Another year, another slew of movies I haven’t seen. Feb. 24th Seth MacFarlane is hosting the 85th Academy Awards. Personally, I’m hoping he will do the entire thing as Stewie but if not, I’m sure he can pull off “white male comedian” which people love so much.
Anywho, everyone seems confused about the Achievement in Directing category. Tom Hooper (“Les Miserables”), Ben Affleck (“Argo”) and Steven Spielberg (“Lincoln”) all got snubbed but I don’t really care. Mostly I’m pissed about Kathryn Bigelow (“Zero Dark Thirty”) because she’s a woman and that’s the only reason I need. Give her the damn nomination because lord knows how long it’ll be before they deem some other woman even “worth mentioning.” I hope she flips the camera the bird.
Usually I put the movies into three categories: movies I wanna see, movies I don’t really wanna see but feel like I have to yet still probably won’t, and no way in *uck I’m seeing this movie. Right now leading the pack for movies (not including documentaries) I want to see is “Beasts of the Southern Wild” with nine year old Quvenzhané Wallis, the youngest ever nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Emmanuelle Riva, 85, also made history as the oldest actress in the same category. Outside of that there’s “Silver Linings Playbook” because of Jennifer Lawrence (and I love Bradley Cooper cough cough you didn’t read this). I just want there to be a category for comedies honestly. Now for the nominations I decided to include. You can find the rest on the official Oscars site.
Best Picture
“Amour”
“Argo”
“Beasts of the Southern Wild”
“Django Unchained”
“Les Miserables”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”
“Silver Linings Playbook”
“Zero Dark Thirty”
Achievement in Directing
Michael Haneke (“Amour”)
Ang Lee (“Life of Pi”)
David O. Russell (“Silver Linings”)
Steven Spielberg (“Lincoln”)
Benh Zeitlin (“Beasts”)
Best Actor
Bradley Cooper (“Silver Linings”)
Daniel Day-Lewis (“Lincoln”)
Hugh Jackman (“Les Miserables”)
Joaquin Phoenix (“The Master”)
Denzel Washington (“Flight”)
Best Actress
Jessica Chastain (“Zero Dark Thirty”)
Jennifer Lawrence (“Silver Linings”)
Emmanuelle Riva (“Amour”)
Quvenzhane Wallis (“Beasts”)
Naomi Watts (“The Impossible”)
Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin (“Argo”)
Robert De Niro (“Silver Linings”)
Tommy Lee Jones (“Lincoln”)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (“The Master”)
Christoph Waltz (“Django”)
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams (“The Master”)
Sally Field (“Lincoln”)
Anne Hathaway (“Les Mis”)
Helen Hunt (“The Sessions”)
Jacki Weaver (“Silver Linings Playbook”)
Adapted Screenplay
Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin (“Beasts”)
Tony Kushner (“Lincoln”)
David Magee (“Life of Pi”)
David O. Russell (“Silver Linings”)
Chris Terrio (“Argo”)
Original Screenplay
Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola (“Moonrise Kingdom”)
Mark Boal (“Zero Dark Thirty”)
John Gatins (“Flight”)
Michael Haneke (“Amour”)
Quentin Tarantino (“Django Unchained”)
Animated Feature Film
“Brave”
“Frankenweenie”
“ParaNorman”
“The Pirates! Band of Misfits”
“Wreck-It Ralph”
Documentary Feature
“5 Broken Cameras”
“The Gatekeepers”
“How to Survive a Plague”
“The Invisible War”
“Searching for Sugar Man.”
Documentary (short subject)
“Inocente”
“Kings Point”
“Mondays at Racine”
“Open Heart”
“Redemption”
What have you seen? What do you want to see? What are your picks? Who do you think got snubbed? How do you think MacFarlene will do?
Me and the rest of Denmark are just yay happy that A Royal Affair was nominated for best foreign picture. That movie is goooood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiHnVMHk6YU
I have so many feelings about a number of these (mainly Beasts) but I have to say How to Survive a Plague is one of the most heart-wrenching, inspiring, movement-causing films I have seen in a long time. It certainly deserves the award for Documentary Feature
I don’t think Tom Hooper got snubbed. I mean, I was generally really disappointed with the movie version of Les Mis, but in particular the way that it kept zooming in on people’s heads (especially Jackman and Crowe in their confrontations) was a really bad directing choice, especially for that musical. There were a lot of places where he zoomed in when it should have shown you the entire scene (the “Master of the House” number is another one).
I also don’t think that the “live singing” thing pulled off that well. It worked very well with Anne Hathaway, but with almost no one else. Especially not Russell Crowe.
I completely agree. He cast some people simply for money (i.e. Russell Crowe). Russell Crowe actually tried to back out because he knows he’s not a good enough singer but the director convinced him with some bs reasons (it was basically for money though). I TOTALLY agree about the zooming in thing, it DROVE ME CRAZY. The only thing that made the movie good at all was most of the actors (the guy that played Marius was beautiful and actually really good) and the other people involved…
I don’t know if I’d say “most of the actors” because I have mixed feelings about a lot of them. Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit and Eddie Redmayne (although I didn’t find him all that attractive) were all great singers. Hugh Jackman acted well but he doesn’t have the vocal range for Jean Valjean and sounded strained in several of the numbers (particularly “Bring Him Home”). Amanda Seyfried couldn’t sing at all; she sounded flat and jittery the entire time, like, as one of my voice major friends said, “she forgot she had a diaphragm.”
I’m a musician/composer, though, and an opera buff (and the singing in Les Mis is much more like opera singing than typical musical singing, imo) so it’s easy for me to be snarky about the vocal style. I overall felt it would have been better if they had cast some Broadway or West End people rather than big Hollywood actors, because it seemed like where they did that (as with Barks) it resulted in better overall performances.
I agree on Amanda Seyfried, I think my partner described her trill as sounding like someone shaking a parakeet really hard.
Yeah, I agree with all of that. What I meant by the actors was that I saw some really fantastic acting in that movie. As for the singing, not so much. I’m also a music person, I’m going to be a music education major next year and I was very disappointed in many of the casting choices based on singing alone.
Yay musicians! It seems like most of my music school friends have been way snarkier about the singing than most people I’ve seen comment about it online. I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy myself or get weepy at the end, but a lot of the bad singing (as well as bad directing) detracted from the experience for me, even when the acting was stellar.
The fact that most of the actors (except for Crowe) were good made it a much better movie, though, and I think on acting alone, Hathaway deserves an Oscar. With regard to Jackman’s nomination, though his acting was good, I think the fact that his singing was just okay – and was an important part of the performance since this is a musical – should count against him if he’s up against someone who did an equally stellar acting job. I think the Oscar is going to go to Daniel Day-Lewis from what I’ve heard (I haven’t seen Lincoln, but I really want to), and if Jackman gets it it will be more likely to be a career award (on the basis of the fact that Day-Lewis already has his Oscar, Jackman doesn’t).
I know. I was going to see it with my best friend but he decided that he didn’t want to sit for 3 hours. But, I agree I don’t think Hugh Jackman deserves an Oscar. He needs to stick to playing roles like Peter Jackson (what won him his Tony) because that’s about all he’s good at when it comes to musical theatre. But yeah, my best friend is also a music person and we had these same discussions and we were equally as hard on it. But, you have to be inhuman to not weep like a baby during that movie. I even cried during Empty Chairs and Empty Tables and I usually don’t.
He was pretty good as Curly in the ’90s West End production of that, too, and I wouldn’t say Curly is necessarily easy to act (since you’ve got to be totally creepy during “Poor Jud Is Daid” and still be sympathetic somehow) but he’s definitely a lot easier to sing than Jean Valjean.
and by “that” I mean “Oklahoma!”
wow, typo of the year
I agree. Unfortunately Amanda Seyfried said she was purposely trying to “vibrato faster” because she was afraid her voice would sound too slow with the amount of frames per second they were shooting in. Obviously, her choice did not pan out.
As an ex-opera singer I too must say that attending movie musicals is always a masochistic experience. On one hand I absolutely ADORE musicals, but it’s an inevitability that Hollywood will ruin them, most of the time through weak casting or eschewing the greater tone or theme of the play to appease non-musically inclined audiences (see: every movie musical ever). And the singing live! Sure, Hathaway was incredible, but for the two hours following her performance I was ready to leave. The live singing totally limited the actors’ motion, the directing possibilities (hence the awful zooms and extreme close ups half the film), and most of the “acting choices” made were laughable and noncommittal. The point of singing live is not to just wing a new version of the song, it’s to be able to communicate genuine feeling and emotion on set. Very good actors would have been able to choreograph their songs to a t and make it look natural… instead we got Hugh Jackman talk-singing his way through half of Valjean’s best lines. Sweet jesus, Tom Hooper, what have you done?
I’m just praying no one dismantles any more of my Sondheim. I don’t know if my heart can take it.
I agree. One of the only movie musicals I’ve truly enjoyed was Chicago.
I agree with both of you completely. But I was reading your comment to make sure Anne Hathaway was excluded from the criticism. She was by far the best part of the entire movie. Even if her singing had been bad at all, her acting alone blew me away. And in her case, I think the zooming in made it more powerful to be able to see nothing but her agony, to be able to have it overwhelm you the same way it was overtaking her. The scene where she finally surrendered to being a prostitute was absolutely triggering, not gonna lie, but since I’m not triggered easily by movies I guess that’s also a compliment?
Question, Cassie, how do you feel Rent ranks with musicals-turned-movies?
I loved Anne Hathaway. She deserves the Oscar and there is no doubt in my mind that she will get it. The RENT question is a very interesting one. I enjoy the movie version but it just doesn’t do it for me as much as the stage show. The two main things that make the stage show different and in my mind superior are the facts that it’s a rock opera and the staging/ the set. I have seen several stage versions of RENT (including the Broadway version and when the Original Broadway Cast came to Chicago just a few years ago) and the set is almost identical every time. If you haven’t seen it, it’s basically a few scaffolds and some decorations and it really adds to the fact that the show is about the Bohemian Lifestyle. I think one of the main things that makes RENT the movie good is the cast. They made the smart decision of casting a lot of the original Broadway cast (Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Jesse L Martin, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Idina Menzel) and when they did cast outside of that, the actors were good enough to play the role on Broadway (and some went on to do so after the movie). That right there is proof that you can make a movie-musical and cast people outside of the realm of “Hollywood Actors” (even though Idina could be now considered one of those actors). Was it amazing? No. Was I disappointed that there was more dialogue and that they cut a lot of songs? Yes. Did I understand that choice? Kind of. But, Chicago remains my number one movie musical (besides White Christmas which I watch every year on Christmas) of all time. If you want to ask me my feelings on that, I feel like you should message me or something because I just have a lot of feelings about this and I don’t want people to get annoyed with me.
Also, yes. oh Amanda Seyfried. Possible my least favorite as far as the musical parts go. And I desperately wish they hadn’t made Castle on a Cloud so short. It’s one of my favorites, and one of the parts with the most potential to be emotional is done right.
Yeah. And Little Cosette was tolerable/pretty good.
I agree. Unfortunately Amanda Seyfried said she was purposely trying to “vibrato faster” because she was afraid her voice would sound too slow with the amount of frames per second they were shooting in. Obviously, her choice did not pan out.
As an ex-opera singer I too must say that attending movie musicals is always a masochistic experience. On one hand I absolutely ADORE musicals, but it’s an inevitability that Hollywood will ruin them, most of the time through weak casting or eschewing the greater tone or theme of the play to appease non-musically inclined audiences (see: every movie musical ever). And the singing live! Sure, Hathaway was incredible, but for the two hours following her performance I was ready to leave. The live singing totally limited the actors’ motion, the directing possibilities (hence the awful zooms and extreme close ups half the film), and most of the “acting choices” made were laughable and noncommittal. The point of singing live is not to just wing a new version of the song, it’s to be able to communicate genuine feeling and emotion on set. Very good actors would have been able to choreograph their songs to a t and make it look natural… instead we got Hugh Jackman talk-singing his way through half of Valjean’s best lines. Sweet jesus, Tom Hooper, what have you done?
I’m just praying after this that no one dismantles any more of my Sondheim. I don’t know if my heart can take it.
And I don’t think Russell Crowe had the voice for Javert at all, but he would have sounded better if they had used pre-recorded singing rather than live singing. You could tell that he was so focused on getting the notes right that he didn’t have a chance to act, and both suffered as a result.
I know. In the first scene when Valjean and Javert were singing with each other, Russell Crowe just sounded sooo weak compared to Hugh Jackman.
Also, if he would stop singing like he was choking on his tongue, and learned about dynamics instead of singing everything full-throated, diaphragm a-blazing like he was doing a 30 Odd Foot of Grunts concert, he might’ve been better.
I finally saw Les Mis last night, and had never actually seen the full stage play however my partner is a serious lover of it.
We both thought the CLOSE UPs that were near constant throughout the film really did nothing for us and in places kinda detracted from it.
(Hugh Jackman’s rotting teeth and Russel Crowe’s bored expression)
Unfortunately, for me when Cosette grew up and the Nestle-Quik instant love moment happened I stopped caring.
Cosette-All the impact and emotional depth of a cabbage.
Marius-I am a flippant rich kid trying to be a revolutionary! Wait I saws me a gurl! Now I am in lurve! Wait, now all my friends are dead fighting the bourgeoisie! I has a SAD, lemme sing about it and shit! No wait, I has the girl and now I get to BE a bourgeoisie again! Yay! I’ma piss all over my dead friends! **Scumbag**
I am going to sit back and happily imagine Eponine kicking Marius’s ass and being cool (and maybe running off with Cosette, but she could do better.) :)
I want to see Beasts of the Southern Wild, Brave, Silver Linings Playbook, and Django Unchained (to see why Leo got snubbed).
I’d like to see Django win original screenplay (but this is based on reviews), 5 Broken Cameras win feature doc, and until I watch all these movies I have no opinion on the other categories.
I liked Wreck It Ralph and The Invisible War too.
I am going to watch all the nominees for best picture so even if MacFarlane sucks I will be compelled to watch the entire show.
I was pretty stoked about Les Mis because even after taking all of those film classes I seriously don’t pay much attention to directing unless it is good. And the directing in Les Mis really stood out for me. But I have yet to see most of the Oscar nominated films so I have nothing to compare it to.
I haven’t seen Django but Leo got snubbed again! He’ll never get his Oscar!
I’ll admit that I haven’t seen Ray, but I still think it’s criminal that Leo didn’t get awarded for his performance in The Aviator.
addendum: The fact that he’s playing such a hugely iconic role as Jay Gatsby next year will hopefully help Leo get his award, finally.
Yeah, except that it’s a Baz Luhrmann film… Am I the only one who thinks that he just creates horrible movies (Romeo + Juliet, Australia, Moulin Rouge!) that just look pretty and complex? I’m not holding my breath for Gatsby…
What I’m most worried about is the musical aspect, and Luhrmann’s knack for making things “hip” and “new” by scoring them with modern music. You just CAN’T do that with the quintessential Jazz Age novel. If you don’t play the actual music of that time period I know that no matter how good anything else in Great Gatsby is, that will ruin it for me.
Yeah, his films just bother me so much and people tend to like them. And it’s everything down to the way he directs the actors. There’s a reason that none of them are regarded as being great films. And I have a feeling that he will do that to the music and it’ll just make everything horrible. I was so excited to hear that they were making a Gatsby movie and the cast sounds fantastic but even good actors do bad jobs in his movies (I think it’s his fault, look at R+J).
Yeah, it’s a shame. I really hope you’re wrong, though, because good God does The Great Gatsby ever need a good film adaptation. The 1974 version is a real stinker.
I know. I have a list of films/books that if they don’t have a good adaptation/remake by the time I’m 35, I’ll write a screenplay and direct it myself (or at least try) and Gatsby is on there.
along with Fahrenheit 451 which is actually my favorite book ever and every time I read it (several times a year) I just see what I would do with it if I were to direct it into a movie.
The Internet tells me that Jay Z has been picked to write the score. I’m not holding my breath for this one.
Yeah, I saw that too. I’m never impressed with Baz’s movies and I don’t think I will be with this one either…
The main Best Picture nominees that I haven’t seen but really want to see are Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook and maybe Zero Dark Thirty.
Also maybe Beasts of the Southern Wild, but what bell hooks said about it made me a bit skeptical.
this was a compelling rebuttal, i think:
http://cinemabeans.blogspot.com/2012/09/beasts-of-the-southern-wild.html
I saw Beasts of the Southern Wild in the theater twice, and both times I started crying almost immediately. It’s beautiful and made me feel feelings that a movie hasn’t in a long, long time. And honestly, it’s worth seeing just for Quvenzhané Wallis. She kills me. She deserves that award in a major way.
Everyone who hasn’t see it, watch it IMMEDIATELY. Please.
I agree entirely. She was so powerful in the film and was five effing years old when they shot most of it. FIVE!
I LOVE film and have seen a lot of what’s being nominated so I’m going to list my top movies of the year thus far. Aka I’m not ready to get out of bed yet because today is too cold. Note: I haven’t seen Zero Dark Thirty yet but I am in a few days!
6. Perks of Being a Wallflower – ***
5. Moonrise Kingdom – ***1/2
4. Lincoln – ***1/2
3. The Master – ****
2. Holy Motors – ****
1. Django Unchained – ****
Movies I wanted to like but didn’t quite:
1. Silver Linings Playbook (Cooper and DeNiro gave great performances, but the story was disappointing, they didn’t give JL enough to do, all of the interesting action happened off-screen, and I feel like the movie didn’t really find it’s groove till the last twenty minutes) ***
2. Les Miserables (poor casting choices, POOR POOR directing. You can see more of what I have to say in my comment above) **
3. The Hobbit (Peter Jackson, can we please focus more on making a film aka a *cinematic experience* instead of live action book? Lord knows I have a lot of thoughts on book adaptations, but if you’re going to be so true to the source material, please do it when there’s a better source. This is not the LotR prequel I was hoping for.) **1/2
4. Argo. (UGH. See: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/01/down_with_argo_ben_affleck_s_iran_hostage_movie_is_the_worst.html)
5. The Sessions (So unmemorable, thanks for letting all the interesting story and dialogue happen off-camera) **1/2
K thx for letting me geek out there for a second baiiii
See, I haven’t read The Hobbit but I really enjoyed the film. It felt very much like the prelude to more, but still felt like a complete cinematic experience to me, even when it was three hours of one third of a small novella. He added enough stuff from other material to make it seem bigger, imo.
Calvin Candie was far and away the best DiCaprio performance I’ve seen. Now I’m torn between rooting for Christoph Waltz and Tommy Lee Jones.
I’d like to see Tarantino win for Original Screenplay and, heck, Django Unchained for Best Picture, because I think it’s an important film.
Also, can anyone ever legitimately beat Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor? I mean, he’s just astoundingly good. Like, so good I don’t even notice he’s acting. I just kind of got in the mindset that “Ok, here’s Abe Lincoln in a movie, cool!” (stupid but true).
Talking about some of the other nominations here, I really hope that “Suddenly” doesn’t win Best Original Song simply because it was Les Mis. It was pretty forgettable, and blatantly just in there so they could qualify for the category. I’d really like to see “Skyfall” win; it was such a great song in its own right, not just a good Bond theme, and in the context of the latter it was a lovely blend of the classic Bond theme feel and a more modern approach. A good metaphor for how the Daniel Craig films are rebooting the franchise.
Now, I’m not a Bond fan but I recognize they’re good. I’ve just never liked them. But, I totally agree with Skyfall. It was such a good song on it’s own and that’s hard to say for the rest of the nominees.
I think I’m the only person who hates the Skyfall song, the first 30 seconds were great and then the damn song kept going and going and wouldn’t end (I have an issue with Adele songs that seem interminably long)
that’s like all adele songs haha
hi there. hate skyfall as well. adele not so much. I found out if I’ve been w/o a radio for a while and can decide when to cry over ‘somebody like you’/’turning tables’/etc pp on my own terms and not every 15min on every damn radiostation I’m much more fond of her.
I saw Beasts of the southern wild and that movie is fantastic. The girl even more, she is brilliant (I have no idea how to pronounce her surname). She totally deserves the Oscar, doesn’t matter how young she is. I hope she will be always such a good actress.
Oh, Lincoln. Lincoln Lincoln. Daniel Day Lewis and Tommy Lee Jones just melted me. It was a beautiful, beautiful film that totally sucked me in emotionally. I think it was Jones’ best performance ever. Truly. Every scene he was in was oh so powerful.
Beasts of the Southern Wild is just…incredible. I am SO happy that Wallis is nominated. The youngest actress ever nominated is black? YES. And she is so cute, and smart, and spunky. Love her.
The Master was snubbed, Kathryn Bigelow was big time snubbed, I really wanted to see Moonrise Kingdom and Skyfall get noms, even though I wasn’t really expecting it, and I CANNOT BELIEVE Queen of Versailles didn’t get a documentary nod. It was one of the best films I saw this year in general. They’re probably going to award some snoozy Oscar-bait film like “Les Miz” or “Lincoln.” Fucking boring. If I wasn’t such a slave to the pomp of the Academy Awards ceremony, I would give up on it. It’s not like they actually give Best Picture to the ACTUAL best film of the year, in my opinion (and in a lot of critics’ opinions).
BUT WHATEVER.
right? like the artist last year? that was such a fucking gimmick. I get it, it was cute. I saw it on my first official date with this girl who went on to break my heart so maybe I have some bitter feelings towards it but still, it didn’t deserve an Oscar, especially not for best fucking picture.
I didn’t hate “The Artist,” actually, and I thought it was pretty refreshing if a little cheesy. It didn’t seem as obviously Oscar-baity as a lot of biopics and true life stories and almost every Clint Eastwood-directed movie can be. Like it’s so obvious that those films are gunning for Oscars. As cloying and gimmicky as “The Artist” could be, it did at least seem like it was a shock to them to get that popular and to win, whereas some films are so desperate and assured of their supposed pedigree, it gives me second-hand embarrassment.
Yeah, I agree. I think I’m just really bitter because it reminds me of my ex…
oh, and moonrise kingdom was beautiful.
Hey, Lincoln looks like a legit good film! Maybe I’m just a huge history buff, but Oscar bait isn’t always bad. The King’s Speech is probably one of the most blatant Oscar-baity in films of the last few years and it’s also one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last few years.
I haven’t seen The Artist, but most of the people I know who have say it’s overrated, and I personally really wish The Descendants had won because it’s such a fantastic movie and OH HEY IT ACTUALLY PASSES THE BECHDEL TEST.
Lincoln was amazing. Absolutely go if you can. I loved it, and my movie theater gave it a standing ovation (which I think is a silly thing to do at movies, but it did reassure me that it was not just my love of history that made it so enthralling.
That’s because Colin Firth is amazing almost all of the time (I like to pretend that Mamma Mia and What a Girl Wants never happened).
No I totally wish “The Descendants” had won as well. I loved that movie. It’s still only one of maybe three or five movies that have ever made me cry.
And yeah, I totally love historical films like that, and they sometimes have great performances, but I hate how they pretty much are guaranteed an Oscar. Like, where’s the fun in that?
Yeah, and I LOVED The Descendants. I didn’t think I would because it was so simple, you know? But that’s what made it beautiful.
No, I get what you mean that even mediocre historical films often get nominated, often over far-superior genre films (like when The Reader was nominated). But it frustrates me as a fan of historical dramas AND sci-fi and comedies, that I feel like fans of the latter two are often pit against fans of the former, even when the historical drama in question is really good. Lincoln looks like one that deserves a nom or even a win, based on what the critics are saying, just as The King’s Speech was; they were much more divided on stuff like The Reader.
Les Mis is a better example of a film that is pretty “meh” and has critics far more divided than some things left off the list, that was nominated anyway because it’s baity (and imo because people who know acting don’t necessarily know singing).
I immediately added all the films from the foreign category to the netflix queue cause they all sound amazing. Not sure I can get past my distaste for Bradley Cooper but I’ll probably watch Silver Linings Playbook at some point. Definitely going to see Beasts of the Southern Wild. But otherwise I’m just meh about the nominated films.
That is one good thing about the Oscars: the foreign film category may neglect some really great films, but it’s a great way to give a little mainstream American push to a few great films, and for people that aren’t huge foreign film buffs, it’s a good starting point. And I’m happy to hear a bunch of them are on Netflix already. I’ll have to put them in my queue too.
I REALLY want Brave to win best animated feature, because it is so good. It is the first princess movie that I could actually relate to. As a kid I liked little mermaid, because of flounder and sebastian and the octopus lady (idk her name). But Merida is the first princess I like, and like A LOT. I want more princesses like her.
Ursula!
I like almost everyone in the best actress category.
But Jessica Chastain owns a huge corner of my heart now. So my support is probably not the most rational and un-bias.
i’m glad Amour was nominated for best picture although i don’t see it winning because america. it was one of the most wrenching films i have ever seen. i saw it in a giant screening at a film festival and afterwards everyone sat in shock and contemplation.
yes, it was the first austrian movie I was really impressed with. this might also have to do with the fact I never give them a chance hence haven’t seen many and that this one played in france and was in french. but still. yay austria. also Christoph Waltz.
I’m just happy my baby denzel got an Oscar nod.I really want him to win.That performance in flight was beautiful. Lincon was kind of overrated and Django had good actors bad director.
i don’t understand why people liked Brave so much. Merida was cool but like the movie was a huge disappointment, especially cuz i take my cartoons REALLY FKN SERIOUSLY. haha
it started off awesome, super super awesome. feminism, archery, red hair etc.
but like how come no one ever mentions that after the second half of the movie, basically everyone turns into a damned bear and nothing makes sense. her mom turns into a stupid bear. then it’s like “oh fuck, i turned my mom and my little brothers into bears, how do i fix this before daddy either finds out or turns into a bear himself?”
#imdone
that is so true. I think everyone was just caught up in the fact that it was super awesome feminism shit in the beginning and it was fucking beautiful (I wanted to live there).
I totally thought the same thing about Brave at first! But I am very close with an animator and she told me to rewatch it because there is a lot of subtleties in the animation that make it one of the best animated films to date. For example, when Merida took her hood off, well, apparantly this hasn’t been done in such detail in an animated movie ever. She was pretty stoked on it. But I also have a hard time getting past the weird bear storyline…
I saw beasts of the southern wild at the last available screening during the local film festival at fucking 6am in the morning.after going out and before classes. still the best decision I’ve ever made. also they served good coffee. it deserves all the awards.
This is late, but I just came across this article and Cloud Atlas got completely snubbed. That film was so existential and amazing and it deserved to be nominated.