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MOVIE COMMENT CATCH-ALL THREAD


jaedmc

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Well, basically I don't think that any actor in a foreign language film getting ignored can be ranked high in the "biggest snubs" list, since frankly those nominations are few and, as you imply, largely symbolic. 

 

I actually wondered about this, and looked up the lists of prior nominees for Best Actor. Since 1988, there have been seven nominations for actors in foreign language films (and I'm including Demián Bichir in A BETTER LIFE, which I haven't seen--I think it's primarily Spanish). Only one of them has won: Roberto Benigni for LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.

 

Obviously, foreign-language actors would have the simple disadvantage that the majority of people who vote wouldn't have seen their performance. I imagine that most of them have to have been picked up by distributors who knew how to advertise their product to the academy. IL POSTINO and LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL were both distributed by Miramax, and I even remember the gossip that they grabbed IL POSTINO for the sole purpose of getting a film in the Best Picture category. BEFORE NIGHT FALLS was Fine Line. DOWNFALL was (as far as I can tell) distributed by New Market Capital Group, which I've never heard of. Of course, the film was still up for best Foreign Language Film.

 

In any event, the Oscars are obviously very American-centric, so snubs of Foreign language films are hardly surprising. 

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Finally saw Pacific Rim. By no means the best movie but super watchable. If I was 12 I would wear that blu-Ray out. All the recognizable "TV" actors both helped and hurt the movie for me. I think I love Charlie Hunnam but he was nothing special here. The minute I saw that Mike dude from Homeland I knew he was dying.

Charlie Day I really liked though. If they make a sequel I hope his character is again an important part.

One last thing. Where was the air support for these robots? They should have been peppering those Kaiju with missles. Stringer Bell really dropped the ball there.

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The first scene in the film explained that plan wasn't terribly effective. They used nukes on the first one and turned the bay area into a wasteland. Stacker's sister died in the first attack as a RAF pilot trying that very tactic.

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Obviously, foreign-language actors would have the simple disadvantage that the majority of people who vote wouldn't have seen their performance. I imagine that most of them have to have been picked up by distributors who knew how to advertise their product to the academy. IL POSTINO and LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL were both distributed by Miramax, and I even remember the gossip that they grabbed IL POSTINO for the sole purpose of getting a film in the Best Picture category. BEFORE NIGHT FALLS was Fine Line. DOWNFALL was (as far as I can tell) distributed by New Market Capital Group, which I've never heard of. Of course, the film was still up for best Foreign Language Film.

 

In any event, the Oscars are obviously very American-centric, so snubs of Foreign language films are hardly surprising. 

Really, and we're on the same page here, it's less about the language they speak and who their distributor/producer is. For example La Vie En Rose, which got Marion Cottillard an Oscar was backed by New Line Cinema. Last year Amour had Sony Pictures Classics which is also really good at getting it's indies and foreign pictures into the Oscar race(In a Better World, A Seperation, Rachel Getting Married, etc etc)

 

Poor Bruno Ganz didn't have a chance against sappy Johnny Depp in a movie backed by Harvey Weinstein. 

 

I've watched the Oscars for as long as I remember, and while I know it's all a marketing scam, I still get upset when people in widely distributed films don't get noticed. If it's going to be advertising scheme to get people watching your movies, at least advertise the good ones. Not the fucking Blindside.

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Re-watched Downfall. How didn't Bruno Ganz get nominated for an Oscar for this? Has to be one of the biggest snubs ever.

I'm gonna say that it has something to do with the film being in German.

 

Given what a large Jewish presence Hollywood has, I can't see the academy nominating someone who played Hitler.  Agree he definitely deserved it though, that movie was tremendous.

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The shortlist for the Best Documentary Oscar has been announced!

 

The Act of Killing 
The Armstrong Lie
Blackfish
The Crash Reel
Cutie and the Boxer
Dirty Wars
First Cousin Once Removed
God Loves Uganda 
Life According to Sam
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
The Square 
Stories We Tell
Tim’s Vermeer
20 Feet From Stardom
Which Way Is the Front Line from Here?

 

Still rooting for Act of Killing and Crash Reel.

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I can really see Pussy Riot winning just to piss off the Ruskies.

I think it has maybe the best shot at winning. The "anti-gay propaganda" law directly affects Hollywood and the films they can distribute to Russia. Russia is the fifth largest market to the tune of 1.4 billion at the box office, and according to Variety their top 10 films last year were all Hollywood movies. It's also distributed by HBO and this easily accessible to almost everyone in America. 

 

Stories We Tell and The Act of Killing will probably get lots of love leading up though so everyone wins.

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Re-watched Downfall. How didn't Bruno Ganz get nominated for an Oscar for this? Has to be one of the biggest snubs ever.

I'm gonna say that it has something to do with the film being in German.

 

Given what a large Jewish presence Hollywood has, I can't see the academy nominating someone who played Hitler.  Agree he definitely deserved it though, that movie was tremendous.

 

 

 

I remember some people being pissed because they claimed the movie "humanized" Hitler and was therefore sympathetic to him.

 

They missed the point: Yeah, the movie humanized him but it also made it abundantly clear that the human being was hideous and totally irredeemable.

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New York Film Critics Circle announced their winners today (Often a pre-cursor to the Oscar race)

 

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle

Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Best Actor: Robert Redford, All Is Lost

Best Director: Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave

Best Picture: American Hustle

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I really hope Steve McQueen gets something.

Have yet to see '12 Years A Slave' but I'd really like to see McQueen win, as well, just to see how many "hilarious" twitter accounts go into meltdown trying to be the first to tweet "Wait, since when is Steve McQueen a British black guy?!"

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A Haunted House: Not great, but a step up from your usual terrible Scary movie/Epic movie/Disaster movie spoof. I thought there was real comedy potential in the idea of how suburban white people act in a horror movie vs. how black people would act. I mean, as soon the guy figured out the place is haunted he instantly decided to sell the place and get the fuck out of there. That was funny. But then it just went back to parodying movies, and mostly not that well.

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