2015 Academy Awards Discussion

[bedstuy]

Why did Selma get a "Best Picture" nomination, but no nominations in the acting categories or Best Director category?  Kind of strange.  

I wonder if Selma is suffering because 12 Years a Slave cleaned up last year.

As for the historical biopics set in England, that type of thing is Oscar catnip.  British/historical things "seem good" because they seem like movies that smart, sophisticated people would like.  

[bedstuy]

Boyhood was impressive. Needless last half hour, but very impressive. Grand Budapest was one of the most beautiful films I have seen this past year.

The miniatures in the Grand Budapest Hotel were amazing.  That movie needs to win best art direction I think, just the furniture in that movie should win an Oscar. 

Boyhood I think will win Best Picture.  It's not a great movie, but it's an amazing achievement as a project.  I think the Oscars will reward that because it's easy to explain.  I actually think Boyhood would work better as something like a 10 hour miniseries.  Even at its length, the scenes were so short that you never got to spend enough time with the characters before you jumped ahead in time.

As for what should win Best Picture, I think Birdman was the best movie of the year.  Although that's the classic argument, should "Best Picture" be the best movie or should it be the movie that seems most like what a Best Picture winner tends to be?

[bedstuy]

It's true that a movie that's a "love letter to movies" seems to win Oscars at an unfair rate.  Birdman is sort of that, and sort of a cease and desist demand to movies.  It's also bigger than just a film about a famous person or a film actor.  It's a movie about ego and being a blowhard and ambition and how they all interact with art and creativity.  It's definitely way, waaay better than Argo. 

Boyhood is a weaker drama.  It's a story that is told by the passage of time rather than unfolding itself as a good drama does.  But, it needs to be judged as what it is, which is not a traditional movie.  That's why it's hard to judge the Oscars.  Boyhood succeeded for what it was, in a totally unique way that has never been done before.  Boyhood is more a work of film craft than screenwriting or storytelling.  It depends on what you care about more, storytelling or film craft. 

[bedstuy]

Cameron's dialogue is awful, but I don't think any other big budget director is better at creating a seamless, tightly plotted action movie. I think he's classic case of being called overrated to the point where he's underrated.

Terminator 1 and 2 and Aliens is a great resume by itself.  The problem is that he got overly praised by the media for Titanic and Avatar, despite the fact those are more works of film technology than storytelling.