The 96th Annual Academy Awards (Sunday, 3/10/24)
Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
I watched Killers of the Flower Moon on Apple TV+ last night, so now I’ve at least watched one of the Best Picture nominees.
-G
Yeah, I've been slacking this year.
Seen-
The Zone of Interest
Barbie
Oppenheimer
Maestro
Killers of the Flower Moon
Really Really Want to See (but haven't)-
American Fiction
Poor Things
At Some Point-
The Holdovers
Past Lives
Anatomy of a Fall
My own opinion-
I think Oppenheimer is a foregone conclusion to win. But I don't think it's the best picture of the year (IMO). That said, I also think it would be a perfectly deserving winner. I actually preferred Zone of Interest, which is probably a distinctly minority opinion, but that movie has really stuck with me.
Barbie was great and fun, but not the best picture. IMO. Killers of the Flower Moon was good, but neither prime Scorsese nor the best picture. I actually really liked Maestro, and think the backlash was unfair for what was a challenging and unconventional approach to a biopic, but it has a snowball's chance in hell.
I really want to see American Fiction and Poor Things, but don't have an opinion as I haven't seen either movie yet. I do absolutely love the films of Yorgos Lanthimos, so ...
The last three haven't really been on my radar, and I haven't had a strong desire to see them based on my limited knowledge of them.
Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
So, thinking more about the Academy Awards .... I just realized that one of my favorite movies of the past year, Asteroid City, did not receive a single nomination.
Which is probably not surprising, given that The French Dispatch was also shut out for nominations in 2021. And I just looked back over that year ... it couldn't get a nomination over The Trial of the Chicago 7? That wasn't a particularly strong year, and Mank (which I loved ... but still) led all movies with ten nominations.
Looks like he angered the Oscar gods, although he does have his eighth nomination for short film / live action for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.
Still, he's no George P. Russell. YET.
Which is probably not surprising, given that The French Dispatch was also shut out for nominations in 2021. And I just looked back over that year ... it couldn't get a nomination over The Trial of the Chicago 7? That wasn't a particularly strong year, and Mank (which I loved ... but still) led all movies with ten nominations.
Looks like he angered the Oscar gods, although he does have his eighth nomination for short film / live action for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.
Still, he's no George P. Russell. YET.
This year I've done better than most. I saw Barbie, Oppenheimer, Past Lives and the Holdovers. Of the animated films, Nimona, Spiderverse and The Boy andthe Heron. Also the local theater was showing all the short films, so I've seen the full suite of short animated flicks and short films.
And with that ... tbh I'm not super interested in seeing who wins.
And with that ... tbh I'm not super interested in seeing who wins.
Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
Final wrap up and my own personal analysis-
1. The Oppenheimer "sweep." This is a hard one for me. On the one hand, in true Academy fashion, they finally awarded a deserving director not for his best film, but for ... a different one. That said, it wasn't a bad choice, or undeserving in any way. In addition, I think that after the last few years, the Academy really wanted to reward a movie that both did big box office and also had a ton of artistic merit. No complaints.
2. Emma Stone. So I watched Poor Things just before the Oscars, and I have to say ... totally deserved the win. To be honest, I think that, at least at the margins, Lily Gladstone was hurt by the choice to put her in this category instead of best supporting; if you've seen the movie, you know that she has a meaningful role, but you also know that she's on-screen for well less than 1/3 of the 32 hour run-time of the movie (time is both approximate, yet deeply accurate). In addition, and as a general rule, the awards for acting tend to go to "more" and "brave" than "understated."
3. The Zone of Interest. If you read my post above, you know that I'm happy that it won best foreign film. In addition, it won a completely deserved Oscar for sound. Just ... chilling.
Overall, I'd have to say that this was one of the better nights in a while. No slaps. No card mixups. Just breezy and relatively fun. Also? If you haven't already, go watch the clip of I'm Just Ken, and thank me later.
ETA- also, given my earlier post, I would be remiss is not noting that Wes Anderson finally won his Oscar for .... The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. The same year that Asteroid City got shut out of having a single nomination.
1. The Oppenheimer "sweep." This is a hard one for me. On the one hand, in true Academy fashion, they finally awarded a deserving director not for his best film, but for ... a different one. That said, it wasn't a bad choice, or undeserving in any way. In addition, I think that after the last few years, the Academy really wanted to reward a movie that both did big box office and also had a ton of artistic merit. No complaints.
2. Emma Stone. So I watched Poor Things just before the Oscars, and I have to say ... totally deserved the win. To be honest, I think that, at least at the margins, Lily Gladstone was hurt by the choice to put her in this category instead of best supporting; if you've seen the movie, you know that she has a meaningful role, but you also know that she's on-screen for well less than 1/3 of the 32 hour run-time of the movie (time is both approximate, yet deeply accurate). In addition, and as a general rule, the awards for acting tend to go to "more" and "brave" than "understated."
3. The Zone of Interest. If you read my post above, you know that I'm happy that it won best foreign film. In addition, it won a completely deserved Oscar for sound. Just ... chilling.
Overall, I'd have to say that this was one of the better nights in a while. No slaps. No card mixups. Just breezy and relatively fun. Also? If you haven't already, go watch the clip of I'm Just Ken, and thank me later.
ETA- also, given my earlier post, I would be remiss is not noting that Wes Anderson finally won his Oscar for .... The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. The same year that Asteroid City got shut out of having a single nomination.
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Clint_L
Hero
It was fine. Oppenheimer was a worthy winner, a solid mid-to-upper tier Oscar film. Not one that will shame the Academy in the near future, but also not a classic. Same with Murphy's and Downey's performances (Downey's less so. But it was fine).
The lack of love for Greta Gerwig at the Oscars, post Lady Bird, is weird for me. Not that Barbie was the best picture of the year, but I would certainly have put it on the short list for best directed. And placing it in adapted screenplay also made no sense.
The lack of love for Greta Gerwig at the Oscars, post Lady Bird, is weird for me. Not that Barbie was the best picture of the year, but I would certainly have put it on the short list for best directed. And placing it in adapted screenplay also made no sense.
Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
Actually, it makes perfect sense.... but only once you understand the byzantine rules that govern the various processes.
Different bodies have different standards, so the WGA or Golden Globes would have one standard for whether a screenplay is considered original or adapted, while the Academy has its own standard.
The Academy's standard has always been more stringent; for example, they will move screenplays into the "adapted" category if the screenplay had a predecessor even if it wasn't published previously (this happened to Moonlight) or if there is a part of another work in the whole (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs had a single tale that was either an homage, or an adptation, of a prior Jack London work).
In addition, if the movie is about a pre-existing character, it will be moved into the adapted screenplay category; Borat 2 and Before Midnight most famously, but even Toy Story 3 fell into that categorization- which is very on-point.
In effect, because of the rules, it was always going to go into adapted screenplay in the Oscars ... no matter what you might have heard.
(Note- this doesn't mean that the rule is correct or incorrect, but it's not a new rule, and it wasn't deployed against the movie capriciously.)
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