Oscars 2016

The Governors Awards are a week from Saturday; they should mike up the three honorees and broadcast it.

https://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/spike-lee-gena-rowlands-debbie-reynolds.jpg

http://www.oscars.org/news/spike-lee-debbie-reynolds-and-gena-rowlands-receive-academys-2015-governors-awards

they should give these three Oscars and cancel the ceremony in February.

I've no idea what Oscar bait the Academy minnows will bite.

I've no idea what Oscar bait the Academy minnows will bite.

anomalisa?

I have a hard time imagining the animated Oscar will go to anything but the mind-of-a-child Pixar smash

spotlight seems to be the early favorite based on what i'm hearing, which is "spotlight seems to be the early favorite from what i'm hearing" said in other places

124 submitted feature documentaries (Winehouse, Joplin, Cobain included... also Laurie Anderson, F Wiseman)

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/10/23/oscars-2016-documentary-submissions

It'll be amusing if Tom McCarthy gets a Best Director nom in the same year he's eligible for "The Cobbler."

Breaking the Danish Girl's Code

doc feature shortlist; Laurie made it.

“Amy,” On the Corner Films and Universal Music

“Best of Enemies,” Sandbar

“Cartel Land,” Our Time Projects and The Documentary Group

“Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” Jigsaw Productions

“He Named Me Malala,” Parkes-MacDonald and Little Room

“Heart of a Dog,” Canal Street Communications

“The Hunting Ground,” Chain Camera Pictures

“Listen to Me Marlon,” Passion Pictures

“The Look of Silence,” Final Cut for Real (in photo above)

“Meru,” Little Monster Films

“3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets,” The Filmmaker Fund, Motto Pictures, Lakehouse Films, Actual Films, JustFilms, MacArthur Foundation and Bertha BRITDOC

“We Come as Friends,” Adelante Films

“What Happened, Miss Simone?,” RadicalMedia and Moxie Firecracker

“Where to Invade Next,” Dog Eat Dog Productions

“Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom,” Pray for Ukraine Productions

http://variety.com/2015/film/awards/oscar-unveils-list-of-15-films-on-documentary-feature-short-list-1201651045/

112 eligible scores (disqualified: The Revenant, Love & Mercy)

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscar-eligible-film-scores-competing-849685

heh just imagine..

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/movies/star-wars-the-force-awakens-oscars.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

so apparently the punditry agrees that the dark horse to upset Spotlight is... The Big Short

Eric sez:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/2016-oscar-nomination-predictions

We rebond in our love for Emory Cohen.

I don't think Jordan makes the cut #WhiteActorsMatter

Agree there but wd be a pleasant surprise.

Chuckled at Tom Noonan's "should be" for supporting actor.

more predix (FilmExp not yet final)

http://moviecitynews.com/2016/01/gurus-o-gold-down-to-the-nomination-wire/

http://thefilmexperience.net/prediction-index/

Of course it makes sense that the least interesting perf in Spotlight is most likely to score a nod.

I find the relative lack of love for Michael B. Jordan really odd

#WhiteActorsMatter

srsly with all the chatter about The Weak Year it's been for male actors and they couldn't nominate the best lead performance in the studio-made field.

Rocky's training regimen shd've included siccing a bear on him

or in my case a cub

ew

so apparently the Room kid is a good bet; sorry, grownups

Emory Cohen and I are finishing a bottle of gin and weeping.

to think only a couple of years ago Emory Cohen was just that super fucking annoying kid on NBC's Smash

one more sotosyn ref and he'll be permanently super annoying

to think only a couple of years ago Emory Cohen was just that super fucking annoying kid on NBC's Smash

― the naive cockney chorus (Simon H.)

to think only two years ago he was that super fucking annoying young adult in The Place Beyond the Pines.

lol I forgot that was him too, what a piece of shit that was in general

i'd like to snap that li'l Dane deHaan in half

so...basically no surprises

might be alone, but i found emory cohen pretty-by-the-numbers italian-american in brooklyn...

paisley swimming trunks

He fit the book's conception of a sweet, rather dim boy new to many things.

Good to see:
-cinematography and especially original score for Sicario
-George Miller for Best Director
-Sorkin snubbed after being on every prediction list

Best Picture

The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Best Actor

Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Matt Damon, The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

Best Supporting Actress

Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara, Carol
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Tom Hardy, The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Best Director
The Big Short, Adam McKay
Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller
The Revenant, Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Room, Lenny Abrahamson
Spotlight, Tom McCarthy

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Big Short, Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
Brooklyn, Nick Hornby
Carol, Phyllis Nagy
The Martian, Drew Goddard
Room, Emma Donoghue

Best Original Screenplay

Bridge of Spies, Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
Ex Machina, Alex Garland
Inside Out, Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley; Original story by Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen
Spotlight, Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy
Straight Outta Compton, Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; Story by S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff

I didn't see Tom Hardy making it or JJ Leigh.

"He fit the book's conception of a sweet, rather dim boy new to many things."

the character of a 20 something italian american in 1950s new york being one of those things...

Ennio Morricone has never won a direct Oscar, has he? Just honorary? That would be cool. Otherwise, man, I was talking to a friend who, like me, struggles to get out to the movies. She said she felt she really needed to catch up with the potential Oscar contenders, and I basically raised my eyebrows and told her, um, not this year. There's Mad Max, and there's more or less everything else, and even Mad Max feels like a serious outlier.

Happy to see Star Wars did not get a production design nom.

nice to see ex machina in there

truly dull nominations though. id have thought carol would be in there for makeup and styling or production design. seems like they just thought 'how can we put the revenant in every category?'

hope mad max wins nothing except maybe editing.

I want the best for Danish film, but I kinda hate it when complete shit is nominated for Best Foreign Film. A War is one of the worst films I saw this year.

And now I have to pretend to support it.

I was happy to see Ex Machina, too. Movie is a little on the nose, but it lingers.

have prediction models gotten that much more sophisticated, or are the Oscars just that much more boringly predictable now

Well, I think they found themselves in a jam, seeing as they had to nominate something.

please do not let redmayne win

You mean Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne?

yeah all those directors are better than Spielberg

release the hounds at this trade show

am surprised charlize theron isnt nominated, it being the year of women of cinema etc.

the best actress/actor award should go to the cast of tangerine. surprised rachel weisz isnt in there for lobster (or that lobster isnt in there at all)

The Lobster has not been released in America, and ROFL that more than 3% of the Academy wd see it

this could be Roger Deakins' 'career achievement' year i guess

With the exception of Fassbender, the actor nomination list is an abattoir.

only explanation for matt damon even being in the running for that is the oscars wanting to show theyre not out of touch with popular tastes.

are you familiar with them?

yay no Ridley Scott tho

Has Deakins never won?

This could be the year of "Oh, all right, fine ...", with Deakins, Morricone, even Leo.

13 nominations, no wins

friend of mine directed a short movie that got nominated - pretty cool!

what a diverse group of nominees, bravo oscars!

I will say that the Best Song category is an impressively odd bunch. David Lang?!

peter bradshaw OTM

http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/jan/14/oscars-2016-the-revenant-mad-max-the-martian-peter-bradshaw

As for the other films, George Miller’s delirious fantasy action-adventure Mad Max: Fury Road has a whopping 10 nominations, a testament to how popular this movie is and how excited the Los Angeles industry is about it. I very much enjoyed this entertainingly hyperactive film, and Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron are both very good. But I have to reiterate my bafflement at how reverently it is being treated. It is great that the Oscars aren’t kowtowing to middlebrow “quality” cinema: sure. But in that case I’d prefer to see Inside Out get more nominations. This wonderful animation has something for best original screenplay, but it should also have been in there for best film. So, too, should Charlie Kaufman’s unclassifably extraordinary Anomalisa.

Man, I must be the only one that thought Inside Out was a drag. Well, me and my two girls, aka the Target Audience.

i thought it was too cerebral for kids and actually kind of laborious. not actually as emotive as a film about emotions should have been.

Who do I bribe to make sure that Iñárritu never wins anything for the rest of his life

so which young lady does Rampling lose to?

Larson most likely. I haven't seen Joy. I don't care for Blanchett's work but this is the least embarrassing list of actress nods in years.

so Revenant sweeps? really?

I know there isn't a hive mind, but if you're going to nominate only Stallone for Creed, maybe just don't nominate the four honkies that wrote Straight Outta Compton?

do you mean white people?

i mean like as a white person

That is what I mean, yes.

Minor rooting interest for The Martian, but not really--as much as I did enjoy it, it definitely had more than one eye on awards. Haven't seen any of the five documentaries (Amy by choice...has Wiseman ever been nominated?). So basically nothing this year. Ice Cube's son should have been nominated for Supporting Actor.

Wiseman has never been nominated.

Also, Diary of a Teenage Girl should have gotten something--that used be a consolation-screenplay-type film. And if not that, Bel Powley for actress. I guess this isn't meant as a complaint thread.

Man, I must be the only one that thought Inside Out was a drag.

100% agree. My least favorite Pixar that I've seen in theaters.

Text from my wife earlier: "So what is the Revenant and do I need to see it?"

Good year for the Irish

thinking transatlantic fetish might mean one for Ronan

love Ronan by the way, i think she is on her way to become of one the all time greats

is the Revenant doing well box office-wise? baffled at the appeal of Inarritu - I mean I can see why the Academy would like this bullshit, the general public less so.

xpost Yeah Ronan will definitely get more Oscar noms in the years to come so maybe Larson might get the nod

it made $40 mil last weekend

xp

It's not out here until Saturday

yeah you gotta throw one to 26yo Larson before she's over the hill...

I didn't mean it like that. I meant that it's more likely Ronan will get more Oscar noms than Larson in the future

i'll be happy to have the first one in the bag tbh

sorry too many open goals i couldn't resist

this is Ronan's second nomination btw (supporting in '08)

Irish posters - she's pronouncing her own name wrong, right?

never heard her speak...

http://cdn-03.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article34343652.ece/ee21a/ALTERNATES/h342/saoirse%20ronan%20ellen%201.png

I always thought it was seer-sha myself

yeah, never heard it any other other way

yeah that is p weird. seer-sha otm. or maybe sare-sha. but definitely not sursha.

Savoir-sais. It's french for 'knowing-know', also called a wiseass.

never heard that

Huh, I'd definitely go with sur-sha.

i wonder what topic Chris Rock will zone in on all night? we should write some and see which he does.

*some jokes

The one thing I enjoy about the Oscars? Bill Chambers' Annual Professional Commentary on the noms

ive not seen it and think he is - except for in the wire - just a terrible actor, but should idris alba have been nominated for his netflix movie? wonder if the fact its a netflix rather than studio film which might have counted against it.

enjoyed that Chambers bit - but slightly confused, is Brooklyn a good film? looks terrible!

it can't be "sur-sha" - saoirse in irish is always sare-sha, saor is only ever pronounced "sare", in any irish dialect apart from perhaps d4

shay-or-shay is how its meant to be said i think

sarah

easier

Ho (like Ho Chi Minh) Show (rhymes with how now brown cow) Shen

actually i think its shay-or-shair

enjoyed that Chambers bit - but slightly confused, is Brooklyn a good film? looks terrible!

― niels, Friday, January 15, 2016 5:10 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Can't verify that it is myself--though I loved the novel--but Chambers was a fan, yes.

the premise of brooklyn sounds like such dire paddywhackery that i couldn't watch it. i mean not to take away from achievements of one of the greatest living irish writers i've never read or whatever.

i guess it was adapted by nick hornby though, right, which is even more ominous.

It's OK for the first two thirds. Ronan (who deserved the nod) and Cohen have something going.

xpost the premise of brooklyn sounds like such dire paddywhackery that i couldn't watch it. i mean not to take away from achievements of one of the greatest living irish writers i've never read or whatever.

― japanese mage (LocalGarda), Friday, 15 January 2016 15:14 (14 minutes ago)

Yeah to this. I mean I'm sure its somewhat decent and Ronan is great in it as per usual but the trailer reminds me of circle of friends and other mediocre irish fare like that.

even though i've never read any of his books, colm toibin annoys me. every picture of him is like some carefully composed shot of him sitting smugly in his study surrounded with books everywhere.

Will be going to see Room later tho. I love Abrahamson's movies.

nod nom nod nom no

im not sure brooklyn is 'bad', its not, but its not exactly good either. its just been lucky to generate a lot of goodwill somehow, and people want to see ronan win, which is nice, and the role is a good one for her, i just think she didnt have quite enough to do, and while shes def good, shes not THAT expressive, to really nail it purely on her face alone. shes not lea seydoux in blue is the warmest colour. and the script doesnt equip her with the scenes where she could do those things. the film is very MOR, lukewarm in terms of emotional scope, neither pulling at the heartstrings enough for a sentimental drama, nor serious enough to work as a deep, searching piece on immigration either. it reminds me of legend, in that its another low-mid budget british drama, that looks semi-handsome (ie its no carol), but it just seems under cooked. too mild.

Room is the only BP nominee i haven't already seen that I'm even mildly curious about.

The movie's "nice" in that matinee movie tradition, i.e. dinner + drinks after a 5 p.m. show. And the director, like McCarthy in Spotlight, had no eye for either Ireland or NYC. He could've titled it Buffalo and it would've made no difference.

I found the kid in Room a menace and thought the movie backed away from the obv psychological questions raised in its first half.

the Nick Hornby writing credit was all I needed to back away, but since it's an adaptation I guess maybe I'll go see with my mom or something... would like to see Room before the show, so I can root for it or not.

from The Film Experience:

Mad Max Fury Road is the first live action sequel ever nominated for Best Picture whose original wasn't nominated. In fact the entire Mad Max franchise had received zero nominations up until this morning. Mad Max is only the second sequel ever nominated for Best Picture whose original wasn't up for the same prize. The only other example is Toy Story 3 (the first Toy Story did receive a special Oscar though, before the creation of the Animated Feature Category)...

George Miller (has) now been nominated in five separate categories: Best Director (MMFR), Best Picture (MMFR & Babe), Best Original Screenplay (Lorenzo's Oil), Best Adapted Screenplay (Babe), and Best Animated Feature (Happy Feet).

http://thefilmexperience.net/blog/2016/1/14/oscar-trivia-first-time-lucky.html

Just saw Ex Machina again, and especially in light of The Revenant and hey Mad Max, it probably deserves more than just screenplay and effects (though those are great). I would have tossed it best director and best actor, too. Maybe one or two more. It's really impeccably made, and more subtle than I first gave it credit for.

It's a first film (in the writer turned dir sense) with a dull lead character and an unsatisfying conclusion. It's not better than MM:FR.

Chris Rock on Twitter: "the white BET awards"

room is good, inspiring, and moving, but it felt like lot from the book was probably shorn out to make sure it was inspiring and moving, etc. not read the book but in the evening standard review it mentions how she was used for sex by her captor but unless i totally missed it, i didnt see any allusion to that at all (there was also something big between william macy and bree larson but we never found out what iirc). felt like the film also lacked drama. it was all a bit too smooth.

No way is Ex Machina close to being better than Mad Max! But it is better than The Revenant, and all the Mad Max noms reveal a rare drop of genre bias. Second time around Ex Machina conclusion and characters made much more sense. Some really subtle stuff toward the end that I missed the first time.

in the evening standard review it mentions how she was used for sex by her captor but unless i totally missed it, i didnt see any allusion to that at all

you might need to watch this again

After the ROOM has been escaped it's like all the narrative tension is gone, and the movie just . . . continues. I thought it was hilariously bad.

I had a similar reaction. There’s no way anyone could have survived these horrors without emerging with severe post traumatic stress disorder. Room treats this phenomenon as steps towards recovery: with patience and love, things will work out.

i think the little boy and bree larson were really, really good, but the whole thing was just much too focused on being INSPIRING and UPLIFTING at the cost of the harder to swallow parts of the story. the wolfpack documentary was much more interesting as far as films about isolation go.

"you might need to watch this again"

i mean, i saw them having sex, but the horror of that particular part of their circumstance was never made all that explicit.

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/george-clooney-white-oscars-1201682504/

But honestly, there should be more opportunity than that. There should be 20 or 30 or 40 films of the quality that people would consider for the Oscars. By the way, we’re talking about African Americans. For Hispanics, it’s even worse. We need to get better at this. We used to be better at it.

nice to see clooney actually acknowledge that this oscar/race debate is not just about black talent.

guys stop hurting Charlotte Rampling's feelings

she is a precious little white French flower, she can't take all this discrimination

she's english

feel like "white baby boomers on race" could be a good ("good") twitter feed

sorry I always mix her up with catherine deneuve

I've seen Idris Elba cited as a dude who should have been nominated. Wasn't that movie straight to Netflix?

it was produced by Netflix, no? it played in big-city arthouses too.

I got a release but only one of those token ones in order to make it eligible. Idris Elba being a terrible actor is a bigger hurdle.

Well it's not an Oscar hurdle at all I suppose. I do think the whiteness of the oscars is something worth reckoning with but holding up Idris Elba and Will Smith as examples of actors who have been hard done by is laughable.

Meanwhile:

In a unanimous vote Thursday night (1/21), the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approved a sweeping series of substantive changes designed to make the Academy’s membership, its governing bodies, and its voting members significantly more diverse. The Board’s goal is to commit to doubling the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020.

“The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition.”

Beginning later this year, each new member’s voting status will last 10 years, and will be renewed if that new member has been active in motion pictures during that decade. In addition, members will receive lifetime voting rights after three ten-year terms; or if they have won or been nominated for an Academy Award. We will apply these same standards retroactively to current members. In other words, if a current member has not been active in the last 10 years they can still qualify by meeting the other criteria. Those who do not qualify for active status will be moved to emeritus status. Emeritus members do not pay dues but enjoy all the privileges of membership, except voting. This will not affect voting for this year’s Oscars.

the charlotte rampling and michael caine comments have really surprised me - neither of them seem to have any concept of what racism actually is?!

holding up Idris Elba and Will Smith as examples of actors who have been hard done by is laughable

My wife expressed outrage that anyone would suggest that the NWA movie (which was a predictable load of shit) was Oscar-worthy. I had to remind her what kind of garbage wins Oscars. So the question is not really "Is Will Smith a worse actor than Leonardo DiCaprio?", but should instead be "Is Will Smith a terrible actor in the same way that Leonardo DiCaprio is?"

Idris and Will should consider gaining or losing a ton of weight for a role. That's acting.

The obvious snub is Mya Taylor, as well as Tangerine for Best Picture, of course. The one that should have been in the academy wheelhouse is probably Michael B Jordan and Creed, though.

i really need to watch tangerine tonight.

Was about to ask, what are the obvious omissions here? I'm assuming Jordan (since Stallone was nominated), and...?

Not playing devil's advocate, mind you--I'm just so out of the loop with new films that I don't know if people are angry over specific omissions or just an overall lack of diversity in the nominees.

(fwiw, I'd've nominated Desiree Akhavan, the Iranian-American star, writer and director of Appropriate Behaviour for anything she'd be eligible for, but that's not the kind of thing that the Oscars go for anyhow.)

cant believe im defending rampling, she sounds as out of touch as so many rich/upper class people in england, BUT maybe this year, just maybe, the black actors/directors in question just werent that great. i mean, has anyone SEEN that trailer for that new will smith accent (doing a nigerian accent)?!

i have not seen chiraq or beasts of no nation, so i could be wrong... i did see creed though, and michael b jordan is decent - hes sensitive and subtle, but not exactly commanding. i wouldnt award him an oscar. and beasts had idris elba, who from what ive seen doesnt know how to play anyone who isnt stringer bell, so im not holding out too much hope for beasts. im a spike lee fan for life, but im not expecting chiraq to bowl me over (though saying that, i imagine i will enjoy it more than the revenant, so maybe he should have gotten a nod... though im not sure the academy wants to give netflix or amazon much attention right now, so that might have been a factor).

straight outta compton should have been nominated just for the same reason mad max or star wars are in there, not cos the voters necessarily love it, or understand its musical/cultural importance, or cos its a superior biopic (lots of fun though, if you ever liked NWA), but just because it was popular with cinema audiences (they need to show theyre not totally out of touch after all).

tbh im bored with the discussion being so much about 'black' and 'white'. the black community isnt the only minority in the country yknow. theyre not even the largest IIRC.

*meant to write that new will smith film, rather than accent. though i couldnt not focus on his accent in the trailer, so maybe calling it the new will smith accent is okay.

I included O'Shea Jackson, Jr. with two other supp actor nominees and don't think much of the film; but it caught a moment, and my 2 p.m. viewing on a Saturday afternoon was PACKED, with the audience applauding and whooping.

Star Wars isn't nominated for best film, just for five from sound and vision (which it worked pretty hard for). Mad Max is, but has the excuse of being the best film of 2015.

oh here come the regular people

Better than P'tit Quinquin?

hasn't been mentioned as much as Jordan but Maryse Alberti should have got a nom for Creed too

yeah a female cinematographer never has been

Quinquin wasn't good and Mad Max was the best film of the year and Alberti should've been nominated. Compton had a good hour, which is better than several of the other nominees but it's not good.

Mad Max gooble gobble i'm 15 years old

You'd think an old fusty like you would have an appreciation for classical Hollywood technique but alas, your'e too reactionary.

Although "The Revenant gobble gobble i'm 15 years old" works

I liked MMFR. It's not makin' my top 20.

So it's not that it's a bad movie, it's that people rate a good movie too highly and thus they're reduced to 15 year olds. got it.

Back to the Oscars, it blows my mind that Phoenix wasn't nominated. I don't think I understand the foreign language nomination process at all.

I don't think you understand foreign language movies

That could be the problem.

the now overrated Mad Max: Fury Road

I definitely don't understand foreign language movies when there are no English subtitles, like that copy of Goodbye Dragon Inn on YouTube

MMFR is great, but still lacks some of the visceral charge of Mad Max2, which I re-watched on an Imax screen last year - it was like being run over by a ten-tonne truck

Phoenix just felt to me like just the kind of film the Academy usually loves. Holocaust + Hitchcock.

Phoenix wasn't put forth by Germany.

Incredible.

Labyrinth of Lies synopsis: "Upon learning that many former Nazis returned to their pre-war lives with no penalty, an ambitious German prosecutor (Alexander Fehling) vows to bring them to justice."

"...with EXTREME PREJUDICE"

the Oscar foreign film process is not worth a thought from anyone

Not really, no. Danish A War got nommed, and that's a piece of crap.

lisa hartman - cause i knew from quinquin shdve been nommed for best song imo

also i dont even thing ive watched this the past few yrs and honestly dont care but itd be p cool if mad max won best pic, it prob doesnt have a chance rt?

or actually maybe ill watch for chris rock this yr

somewhere btwn 20-1 and 33-1 for MM

http://www.oddschecker.com/awards/oscars/best-picture

G Miller thought to have an outside shot at director

I would've thought he had better than "outside". It's not going to be Abrahamson or McKay. Constant refrain is that Spotlight is basically a TV movie. You'd expect Inarritu but he won last year. George Miller is old and been around a long time, and he's not really someone you'd expect is "due" an Oscar he's got respect.

Director/pic splits do seem to be more common lately though that might be my imagination

I remember it being a rarity but after Shakespeare in Love it feels more common. I just can't see them giving it to Inarritu two years in a row.

But maybe I'm overestimating just how embarrassing it would seem in the future considering I don't like either of his Oscar films.

Mankiewicz the last to win consecutively, but he's got a good chance.

"Never tell me the odds"

I don't think it's going to win at all, and of course the idea of an award for best film of the year makes about as much sense as giving one to the tallest director, I'm just saying that the sentence "Mad Max is the best film of 2015" is not clearly embarrassing as it would be for Star Wars (and I liked Star Wars) - it's a director at the height of his powers telling a story through cinema on an enormous scale - there isn't a film better than it last year (though there's lots different of course).

...that you saw

“It’s exciting that the Academy has responded so swiftly and openly with an admission of the white male dominance of our films, our industry, and our awards,” writes Jonathan Demme in a guest column at Deadline. “Wouldn’t it be so wise, and so very correct, to not wait for next year to address this enormous challenge/problem? Instead, let’s recalibrate this years votes, expanding the entries in all categories, and in this way make it possible for us all to actually watch what is presently—unwatchably—so mortifyingly the ‘best white whatever’ in all categories of the 2016 oscar ceremony? It would only take a minute, and it could help avoid what presently promises to be the most meagerly viewed Academy Awards show ever.”

http://deadline.com/2016/01/jonathan-demme-oscar-diversity-recalibrate-nominations-guest-column-1201688944/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AXFlPR9inY
Come on up and get your awards. You're all winners!

Some top wiki moments have come from "The film was selected as the (x) entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the (y)th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee" fwiw

That I saw, yes, but it's not really an indie field. Or have I been mistaken, and P'tit Quinquin does what Mad Max Does better than Mad Max?

Yes, it's a director at the height of his powers telling a story through cinema on an enormous scale

Also, it's funnier than Mad Max Fury Road

his powers are not very interesting to me, though.

P'tit Quinquin was shit.

Enormous scale really has gotten loud and boring since David Lean died.

I don't think I get the wild praise for P'tit Quinquin. It was funny and nicely long, but I wouldn't call it the best of 2014/15 or anything. Better than 29 Palms.

as are most natural disasters.

He. What is the worst Dumont film? I still don't understand him.

P'tit Quinquin will be high on my ilx ballot. Dumont is the best French cinema has at the moment.

Ha, I'd never heard of P'tit Quinquin, so I was surprised it was by Dumont. I just assumed he stopped making movies after 29 Palms, which was an astounding POS on so many levels I just assumed he found it a fitting end point and sold his camera equipment.

he managed to work his way into an Oscars thread, give him that.

He's still more interesting than the oscar-films, right?

as Bridge of Spies is nominated for Best Picture, not remotely, you snob.

...

Well, I did watch Lincoln the other day, and it was quite good. I will catch up on late-period Spielberg someday, but probably not this year.

Lincoln was an abomination

that's why Booth shot him!

i would say Ward Fowler's fave film of last year is an abomination, but my aging brain dumps nonessential data

Always knew you were Reagan-esque.

welllll, yes, during Son of Saul yesterday, i remembered liberating Auschwitz

lol

Is this the right thread to note how ordinary bridge of spies was

Saw the first bait of the season, Brooklyn, oy vey. Next time someone say 'well perhaps Creed just isn't very good' i'll say 'no that can't be it, they nominated Brooklyn.' Such a confused film.

It's good to have a new example, i'd almost begun feeling bad for Eddie Redmayne.

as Bridge of Spies is nominated for Best Picture, not remotely, you snob.

― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Monday, 25 January 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Star Wars isn't nominated for best film, just for five from sound and vision (which it worked pretty hard for). Mad Max is, but has the excuse of being the best film of 2015.

― Andrew Farrell, Saturday, 23 January 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh here come the regular people

― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 23 January 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is what a lifetime at the movies does to you I guess #cautionaryTale

or #poptimism but Morbs might be too old for that.

P'tit Quinquin was shit.

agreed! I couldn't get through it.

Do you know who you are agreeing with?

ha the horror

well, this is going swimmingly

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/topic/oscar-voter-guest-columns

oh god

oh white

Paul Schrader posted the following on Facebook: “Scott Feinberg asked me to write a letter to the Academy about the recent changes in voting eligibility. Representing the contrarian altecocker membership, I suppose. I in fact did compose such a letter but then thought better of it. I realized I didn’t care enough about the Oscars one way or another to involve myself in the Academy’s internecine squabbles.”

well he wouldnt care. he made the distinctly non-academy-troubling the canyons. j/k. i love schrader.

Put a fiver on Abrahamson to win best director...47/1 odds

Schrader wasnt even nominated for writing on Taxi Driver or Raging Bull

Ed and Eric have begun their category predictions

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/tags/474-Academy-Awards

"we have to confess that the reason why we didn't call it for 12 Years a Slave back in 2014—for falsely thinking that no amount of white guilt could possibly steamroll over the incredible, and superior, craft of Gravity—will, um, color all of our predictions this year. Readers, you've been dutifully warned."

i don't really give a shit about "superior craft" in service of pretty much nothing.

here is an Oscar voter

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/brutally-honest-oscar-ballot-voter-868012

Sounds like a dick.

Room was like a daytime TV movie based on real events with a budget for CGI cold-breath except it not even based on a real story and I'm not sure why that matters in the wider picture but it mattered to me. it was just a made up story and it felt like one, for the most part. The performances were fine. The wee boy was good. Actually Brie Larsson felt like the least well realised performance.

The stepfather was very good.

I wanted to smother the boy with a pillow.

Joan Allen is always good.

Xpost,

The bit where the kid escapes just felt so unconvincing, I couldn't believe that could actually happen in that way. It was just stupid.

Vanity Fair made a nice printable ballot
https://vulcan.condenastdigital.com/vf/photos/56d0eea330c1a42b3fbd6ccf/master/pass/VF%20Oscars%20Ballot.jpg

any Europeans have experience with streaming the show from illegal or pay per view sites?

I just heard someone call "The Revenant" "The Big Long," which is funny.

Thanks for the VF ballot. The official one sucks this year.

I don't think I'll watch this year. Ceremony's always too long and these movies are too irrelevant.

Heard some radio DJ today. "So, the Oscars are tonight, and there are, what, 9 movies nominated or something? I haven't seen any of them this year. But they say Leonardo DiCaprio is the favorite for Best Actor, and I don't know about you, but I'd say he deserves it."

could be a voter

Predictions:
Best Picture - The Big Short
Best Actress- Brie Larson, Room
Best Actor - Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Best Supporting Actress - Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Best Supporting Actor -Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Best Director - Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller
Best Adapted Screenplay - The Martian, Drew Goddard
Best Original Screenplay - Inside Out, Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley; Original story by Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen

Going bold with the McAdams and Miller picks.

Christ.

I wanted to smother the boy with a pillow.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, February 24, 2016 8:32 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

harsh! i thought the movie itself was suffocating, so so sad, a sadness compounded by the Oprah-esque inspirational soundtrack (esp. over the slow motion sequence of the kid escaping. felt like a Sigur Ros video). Saw that the same weekend as Suffragette. Won't put you in a good mood.

it's an immensely boring oscars year

as opposed to every other year?

a sadness compounded by the Oprah-esque inspirational soundtrack (esp. over the slow motion sequence of the kid escaping. felt like a Sigur Ros video)

i know that every post i make in film threads is "i ran this movie four times and never watched it" but: i ran this movie four times and never watched it consistently enough to see the kid escape but i always knew when he was escaping because this music would gradually overwhelm the booth monitor until it was crawling over my skull like the opening scene of terminator

i would argue it is even more boring than usual, yes.

ha! yeah that scene is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. i hate that kind of emotional manipulation, i find it really disgusting and insulting to the audience's intelligence. Room, like most of the other Best Picture nominees, has the straightforward approach and feel of a TV movie. Like someone said upthread, it's very Lifetime. Just like Spotlight is very HBO. I liked Spotlight a lot, but only because I saw that it was a deliberate ode to the bygone days of print and longterm investigative journalism. I grew up in a media family and the homage was immediately obvious and enjoyable, but I completely understand many people being upset that the film didn't focus on the victims of the Catholic Church. You could've substituted that story with anything else - there are hardly any scenes that take place in a church, no flashbacks except for the first (unnecessary) bit. So many shots of writers holding landline phones between their ear and their shoulder, taking notes, writing emails on clunky gray desktops, pouring through records and phone books, knocking on doors... the waiting, all the waiting, and then the sudden & unexpected story that pre-empts yours for the next six months, finally the publication, with all the vindication and celebration granted to the writers. We'll be seeing a lot more nostalgia pictures about the old media in the years to come. Spotlight was good but nothing like All the President's Men, although it was much, much better than the Dan Rather movie Truth with Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett, just awful, horrible movie... a bad TV movie

It's these extremes this year of not-cinematic and hyper-cinematic. Mad Max may be the only I enjoyed on the big screen and the small screen and would gladly watch either way again, but I've been pretty bad at keeping up this year. The Revenant I liked fine, but can't imagine watching it on TV. Big Short and Spotlight, I couldn't bring myself to see them on the big screen because they seemed like they would work fine on TV. I liked The Martian a lot for what it was, but would read the book a second time before I saw it a second time. Bridge of Spies, that's a tougher one to peg down; big screen compels you to pay attention, would probably lose that at home. Room (read the book) and Brooklyn (didn't), I just don't want to watch them it at all.

What makes ATPM a better movie than Spotlight? Pakula seemed almost as clueless about using a camera.

you're insane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpMir9UgmSs

Spotlight isn't a great movie, but the principals do acknowledge their complicity by virtue of living and growing up in an insular city whose government and the Church are intertwined. Also, Michael Cyril Creighton as the gay victim gave one of the year's best supporting performances (of course unrecognized).

Of course you'd post that scene. That's one of the few with a visual sense!

Zodiac's probably the most visually elegant of these docudramas, I guess, but ATPM wins because I love Nixonography more than California and Boston.

any Europeans have experience with streaming the show from illegal or pay per view sites?

Or any Americans for that matter?

Strongly disagree...Bradlee traversing the newsroom, the atmospherics of the garage scenes (reminiscent of Harry Lime in The Third Man, I'd say), the TV in the foreground of a newsroom shot as somebody types away in the background, the way the list of CREEP employees is used, etc., etc. Agree that Zodiac has even better visuals (some of the best digital), but I count President's Men as far superior to Spotlight.

not sure what I'm arguing tbh because what killed the very good Spotlight was how indifferently shot it was and how little the damn city counted as a character (it took the last twenty minutes for McCarthy to show how close the Globe was to the school?).

could there have been a cornier ending, too? michael keaton answering the phone like fucking Batman - "Spotlight". oh, please!

could there have been a cornier ending, too?

A line of sex abuse victims, stretching as far as the eye can see, approaching Marty Baron to thank him while Baron collapses into a crying heap muttering, "I could have saved one more!"

What makes ATPM a better movie than Spotlight? Pakula seemed almost as clueless about using a camera.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, February 28, 2016 5:04 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that’s pretty harsh, and i’d disagree — though it’s true that pakula’s best movie, klute, definitely feels like gordon willis co-directed it.

always thought ATPM was a little more pedestrian than its fans suggest, but i do like it. it has a great /soundtrack/ (not the music necessarily but the use of ambient sounds, subtle shifts in the recording of the dialogue, etc.)

I liked Room but it isn't a patch (or as subtle or as funny or as heartbreaking) as Abrahamson's Irish movies which everyone should watch if you haven't already

I think I hate Eddie Redmayne

"think"

yeah who am i foolin

Spotlight's great strength was that it kept to being a tight procedural with a much subtler slant than you'd have expected with a target as broad and bad as the church and victims as easily sympathised with as abused kids.

oh, Eddie Redmayne is just insufferable. every time i see him i think of michael keaton pulling out his acceptance speech just as eddie redmayne is called. i know it's not his fault but, jeez... that was so brutal. heartened to know he won't win again because it's finally Leo's turn, but he knows how to pick his oscar bait... paralyzed? then transgendered? what could come next!

playing Michael Keaton

Chris Rock killing so far

Srsly. The stars are sooooo uncomfortable.

Cate Blanchett not amused

The Academy award-winning director of Anchorman and Step-Brothers!

give stacy dash an oscar imo

The Brilliant Sam Smith, who sounds like a vacuum cleaner choking on a shag carpet.

Jesus Christ. Worst singing voice ever?

Yessssssss

nah, Jesus was OK.

Mad max cleaning up

Oh FUCK THIS at Jared Leto smirking through a Magic Mike XXLjoke. Here's a joke: "Oscar winner Jared Leto."

really hope mad max wins (i thought 'carol' was great too but it's not up for best picture is it?)

Mad Max is sweeping the "minor" categories.

Better than nothing

aussie wooooooo

furry rd wins evry oscar soz other films

george is a dope dude & his crew deserve every award they get

Ex Machina FX were awesome, and essential, but I honestly wonder if they were significantly better than Chris Cunningham videos and Spielberg's AI. (Says more about those FX than these, which again, were seamless.)

UPDATES:

9:59. Jason Segal looks like he's been basking in the achievement of whiskey.

9:56. Whew. <em>Ex Machina</em>, winner of Best Visual Design, breaks the Mad Max sweep of technical awards. <em>Ex Machina</em> too close to <em>Gattaca</em> for my taste. But needed Gore Vidal.

9:52. <em>The Hateful Eight</em> -- remember that? Up for Best Sound Mixing. How fitting that it made a lot of noise but lost to...<em>Mad Max: Fury Road</em>. Oscars should win Best Pace. We're racing through categories!

9:47. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Chris Evans introduce Best Sound Editing. I want to know why Evans wasn't nominated for Best Costume Design for the crude oil poured over his hair. <em>Mad Max: Fury Road wins again</em>.

Oh, look, they're cheering for the robots.

They could just show the entire Oscars as a Star Wars scroll and most people would probably be OK with it.

Threepio and R2! Didn't Brokeback Mountain lose 10 years ago tonight?

uh that wasn't chiwetel it was the guy who played jackie robinson

robots are cooler than most dumb actors

Pretty sure most of the actors are robots, too. Ex Machina, man.

Have any other Star Wars movie people been on stage yet?

Incredible that 40-yr old Ben Burtt R2D2 loops are still being used

That sounded like nu-R2.

hopefully jar jar gets up there amirite

Is this going to be the Ellen pizza moment?

If only the Price Waterhouse people know who wins, then how did the Minion animators/loopers/subtitlers know?

ha i was wondering myself

What's with these militant dancers?

Excellent Android ad, give them an award.

do u feel that trumbo shouldve been a bigger hit lmao

rylance is the best, so glad he win

won

Oh shit, did they just say Dave Grohl is going to perform? Appear? Present?

In lieu of Anhoni it seems. I really like that Anhoni song.

Fwiw in case you don't follow these things Anhoni and J Ralph were the only nest song nominees not b
To be invited to perform.

http://youtu.be/Yyx9wMrmgXM

Eh excuse that editing fuck up.

Mark Rylance a surprise. Frontrunner until sentiment for Stallone took over.

xpost I didn't even known of Anhoni's name change! And I do sort of follow these things, weird.

amy was great, glad asif has an oscar now

It was a great doc. For sure.

i feel badly for whoever that woman is who gets rejected in the candace parker nike ad

Lotta deaths I totally forgot about... feel kinda bad.

I had no idea Bruce Sinofsky had died.

Was surprised and happy to see Holly Woodlawn there

Anyone else think Rock has actually been a little off tonight?

was just gonna joke that sofia vergara sounds as if she is pronouncing everything phonetically when he said "son of saw-ül"

this son of saül guy looks really young

also he just stated oscar's favorite platitude

In the darkest hour ... Joe Biden.

He's finally announcing his candidacy

time to hit the mute button (again)

I guess I'm impressed by Gaga's dogged reinvention/reintroduction in the face of her faltering pop career.

Is Lady Gaga Bette Midler now?

for some reason i feel like the crash test dummies guy should have sung this lady gaga song

a song was nominated from a documentary? has that ever happened before?

Purple Rain, iirc.

a song was nominated from a documentary? has that ever happened before?

― johnny crunch, Sunday, February 28, 2016 10:16 PM (54 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes there was a song from "an inconvenient truth" that was nominated IIRC

also that michael jackson song from "shoah"

that was caca

You're thinking of "Ben."

morricone has this one in the bag, no?

Wardell?

Will Ennio get his first Oscar?

There we go.

yay!

morricone doesn't speak english, no?

which is kind of great, actually.

I got to see him conduct his stuff at Radio City Music Hall, it was the best.

charlize theron perfecting her michelle obama "i care so much right now" facial expression

I think a lot of the women in particular are so perfectly made up they just can't move. Hair, dress, jewelry etc.

Wow, Danny Elfman loving it.

btw has anyone ever seen roger deakins and burt bacharach in the same room?

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjA2ODk5MDE4Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTkzMjgxNA@@._V1_UY317_CR12,0,214,317_AL_.jpg

http://artcreationforever.com/images/burt-bacharach/burt-bacharach-06.jpg

Really?

jfc

didn't know you guys had such strong feelings about people resembling burt bacharach

My daughters asked me earlier, before they went to sleep, why every single woman was wearing a really low cut weird dress.

yes there was a song from "an inconvenient truth" that was nominated IIRC

it won.

heeeyyy, Mark Rylance! the bloggers went off him two months ago. what else happened?

Death to Ali G.

was that some b-roll of brie larson and some rape survivors in a group hug?

It's Spielberg's understudy.

"you do what you need to do to tell the story" = i have no visual style

boooooooooooooooooooo

Boo, give it to Miller.

Weak

just imagine the heights of pretentiousness this guy is gonna approach now that he's in john ford/william wyler territory

What if Miller had shot Mad Max in one long take? And maybe if he shot it in the desert at peak heat?

Yeah, play this dude off.

just imagine the heights of pretentiousness this guy is gonna approach now that he's in john ford/william wyler ron howard territory

those 5 guys all know they can't touch Spielberg, right?

has ron howard won several oscars?

ron howard has made much better films that this jerk, btw

road warrior is a better film than anything spielberg has made! and i /like/ spielberg.

He's literally talking down to us.

Redmayne.

Wasn't Redmayne an Uwe Boll movie.

mea culpa, i thought Opie had two. just one.

fun fact: the last American males to win best director were the Coen brothers, eight years ago.

is that brie larson's boyfriend to her right? he's cute.

Brie Larson has been so sweet to her kid co-star all night. And she hugged every last rape survivor.

brie seems p cool

Eddie Redmayne already campaigning to play Cate Blanchett in 2040 biopic.

i'm already tired of redmayne and he's only been hanging around a couple of years and i've barely watched his movies

did Rivette, Akerman, de Oliveira and Setsuko Hara all make the obit montage?

And Gena Rowlands spoke for 30 minutes about the wonders of Opening Night.

Akerman did ...

Bryan Cranston could play a good Geraldo.

They should just keep cranking out Steve Jobs movies. We really need them, but have not get gotten the one we deserve.

He should have accepted in a bear suit.

I'll accept this acceptance speech.

upset?

huh.

Michael Keaton just gave a "fuck yeah."

tom mccarthy: "thank you very much, but i really should have won for the cobbler..."

They can't all be winners.

crackers

More PE, nice

Wow, playing "Fight the Power" over the credits ...

morbs will appreciate my deep leo mccarey reference, no?

revenant was never gonna win. just made me some money on it woo.

i was worried about the big short for awhile...i haven't seen it or anything, i just keep seeing steve carrell's hair in my nightmares. not enough to replace his nose in that wrestling murder movie.

Mad Max should've swept.

cept none of the actors were nominated so it couldnt HUH

I watched the last 7 (?) awards of this. Inarritu gave a terrible speech and Lady Gaga was boring.

The Martian was shut out. Good.

Mad Max won more than anything else.

yeah we know, the fix is in

http://www.factmag.com/2016/02/29/kira-roessler-black-flag-oscar-sound-editing-2016/

:D

!

Per Leo's nice speech, it's a point worth making that both "The Revenant" and "Mad Max" had to alter their filming schedule because of climate change. Recall: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/blooming-desert-puts-brakes-on-mad-max-20101011-16g09.html

a friend of mine directed the movie that won the best short category, stutterer. we send each other scripts and stuff from time to time to get feedback, afair i saw this one and didn't offer any negative feedback, it seemed good, though think it was at an embryonic stage. perhaps i missed my chance to ruin it/get a writing credit on on oscar-winning movie.

so weird seeing him getting his oscar engraved in the background of some leo feeding frenzy...

Thats cool! Tell him to put a bear attack in his next one.

bear paedophile scandal ftw

silence in the cave of bears

mea maxima bear

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zl6Jn3iUbwQ/maxresdefault.jpg

nice to see the Hot Babe supporting actress tradition continue

(the roster of honorees the last 25 years is hilarious, occasionally interrupted by eg Judi Dench)

@DennisThePerrin
Dying kids meeting celebrities. American socialism. #Oscars

ive got no real issue with anything chris rock said. he had a difficult job to do (though i think it is okay to care about both a lack of black nominees and lack of a water supply, theres no rule saying you can only care about one). my issue is more with what he didnt say. if the issue is all about diversity, well, black actors/filmmakers are not the only minority trying to get some opportunities.

Rob Sheffield:

It was a strange Oscar Night all around. Somehow, in recent months, our nation became feverishly obsessed with the idea that Leonardo DiCaprio is not merely a good actor, but an unjustly unrewarded one who's long overdue for recognition of his artistic achievements in the "things other than looking hot in the Nineties" category. Hey, that's beautiful, America, you go with that, though it's not a feverish obsession I happen to share. When he won his Best Actor trophy for The Revenant, he admirably discussed climate change while struggling to simulate a facial expression. "Let's not take this planet for granted," Leo said. "I don't take tonight for granted." Having equated the survival of our ecosystem with his need for an Oscar, Leo called it a night. (He didn't appear onstage with his old shipmate Kate Winslet — but thumbs up for her fierce reading glasses.)

The oppression of women in Hollywood could not be more glaringly illustrated than in the constant presenter pairing of "Goofy Joking Male Slob + Silently Smiling Sideboob Machine." The agony on the great Olivia Wilde's face as she had to endure Sacha Baron Cohen reviving his Ali G schtick — that was an indignity neither she nor any other actress should be forced to bear. At least the Oscars had the decency to spare any of the female stars from having to go onstage with Kevin Hart, whose habit of creeping out his co-presenters is just one of the things that make him a menace at award shows. (Tonight Kevin Hart decided to get serious and share his innermost feelings about diversity, which was far less painful than watching him harass Salma Hayek.)

the "leo can't catch that oscar" meme's been going on for years now

I agree though, he's just a shit actor imo. not good not decent. glad the meme's over.

http://www.tmz.com/2016/02/29/leo-dicaprio-oscar-win-party-vaping/

People upset that Abe Vigoda was 'snubbed' in the obit roll... Maybe make more than one good film in a 90-year career?

Since Birdman was the middle win of Lubezki's three, can we call it a shit sandwich?

nice to see the Hot Babe supporting actress tradition continue
(the roster of honorees the last 25 years is hilarious, occasionally interrupted by eg Judi Dench)

Just checked and that's hardly a Sports Illustrated definition of 'hot babes' your using there.

grade on a curve

Ok Vikander does just shade it over Dianne Wiest I guess.

Was searching around to see if Vikander is totally white, crazy imdb thread about it.