Which "Class of '99" major American filmmaker has most flagrantly sold out to awards-baiting?

Honestly, I don't feel any of these directors have gone downhill enough to warrant the cynicism of this poll. They all put out stuff I found enjoyable this decade and generally maintained the style and voice they started with

pta - 70mm tales of constipated men
wes anderson - big stars in the cutest dioramas
david fincher - "biopics, procedurals, sex thrillers - digital improves everything"
spike jonze - digital tales of lonely puppeteers
Alexander Payne - if the farrelly bros read books
david o russell - look he had a movie close production half way through and buddy that's never happening again

Paul Thomas Anderson is worse than Hitler

did hitler's movies really get much awards buzz outside the reich tho

Triumph of the Will was better than that piece of shit Magnolia

Anderson totally ripped off that moment in Olympia where they all lipsync to Lili Marleen.

A pity Jason Reitman wasn't making movies in 1999.

First time anybody has ever said that.

Benjamin Button would have been one of the weirdest and most melancholy oscar winners ever, i think. the movie scans as middlebrow, and it surely is, but it's not crippled with the smug complacency and audience reassurance that typifies the "awards bait" genre.

Fincher strikes me, more than the others, as very dependent on the strength of his collaborators--so his reputation as someone who "elevates" his material doesn't really make sense to me.

Benjamin Button is probably the most pointlessly ponderous movie that I've ever seen... Like, it's a long succession of scenes that give the impression of signifigance, but when you think about them a bit, they don't really mean anything. I don't know if that's awards-baity or not, but BB definitely is the worst movie that I've seen from any of these guys.

worst from each:
There Will Be Blood
Hotel Chevalier
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Where the Wild Things Are
About Schmidt
Silver Linings Playbook

Well, Payne's like a 4-way tie between Schmidt, Descendants, Nebraksa and Sideways.

it's a reverse Heaven Can Wait at an Out of Africa-level of ponderousness.

Like, it's a long succession of scenes that give the impression of signifigance, but when you think about them a bit, they don't really mean anything.

remind you of anything else?

in any case Im not trying to make any great claims for it, I just think it's better than Forrest Gump et al.

As the question is presented, the answer is clearly David O. Russell. But I don't really mind his Oscarbaiting movies. The one who has had the most disappointing career to me is Alexander Payne, who has followed up the fantastic Election with a long series of mostly mediocre movies.

I prefer Forrest Gump, because it at least makes no effort to conceal its silliness. Benjamin Button puts an imaginary amount of weight on each of its moving parts and by the time it's over (I've seen it three times) I am quite resentful of everything about it.

Worst in descending order:

Silver Linings Playbook
The Curious Case...
About Schmidt
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Panic Room
Where the Wild Things Are
The Life Aquatic
American Hustle
There Will Be Blood

Benjamin Button puts an imaginary amount of weight on each of its moving parts and by the time it's over (I've seen it three times) I am quite resentful of everything about it.

i.e. Forrest Gump

Whatever, y'all. I like Forrest Gump and nobody's gonna change my mind.

Benjamin Button at the very least had 4 or 5 good minutes with Tilda Swinton.

https://flavorwire.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/tumblr_m6ts36vjse1rtxbzgo1_250.gif

Fincher a weird choice for "class of 1999" as he'd already made his best movie, The Game, two years earlier

ban "awards bait" forever since you ppl either don't know what it is, or that when done right it's a good thing.

hey eephus! Fincher himself recently pointed out that The Game is shit.

ban "awards bait" forever since you ppl either don't know what it is, or that when done right it's a good thing.

― this horrible, rotten slog to rigor mortis (Dr Morbius)

did you forget your bifocals this morning?

I think you know the difference between desperation and craft.

At the time, few thought The Game was that great.

As I alluded upthread, Black Swan was both awards bait and pretty damned great.

hey eephus! Fincher himself recently pointed out that The Game is shit.

― this horrible, rotten slog to rigor mortis (Dr Morbius), Monday, October 13, 2014 10:11 AM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

who the hell cares what he thinks?

I need to rewatch Black Swan, is what I'm getting from this thread

also, Magnolia is Anderson's worst film

I loved Black Swan, but I don't think it was baiting for awards? Body horror, lesbian romance, complete focus on women and "women's issues", that doesn't sound like the stuff the big awards favour?

It's "awards bait" only in the sense that What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? was.

considering many of you ppl see everything that gets nominated for the Golden Doorstops, you have a mysterious contempt for them.

considering how you read everything we write, you have a mysterious contempt for us

Elegant thrillers like Black Swan, Silence Of The Lambs, perhaps Gone Girl, are more awards-friendly (in slow years for awards bait) than awards-bait

Isn't that what you're supposed to do, Mr.Critic?

Xpost

awards-bait imo implies movies whose primary reason for existing is to hand an award to it, so while a genre thriller can have middlebrow trappings, its goal outside of getting a trophy is right there its name. thriller.

Alfred, fuck no, i make it a point to always miss some fucking shit that's "important"

also if only i had never been a fucking critic, what a waste of 7 years that was (i never tire of saying it)

Whatever, y'all. I like Forrest Gump and nobody's gonna change my mind.

― Johnny Fever

I feel exactly this way about Life Acquatic.

The Davids are the only two who have significantly compromised their orginal MOs, really. Anderson (PT) is getting weirder, if anything. Dunno if the strange beast that is TWBB would've got as much Oscar attention if it hadn't had Day Lewis in it.

not really sure how fincher compromised his original MO. Directed shiny videos both heavily indebted to classic works and zeitgeisty, makes shiny movies both heavily indebted to classic works and zeitgeisty.

granted i haven't seen alien 3

fyi voting russell for going back to harvey weinstein after he said he wouldn't

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

well that was a fun read

i liked the part about magnolia being worse than hitler

obv orussell

about as close to objective truth as possible here

Martin Scorsese wins class of '69.

Eric and Alfred, why do you hate There Will Be Blood?

I don't hate it but it's a stiff, underwritten movie with one gargoyle at its center whom we're stuck with for two and a half hours.

I think Lewbowski's path to at least cult acclaim was pretty close to instant.

clemenza. I don't get your warpath on Wes Anderson.

When I hate a film as much as I hated Grand Budapest Hotel--and I probably hated it as much as any film by anyone who ever made a film I love (Rushmore)--it's not very interesting to hear me go on about why. I end up as shrill and as repetitive as however the film struck me in the first place. The short version has nothing to do how the film figures into Anderson's artistic timeline, or anything other than how excruciating I found the actual experience of sitting through it. For what it's worth, I've been okay with most of what he's done since Rushmore, though nothing has come close to it for me; haven't seen Fox.

When people say he's all style and no substance I just think they're not paying attention.

I do pay attention to his films; he earned that much with Rushmore.

ha I forgot yr visceral hatred of GBH. seems like an outlier reaction tbh

Ah, I haven't seen GBH yet.

i really enjoyed 'the life aquatic' considerably, i enjoyed its over the top nature. the rescue scene is A+.

'the big lebowski' felt like a step back for some reason bc i guess reviewers were expecting the coens to turn into atom egoyan all of a sudden after 'fargo' but that's what happens when critics try to fit filmmakers into a pattern or create a career narrative. not a huge lebowski fan here, tbh. i think their post lebowski work is a lot better than their other stuff as well though.

I hated Lebowski when it came out, but probably because I took the Coens more seriously than they deserved. I have not seen Life Aquatic or Express since they came out, because I disliked them both so much,but Fox, Moonrise and Hotel I think are so good I might take the three of them over his first three.

that's just, like, your opinion, man

Empire review i posted is contemporary. got 3 stars from Ebert back in the day too. Guardian '98 review was sniffy but positive.

even though i saw it within the last six months, i have little recollection of GBH. ditto MK, though I recall loving it. Fox is imo really great and something i'm always happy to watch with someone that has never seen it before, it's kind of an autumn tradition for me now

never saw express, mostly because i was so disappointed by the life aquatic

I will stan for DE, it's better than Life Aquatic.

Weird - Googling "Darjeeling Express" brings up the wiki page of the film, but I've not seen anything calling it by a name other than "The Darjeeling Limited"

That's how memorable it is.

Oh sure, I was just struck that googling something in quotes usually only gets you exactly that phrase - even Google has forgotten what it's called.

ok DL whatever

I think it is great at capturing the entitled western tourist view of India, which tbf is probably a more realistic depiction of India than what you see in most Bollywood films

though that could be the entitled western tourist view of Indian cinema

Bollywood doesn't do realism really, I don't think any of its most ardent fans would argue otherwise

Don't think Limited captured much of anything, iirc. I like Wes Anderson, but all of his movies exhibit a similarly entitled Western tourist view, of sorts.

That said, I thought his last three had a more nuanced and complex view of relationships/perspectives. Between adults and children, children and the world, privilege and denial, entitlement and earned rewards, platonic and emotional love, etc..

What is the opposite of entitlement?

Darjeeling was kind of his last daddy-issue-centered film, which he needed to stop doing. Still mining that a bit (both the kid in Moonrise and the bellhop in Budapest, with Willis and Fiennes respectively) but it's better integrated into the whole film.

def daddy issues in Mr. Fox!

http://i.imgur.com/E42m0.jpg

yes, but dome more cleverly, not HERE ARE MY DADDY ISSUES

take that pic to the Teal & Orange thread.