And The Oscar Goes To......

[Wol]

Jan 13, 2020 14:44:46 GMT -4 Ladybug said:

I wish there was an alternative to the Oscars, or some other meaningful award that can validate some of these snubbed performances. It's the same people all the time, and the lack of recognition of good work by talented people is starting to make the entire process irrelevant and obsolete.

That's usually the Independent Spirit Awards, but this year they are really all over the place. Weird place to put Marielle Heller, nice nod to Lorene Scafaria, lots of love for Uncut Gems and Marriage Story, no love for Awkwafina or The Farewell for Best Picture. YMMV, of course.

[Atreides]

I'm rather amused that Beyonce was shut out of the Oscars again. She wants one so badly. She was only cast in The Lion King so she could get an original song in there and hope to snag a trophy. Denied!

[Mutagen]

The Independent Spirit Awards often have way better opening monologues too. John Mulaney and Nick Kroll crushed it the year of the Weinstein scandal.

[magazinewhore]

How are the nominees chosen anyway? Does the academy simply vote on best performances and the top 6 or so become nominees?

Someone on FB said (looking at the Best Actor Nominees) something like, "I see we've fallen into a time worm hole that's taken us back to 1998," which amused me.

[scarlet]

Jan 14, 2020 14:39:53 GMT -4 magazinewhore said:

How are the nominees chosen anyway? Does the academy simply vote on best performances and the top 6 or so become nominees?

Someone on FB said (looking at the Best Actor Nominees) something like, "I see we've fallen into a time worm hole that's taken us back to 1998," which amused me.

Here's an article explaining it:

link

In a nutshell, there's a points system, because voters rank their choices in 1st thru 5th order.

[forever1267]

JoJo Rabbit is a very funny, and relevant, satire about growing up in a bigoted world. JoJo doesn't know any better, but the adults around him certainly do. It's very sharp and funny, and great performances all around.

I was actually rooting for Waikiki in Best Supporting Actor as an insane (more than usual) Imaginary friend Adolf Hitler. One of my favorites of the year.


This year felt wide open, and, besides Best Picture, feels already sewn up. Hopefully I'm wrong.

[Mugsy]

I think this is the first time in years that I might skip the show. I haven't seen most of what's nominated, and don't care to. So sick of movies with mostly male casts. How many times do we need movies about the world wars, the mob, and the joker? Enough already.

And no more retelling history with a happy ending (Quentin Tarantino). I mean, what's the point? There's no satisfaction in seeing Hitler get killed or the Manson murders thwarted because we know that didn't happen.

There are so many interesting stories that haven't been told.

[Deleted]

Jan 15, 2020 10:40:55 GMT -4 Mugsy said:

I think this is the first time in years that I might skip the show. I haven't seen most of what's nominated, and don't care to. So sick of movies with mostly male casts. How many times do we need movies about the world wars, the mob, and the joker? Enough already.

And no more retelling history with a happy ending (Quentin Tarantino). I mean, what's the point? There's no satisfaction in seeing Hitler get killed or the Manson murders thwarted because we know that didn't happen.

There are so many interesting stories that haven't been told.

It’s funny because I was thinking the exact opposite... this is the first year in a long time that I’ve seen and enjoyed a lot of the nominated films and am actually stoked to see the show. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Little Women, Joker, and Ford v Ferrari were some of my favorites. I watched The Irishman; good performances but it was just okay. I’m hoping I’m able to catch Parasite, 1917, and Jojo Rabbit before the ceremony. I’ve been holding off on Marriage Story because it just looks so depressing, but I might watch that too.

[scarlet]

Jan 15, 2020 11:03:09 GMT -4 @madefortv said:

Jan 15, 2020 10:40:55 GMT -4 Mugsy said:

I think this is the first time in years that I might skip the show. I haven't seen most of what's nominated, and don't care to. So sick of movies with mostly male casts. How many times do we need movies about the world wars, the mob, and the joker? Enough already.

And no more retelling history with a happy ending (Quentin Tarantino). I mean, what's the point? There's no satisfaction in seeing Hitler get killed or the Manson murders thwarted because we know that didn't happen.

There are so many interesting stories that haven't been told.

It’s funny because I was thinking the exact opposite... this is the first year in a long time that I’ve seen and enjoyed a lot of the nominated films and am actually stoked to see the show. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Little Women, Joker, and Ford v Ferrari were some of my favorites. I watched The Irishman; good performances but it was just okay. I’m hoping I’m able to catch Parasite, 1917, and Jojo Rabbit before the ceremony. I’ve been holding off on Marriage Story because it just looks so depressing, but I might watch that too.

I only usually half-watch, but yeah, I agree that there are a lot of good films up for awards this year. I think I've seen 5 of the 9 nommed pics and quite a few of the performances. I'm annoyed at some of the exclusions, for sure--was thinking, maybe the Academy needs to do with the acting and directing noms what they did with Best Picture and have the option of expanding the nominees from 5 up to 10. This year, in particular, was so strong, that I could see a field of 8 in Director and Best Actor, at the very least.

MTV: Marriage Story is VERY depressing, but the performances are good.

[aibohphobia]

Jan 15, 2020 10:40:55 GMT -4 Mugsy said:

I think this is the first time in years that I might skip the show. I haven't seen most of what's nominated, and don't care to. So sick of movies with mostly male casts. How many times do we need movies about the world wars, the mob, and the joker? Enough already.

And no more retelling history with a happy ending (Quentin Tarantino). I mean, what's the point? There's no satisfaction in seeing Hitler get killed or the Manson murders thwarted because we know that didn't happen.

There are so many interesting stories that haven't been told.

I actually did really like The Irishman, and appreciate parts of Joker and OUATIH. (I haven't seen 1917, but I am going this weekend to see it.) It's just ridiculous that apparently these were the only films that AMPAS saw this year, when just off the top of my head Dolmemite Is My Name certainly would have been more worthy for a costume nomination than The Irishman or Joker, or Little Women for Production Design over The Irishman.

I also agree about Tarantino. I enjoyed it in Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained because it was about those in history who were treated the worst getting revenge on those that had abused them, but it didn't work for me in OUATIH. For one thing, while I enjoyed most of it until the ending, I do feel was pretty long and somewhat aimless at times, so kudos to at least the Editing branch for not giving it a nomination there, and I feel like the ending was Tarantino running out of ideas.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}Also the ending didn't work for me because Sharon Tate never got to have any agency against killing her killers. Maybe Tarantino didn't want to go there because of potential controversy, but that's a big reason that the ending didn't work for me. Plus, I feel he's just gone to that well too many times with his last few films.

He'll probably win Best Original Screenplay unless Parasite is able to win here, but I feel that OUATIH is one of his weakest screenplays, and any of the other nominees, except perhaps 1917 , deserve it much more.

Finally as for Marriage Story, I think that there are scenes that are really hard to watch like the one that's become a meme all over social media, but I didn't find it too depressing because I thought that Baumbach wrote a lot of humor into it, and the ending was hopeful to me.