OSCARS 2013

xpost I'd say they're all on a roughly equal middle-of-the-road level; Gone Baby Gone not as good as you remember

"ten years prettier" was a joke, he's quite handsome today yes

gone baby gone had great parts but casey affleck's speech at the climax is torture

I wouldn't say Life of Pi has a jaw-dropping HOUR, but the shipwreck sequence is stunning.

I really liked a lot of the night time starscape stuff, and the acid pools on the island, but yes, very few images come close to that shot of Pi underwater looking at the submerged ship.

argo easily the worst of affleck's three though, no doubt

aside from any political distastefulness, i think the TRUE STORY aspects of ZDT and Argo were used to excuse a relative lack of character work compared to Hurt Locker and The Town

The Town's character work was done at Warner Brothers in 1938.

haha oh it's corn for sure but the actors were given the chance to sell it

Oh yeah, the whale leaping over the lifeboat was pretty o_0 too.

Renner aping Cagney in his death scene is the best thing in all of Affleck's films.

Since Les Mis is the only of the BP noms I haven't seen, I feel kind of obligated to trudge along to it next week.

if affleck doesn't go overly pretentious or sour, and manages another bit of old school hollywood fun with little authentic touches and reputable performers he'll get his trophy next time

lol apparently affleck won best director at the Critics' Choice awards last night, all the more reason people will think he's "due" next round

he made a cute lil afflecky speech about "THIS is the award that really matters anyway haha not really"

I saw that. I had never heard of the Critics' Choice awards before.

i envy you

Bennie is better looking now, no.question, but GBG is the only one of his auteur efforts I'd watch again, and he's responsible for Morgan Freeman 's worst perf to date. That should count for something.

Hollywood has done so well forgetting its meh potboiler tradition that his films get overpraised.

worse than invictus? dreamcatcher??

Misread that as "meth potboiler."

I saw that. I had never heard of the Critics' Choice awards before.

I hadn't realized that Critics' Choice Awards were given by the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Apparently they branded their year-end prizes as the Critics' Choice Awards a few years ago and now have a cable-TV ceremony and everything.

It's not cable TV anymore! They've risen to the high esteem of the CW.

The real question is who will win the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards. I can't wait for Michael Haneke to get slimed!

Yeah, but first he'll have to say "I don't know," which I don't know...

can Mama be Chastain's Norbit?

More like Lawrence will be her Arkin.

Americans among hostages seized in Algeria

sooooooo

couple good jokes

http://www.vulture.com/2013/01/david-edelstein-oscars-anxiety.html

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/are-hollywood-awards-gender-out-touch

There would be riots in the streets of West Hollywood if they ever dropped Best Supporting Actress imo.

Always fun to see them all ranked: http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2013/01/ranking-oscars-2013-nominees/

I'm much higher on: Wreck-It Ralph, Amour, Death of a Shadow, and that's about it

I'm much more down on: Beasts of the Southern Wild, Maggie Simpson, The Sessions, The Hobbit

I've seen only 13 of those, and I'm thrilled with that.

LOL, I've only missed 12. Always get behind the 8 ball on feature length docs and foreign films.

Not planning on catching Mirror Mirror or The Pirates! either.

is there going to be the theatrical release of nom'd shorts that we've seen in the past few years?

Yep, in theaters this weekend, I think.

On balance, I think the documentaries are probably the strongest and live action the weakest, but it's not a particularly distinguished field this year.

List is far too kind to SLP, Pi and Beasts for sure.

Pi is the one of those three I'm kind of soft on.

My rankings for the three short film categories:

Fresh Guacamole
Death of a Shadow
Adam and Dog
Kings Point
Open Heart
Redemption
Buzkashi Boys
Mondays at Racine
Asad
Inocente
Paperman
Curfew
Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare"
Head Over Heels
Henry

"Hollywood's Oscar-bait movies have gotten to be so unwatchable and look so bad that those mid-90s "Tom Hanks wants an Oscar!" films that got served up every year, and that we took for granted at the time, the most mediocre of those movies would be like a revelation compared to what we've been getting lately. Castaway looked like a typical 7/10 at the time but move it to a Pitchfork 8.5 now, which is good enough for my Best New Lonely January Weekend Viewings."

conversation with a friend

i just buy XANGO® at $35/bottle

http://www.xango.com/products/xango-juice

oops wrong thread

probably tastes better than Oscar bait films

XANGO® Unchained

Life of Pi is p. amazing visually and it sounds like the biggest flaws in the plot are straight from the book. I expected to hate it but from the sinking ship to the island is very good.

Bawbra!

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-2013-barbra-streisand-perform-416794

Glad to see they've given up on trying to appeal to the young audience, unless they have a completely blinkered understanding of Guilt Trip's performance.

2012's Oscar Nominees

Harvey the Hutt: I shoulda sent out Django discs and had PTA cut The Master.

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/30/harvey_weinstein_says_he_screwed_up_on_the_master_and_django/