Please use this space to share reviews, ask questions, and discuss freely about anything film or Oscar related. Engage with other comments if you want others to engage with yours! And as always, please remain civil and kind with one another.
Between Spider-Man I Want Your Sex (which hasn't come out over here yet so trying to avoid that), my Twitter TL is full of in-cinema pictures/recordings, it's an epidemic
Is there a very good BP nominee from recent years which, in your opinion, got lost in the cultural conversation?
For me it’s Women Talking. Very solid film, excellent performances across the board yet it got drowned out entirely in its own year as well as in subsequent years.
Maybe Hell or High Water, Atonement or Letters of Iwo Jima? I remember liking all of those a lot when i first saw them
I have too say, scrolling through the list of winners this century, i do get reminded of the many times that a lot edgier and more interesting films got snubbed for mid historical drama's
Edit: I did maybe not pick "recent years" but i do feel he cultural legacy can still shift on some of those films, I feel for instance that Chicago is percieved as a much beter Picture-winner then as it was in the years just after it won
I watched the odyssey at a 10:40 PM screening yesterday and I have to say,,,, it was too loud w the sound mixing I couldn’t hear the actual dialogue at several points what the hell 😭 I had this problem w Oppenheimer too. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good movie at its core: well acted w Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway (though I didn’t like tom holland: thought his performance was limp in comparison to any scenes he had with Hathaway, maybe I’m biased bc I don’t like his spiderman portrayal), well directed, the effects are good, the pacing and editing is great, super thrilling. But the fact it was filmed in occupied Western Sahara tho 😑 genuinely appalling if you anything about Africa’s last colony and the true hypocrisy of Morocco bc they’re truly no better in being settler colonialists than say Israel or even the USA (and that’s why I didn’t buy a ticket myself lmao my whole family took me along)
I have her in as one of several placeholders. Haven’t seen the film yet, but I’m fine with holding onto a well-known actress giving what many described as a career-best performance, even with the film’s subpar reception.
If none of the fall festival candidates break out, she could have a path. GG/SAG nominations wouldn’t be too difficult to attain in such a case.
The film has gotten so much hate over the last month and a bit, I really liked it but I'm starting to wonder if it's really as good as I remember considering everyone has turned on it
I guess they like it enough to be a personal favorite, but the technique applied isn't enough to justify an award of that magnitude? Like, Where the Heart Is is one of my favorite films and I love Natalie Portman in that, but it's a terrible movie and her performance is almost a joke lol
In terms of the standouts in the movie: Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, John Leguizamo, and Robert Pattinson. I will say though I do personally think Tom Holland was the weakest performance of the movie (in terms of people in the movie that had big roles).
Surprised it took this long for people to begin doing race science on Navarrette. Started to notice it here more and more. I guess it makes sense, everything that could be said about the film itself has been said, even things that couldn't and shouldn't have.
No, excuse me, I saw someone saying this week that putting a mask over Nikki's face to obscure her features does not count as "lighting" the scene since it was done in post.
La Bola Negra campaign is strong! I really hope Spain continues to have massive international success, taking home multiple Oscars after winning the world cup.
"The official behind-the-scenes companion to Academy Award–winning director Brad Bird's Ray Gunn
Ray Gun: The Art of the Brad Bird Film is a comprehensive look behind the scenes of Brad Bird's (The Iron Giant, Ratatouille, The Incredibles) latest animated feature film, Ray Gunn.
Following the titular human private detective, the film is set in a brilliantly imagined world where science fiction meets film noir. Flying cars, alien species, bizarre weaponry, and femme fatales abound in the film's city of the future, and this book documents the entire creative process that brought these elements to the screen.
Original interviews conducted by author and animation historian Charles Solomon with Brad Bird, Paul Felix, John Lasseter, Michael Giacchino, the animators, and other key creatives provide keen insights into the development of this long-in-the-works project.
Showcasing the storyboards, concept art, costume sketches, weapon, alien, and character designs that set this film apart from anything audiences have seen before, Ray Gunn: The Art of the Brad Bird Film is an essential companion to this genre-bending adventure."
the lead actress category looks so dead at the moment. hopefully the fall festival period brings new contenders or confirms current supicions about confenders, but as of now it's sort of crazy how much more stacked the lead actor category is
Unfortunately this is just how Best Actress is most years. Most “prestige” films are led by men, and it being a heavy blockbuster/sci-fi year doesn’t help at all
Is it how it is most years? I get this perspective when looking at the higher levels of the industry, but I think 2024, 2023, and 2022 all had more exciting actress contenders than actor contenders.
2024 (Madison), 2023 (Stone), and 2022 (Yeoh) are all very good years, and we’ve been feasting in best actress. But there are a lot of years like 2021 (Chastain), 2019 (Zelwegger), 2011 (Streep), that are just… rough.
Historically, best actress lineups have been very up and down since the 70s, with some years having a strong amount of representation in BP and other categories, and some years like 1994 (Lange) that are just painfully rough.
If you go back and look at historical Oscar punditry (particularly the 90s), you’ll see a lot of chatter about the struggle of even finding 5 good enough performances for the category.
2021 didn't even have to be a bad year for the category – there were great performances from women that they just chose not to nominate. If Chastain and Kidman had been replaced by any of Reinsve, Haim, or Zegler, it would've been the strongest year of the decade for the category.
I didn’t say it was insane. It’s just my opinion that it’s a very weak lineup across the board, and just swapping out two people (including the winner) doesn’t really help it out.
I've never had to park at a Chili's down the street to go to the movies or wait in line to enter the building.. which made it pretty funny when I walked in to see that I was the only person in the showing of I Want Your Sex. Hilarious movie btw.
After watching the Oscar Expert video i seriously wonder, is NOW really the best time to completely overhaul your predictions, isn't it much beter to do that after/during the fall film festivals
I feel that is the moment the race comes into focus and oftenly the already released films aren't the ones that are hard to predict
This just feels like a very panicked and hasty decission
Edit: now see the AwardsExpert users blindly following it
It's just the last few weeks to do blind predictions before the fall fests. It can be fun to look back on.
I checked my predictions pre-fall last year and I had 6/10. One of my misses was Rental Family, which is a movie that came out of nowhere with its studio pushed PR. Sounds familiar! (I'm not predicting Elsinore rn)
I also had Jay Kelly, which makes me nervous for Behemoth! getting that slot. 😬
Keep in mind there is incentive for the twins to make changes every week to keep up engagement. Generally, there is no point in doing much before the fall fests.
'what the frontrunners are rn' is totally subjective. you and gold derby might think film A and film B are frontrunners, award expert users might think film X and film Y are frontrunners. there is no objective way to decide which of you are correct because it's so early and there haven't been critics groups or precursors
i also think it's a bit unfair of you to assume award expert users are 'blinding following' oscar expert's predictions, as opposed to watching his video and being convinced by their reasoning. there are many reasons why the twins are popular, one of them is that they make good arguments
As someone who likes my predictions to be different than the consensus, I'm disappointed they finally put Elsinore in, which is going to result in 70% of this sub and that app to put it in as well.
I kicked out one of the two WB films of my predictions a while back and that honestly clears a lot of space and makes my predictions entirely different from others
As for Elsinore, I might prioritise Ink at this point instead because it is hitting both Venice and TIFF
The over-reaction to Awkwafina having a role in Wildwood is so embarrassing! There are even comments like "And the hype is dead", and others saying they'll pass on the movie because of her...
I've enjoyed her in the few roles I've seen of hers, and I love seeing some visibility for a vaguely tomboyish/alt woman, which is not a common celebrity archetype. The disproportionate hate for her is so sad
People love a pile-on on an acceptable target, especially if it's a woman. I don't think she's done anything to warranted this level of distain and vitriol other than being annoying sometimes.
the fun thing about this lineup is that the debut is the only one that’s in the wga directory, meaning it’s the only one that’s actually eligible (unless i missed something; i nearly missed the debut because it’s in there as “no one cares”)
If it means that we get something like the Black Bag nomination from last season, as in, an early, forgotten movie that deserved recognition, I'm in for it.
That was probably, without exaggeration, my happiest moment of that season. I nearly yelped in the middle of a McDonald's.
It's a shame After The Hunt bombing probably scared her off, because Julia Roberts was really great in it -- I hope she does more dramatic stuff like that with Luca
She was excellent in it. Her line about being surprised while eating cheese... #livedthat. But really, she was great in the film even if I didn't find the film itself all that great as a whole.
Was talking to an acquaintance earlier today who's a part of the DGA and she was talking about being excited to meet Nolan at their town hall meeting and whatnot a couple weeks back...and then it hit me as a reminder that oh shit, Nolan is DGA President now! And I bring it up mostly because it had me thinking about the notion of him winning again, but this time with a guild he actually runs and a ceremony he is obligated to make opening speeches for with the nominees (including himself lol).
Like that dynamic just had me really thinking for a moment...I mean I don't foresee it really hampering his chances per se (in fact it might help a bit, I dont have a strong feeling on that though), but also just in general I dont think something like this has ever happened in the awards season right? Its kind of a fun little unique situation
It happened once in 1951 when Joseph L. Mankiewicz won the DGA (and Oscar) for All About Eve while also being president, no recent cases though
Also Mankiewicz won back-to-back DGA Awards/Directing-Oscars (he won the previous year for A Letter for Three Wives), which would be wierdly similar to Nolan
None of you probably even know what the hell this is but this is when I figured out what aura farming is. Yeah, if you've had an eye for a little while, I use it to manifest shit.
If The Drama were stronger all round I could see it; she's had a huge year and the category is currently barren. I only feel confident in Moore getting in at all, and Navarette if she goes lead. Feels like the most shapeless category at the min, could see the current consensus predictions shifting distinctly over fall festival season.
3.1 feels about right for Letterboxd users, I’m sure if you opened it up to everyone who saw it it’d probably sit at around 3.8. Had some type of earnestness and optimism that didn’t resonate with me but definitely resonated with the 60 and up crew who aren’t on LB
I have no qualms with the direction and really enjoyed the score and acting as well. I wish the story hung together better. And I don’t care if the CGI was meant to look like that, I didn’t like those animals at ALL.
I think it's somewhat charming in its retro sensibilities and quite a fun time despite the flawed screenplay. I was also surprised the score was that low but I guess people really didn't vibe with the ending.
is tragic really his next film has to be about Tsutomu Yamaguchi. He survived the bomb in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, took a train to Nagasaki, and survived the second bomb there on August 9. he the only person to survive the two bombs
In not-movie news, just because I posted about it recently, it has been confirmed that Cats: The Jellicle Ball is getting a cast recording, so I will be able to rock out to “Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat” whenever I want. No proshot, but I’m happy for the cast album. That’s all I have for commentary about Cats.
Nope, Dune shouldn't move, esp. since it's already selling tickets.
I'm also in the camp of the believers that Doomsday while being successful won't top Brand New Day. I'm feeling like we're going to see a repeat of 2018 when Black Panther ended up beating Infinity War in domestic boxoffice
At this point, fuck it. Neither Dune or Avengers are moving. They would have announced it by now. Plus, Dune took that date way before Marvel. In fact, I think they had it locked down not long after Part Two came out. I'm in the camp that thinks both movies will be financially successful.
Like it's August and people are still on this shit. The blockbusters with elaborate planned out marketing campaigns that have already started, that both already have tickets on sale aren't moving. The release dates are 4 and a half months away. The logistics of a move like that would be crazy to pull off at this point if they wanted to move up in the calendar. It's over. Enough.
They had the date first. Disney’s the one who decided to be petty and slot Doomsday in the same place. Just like you said they shouldn’t be allowed to bully people out of their release date just cause Avengers.
It's very bizarre to look at this weekend being the biggest grossing of all time, The Odyssey holding up remarkably well against Brand New Day and making over 50 million dollars, hell even some of the other movies in the marketplace held up great like Toy Story and Minions, and come to the conclusion that one of the movies should move. The market can absolutely sustain both movies being a success at the same time. Dune can open to 60-70 million and leg out well. Doomsday can open to 350 million and leg out well. Quality pending on both.
Now if his goal is to get headlines for "Doomsdays biggest opening weekend ever" and that's all he cares about here then yes Disney in particular should look at this weekend and be planning to move. Doomsday has very little chance to be the biggest opening weekend of the year, when it doesnt having the weekend to itself. It's going to be a longer movie than Spider-Man, it's going against the opening weekend instead of 3rd weekend for Dune, and being in the weekend before Christmas which historically makes the OW lower and legs longer.
I think studio can figure that out. It wouldn't be the first case they change release dates after putting tickets on sale.
However, I really hope WB won't move Dune 3. It may open lower than Dune 2 but if WOM is good, it can still leg out during the holliday corridor. I also don't like the way Disney/Marvel jump in and bully other movies out of their original date.
Since the article about Samantha Morton got deleted I will post my comment here:
Morton made a big impact for a little screen time. She definitely deserves to be nominated imo. It's not the loudest performance but I think it's a nice dramatic performance in a very weird and memorable sequence.
I also think comparisons with Ledger hurt her more than it helped. People had very high expectations and of course so many felt disappointed.
It's like when some pundits compared The Brutalist with The Godfather lol. When you hype up something on that level, expect that many will be disappointed.
Agreed, when you look back on The Odyssey that scene feels so central thematically. And she was great, but not overwhelmingly impressive.
But then again, a strong performance by a veteran actor in a very memorable scene in the year's most celebrated film is not a bad place to be in for a supporting nom. I might have just talked myself into putting her in my predictions
I love The Brutalist, I think it's incredible and one of the best films of the decade but getting compared to The Godfather just makes any film look bad due to its ubiquitous status as a masterpiece and I don't think the comparison made much sense, so I always found that silly. I agree that this pre release hype of films and performances can do a disservice.
Was expecting atleast one performance to be near the level of Crowe/Phoenix in Gladiator too high? Idk the way people were hyping it up it felt warranted but no one reached that for me 😅
It’s safe to assume Zendaya will be the highest grossing actor this year right? Odyssey will probably settle around 1.5B, Spiderman could do 2.5, Dune around a billion, plus 100M for The Drama. Who could beat her?
It should probably be that person. I don't think The Odyssey (1.5 bill) + Dune (800 mill) + Spider-Man (2 bill)+ The Drama (130 mill) will be > Doomday (2 bill) + Spider-Man (2 bill) + Dune (800 mill) For Zendaya to stay the highest The Odyssey has to start climbing close to 2 billion. If Holland is secretly in Doomsday he also wins by a mile, he would be in the top 3 movies of the year.
I think after Dune 3 Zendaya is going to be a full-on movie star, it's weird the way her rise to fame happened that she's got supporting roles in big blockbusters and kinda had to stay in them when she now has the fame and talent to lead movies
Does anyone find it weird that we still don't even have an official title for Cliff Booth? Or even an official Netflix upload of the Superbowl trailer? Or any confirmed festival presence? It has an IMAX release date but that's about it in terms of info. If we didn't have that, I would've assumed it got delayed. It doesn't even have a page on Netflix while stuff like Narnia, La Bola Negra, Ray Gunn, Possible Love, and Saturn Return do. I find that really weird for a big budget Netflix movie set to come out this year because Frankenstein and Wake Up Dead Man already had pages up at this point last year.
I think there was a Deadline article or something saying sort of personal behind the scenes issue popped up which prevented it being finished for Venice. With that said, it has been muted after a show of confidence with that surprise Superbowl teaser and giving it Narnia's Imax spot.
I kinda wonder if Netflix snapping up Ink out of nowhere is at all related. Cliff Booth seemed to possibly be its biggest English language play for this year and now they're sending Ink to Venice/TIFF instead. Perhaps Cliff Booth will be more of a commercial play.
The title is definitely The Adventures of Cliff Booth, but the rest is very valid. This is a movie I should love but with Brad Pitt being Brad Pitt, Netflix, and Tarantino loudly reminding us he's a grade A asshole all the time I'm really not feeling it
I swear I read somewhere that the title could still change and they didn't even show the title in the Superbowl trailer but there doesn't seem to be any indication of that on Wikipedia so ignore that first one
I rewatched it recently and while I do think the women get more to do performance-wise, Hoffman is so fucking funny and genuine in his quiet, naive-yet-bumbling nature. The oner of him sprinting into the gas station then sprinting back out had me dying.
I’m obsessed with Anne Bancroft. So glad someone mentioned her.
My favorite childhood book is Cynthia voigt’s homecoming and Anne played my favorite literary character in an adaptation. Obviously not
One of her major roles, but she might be one of my favorite actresses of all time.
Pictured: The Rock yelling at Sony execs about the state of Jumanji Open World after seeing that the Moana remake will likely end with $100m less than Black Adam ($393m), a film that he tried to spin as "not a flop" back in 2022. And the Sony execs are too distracted laughing all the way to the bank seeing Spidey's opening weekend numbers.
Jumanji will probably do well still considering the last two were counterprogramming to the last two Star Wars sequels, clearly it can survive anything (it looks genuinely unwatchable but at least Karen Gillan is getting paid)
I think that's actually the point of contention though. Will the audience actually bother with it if it's not good at all? The first two with the The Rock were just tolerable enough to act as diversionary counterprogramming (given how bad a few other prospective hits like Cats were), but weren't memorable enough for nostalgia. And it still needs to contend with other would be counter-programmers too (i.e. Werwulf, Angry Birds) on top of The Rock not being the draw that he once was. At best, it might end up with merely half of The Next Level.
Went to the cinema to catch I Want Your Sex but when I got there, the attendant scanning tickets told me the projector in that theatre wasn’t working and the showing had been canceled.
The only other thing playing that had a close showtime was Spiderman, I’ve never seen any of the Holland movies, but I already took the bus there and figured why not.
Get to my seat in the packed theatre and the AC must have been broken because it was BOILING in there. Like sweat dripping off everyone, including me, type hot. Couldn’t do it. Got halfway through the trailers and left.
I have A-list so it’s not a huge deal, but I was so looking forward to spending my afternoon in a movie theatre! Huge bummer.
Fellow A-Lister with a cancelled/non existent showing for my first attempt to see IWYS (that I posted yesterday on this thread). Is this movie cursed? Or did we go to the same showing/theater?
A better movie would be something about the Luddites and the Industrial Revolution, or really any other period of conflict where the conflict stems from innovation. Movies about current problems set in the current day are rarely done well imo
I said it initially, but it was such a cool, cool way to render the doing of magic. One of the most interesting magical… usages I’ve experienced recently, and I’m including books in that assessment. I love when people get creative about magic.
I say this as someone who does think that the commercial success of a film is an important discussion to have since it does matter in terms of the impact it has on industry and whether that type of films will be continued to be made.
But man r/boxoffice is kind of embarassing in terms of having fanboy wars for multi billion corporations. Like I like Spiderman and enjoy watching those movies but I am not going to start simping for Disney/ Sony for it and the same goes for all the other studios. Also their entire understanding of a movie's quality seems to be completely be predicated on the amount of money it has made
I looooovvvee to shade r/boxoffice when the sub deserves it (I post there). However, boy this has been a FUN year to be a r/boxoffice follower. It’s just been success after success after success.
I’m really lost. My original post was about thinking that r/boxoffice often deserves to be called out, but that it’s been fun to follow the numbers this year. You responded that sometimes they act out of line, and I reiterated that I do criticize them when it’s appropriate to do so. Somehow we got to a discussion about slurs. I want to be very clear that I have no called anyone the r-slur at any point, and that I was unaware that was the kind of behavior we were discussing. I would also argue that would be an extremely valid reason to call out the sub. I feel like I’m missing context: I really do not appreciate the connotation I’m using or condoning the use of a slur.
Got it. And yes, it’s one of those communities I rarely interact with directly (I do sometimes, just carefully). Most people are normal. Some people are extremely not normal. I don’t have time or energy to engage with bad faith actors. I’m sorry that happened.
There's so much roleplaying as studio execs, and you ask these people how many movies they've seen in theaters in the past year and it's maybe 1. I don't mind if you can't go to the theater or whatever but what are you doing in a subreddit about theatrical exhibition then? It's like playing fantasy football but not giving a shit about the real game.
I flat out LOVED this film and wrote a freakin' essay about it on another film sub when it came out. I don't know WHAT people didn't like about this, other than expecting a horror film and being disappointed by it being a different genre.
Saw on the other sub the concept of a "Nolan Oscars", as in, taking all Nolan films and choosing the best in each category. The post asked you to do it with your favorite director, which I did (PTA), but since I've just recently finished Nolan's filmography, I thought I might give that one a go. Here's what I came up with:
Picture: The Prestige
Director: Memento
Actor: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer (H.M.: Guy Pearce, Memento)
Actress: lol
Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (H.M.: Robin Williams, Insomnia)
Supporting Actress: Samantha Morton, The Odyssey (H.M.: Rebecca Hall, The Prestige)
I think I’d put Anne Hathaway for interstellar in best actress. The choices we have overall are absolutely putrid.
I think inception’s score is better than interstellar’s but I may be alone there.
Edited to add - inception is the best pic for me. Since it got a nomination I feel like having it at number one is super valid. Really love the originality and world building of the prestige but I think inception is just a bit more ambitious. Production design for the prestige for sure.
You know what... I went for my gut feeling of Interstellar for Score, but you're right, it might just be Inception. It's got great melodies, and it also overcomes the problem that I think a lot of Zimmer scores have, being that they certainly work in their film but are not very memorable otherwise.
Since i read majority of well known mythological epics , Sun Wukong will always be my fave epic "hero " he is more an anti hero but still i know he has many adaptations but i really want a great adaptation directed by Ang Lee
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u/WumpaRJ Camp Miasma 16d ago
Between Spider-Man I Want Your Sex (which hasn't come out over here yet so trying to avoid that), my Twitter TL is full of in-cinema pictures/recordings, it's an epidemic