, The Father, My Octopus Teacher, WandaVision
I did the same.
I really hope WV wins but I went the lazy QUEENS GAMBIT route. Otherwise I did the same.