Oscar Talk: What is the "Best" when it comes to film? PLUS BEST MOVIE POLL!

[lowkey13]

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[RangerWickett]

I have only seen Joker from that list, and yeah, it doesn't deserve to win. You shouldn't be crowned 'best picture' when your movie has no thesis.

 

[Umbran]

Of the list, I've only seen Little Women (which was, for the record, a fine film). That's about par for the course, for me - I rarely see more than one or two of the Oscar nominees for Best Picture in any given year.

The Academy Awards are the industry giving awards to their own industry. And that's fine. But the actors and directors and all of the Academy are working from a much different perspective than a moviegoer like me. They are people who want to be remembered for making movies, voting on the kind of things they want to be remembered for doing.

But, what they want to be remembered for probably doesn't match what I remember in movies. So, I don't really expect the Oscars to bear much resemblance to my own preferences.

 

[lowkey13]

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[lowkey13]

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[Gradine]

Parasite is a very, very, very good movie. It's a shame Best Picture voters hate reading.

Jojo Rabbit is also very, very, good, but I think a comedy featuring Hitler is going to be a tough sell. Besides, its social commentary is biting and surprisingly subtle at times, and Best Picture voters prefer their social commentary blunt and as shallow as humanly possible (see also: Crash, Green Book).

Oscars voters almost universally go ga-ga for movies about making movies, so yeah, this is probably Tarantino's best shot to score an Oscar of his own (beyond giving Christoph Waltz ample scenery to chew on for his own awards).

 

[lowkey13]

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[Gradine]

Ugh. Let's see:
Crash
Green Book
Forrest Gump
The King's Speech*
Driving Miss Diasy


...these are the types of selections that make you go, "Hey, I guess The Artist was pretty good after all!"


*Cats. Tom Hooper has to be held to account.

Actually looking at the list of winners from the 10's the Academy had a pretty good run going for them between The Artist and Green Book.

 

[Umbran]

This means that if you live in LA and/or a few select other places, you might get to see the films, but not otherwise. It's part of the business/marketing of these films to not have them accessible to most people until AFTER the nominations have been announced.

And, again, the voters are people for home film is their livelihood. Of course they see more movies than I do! Most of these are people for whom there's an astoundingly good argument that movie tickets are a tax-deductible business research expense!

and Best Picture voters prefer their social commentary blunt and as shallow as humanly possible

I am not sure it is fair to say that the Oscar voters are any different from the viewing public in that regard.

Oscars voters almost universally go ga-ga for movies about making movies

Yeah, well, that's unsurprising - everybody goes ga-ga for a (good) movie about whatever it is they do for a living.

 

[Mallus]

Huh... I've only seen Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and Jojo Rabbit. Despite being a big Bong Joon-ho fan (seriously, his Memories of Murder is one of the best-directed movies I've ever seen).

I need to see a few more before I cast my meaningless virtual vote. Maybe I can block out the 5 hours I'll need for The Irishman & Marriage Story over the weekend...

But between the two I've seen, Hollywood over Rabbit. Jojo is an audacious movie about survival under impossible conditions, but I just don't find it as good as Tarantino's masterclass in breezy, formal navel-gazing, which does make a great current capstone to his career-long thesis about the power & importance of film. Also, stealing.