32 replies to this topic

[Peter T Chattaway]

FWIW, here's something I posted to Facebook the other day:

Forty-six feature-length films were nominated for Academy Awards last Tuesday. Thankfully, I have already seen 33 of them. But there are 13 still to go. So... here are the ones I know I can catch up on (and how):

• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (picture, supporting actor) -- now playing
  
• A Better Life (actor) -- now available via YouTube.com/movies
  
• Jane Eyre (costume design) -- now available via YouTube.com/movies
  
• Margin Call (original screenplay) -- now available via YouTube.com/movies
  
• Undefeated (documentary feature) -- via awards-season screener
  
• Monsieur Lazhar (foreign language film) -- opens here tomorrow
  
• Albert Nobbs (actress, supporting actress, makeup) -- opens here February 3
  
• W.E. (costume design) -- opens here February 3
  
• Chico & Rita (animated feature) -- opens here February 10

And here are the ones I haven't got a clue how to see, at the moment:

• A Cat in Paris (animated feature)
  
• Hell and Back Again (documentary feature)
  
• If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (documentary feature)
  
• Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (documentary feature)

If anyone can clue me in on how to fill those last few gaps, I'd be much obliged.

Oh, and according to the VanCity Theatre's latest programme, some (most? dare I hope all?) of the 15 Oscar-nominated shorts will be playing there between February 17 and 22. So I'll be able to do some catching up there, too.

I'm actually watching Margin Call as I type this, so there's only 12 films to go, now.

[Tyler]

If Oscar-nominated film posters told the truth.

[Darrel Manson]

Peter, you haven't mentioned the 3 short categories. A program of the nominated shorts will be opening in theaters 2/10.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Darrel Manson wrote:
: Peter, you haven't mentioned the 3 short categories.

Actually, I did:

Peter T Chattaway, on 28 January 2012 - 08:18 PM, said:

Oh, and according to the VanCity Theatre's latest programme, some (most? dare I hope all?) of the 15 Oscar-nominated shorts will be playing there between February 17 and 22. So I'll be able to do some catching up there, too.

[Darrel Manson]

Martin Scorsese parodies ranting over what wasn't nominated on LA Times O-ped page.

[SDG]

Tyler, on 28 January 2012 - 09:08 PM, said:

If Oscar-nominated film posters told the truth.

Some of these are funny and true, but some them forget to tell the truth about the film and instead tell the truth about the marketing.

The biggest fail is rebranding Tinker Tailor as "Gary Oldman is A Badass in Glasses," which is precisely what the poster is trying to sell the movie as, and precisely what it is not.

Likewise, rebranding War Horse as My Lovely Horse isn't really accurate, since it focuses more on the boy's perspective than the movie does. A better alternate title would have been Shit Happens to a Horse. (Dang, that ties in with Peter's theory of War Horse as Forrest Gump, doesn't it?)

Look! George Clooney is Good at Acting is not a very insightful commentary on The Descendants. I prefer the blurb on the similarly doctored poster for Up in the Air a couple of years ago: "Suave older man? How does he do it?"

Love The Help and J. Edgar, though. They definitely picked the right ones to start and end on. Oh, and The Tree of Life is funny too.

Edited by SDG, 30 January 2012 - 08:07 AM.

[Peter T Chattaway]

More trivia bits. Kyle Smith @ New York Post:

The two acting nods for “The Artist,” combining with the honors for Max von Sydow, a Best Supporting Actor nominee as a mute elderly man who somehow manages to listen to an incessantly prattling little Upper West Side twit without throttling him in “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” means that three of the 20 acting nominations were for silent acting. . . .

The last and only silent film to win Best Picture was the first honoree, 1927’s “Wings.” The last completely B&W winner was 1960’s “The Apartment.” . . .

New York Times:

As the Bagger’s colleagues Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes have noted, Meryl Streep becomes the most-nominated actor in history, with 17 nominations to Jack Nicholson and Katharine Hepburn’s dozen each. “I am honored to be in company with such beautiful artists, and touched deeply by my fellow actors for their generosity in giving me this acknowledgment,” she said in a statement.

Woody Allen continues his streak as the most nominated screenwriter, with 15 nods in the best original screenplay category. If he wins this year, for “Midnight in Paris,” he will be the first to have won that category three times, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He last won for “Hannah and Her Sisters” in 1987. . . .

As she has often noted herself, Viola Davis, nominated for best supporting actress for “Doubt” three years ago, is one of the few African-American actresses to be Oscar-nominated multiple times; if she won, she would be only the second to win best actress, following Halle Berry for “Monster’s Ball” in 2002. . . .

[Tintin and War Horse] are Mr. Williams’s 41st and 42nd nominations. The most nominated composer, the late Alfred Newman, received 43 nominations.

[John]

cascadeofwater, on 25 January 2012 - 03:59 PM, said:

Did anyone here besides me see 'A Better Life'? If there was a thread, I missed it. I loved it, and was extremely happy to see Damien Bichir nominated for best actor.

Cascade,

If many saw it, not many talked about it. You can find the thread here.

[LibrarianDeb]

FWIW, Spike Lee says that the Oscars are stuck in 1940

"“Despite what the [Motion Picture] Academy thought that year, Denzel’s performance in Malcolm X was one of the greatest ever, and the lesson I got from that is that I will never put myself in the position for other people to determine what is good and not good,” he said. “After that, I have never cared what the Academy said.”And recounting how he had to turn to wealthy black celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson to finance “Malcolm X” when the studio pulled the plug, Lee stressed Malcolm X’s mantra about self-reliance and self-determination remains still relevant to the black community today.

Lee, complaining that the first African-American to win an Oscar, Hattie McDaniel, garnered the 1940 award for her role as a maid in “Gone With the Wind,” and this year two other actresses, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer are up for Oscars for similar roles in “The Help,” said America and Hollywood has far to go on race issues.

“Something crazy happened the other day. Your guy, Barack Obama, gave his third State of the Union address, and ironically, the next day, the Academy put out their Oscar nominations. In 1940, our first great actress is a slave maid. In 2012, we have two maids. The difference? They’re not slaves. Progress?”"

[Tyler]

LibrarianDeb, on 09 February 2012 - 08:14 AM, said:

FWIW, Spike Lee says that the Oscars are stuck in 1940

With all the attention The Artist is getting, I'd say they're stuck around 15 years earlier.

[Peter T Chattaway]

LibrarianDeb wrote:
: FWIW, Spike Lee says that the Oscars are stuck in 1940

And Spike Lee is stuck in 1990. What else is new? (Oh, wait, that was the year Whoopi Goldberg won an Oscar for Ghost. I don't believe SHE was playing a maid. Halle Berry, of course, was playing a waitress when she won HER Oscar -- that's not much better than a maid, right?)

[Darrel Manson]

The Voters - LA Times article on the makeup of the Academy. 95% white, 77% male, median age 62.

[Peter T Chattaway]

And so the final tally is:

5 awards:

• The Artist -- Picture, director (Michel Hazanavicius), actor (Jean Dujardin), costume design, original score
  
• Hugo -- Cinematography, art direction, sound editing, sound mixing, visual effects

2 awards:

• The Iron Lady -- Actress (Meryl Streep), makeup

1 award:

• Beginners -- Supporting actor (Christopher Plummer)
  
• The Descendants -- Adapted screenplay
  
• The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore -- Animated short
  
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo -- Film editing
  
• The Help -- Supporting actress (Octavia Spencer)
  
• Midnight in Paris -- Original screenplay
  
• The Muppets -- Original song
  
• Rango -- Animated feature
  
• Saving Face -- Documentary short
  
• A Separation -- Foreign language film
  
• The Shore -- Live action short
  
• Undefeated -- Documentary feature

FWIW, I've seen all of these except for Saving Face.