THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => ENJOY => Topic started by: Ikrik on 22 Jan 2009, 08:24
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So I've been looking through these wonderful Oscar Nominations for 2009...and wow am I not impressed. http://www.oscar.com/nominees/?pn=nominees (http://www.oscar.com/nominees/?pn=nominees). Benjamin Button is practically everywhere. The movie has 13 nominations (I think) and that's a frightening amount for a film that is just Forrest Gump again.
the nominations I'm happy about are
Mickey Rourke and Sean Penn are nominated for Best Actor (The Wrestler and Milk respectively)
Heath Ledger for Supporting Actor
Kate Winslet for Best Actress (The Reader)
Wall-E for Animation
Man on Wire for Documentary
Waltz with Bashir for Foreign Language Film
and that's really it.
Other than that they look alright and I'm really praying that Benjamin Button doesn't win as many as it's nominated for, it really only deserves it for makeup and visual effects. It's being nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay...
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Robert Downey Jr. being nominated for Tropic Thunder is pretty fantastic. He obviously won't win, I think Heath Ledger's name is already etched on the trophy, but the nomination is pretty awesome.
Also, glad to see Slumdog Millionaire up for a lot of stuff.
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So many nominations for Benjamin Button what the HELL ASS
That movie was not good. It was not even so bad that I hate it. It is just silly to have a strong opinion on such a waste of time.
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Ledger will surely win best supporting actor, Rourke will take best actor. I think a lot of these are up in the air. I'm thinking that, despite all its undeserved nominations, Benjamin Button won't win anything big. Because it's an underdog success story, I can see Slumdog taking some big prizes, including best picture/director. It's quite possible methinks. I'm bummed that Wall-E didn't get a best picture nomination. Obviously it wouldn't have won and clearly it will win best animated picture but the best pic nomination and would have given the current breed of animated films (at least from Disney/Pixar) the legitimacy they've deserved over the last couple years (I still think Ratatouille was one of the best movies of the year by far when it came out).
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Glad to see the Class nominated in the Best Foreign Language film category - I saw it last night and it's superb, a real throw-back to all those wonderful humanist French films that were coming out in the 90s. It'd be great to see Happy-Go-Lucky win Best Screenplay, thought it's obviously the outsider in that category - but dammit, that film was such a joy and I want to see it recognised. I haven't seen most of the films for Leading Actress, but isn't it about time the Academy came out of its English-language bunker? Kristin Scott-Thomas's performance, in French (her second language), in I've Loved You So Long, was simply stunning and without question the best performance - by a man or a woman - I've seen in years.
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I didn't think Happy-go-lucky had a screenplay. A Curb Your Enthusiasm sort of shoot.Too bad The Class has to go against Waltz, poor movie will get murdered. Also would it be unfair to say Fuck Slumdog?
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Ledger will surely win best supporting actor, Rourke will take best actor. I think a lot of these are up in the air. I'm thinking that, despite all its undeserved nominations, Benjamin Button won't win anything big. Because it's an underdog success story, I can see Slumdog taking some big prizes, including best picture/director. It's quite possible methinks. I'm bummed that Wall-E didn't get a best picture nomination. Obviously it wouldn't have won and clearly it will win best animated picture but the best pic nomination and would have given the current breed of animated films (at least from Disney/Pixar) the legitimacy they've deserved over the last couple years (I still think Ratatouille was one of the best movies of the year by far when it came out).
QFT, all of it.
There was just so much beauty in Wall-E that stemmed not just from the quality of the animation, but also from the quality of the story.
And Ledger fucking rocked it.
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I didn't think Happy-go-lucky had a screenplay.
Yeah, I have to admit I was kind of "huh?" at it's being nominated in that category in particular, but I just want to see it win something, anything!
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There was a similar screenplay nomination a couple of years ago, I think.
Kate Winslet is billed as Meryl Streep 2, so she's probably got actress locked, although Anne Hathaway was really, really good in Rachel Getting Married.
Penelope Cruz for supporting actress.
Strong competition in the doc category. Could go to either Trouble the Water or Man On Wire. Man On Wire is more widely beloved, but Trouble the Water is about weightier stuff, which plays to the academy's taste.
Surprising that Springsteen isn't even up for Song (for the Wrestler). Maybe it doesn't appear in the film, and it's because of that? I'd think it would be a lock.
In Bruges for best original screenplay, 100%.
I'm pulling for Milk for best pic. Slumdog Millionare was terribly overrated. But whatever, it's a glorified trade show anyway.
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it's a glorified trade show anyway.
This is indeed true. I tend to view the Academy Awards as largely political. Maybe that's me being a cynic but that's certainly how it feels. I'm excited anyway. I love the Oscars! I just hope it makes up the shockingly boring Golden Globes. Good lord were they unenjoyable.
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Glad to see the Class nominated in the Best Foreign Language film category - I saw it last night and it's superb, a real throw-back to all those wonderful humanist French films that were coming out in the 90s. It'd be great to see Happy-Go-Lucky win Best Screenplay, thought it's obviously the outsider in that category - but dammit, that film was such a joy and I want to see it recognised. I haven't seen most of the films for Leading Actress, but isn't it about time the Academy came out of its English-language bunker? Kristin Scott-Thomas's performance, in French (her second language), in I've Loved You So Long, was simply stunning and without question the best performance - by a man or a woman - I've seen in years.
Really, The Class was good? I had kind of written it off for being just another "HOW DO I REACH THESE KEEEEDS" movie, plus the trailer gave it a weird polished and maybe trying too hard feel. But that was really all I had to go on.
Edit: oh hey I'm an idiot it won the Palme d'Or. I don't know why I hadn't heard that before. But at least I didn't miss it or anything, I don't think it's been released yet anywhere near me.
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Really, your first impressions could hardly be less accurate! The Class is about as far from a stereotypical Hollywood teacher/student drama as it's possible to be while still being in a classroom. For starters, it's based on a novel written by the guy who also plays the lead role in the film, and the novel was based on his own teaching experiences, so it doesn't idealise teaching or schools at all. But on the other hand, nor is it utterly downbeat: yes, the kids are rowdy and don't learn much, but none of them are the cliched "tough kids who just need love" or whatever other rubbish Hollywood usually pedals. Nor are the teacher portrayed as saints: all the characters in the film feel like real, living, breathing human beings, with all the complexities that entails. In a way it's a typically French film, in that it basically consists entirely of people sitting around and talking, but somehow it's absolutely engrossing and engaging at all times.
Recently I've been rediscovering all the amazing films that came out of France in the 1990s, which were basically the films that I grew up on: sad and beautiful and uplifting and deeply humane films like the Dreamlife of Angels and It All Starts Today, and the Class is very much in that tradition.
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Well my impressions were based entirely upon the US trailer (or one of them?) and it is a true thing that sometimes trailers are really terrible.
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Springsteen's song was in the film, and it getting snubbed is total bullshit. And how fantastic that the Academy decided to pass up two movies for best picture that were overwhelming critical and commercial successes for a run-of-the-mill, Oscarbait Holocaust drama.
That said, it's nice to see two hardworking character actors (Melissa Leo and Richard Jenkins) get some recognition.
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how fantastic that the Academy decided to pass up two movies for best picture that were overwhelming critical and commercial successes
Which ones?
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If I were to venture a guess I'd say The Dark Knight and Wall-E. Though to be fair, by Pixar's standards Wall-E's commercial success was pretty modest, not that it matters.
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Seriously, what's up with all the love for The Reader? I guess Nazi pedophilia is in.
Honestly though, it's very much like any other "I lived through/was involved in the Holocaust and now have demons" movie, of which there are dozens.
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Yeah but it has Kate Winslet.
I would go gay for Kate Winslet.
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I was pleasantly surprised by the Heath Ledger nomination...do they give Oscars posthumously? Well, good if they do.
I've been a long time fan of the Batman comics. The most current incarnations of the Joker have scared the living hell out of me and while I was skeptical about Ledger before, I'm glad that someone has finally gotten it right.
I am also looking forward to seeing Slumdog Millionaire. I'm not an expert on Indian movies or Bollywood, but I love Dheepa Mehta (director of "Fire", "Water", and "Earth"). Don't watch "Water" unless you have a box of tissues handy.
My scholarly interests are in Indian culture and Sanskrit, so movies are a fun way for me to "study".
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They do give posthumous Oscars, and The Reader is an ok movie, but it's just ok. Certainly not worthy of the nomination.
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The Oscars are usually an exercise in rewarding mediocrity, but this year even moreso than in the last few years. Last year was an improvement, with masterpieces like No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood being recognized. This year is horribly depressing. Benjamin Button for best picture? Seriously? I don't know anyone--critic, or friend/family member who saw it--who thought it was anything better than middling.
I am especially pissed off that Springsteen's "The Wrestler" did not get nominated for best song (and that there are only three songs nominated!), particularly considering it won the Globe for it.
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If Slumdog Millionaire wins a single oscar I am going to boycott them. What's up with the nominations for weird crap? and how is sound mixing different from sound editing?
Synecdoche, NY was far better.
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Yeah but it has Kate Winslet.
I would go gay for Kate Winslet.
There was another movie with Kate Winslet last year that was better, and got almost totally shut out.
Anne Hathaway was really, really good in Rachel Getting Married.
She shouldn't win, though. Not yet, anyway. She's extremely susceptible to the Cuba Gooding, Jr. Post-Oscar Curse™ at this point in her career. Do you really want to see Bride Wars 2: The Rebridening? I didn't think so.
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I haven't seen most of the films for Leading Actress, but isn't it about time the Academy came out of its English-language bunker?
Didn't a French actress win this award last year, for La Vie En Rose?
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Yeah, they throw the odd bone to the rest of the movie-making world (see also: Roberto Benigni winning for Life is Beautiful), but it's pretty tokenistic. Every country has their national film awards, and there's nothing wrong with that, and if the Oscars started being known as the American Film Awards or something I wouldn't mind - but I get a bit sick of the way they've have managed to position themselves as the be-all and end-all of film awards when they're generally so incredibly non-representational.
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Just saw Wendy and Lucy and since we're talking actresses here. Williams! She was really great and didn't even get nominated. I guess the academy never wants people to care about the actress categories.
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I was pleasantly surprised by the Heath Ledger nomination...do they give Oscars posthumously? Well, good if they do.
No, the academy was not yet aware that he died 10 months ago when they made the nomiantions.
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I really, really don't like Benjamin Button.
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I really, really like The Reader. Goddamn I cried four or five times. Kate Winslet did a fabulous job and now I hope she wins more than ever.
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Glad to see Ledger's name in there. The rest, I couldn't care less.
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If Ledger wasn't on the list, I would have hoped Downey Jr. gets the win. He was so goddamn scary in Tropic Thunder. Heath Ledger was invariably good in The Dark Knight, but there is so much talent out there right now to choose from.
WALL-E was okay. Out of all the animations, it involves pretty much no musical structure and therefore I would say it best out of all those... sorts of films =3
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I just came back from seeing Changeling tonight and it's really, really good. Very traditional Hollywood melodrama, but done to perfection. It should easily beat all the other Best Picture nominees.
Oh wait it's not nominated in that category. Useless fuckin' Academy.