Board 8 > Which Oscar contending movies have you seen?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I just saw A Star is Born today and First Man last week. I've also seen some fringe contenders for nomination in Black Panther, Eighth Grade, and Crazy Rich Asians.

Of those, First Man is in my mind the straight up best. It is absolutely brilliant. If you compare it to Apollo 13, which covers a similar topic, you can see just how much difference a great director can make over a good one. Whiplash and La La Land weren't flukes, Chazelle is a powerful director and this might just be his Best Picture winner.

The movie I'm disappointed in not seeing many (is any) mentions of is Sorry to Bother You. If you like dark comedy and haven't seen it yet you should (unless the deserved R rating might turn you off).
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Black Panther apparently?

It was fun and all but the Best Picture talk reeks of pandering to me.
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Best Picture has been a pertty good indicator of what movies to not watch in recent times. So none.
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I don't see something as pandering when you're talking about a movie with such deep cultural impact. Even though BP made 1.3 billion people in Hollywood still think "black films" don't make money and aren't worth making/distributing/promoting. It's definitely not the best movie of the year, but it may be the most important and impactful.
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red13n posted...

Best Picture has been a pertty good indicator of what movies to not watch in recent times. So none.

That's not true. While I would agree that the academy has lately been far from representative of what the general audience will like, some of their picks are still great. If you haven't seen the aforementioned Whiplash it's amazing. Last year Get Out got nominated. Mad Max Fury Road and The Martian both got nominated in the same year. I feel mixed on their choices, but such an absolute statement is a bit unfair, don't you think?
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I've seen two movies from this year, and neither of them is remotely a contender for any major nominations.

ChichiriMuyo posted...

That's not true. While I would agree that the academy has lately been far from representative of what the general audience will like, some of their picks are still great. If you haven't seen the aforementioned Whiplash it's amazing. Last year Get Out got nominated. Mad Max Fury Road and The Martian both got nominated in the same year. I feel mixed on their choices, but such an absolute statement is a bit unfair, don't you think?

I did end up seeing Get Out. But for the most part, Hollywood has burned most of its good will. The expanded field allows them to pander a little bit when they dont want to get roasted for it, but most of the nominations are the same self-absorbed drivel.
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ChichiriMuyo posted...

I don't see something as pandering when you're talking about a movie with such deep cultural impact. Even though BP made 1.3 billion people in Hollywood still think "black films" don't make money and aren't worth making/distributing/promoting. It's definitely not the best movie of the year, but it may be the most important and impactful.

I agree with that, but that doesn't make the movie better. And sure, I'd rather watch it than a lot of boring arthouse movies that get nominated for BP, but the Academy has established the type of movie they typically nominate and Black Panther isn't one of them. So if The Dark Knight or Deadpool or Logan or Winter Soldier didn't get nominated because they're superhero movies then this feels really disingenuous.

I felt the same way about Get Out last year. Perfectly acceptable and enjoyable movie, but to me absolutely nothing separated it from any other clever horror/thriller like say, Cabin in the Woods, which certainly didn't recieve any BP nominations. It wasn't even really that clever.
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The Dark Knight is the reason the academy expanded the number of potential nominations. Logan, well, all of the oxygen got sucked out of the room by Get Out and The Shape of Water. I do agree that the Academy leans too hard on arthouse, but with the 6-10 nominations system non-arthouse films are getting recognition.

As for Deadpool, the Academy doesn't like anything crass. Winter Soldier was quite good, but personally I can't name a movie that should have been dropped for it other than American Sniper. That movie was garbage, but the average age of the Academy means they couldn't see it. Eastwood is so much better than that jingoistic dumpster fire.
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red13n posted...

Best Picture has been a pertty good indicator of what movies to not watch in recent times. So none.

I don't normally watch a lot of Oscar-nominated movies, but last year I saw Get Out, The Shape of Water, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and I LOVED all of them, so I can't agree with this (although ultimately the least of the three won imo, shape of water was fantastic but the other two were even better)

Three Bilboards got its just due. A lot of respect got paid to the actors.

Seen any contenders this year, Para?
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Three Billboards was the most disappointing movie of the year for me. I loved In Bruges, The Guard, and Seven Psychopaths and was hyped for Three Billboards. Sam Rockwell was excellent but the rest of the film was pretty meh. And with such an excellent cast! Woody Harrelson, Frances McDormand, John Hawkes, Peter Dinklage, and Caleb Landry Jones all rank amongst my favorite actors.
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ChichiriMuyo posted...

Three Bilboards got its just due. A lot of respect got paid to the actors.

Seen any contenders this year, Para?

don't think so

I didn't think Sam Rockwell was the only actor that was excellent, but the good performances didn't make it a winner.
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I've seen Black Panther and not heard of most of the other movies that thirty seconds of google told me were in contention
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Black Panther
Sorry to Bother You
Eighth Grade
Crazy Rich Asians
A Star is Born

"A Star is Born" will probably win. The Academy wants to show that they can vote for something populist, and this is the rare movie made for adults that is actually doing great at the box office.

I did end up seeing Get Out. But for the most part, Hollywood has burned most of its good will. The expanded field allows them to pander a little bit when they dont want to get roasted for it, but most of the nominations are the same self-absorbed drivel.

The three movies mentioned all would have been nominated in a 5 entrant field, FYI.
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Logan not being nominated was a travesty
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Hereditary should be an Oscar contender but it won't
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I've tried to see every nominee and a good deal of contenders each year, but haven't seen much so far this year

Eighth Grade is the only one that jumps out at me. Maybe Isle of Dogs if they happen to remember that movie came out this year, AND are willing to recognize an animated movie. Both are incredible

Sorry to Bother You is great but I almost guarantee it won't get nominated for anything; it's too weird for the Academy

Black Panther getting nominated would definitely be pandering, especially after that "Best Popular Movie" fiasco earlier this year and after many better superhero movies were snubbed previously (RIP Logan)

I really have no interest in seeing A Star is Born
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Isle of Dogs is a very likely nomination for Animated Feature. Incredibles 2 seems the more likely winner, which is a shame, but Isle of Dogs will get some recognition.

Yeah, Sorry to Bother You is too weird for the Academy. It's really good, though, and should get consideration.
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ChichiriMuyo posted...

Isle of Dogs is a very likely nomination for Animated Feature. Incredibles 2 seems the more likely winner, which is a shame, but Isle of Dogs will get some recognition.

I think Isle of Dogs is a pretty likely winner

Sequels rarely do well in the Animated Feature category, and while the award almost always goes to Disney, the academy snubs Wes Anderson all the time and this would be an easy way to give him an award in a year without any big competition (ie. no major Disney/Pixar original tearjerker like Coco or Up)
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I want Isle of Dogs to win, but for some reason it feels like a lot of people don't realize Incredibles 2 is basically the same movie that came out 14 years ago.
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