White People Solve Racism

January 25, 2012 11:59 AM

If 2012's Oscar-nominated movie posters told the truth
posted by Artw (232 comments total)

Mefi's Own Mightygodking on his Oscar predictions

This was a really good movie year, but WOW are the Best Picture noms awful. Beyond parody.
posted by The Whelk at 12:02 PM on January 25, 2012 [5 favorites]

Hahaha My Lovely Horse is awesome! Alack, though, without context how many people will get the joke?
posted by winna at 12:05 PM on January 25, 2012 [9 favorites]

Just in case Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close didn't sound sufficiently horrible to anyone, remember that it is from the writer of Forrest Gump.
posted by Artw at 12:05 PM on January 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

borked.
posted by pinky at 12:07 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

LOOK AT MY HORSE MY HORSE IS AMAZING

I can not read the title "War Horse" without hearing it as the nasal fuax-British accent from the SNL skit

"Waaaaar horsey! I waaaant me war horse!"
posted by The Whelk at 12:07 PM on January 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

page isn't loading for me
posted by mrzarquon at 12:07 PM on January 25, 2012

"It's not just you! http://www.theshiznit.co.uk looks down from here."
posted by artlung at 12:08 PM on January 25, 2012

Looks like the site is getting hit pretty hard. I was able to load the page once but none of the imgaes did, and now nothing's loading at all.
posted by kmz at 12:08 PM on January 25, 2012

it loaded for me but would not re-load
posted by The Whelk at 12:08 PM on January 25, 2012

And... I should have previewed.
posted by kmz at 12:08 PM on January 25, 2012

Shame is pretty good although the person quoted should be "Straight Men."

I also would have accepted "Unfortunate pancake boobs, cute little muff." as the quotation
posted by nathancaswell at 12:12 PM on January 25, 2012

It's loading now. It's good.
posted by oddman at 12:13 PM on January 25, 2012

"Shame" really should be "Patrick Bateman Finds A New Hobby."

that or "Writing yourself into corners and then staying there"
posted by The Whelk at 12:13 PM on January 25, 2012

ontd has the content mirrored
posted by nadawi at 12:13 PM on January 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

The Dean-scendants was making the rounds on a certain sub-reddit the other day.
posted by inthe80s at 12:14 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

I didn't see many movies last year, but I think I enjoyed the ones that I did. The "Coming Attractions" reel at our local independent cinema has roughly quadrupled my list of movies to see. I'll never get around to seeing half of them. Pity. Might be time to resubscribe to my Netflix DVD plan.

My favorite film from last year was probably Another Earth, if only because it was completely and totally different from what I was expecting. Instead of the heady sci-fi flick I was expecting, I saw a deeply moody drama that had some of the best and most subtle acting, writing, and direction I've seen in a while, with a great soundtrack to match.

Ironically, the movie got panned by critics for the exact same reason, amid stupid and pointless bickering about the film's physical plausibility (which was also used to knock Source Code, another film that I happened to enjoy).

Why is it that we're willing to overlook the plausibility of super-intelligent apes, but get bogged down with details of other films (ie. why weren't the tides effected in Another Earth?) that are completely irrelevant to any aspect of the story?

This was a pretty good year for movies, and was probably best year we've had for low-budget independent films since 2006 or so. The Whelk's observation is absolutely correct that this year's list of Oscar nominees is crap.
posted by schmod at 12:15 PM on January 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

LOVE the J. Edgar one. So true. Hey Leo! Do a comedy already.
posted by CarlRossi at 12:20 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

For Hugo, I might change the poster to read, "Why the hell was this movie released in 3D?"
posted by perhapses at 12:21 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

He can't stop until his head becomes a perfect square.
posted by The Whelk at 12:21 PM on January 25, 2012

The Academy doesn't care if the nominated films are popular with the public, nor if the films are particularly good. It's all about relationships, not art, as is evidenced by the most terrible Best Picture in living memory, Ordinary People over Raging Bull. The DGA is a better sample.
posted by Ideefixe at 12:22 PM on January 25, 2012

But George Clooney isn't that good at acting, and he was probably the weakest player in The Descendants (and I'm including Laird Hamilton). He's always just, George Clooney.
posted by Flashman at 12:24 PM on January 25, 2012

If 2012's Oscar-nominated movie posters told the truth.

If we're going this route, let's get a little Oscar bait in here.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 12:24 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Calling it Analyze Dat Ass would get me in the theater immediately.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 12:28 PM on January 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

If you've missed it, Captain America was one of the best action adventure movies I've seen in a long time. It's not groundbreaking or anything, but it has like, a plot and characters and not just a FX demo reel. I sat there thinking " wow this really reminds me of Raiders Of The Lost Arc" and then you look up the director and he was the Art Director on Raiders and director of The Rocketer and now it all makes sense. It's almost the 40s superman movie I've always wanted. Almost.

It helps that Chris Evan can actually pull off Super Boy scout without winking at the audience.
posted by The Whelk at 12:30 PM on January 25, 2012 [7 favorites]

the most terrible Best Picture in living memory, Ordinary People over Raging Bull.

See also: Crash over anything else.

I only really care about Rango and The Muppets winning Oscars, because deep down I'm 5.
posted by cottoncandybeard at 12:30 PM on January 25, 2012 [4 favorites]

The poster for The Help is hilarious because the first time I ever saw an ad on tv for this movie, the only thing I could thing is "This is the most condescending and racist fucking movie idea I've seen in a long, long time."
posted by Thorzdad at 12:32 PM on January 25, 2012 [12 favorites]

I second The Whelk in saying that Captain America was a surprisingly fantastic movie. It was a lot more fun and cool than most of its contemporaries.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 12:35 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

My interwebz have just become the Singularity... this must be teh third FPP on something that I'd just seen elsewhere just before coming here.

DiCaprio begging for a nomination is pathetic
posted by infini at 12:38 PM on January 25, 2012

Ideefixe: the most terrible Best Picture in living memory, Ordinary People over Raging Bull.

And then, exactly a decade later, Dances with Wolves beats Goodfellas.

The Academy has a huge... Oscar... for actors' first-time directorial efforts. All to the detriment of Martin Scorsese ever getting recognized for the fucking genius he is, and not just getting an "Oh, Jesus, someone fucking give him one of these already" Oscar for The Departed.
posted by tzikeh at 12:43 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Howsabout "Driving Miss Daisy" instead of "Do the right thing?"
posted by No Robots at 12:45 PM on January 25, 2012 [4 favorites]

I didn't see it in 3D (because a)headaches and b)that's ridiculous), but Hugo was one of the best movies I have EVER seen. I did not expect it to be that good. My wife had even lower expectations (she doesn't like Scorsese films). We cried like babies and left the theater with huge grins. What a great show.

Also: Drive was scorchingly good, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was nice and cerebral, and Midnight in Paris was the feel-good hit of the summer.

The Academy Awards will always be about the establishment asserting their bullshit to the masses. Haven't watched it in years, looks like this year won't be too enticing either.
posted by Doleful Creature at 12:45 PM on January 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

Here's a concise list of all the movies that won best picture of the year. It's a pretty sad lot of films, mostly the Academy seem to go for very earnest and overblown films with bonus points for costume dramas. Of the last thirty years of best films, I can only see maybe three that might deserve the award: No Country for Old Men, Unforgiven and Silence of the Lambs.
posted by octothorpe at 12:48 PM on January 25, 2012

Yeah what the hell? No Drive? Thank god Bridesmaids got some love otherwise it'd be a total festival of bad boring failures.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:49 PM on January 25, 2012

10 most heinous Oscar snubs.
posted by No Robots at 12:51 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh and Oliver! won in 1968 and 2001: A Space odyssey wasn't even nominated.
posted by octothorpe at 12:51 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

ANALYZE DAT ASS +1 +1 +!11111!!!1901892 <3 <3 <3
posted by SharkParty at 12:55 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Drive was flat-out robbed, that and The Guard were the only films I really rated last year.

Some how I don't think I'll be staying up into the early hours this year...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:56 PM on January 25, 2012

Dunno guys, I think everyone should go re watch Ordinary People.
posted by Ad hominem at 12:58 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

And then, exactly a decade later, Dances with Wolves beats Goodfellas.

True, but everyone seems to consider Dances With Wolves an absolute travesty -- it is one of those pieces of received wisdom like Ishtar being awful (hint: it's not, actually: the script is pretty scattershot and the performances are hit-and-miss, but it is far from the howler people like to pretend it is). Yes, Dances With Wolves is not in the same league as Goodfellas, but let us recall that the other nominees for Best Picture in 1990 were Ghost, Awakenings, and The Godfather Part III. If anyone wants to argue that Dances With Wolves is not the second-best movie out of that field, I am happy to hear their reasoning.

In any event, the finest example of the Academy's inexplicable love for debut directorial efforts came fourteen years earlier: All The President's Men, Taxi Driver, Network and Bound for Glory all lose to... Rocky? Really?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:01 PM on January 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

Captain America is indeed pretty damn good, although I think it could have done with one more good action sequence instead of that montage of badass action moments in the middle of the movie.
posted by brundlefly at 1:02 PM on January 25, 2012

"Yeah what the hell? No Drive? Thank god Bridesmaids got some love otherwise it'd be a total festival of bad boring failures."



Hello again friends! I know everyone's been standing around talking about me ALL DAY (LOL! Just joshing you!!) so I thought I'd swing by and address concerns!

Ever since my movie ("The Tree of Life" which is a MOVIE about DINOSAURS) came out it seems like people have been talking about how it's the best movie of all time. It is! It has a tire swing, too! Okay it's not a tire swing technically for insurance reasons but it is a swing. This is part of the political negotiations of making movies. I know, I know: Blah blah blah! Ha ha lol jk. But really: People liked my movie a lot! Unless they hated it.

And now all I'm hearing about is this other movie "The Artist!" Well let me tell you, I fumed! I called up Richard Gere (THE ACTOR) and said "Richard" I said (RICHARD GERE) "Richard what is this movie "The Artist?"" And do you know what Richard Gere told me? He said "Terry" (my friends call me Terry) "Terry it's pretty good, and there aren't even tits in it." You should know that Richard takes that kind of thing pretty seriously.

So I went down to the local cineplex. Well let me tell you! "The Artist" is pretty good! There's a cute dog in it who can talk to policemen! That's even better than a tire swing! So I will brook no complaints about this year's Oscar slate. Dinosaurs! Doggies! Tire swing! (It's not a tire swing.)

In conclusion, have you ever noticed the subtle ululation of a summer field in a prestorm wind oh jesus
posted by "Doctor" Terence Malick at 1:05 PM on January 25, 2012 [55 favorites]

I dunno about Drive. I liked it a lot, but I thought Thief stood on its own and didn't need a remake.
posted by oneironaut at 1:07 PM on January 25, 2012

Oh and Oliver! won in 1968 and 2001: A Space odyssey wasn't even nominated.

Bonus points: in 1968, there was no such Oscar as Best Make-Up (that came over a decade later) but a special Oscar recognizing "outstanding achievement" in the field of make-up was awarded that year to Planet of the Apes. Yes, the Academy honoured this make-up instead of this.

Legend has it that the Academy members did not realize those were not actual apes in 2001.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:09 PM on January 25, 2012 [4 favorites]

Well Rocky had a compelling story behind it. It was written by Sylvester Stalone, who had previously only had roles as "mafiosi 2" and "disco patron.It was made for 1 million dollars in less than a month. Not to mention it was actually good.
posted by Ad hominem at 1:10 PM on January 25, 2012 [7 favorites]

Yes, the Academy honoured this make-up instead of this.

Can you imagine being the makeup artist who got passed over for that?

I would still be collaring people in bars and screaming drunkenly about how I was robbed.
posted by winna at 1:11 PM on January 25, 2012

And then, exactly a decade later, Dances with Wolves beats Goodfellas.

I suspect that most people who've seen either of these movies repeatedly have done so on a small screen, which takes nothing of consequence away from Goodfellas and everything away from Dances With Wolves, where the scope of the landscape is a major part of its impact.
posted by mhoye at 1:12 PM on January 25, 2012 [4 favorites]

It's all about relationships, not art, as is evidenced by the most terrible Best Picture in living memory, Ordinary People over Raging Bull.

Um, even at the time Scorcese, De Niro et al were major Hollywood players. There were just as many "relationships" working for Raging Bull as there were for Ordinary People. People have such weird paranoid theories about how the Oscars are "fixed"--but it's just people casting ballots. Ordinary People made about twice what Raging Bull made at the box office. It was the more popular film and it pushed all the right buttons for what the demographic that the Oscar voters come from think of as "serious" and "worthy" movies. It's really no surprise at all that it won.

I didn't see it in 3D (because a)headaches and b)that's ridiculous), but Hugo was one of the best movies I have EVER seen. I did not expect it to be that good. My wife had even lower expectations (she doesn't like Scorsese films). We cried like babies and left the theater with huge grins. What a great show.

Also: Drive was scorchingly good, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was nice and cerebral, and Midnight in Paris was the feel-good hit of the summer.

The Academy Awards will always be about the establishment asserting their bullshit to the masses. Haven't watched it in years, looks like this year won't be too enticing either.

Er, it sounds like you and the Academy voters are pretty much in sync, other than for Drive. They gave Hugo the most nominations of any film.
posted by yoink at 1:12 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

Oh and Oliver! won in 1968 and 2001: A Space odyssey wasn't even nominated.

Stanley Kubrick never won an Oscar for Best Director. That's most of what you need to know about the Academy Awards as a barometer of actual merit right there. The rest of what you need to know is that Kevin Costner won one - the year Scorsese was nominated for Goodfellas.

Let's go to the boxscore.

Best Director Oscars:

Kevin Costner -- 1
Stanley Kubrick -- 0
Scorsese for Goodfellas -- 0

Hollywood? Yeah, not a meritocracy.
posted by gompa at 1:17 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Hitchcock never got a Best Director Oscar either.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:18 PM on January 25, 2012

Hitchcock never won an Oscar either.
posted by bonehead at 1:18 PM on January 25, 2012

Doh!
posted by bonehead at 1:19 PM on January 25, 2012

I'm sure that Dances with Wolves is wonderful but I've never actually managed to stay awake past the first hour.
posted by octothorpe at 1:19 PM on January 25, 2012

What a bonehead.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:19 PM on January 25, 2012

yoink: even at the time Scorcese, De Niro et al were major Hollywood players. There were just as many "relationships" working for Raging Bull as there were for Ordinary People. People have such weird paranoid theories about how the Oscars are "fixed"--but it's just people casting ballots.

Yes, but it wasn't directed by an actor. The vast majority of the Academy members are actors, which is why so many actor-directed films get nominated/win over more-deserving nominees (which I should have clarified in my comment above).
posted by tzikeh at 1:20 PM on January 25, 2012

This was a really good movie year

Was it really? I was just talking about this with my girlfriend this morning -- what was the Avatar or Inception of 2012? Were there any great movies everyone was talking about, or even great movies that should have been nominated but weren't? It's funny they expanded the number of best picture noms because The Dark Knight didn't get nominated, but there are no real popcorn movies on the list this year. Maybe "Midnight in Paris"?
posted by Clustercuss at 1:23 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

> Best Director Oscars:

Kevin Costner -- 1
Stanley Kubrick -- 0
Scorsese for Goodfellas -- 0

Fun Fact: Eminem has more Oscars than Stanley Kubrick.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:25 PM on January 25, 2012 [8 favorites]

("The Tree of Life" which is a MOVIE about DINOSAURS)

SOLD
posted by curious nu at 1:27 PM on January 25, 2012

what was the Avatar or Inception of 2012?

Neither of those movies was as inspired as Zookeeper.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:28 PM on January 25, 2012

Fess up guys, anyone here actually watch Dances With Wolves? It is seriously surprisingly good.I ain't saying that they shouldn't toss Scorcese an Oscar, but it isn't like Dances With Wolves was a pile of shit.
posted by Ad hominem at 1:28 PM on January 25, 2012 [6 favorites]

I suspect that most people who've seen either of these movies repeatedly have done so on a small screen, which takes nothing of consequence away from Goodfellas and everything away from Dances With Wolves, where the scope of the landscape is a major part of its impact.

Come again? You think Scorsese gave less thought to framing, lighting, composition and editing than Kevin Costner did? You think Martin Fucking Split-Screen Painting-With-Cameras Eight-Song-Mashup-During-The-Coked-Out-Paranoid-Chopper-Sequences Scorsese loses less with letterboxing or 4X3 aspect ratios than Kevin Waterworld Costner?

Seriously? You might wanna rethink that. I got Joe Pesci here, and he's ready to rip your eyes out with his molars.

Just because it's outdoors, that doesn't make it epic.
posted by gompa at 1:28 PM on January 25, 2012 [5 favorites]

Yes, the Academy honoured this make-up instead of this.

I really don't see a problem with that. The makeup in Planet of the Apes had to withstand scrutiny over the course of an entire film and be flexible enough for the actors' performances to come through. The work in Planet... is genuinely groundbreaking. I'm not taking anything away from 2001, but they're different beasts and I don't think anybody was robbed as far as that award.
posted by brundlefly at 1:29 PM on January 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

I'm sorry, but Dances with Wolves is unquestionably a pile of shit.
posted by Fister Roboto at 1:30 PM on January 25, 2012

(And yes, I saw Dances with Wolves in the theatre on its original theatrical run with my high-school sweetheart, who last time I saw her in like 2002 or so still thought it was the best movie she ever saw. It's pretty good, not a total embarassment by any stretch. It is not, however, even fit to wipe the blood off Ray Liotta's lapels.)
posted by gompa at 1:30 PM on January 25, 2012

It's funny they expanded the number of best picture noms because The Dark Knight didn't get nominated, but there are no real popcorn movies on the list this year.

This is apparently because they changed the rules yet again to exclude movies that were widely liked but not passionately loved. Hugo, for example, is a very divisive movie among critics. My guess is that, while more people rated Hugo as their #1 movie than something like Drive, the latter appeared on more top 5 lists, if that makes sense. So Drive may actually have been better-received by the entire academy, but because of the rule change it doesn't become a nominee.
posted by muddgirl at 1:30 PM on January 25, 2012

Has anyone else noticed anything strange about these nominees?

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Ferngully 2
Ultimate Garfield 4 - Garpocalypse
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Yellowstone Adventure - Boo-Boo strikes back
Open Season 4
Ugly Ducking Vs Swan Lake
Puss In Boots
Ice Age: Hawaii
Xanadu the Animated Feature
A Cat in Paris
Rango

It's almost all sequels!

Also, boy have they padded it, with the exception of Rango i have no idea most what of those films are doing there.
posted by Artw at 1:31 PM on January 25, 2012 [28 favorites]

Dances with Wolves is fine. There are a couple really cheesy garbage flashbacks in it, but the rest of the movie is pretty much fine, and it has a couple memorable scenes. It's neither a piece of shit nor an American classic.
posted by nathancaswell at 1:32 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's funny. Dances with Wolves was such an event in central South Dakota. A teacher of mine was an extra in it, and a classmate's dad was an assistant TD or something. Everyone had their stories of bumping into Kevin Costner at Dakotamart. Now, whenever I hear people talk about that movie, I get that same cognitive dissonance you might feel if someone mentions your teacher or your hometown's nightly news anchor.

But I've only seen the movie once and, being a nine-year-old, spent most of it sleeping. The main thing I remember is the scene with all the buffalo.
posted by roll truck roll at 1:33 PM on January 25, 2012

Super 8 was an entertaining pastiche, so much so that it replicated all the problems of the source material, but I had a fun popcorny time.

Also, and this sounds crazy, but Fright Night was very fun. All that subtext is text! It's a soild vampire movie that had be going " this really feels like a Buffy episode on hey Marti Noxton wrote it, neat."
posted by The Whelk at 1:36 PM on January 25, 2012

boy have they padded it, with the exception of Rango i have no idea most what of those films are doing there. that those other films even existed.


Fixed that for me.
posted by never used baby shoes at 1:36 PM on January 25, 2012

LOVE the J. Edgar one. So true. Hey Leo! Do a comedy already.

Leonardo DiCaprio posts angry Craigslist ad
posted by Artw at 1:37 PM on January 25, 2012 [5 favorites]

Also, a 2011 US release, Attack The Block was one of the funniest, smartest, rip roaringest monster movies I've seen in a while.
posted by The Whelk at 1:38 PM on January 25, 2012 [5 favorites]

The Whelk will not shut up about Fright Night.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:38 PM on January 25, 2012

what was the Avatar or Inception of 2012?

There's already an ongoing discussion about Dances With Wolves.

(And both are pretty thoroughly mediocre movies. At least AVatar had the decency to not win anything major.)
posted by kmz at 1:39 PM on January 25, 2012

Shakesperian will not go see Tinker Tailor no matter how hard I press him.
posted by The Whelk at 1:39 PM on January 25, 2012

Captain America is indeed pretty damn good, although I think it could have done with one more good action sequence instead of that montage of badass action moments in the middle of the movie.

I loved the montage of badass action moments in the middle! And Nthing it's awesomeness as a whole.
posted by Artw at 1:39 PM on January 25, 2012

Best Director Oscars:

Kevin Costner -- 1
Stanley Kubrick -- 0
Scorsese for Goodfellas -- 0

Hollywood? Yeah, not a meritocracy.

I always find these threads grousing about the Oscars hilarious. "Unlike every other institution or individual that gives awards to "best" movies, the Oscars sometimes gives them to movies I don't personally consider the best! It's outrageous. I mean, everyone agrees that Such-and-such a movie is better than Such-and-such another movie!"

No. Not everyone agrees. I like Kubrick well enough, but I think every single one of his movies is sadly flawed (with the exception of Paths of Glory--but then Bridge on the River Kwai won that year, which seems reasonable). Just look at this thread--pretty much everyone's agreeing that the Oscars do a horrible, horrible job of choosing the "best" picture, but nobody's agreeing about which pictures they should have chosen, or even if the one they did choose in a given year is a good example of one of their bad decisions.

There has never, ever, been a list of "bests" on Metafilter that drew widespread agreement--no matter how lowbrow, middlebrow or highbrow. There is no system by which the Oscars could be selected that would avoid widespread disappointment about certain films or roles not winning. Getting angry about this just seems bizarre to me. Thinking that it's all some sort of deliberate attack on independent creativity is just paranoid silliness.

I love watching the Oscars. I like looking at the stars in their posh clothes. I like the occasional moments of genuine emotion or wit that are elicited in acceptance speeches. I like rooting for whatever actors I like or films I happened to have liked. I like saying "boo!" if they choose a film I didn't like. But I can't imagine the state of mind I'd have to be in to think that any of this matters sufficiently to warrant anger or outrage. And I certainly can't see why I would expect that a large voting body drawn from people who just happen to have developed careers in the movies would collectively make daring or otherwise outre selections. By definition, the "daring" selections will be ones that appeal only to a small minority.
posted by yoink at 1:40 PM on January 25, 2012 [4 favorites]

The main thing I remember is the scene with all the buffalo.

I believe, sir, you mean tatonka oh god why can't i remember doctor's appointments instead.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 1:40 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

Captain America is indeed pretty damn good, although I think it could have done with one more good action sequence instead of that montage of badass action moments in the middle of the movie.

I actually thought this was one of the inspired bits about the movie. "Okay, and then he became a big action hero, and you've seen that movie twenty times so you already know what it looks like. Here's a cool thing he did, and here's another one, and now back to the plot!"
posted by IAmUnaware at 1:40 PM on January 25, 2012 [6 favorites]

Fuck the Oscars. Drive was a great movie.

I liked Fright Night a lot.

I watched Attack the Block last night and wasn't that into it.

I've never seen a movie that explained as little as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy did, but you can puzzle it out usually by the end of every scene. I think my theater left the 3d lense on the projector so it was way darker than intended. I could barely see the first half of the movie. I mean literally barely see the characters.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 1:41 PM on January 25, 2012

well my favorite film of the year, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia didn't even get shortlisted
posted by nathancaswell at 1:42 PM on January 25, 2012

A thing I found puzzling...

Oscar voters snub Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' score

Too similar to last year maybe?

TBH I expected Dragon Tattoo to make more of a showing in a lot of categories.
posted by Artw at 1:44 PM on January 25, 2012

the best thing about dances with wolves was telling everyone in my elementary school afterwards that my native american name was "prances with ponies".
posted by elizardbits at 1:44 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

most notable thing about Attack the Block was that little kids actually got iced in it, which I respect
posted by nathancaswell at 1:44 PM on January 25, 2012

I hadn't read the Le Carre book but I was able to follow everything, but could be a soild decade of reading cold war spy stuff.
posted by The Whelk at 1:45 PM on January 25, 2012

I hate watching the Oscars. I hate awards shows in general, actually. And fuck, there's a lot of them now. They'll get their own channel soon, which will of course lead to the Awards Show Awards, to be held in a Budget Inn in Flushing , with Joan Rivers and her daughter waiting outside.
posted by jonmc at 1:46 PM on January 25, 2012 [7 favorites]

Attack The Block

I love that movie. I also love that Joe Cornish, upon being mugged, had a think about where his muggers were coming from and made a pretty sympathetic movie about them. That's pretty unusual, blud.
posted by Artw at 1:47 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Does Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close have the lowest Rotten Tomato rating of any modern Oscar nominee?
posted by muddgirl at 1:48 PM on January 25, 2012

I've never seen a movie that explained as little as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy did

In today's movie market? SOLD.
posted by Artw at 1:48 PM on January 25, 2012 [9 favorites]

Historical revisionism going down in this thread. Dances With Wolves = SUCK to the tenth power. And I say this as a fan of Maury Chaykin and Graham Greene.
posted by stinkycheese at 1:49 PM on January 25, 2012

I actually thought this was one of the inspired bits about the movie. "Okay, and then he became a big action hero, and you've seen that movie twenty times so you already know what it looks like. Here's a cool thing he did, and here's another one, and no back to the plot!"

Fair enough. I just thought the movie as a whole felt kind of light on the action. Maybe another scene in addition to the montage?

I hadn't read the Le Carre book but I was able to follow everything, but could be a soild decade of reading cold war spy stuff.

I was able to follow it just fine without reading any spy stuff.
posted by brundlefly at 1:50 PM on January 25, 2012

I didn't even watch the movie, and I couldn't follow it!
posted by TwelveTwo at 1:53 PM on January 25, 2012

One area where Cap scored big as it really did feel like they were telling a story instead of lurching between escalating set-peices - which I guess they were doing as well - which is actually pretty rare in today's action flicks.
posted by Artw at 1:53 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Rocky is an amazing movie. Perhaps you're thinking of its ridiculous sequels.

I dunno about "amazing." It's good, sure. Especially in retrospect considering the majority of Stallone's later work. The ending was sort of abrupt, too.

As for this year's movies, I'm still not getting what the big deal was about The Ides of March. It was passable, and nothing was particularly wrong with it, but I found it quite boring and kind of superfluous. A cynical movie centered on the idea that politics is corrupt? Low-hanging fruit.
posted by Hoopo at 1:55 PM on January 25, 2012

Captain America gets a lot of love here but can we agree the ending was weak? I had to just look up what happened to the Red Skull on Wikipedia and even then I was kind of... hmmm, yeah, I guess that happened?

/may be too high when watching movies
posted by stinkycheese at 1:56 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

/may be too high when watching movies

not really possible unless you're watching labyrinth which actually can get kind of terrifying if you're super baked
posted by nathancaswell at 1:57 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh god they start pulling thier heads off make it stop
posted by The Whelk at 1:58 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Worst Oscar ever was when "Babe" lost to "Braveheart." End of story.
posted by jbickers at 2:01 PM on January 25, 2012 [6 favorites]

Re: Wolves vs. Fellas...
I'm on the fence, really. Wolves is too long and Costner is...well...Costner. And it is uncomfortably "noble savage" stuff. Still, it ain't a bad movie. And, the photography is gorgeous. It's easy to see why it won.

Goodfellas is unquestionably good. But, I can't watch the damned thing without the last half giving me a splitting headache. All the performances are stereotypes and caricatures. It's loud. It's violent. And it's loud. And it's fucking violent. Which is probably why it lost.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:04 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Re "Dances With Wolves" and just in furtherance of my "no, nobody agrees that X movie is clearly rotten or that Y movie is clearly 'the best'" here's Roger Ebert's contemporary (rave) review of the film.

Some choice excerpts:

The movie is a simple story, magnificently told. It has the epic sweep and clarity of a Western by John Ford, and it abandons the contrivances of ordinary plotting to look, in detail, at the way strangers get to know one another.

"Dances With Wolves" has the kind of vision and ambition that is rare in movies today. It is not a formula movie, but a thoughtful, carefully observed story. It is a Western at a time when the Western is said to be dead. It asks for our imagination and sympathy. It takes its time, three hours, to unfold. It is a personal triumph for Kevin Costner, the intelligent young actor of "Field of Dreams," who directed the film and shows a command of story and of visual structure that is startling; this movie moves so confidently and looks so good it seems incredible that it's a directorial debut.

So no. If some actor voted for "Dances With Wolves" over whatever movie you liked for that year, it's not necessarily that they were pals with Kevin Costner or that they reflexively vote for the film that an actor directed. There were people who aren't actors and who know a lot about film who also thought the film was great.

For the umpteenth millionth time, Metafilter struggles with the concept that people genuinely disagree about the merits of works of art.
posted by yoink at 2:05 PM on January 25, 2012 [4 favorites]

Meh. Ebert has the hots for some real middle of the road stuff sometimes.
posted by Artw at 2:06 PM on January 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

He's probably friends with Costner. :P
posted by mazola at 2:07 PM on January 25, 2012

dances with wolves was a huge hit in my house. it was one of the 20 or so movies we had pirated from blockbuster (why, yes, we would like to rent a vcr! thank you for making this so easy! do you happen to have a roll of scotch tape?).
posted by nadawi at 2:09 PM on January 25, 2012

yoink - I have noticed a couple of reflexive "Metafilter is really stupid about X" comments posted by you recently - this is the second one I've seen today. I know it's hard to keep perspective, but Mefites are not a monolith. If people get to disagree about art, then people get to argue that they think Dances With Wolves sucks and did not 'deserve' an Oscar, and furthermore that the Oscar committee is a bunch of idiots. That's an opinion, not a statement of facts.
posted by muddgirl at 2:10 PM on January 25, 2012

Metafilter struggles with the concept that people genuinely disagree about the merits of works of art.

No it doesn't at all -- there's no real consensus in this thread other than "I don't agree with the Best Picture winner at the Oscars in so-and-so-year", and actually most threads I've seen on Metafilter involving "the merits of works of art" contain a fair number of arguments.
posted by Hoopo at 2:11 PM on January 25, 2012

Whoa, hold on now. We can all agree that the Oscar committee is a bunch of idiots.
posted by graventy at 2:11 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ebert has a weird Costner thing. He gave The Postman 2 stars and Waterworld 2 and a half. Everyone has that one weird thing they can admit is terrible. Costner is Ebert's.
posted by bonehead at 2:11 PM on January 25, 2012

Rocky is an amazing movie. Perhaps you're thinking of its ridiculous sequels.

In my case, no. I found Rocky so crayon-obvious that I have never bothered to look at any of the sequels. It is not atrocious or anything, but it it struck me as so indifferent that I am at a loss to see how it beat the four solid flicks that it did.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:12 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

rocky was straight up awesome. unexpected and jarring and great. far better than the sequels. although, anyone who wants to denigrate the greatest training montage of all time from rocky IV can come and see me.
posted by nadawi at 2:12 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

Pixar's failure gives me a glimmer of hope that something with an alternate style like Chico or Cat might squeak through, but who am I kidding because everyone saw Puss which hit all the right buttons.

Anyone else thought that Hugo was pandering a bit by slipping in a film-preservation PSA right in the middle of the big reveal? But as is usual, the lists are stocked full of films I've not had a chance to see yet.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 2:14 PM on January 25, 2012

Given how lauded Tinker, Tailor and Hugo were, I was pleasantly surprised not to be let down by either of them. (How's that for damning with faint praise?)

I didn't expect Hugo to be as...twee as it turned out to be; I had hoped for more of an adventure story and less of a sentimental story. Chloe Moretz, whom I normally find adorable, was annoying in that movie in a way I can't quite articulate.

Tinker, Tailor was perfect, though, IMO, apart from Benedict Cumberbatch's awful natural hair colour. Please keep dyeing it dark brown for the rest of your life, Cumberbatch.
posted by Phire at 2:15 PM on January 25, 2012

Just to be clear, I didn't say I didn't understand Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I did. It just did not feel the need to make sure the audience was always following. Which I liked.

nadawi, and that wasn't even the best montage in the movie! in my humble opinion. :D
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 2:15 PM on January 25, 2012 [4 favorites]

Also, know what was a surprisingly good movie from this year (but definitely doesn't deserve an Oscar)? Paranormal Activity 3. Yeah, I said it. Both sequels have been better than the original actually. Almost made up for the disappointment of Don't be Afraid f the Dark for my 2011 horror movie buck (it wasn't terrible but it was a kids movie and I wasn't expecting that for some reason).
posted by Hoopo at 2:16 PM on January 25, 2012

Though someone should tell me if it was one of the darkest movies ever made or if my theater was fucked up.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 2:16 PM on January 25, 2012

Meh. Ebert has the hots for some real middle of the road stuff sometimes.

That's my point. Everyone has the hots for something that you don't think is all that good sometimes. So it's silly to think that there's something nefarious in the fact that Oscar's choices don't always line up with yours.

Or, to put it another way, if you, Artw, broke into the offices of Pricewaterhousecoopers and cunningly selected all the Oscar winners to your liking and then came to metafilter the day after the Oscars thinking "boy, everyone will be amazed at the totally excellent choices that the Academy made this year. They'll be dazzled by the extraordinarily consistent taste they displayed!" you would walk away a sad broken Artw from a thread which would be exactly the same as every other Oscar thread, full of people denouncing the tedious, predictable middle-of-the-road choices that just show that it's all an industry insider's game.
posted by yoink at 2:16 PM on January 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

rocky was straight up awesome. unexpected and jarring and great. far better than the sequels. although, anyone who wants to denigrate the greatest training montage of all time from rocky IV can come and see me.

It has MULTIPLE training montages! All with awesome power ballads.
posted by Artw at 2:17 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yoink - Well, I can't guarantee folks would like them, but I doubt they'd think it was as boring and predictable sack of cock as this years picks, TBH.
posted by Artw at 2:18 PM on January 25, 2012

I mean, shouldn't awards be predictable?
posted by shakespeherian at 2:20 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

So it's silly to think that there's something nefarious in the fact that Oscar's choices don't always line up with yours.

No one thinks anything 'nefarious' is going on. People are making the reasonable observation that the Academy seems to favor a particular kind of movie. This is not a conspiracy theory any more than "Since the widespread adoption of television sets, American voters seem to favor more handsome presidential candidate." That statement does not claim that there is a nefarious plot to elect handsome candidates.
posted by muddgirl at 2:21 PM on January 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

rocky was straight up awesome. unexpected and jarring and great.

Yeah...If you call an "underdog succeeds against all odds, with his loyal girlfriend and crotchety old mentor" film "unexpected and jarring". More like "by-the-book formulaic and stone-cold-predictable".
posted by Thorzdad at 2:23 PM on January 25, 2012

boring and predictable sack of cock

I'm not sure what your job entails but I have yet to see a sack of cock that was boring or predictable.
posted by Hoopo at 2:23 PM on January 25, 2012 [7 favorites]

Rocky makes me cry like a little girl. But that's probably the Eyetalian in me.
posted by jonmc at 2:24 PM on January 25, 2012

Worst movie that has ever made me tear up at the cinema: Over The Top.
posted by Artw at 2:25 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yeah...If you call an "underdog succeeds against all odds, with his loyal girlfriend and crotchety old mentor" film "unexpected and jarring".

So you didn't see the movie?
posted by shakespeherian at 2:25 PM on January 25, 2012 [14 favorites]

yoink - I have noticed a couple of reflexive "Metafilter is really stupid about X" comments posted by you recently - this is the second one I've seen today. I know it's hard to keep perspective, but Mefites are not a monolith. If people get to disagree about art, then people get to argue that they think Dances With Wolves sucks and did not 'deserve' an Oscar, and furthermore that the Oscar committee is a bunch of idiots. That's an opinion, not a statement of facts.

Whether or not the film sucks is an opinion. The assertion that the Oscar voters are idiots purports to be a statement of fact which accounts for that opinion--and I find that pernicious. It's the claim that "the only reason you don't agree with me about this work of art is because you are stupid or because your judgment is in some way corrupted (e.g. all the actors vote for actors claims)" that I'm arguing against.

And of course Metafilter's not a "monolith." If we were a monolith then we'd be surrounded by apes crushing bones all agree that X was a good film and Y wasn't--which is exactly the opposite of my point. What we are, though, is a community like pretty much every other community on the web that consistently fails to have useful discussions on aesthetic differences of opinion. I'm all for a discussion of why one person found this film or song to work and another didn't. But that's not what we ever have, is it? It's always "your favorite film/band sucks and the only reason you pretend to like them is that you're craven, stupid, a sucker, a poseur etc."
posted by yoink at 2:26 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

is a community like pretty much every other community on the web

I guess it just seems inevitable then. Web communities have been in existence for like 20 years now, and nothing's changed. What do you hope to get out of your recent campaign against discussion tropes that you dislike?
posted by muddgirl at 2:29 PM on January 25, 2012

"underdog succeeds against all odds..."

that's an interesting summation of the film. it's actually the "doesn't succeed" that made it awesome. i probably watched it for the first time when i was around 7 years old (over a decade after it came out) and i think it was the first movie i ever saw where the hero didn't win at the end. it was one of my first movie surprises. i was absolutely jarred by that.
posted by nadawi at 2:29 PM on January 25, 2012

What do you hope to get out of your recent campaign against discussion tropes that you dislike?

Best Commenter Award.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 2:30 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

I would give him a gold star but I don't have that power :(
posted by muddgirl at 2:31 PM on January 25, 2012

Anyone else thought that Hugo was pandering a bit by slipping in a film-preservation PSA right in the middle of the big reveal? But as is usual, the lists are stocked full of films I've not had a chance to see yet.

That was probably the biggest problem I had with Hugo, that the last half felt like I'd switched theaters to a documentary about early film.

Well, second biggest problem. I really felt like the 3D was *incredibly* tacked on and useless. Lots and lots of zooming through gears. I've heard people say it was great, specifically because of the old movie footage that was 3D-ized, and particularly the "train coming at audience" clip updated for the new age. That was neat, but did not justify the 3D.
posted by graventy at 2:32 PM on January 25, 2012

sometimes i read threads like this on mefi and i'm reminded of this party i went to where i had the misfortune of running into this guy who in an attempt to impress some girls i was chatting with loudly told me "i have objectively better taste in music than you do", and preceded to list off some bands he no doubt believed would force me to cower before his impressive artistic manliness and the young ladies to swoon in desire.

sadly for him, despite his objectively brilliant taste, he went home alone. two of us, however, had a great laugh about it in bed later that night.
posted by modernnomad at 2:35 PM on January 25, 2012 [4 favorites]

I guess it just seems inevitable then. Web communities have been in existence for like 20 years now, and nothing's changed. What do you hope to get out of your recent campaign against discussion tropes that you dislike?

There are some conversations that Metafilter does a great deal better than most other sites on the web. I guess I'm hoping that discussions about differences in taste could possibly move from column B to column A. Or, in other words, I'm arguing because I hope to convince people that my argument is correct. You know, like everyone else--including you.
posted by yoink at 2:36 PM on January 25, 2012

I have to admit that, with all it's obvious flaws, the Oscars are basically my version of the Superbowl or the Olympics. Every year my wife and i try and watch as many of the nominated movies as possible, making sure to get all the Bests Picture ones, maybe some of the Actor/Actress ones not covered there, anything with multiple nominations, and usually a fair slice of the writing ones cos that's my thing.

Sometimes the list is a little daunting, and we end up asking asking "Do we really want to see that, it looks cheesy/a bummer/pretentious"- and we go ahead and watch whatever it is and sometimes we are surprised and other times not. Aldo there's that fun category of films that try at something interesting and are worth talking about if they succeed or not.

This year, we're looking a the list, and we're just saying FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU... Because it's ALL like that. Every last one. And the ones we've already seen by chance were actually not so good. Films trying something interesting that may fail buyt be interesting anyway? Tree of Life I guess, but i kinda know his game.

I dunno, maybe Hugo won't be too twee. Maybe a wild, possibly war-related horses will drag me kicking and screaming into Extremely Loud and I'll love the thing, maybe [GENERIC WOODY ALLEN] will be one of his good ones, maybe the obligatory sports thing won't be dull and sports,y but I have a suspicion that our little game we play will actually be a torturous grind this year, which is a bummer.
posted by Artw at 2:39 PM on January 25, 2012 [4 favorites]

yoink - I have to say, you are RUBBISH at just shooting the shit and having a fun conversation about movies. Lighten up.
posted by Artw at 2:39 PM on January 25, 2012

I'll admit it, if no one else will: there were huge chunks of Tinker Tailor that I couldn't follow at all. Having said that, I dug the atmosphere and dialogue and was totally into it by the end.
posted by roll truck roll at 2:40 PM on January 25, 2012

I'm probably telling that the most gripping scene in Tinker Tailor is just Gary Oldman delivering a monologue in the dark.

(Oh so many great visual touches too, the hotel/base of operations has a fresh new sign painted over a still-visible old one, both two things at once and a nod to the "old guard/new guard" dynamic, and right before a character is about to be entrapped he's under a sign BEWARE OF TRAP and after the ending how that one early scene is suddenly full of import, oooo)
posted by The Whelk at 2:44 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

ArtW: "I waaaaant my waaaaar horse"
posted by The Whelk at 2:48 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

I was really impressed with the new Tinker Tailor. If you liked it, do yourself a favor - go and watch Alec Guinness in the original mini-series. Be forewarned though, Mrs. WASP-12b thinks its like watching paint dry, but she also likes Con-Air.
posted by WASP-12b at 2:50 PM on January 25, 2012

The assertion that the Oscar voters are idiots purports to be a statement of fact which accounts for that opinion--and I find that pernicious.

You find it pernicious? Seriously? Like you're worried that there's insufficient attention and fealty paid to mainstream Hollywood? That if we don't give Oscar voters the respect they deserve, something bad might befall our culture and this Super-Bowl-for-non-sports-fans spectacle we all watch every year even as we mock it? That we might all abandon the cineplex for art houses and rep cinemas and the Kevin Costners of the world will no longer be paid millions of dollars to fail utterly at even the most basic of pseudo-British accents as they lay ruin to classic fairytales?

You think it's pernicious to point out a thing that's as close to a film-criticism truism as I can think of, which is that Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick are brilliant, ambitious filmmakers, whereas Kevin Costner made The Postman?

Man, you must be a hit at Oscar parties. "Guys, if you make fun of Keira Knightly's dress, she might not show up next year. Show some respect!"
posted by gompa at 2:52 PM on January 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

the movie version of Tinker Tailor also has a rare reversal of the Hide Your Gays Trope, they queered up a straight character from the book.
posted by The Whelk at 2:52 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Had anyone mentioned Shawshank Redemption yet? Cuz wow, that's one of the biggest Oscar snubs right there!
posted by Calzephyr at 2:52 PM on January 25, 2012

One of the better parts of Hugo was Sacha Baron Cohen IMO. In fact, the Station Inspector's comic scrooge story came off better than papa Georges'.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 3:04 PM on January 25, 2012

The only time I can ever remember people unanimously agreeing on movie opinion or Oscar picks was when Walter Monheit was writing the reviews.
posted by mazola at 3:11 PM on January 25, 2012

This list made me both ashamed of the Academy and myself. Myself because movies used to be my life. I was a film student, I used to make shorts and take them around festivals, I used to see everything I could get my hands on, and I've sen NONE of this year's Best Picture nominees. I've just completely fallen away from that world.

Ashamed with Hollywood because aside from some slight interest in Hugo and Tree of Life, I really have no interest in seeing any of those movies. At all.

But anyway, I'd like to see a "retrospective" category added in. Like, "according to the current block of Academy voters, the Best Picture of 20 Years Ago was..." That will never happen, of course, but I don't think it's crazy to think that Goodfellas would win over Dance with Wolves in that scenario. I'm pretty damn certain that Pulp Fiction would beat out Forrest Gump, and hell, really more likely Shawshank Redemption - which wasn't initially very successful but obviously went on to receive much more universal acclaim - would give it a better run for its money.

That said, Dances with Wolves was a pretty big damn deal when it came out. Costner isn't given a lot of credit (growing up in Houston he always reminded me of a high-blood-pressure Boy Scout dad) but he's not a hack. He takes risks with his projects and forces them into the mass market, even if that usually doesn't work very well. He's basically spent the past twenty years or more trying to recreate Dances with Wolves and Field of Dreams the latter of which has to be one of the balls-out strangest films ever to capture mainstream America. Dances with Wolves took the risk of being languid, epic Western at a time when Westerns were massively out of style, and while the "noble savage" stuff is there and certainly hasn't aged well, it was by far the best-researched and most lovingly considered treatment a major film had ever given to Native Americans up to the point. I was a kid when it came out but I can still remember all of the adults at the time feeling like they'd never seen anything like it. And I remember going into the multiplex dreading having to sit through a three-hour western and running into my sometimes-friend-sometimes-tormentor coming out, and him running over to me to rave about it, and he was right. I was transfixed throughout.

Goodfellas is better, I believe, with any sense of hindsight, but Dances with Wolves legitimately blew people away at the time (as did Forrest Gump) while connecting more greatly with the general population than just the cineastes. So that's something.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:11 PM on January 25, 2012 [6 favorites]

Rocky's a great film. If you haven't watched it in a while, do yourself a favor and check it out again. I can't think of a more influential sports movie. If it seems somewhat cliched today, it's because it's been imitated over and over since 1976, without ever being duplicated.

For Your Consideration
posted by IanMorr at 3:12 PM on January 25, 2012

I saw Hugo last night. It was shit. Sentimental, saccharine, too long, horribly dull, overly produced, melodramatic, woodenly acted, cutesy, glycerin tears and digital clock work total and absolute bull shit. I hated it. I hated it more that it was in 3d. i hated its masturbatory narcissism, and it's self indulgence. i hate scorese, but scorese being cute is just ugly. worst fucking movie of the year. (best movie of the year, and overlooked by the oscars margin call)
posted by PinkMoose at 3:12 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

I must be some sort of savant because I thought Tinker Tailor was pretty easy to follow (I had seen the original series... but it was years ago and I'd forgotten most of it)

But Dragon Tattoo had me 'what... hang on... who's that again? What's there relations to thingy?' multiple times... And I've seen the Swedish version. And read the book pretty recently

(Oh and if I was a betting man I'd weigh in heavily on Tinker getting the screenplay nod as I'm sure there will be a big sympathy vote, given one of the co-writers died.... or perhaps that's not widely known?)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:13 PM on January 25, 2012

So Hugo is up for a Visual Effect award on the basis of animating some cogs? Because cogs have to be the second most done to death animated thing in CG after reflective spheres on checkerboard planes.
posted by Artw at 3:16 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh, and Rocky III is the first movie I ever cried at. Even having seen it a thousand times and knowing what's coming it still gets me today. Fuck you Clubber Lang, I'll never forgive you!
posted by IanMorr at 3:17 PM on January 25, 2012

Dragon Tattoo seems to introduce a cast of about fifty Swedish millionaire hermits and then never come back to all but half a dozen of them, the actual plot being pretty straightforwards when you strip off the excess relatives.
posted by Artw at 3:18 PM on January 25, 2012

this Super-Bowl-for-non-sports-fans spectacle

In related news, it's been a very good week for the Mara family.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:18 PM on January 25, 2012

This had better win best picture next year...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:26 PM on January 25, 2012 [6 favorites]

Nah, it's gotta be Ghost Rider.
posted by Artw at 3:31 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

two of us, however, had a great laugh about it in bed later that night.

I would scrape that image out of my brain with a spoon.
posted by No Robots at 3:34 PM on January 25, 2012

fearfulsymmetry, I don't know if you're intentionally fucking with me or what, but in case I need to say it again:

Goddammit I HATE Space Hitler.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:36 PM on January 25, 2012

Love the top of the poster for The Artist (aka Pure Art):

"Guaranteed winner of every award"
posted by triggerfinger at 3:38 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh, and Rocky III is the first movie I ever cried at.

Transformers: The Movie. The animated one. Optimus Prime's death. Even at 8 years old I was sort of ashamed to be in tears about a robot cartoon movie, but dammit it wasn't fair and he was only trying to save us and Megatron and Starscream were SUCH DICKS.
posted by Hoopo at 3:42 PM on January 25, 2012 [10 favorites]

This had better win best picture next year...

I refute you thus. (Slightly NSFW.)
posted by kmz at 3:46 PM on January 25, 2012

Goddammit I HATE Space Hitler.

Don't we all!

I refute you thus. (Slightly NSFW.)

It's gonna be a nail-biter!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:52 PM on January 25, 2012

I am now totally sold on Iron Sky.

Also: Burgess Meredith was ripped off for best supporting actor in 1967 and then again in 1977.
posted by biffa at 4:00 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

everyone seems to consider Dances With Wolves an absolute travesty -- it is one of those pieces of received wisdom

Who receives this wisdom? "Everyone" under forty, I guess, who never saw it at the time of release on the big screen in an arthouse cinema packed with enthusiastic viewers who couldn't stop talking about it afterwards.

It was a time when Kevin Costner was known as the hot young actor from The Untouchables, No Way Out and Field of Dreams, and when nobody had made a successful Western in years; against that background, Dances With Wolves was a revelation. Dean Semler's cinematography was amazing, and so was John Barry's score; and it had a much better meeting-of-cultures story than Avatar (especially in the director's cut, which tempers the "noble savage" aspect). Don't judge it by the turkeys he made a few years later when he was rolling in cash and the adulation went to his head. Or even by other films it was up against - just because you don't think it was truly Best Picture doesn't make it a travesty.

And not that ratings are everything, but it has an 8.0 average from 92,000 users on IMDB. Who's this "everyone" again?

I suspect that most people who've seen either of these movies repeatedly have done so on a small screen, which takes nothing of consequence away from Goodfellas and everything away from Dances With Wolves, where the scope of the landscape is a major part of its impact.

Indeed.

Of the last thirty years of best films, I can only see maybe three that might deserve the award: No Country for Old Men, Unforgiven and Silence of the Lambs.

Amadeus, Platoon, The Last Emperor, Dances with Wolves and Schindler's List were all great.

(Sorry, I see now that some of this has been hashed out further down; that's the trouble with reading long threads from the top.)
posted by rory at 4:01 PM on January 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

Oscar Outrage®, Part XXI:

The Big Lebowski received exactly zero Oscar nominations.*

Equally as shocking, it won nothing.

----
* probably due to the fact it was not set during WWII or in Elizabethan England.
posted by mazola at 4:02 PM on January 25, 2012

probably due to the fact it was not set during WWII or in Elizabethan England.

REMAKE!
posted by sammyo at 4:05 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

I remember when Lebowski came out and it wasn't that big a deal... just another funny Cohen bros film. It was only later it became a big cult classic.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:06 PM on January 25, 2012

To be fair, The Big Lebowski is massively overrated.

Obligatory: That's just your opinion.
posted by sammyo at 4:06 PM on January 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

Nah, I'd say The Big Lebowski is exactly properly rated. It is revered among the cult of fans for whom it is precisely at their pitch, and mostly ignored by anyone else.

(I am one of those fans, but I can't imagine trying to get anyone who isn't on its wavelength to become a fan of it.)
posted by Navelgazer at 4:07 PM on January 25, 2012

Probably not a very fashionable opinion but Oliver! deserved to take out 2001... I've certainly watched and enjoyed it more times.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:09 PM on January 25, 2012

When The Big Lebowski came out it got a pretty lukewarm response from people wanting another Fargo. I felt like an oddball at the time, thinking it was better.
posted by rory at 4:09 PM on January 25, 2012

As with Oh Brother I think it got a much warmer reception in the UK, so when i hear about it only being a bit of a cult thing in the US I am always surprised.
posted by Artw at 4:11 PM on January 25, 2012

Appreciation of Rocky's greatness and/or importance has a LOT to do with whether you have any clear memories of the late seventies.
posted by jonmc at 4:12 PM on January 25, 2012

(I am one of those fans, but I can't imagine trying to get anyone who isn't on its wavelength to become a fan of it.)

Probably not, but if I was going to teach a screenwriting class, I'd put it right up there with Chinatown. It's such a weird shambling wreck on the screen that you only notice on repeated viewing and close read that there's basically not a single wasted line in Lebowski. Everything's either plot or gag. It's pure genius in its comic economy.
posted by gompa at 4:16 PM on January 25, 2012 [5 favorites]

Appreciation of Rocky's greatness and/or importance has a LOT to do with whether you have any clear memories of the late seventies.

Well I was born in 80 and I think Rocky is incredible. It's like a Ken Loach drama only with boxing and Sly and Carl Weathers and awesome music and a giant slab of meat. The series got ridiculous, but Rocky is a fantastic movie.
posted by nathancaswell at 4:23 PM on January 25, 2012 [4 favorites]

gompa: true, but even more notable than you can believe. The Coens were basically making it up as they went along, to hear them tell it. At an NYU even a decade or more ago, someone asked them why they never had the showdown between the gang and Jesus, and their response was simply that by that point they were sick of shooting in bowling alleys.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:25 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

i hear people say that lebowski didn't become a cult favorite until later - but i remember sitting in a theater in middle america with my brother. We, and most people in the theater (other late teens/early 20s people like ourselves), were losing our collective shit about how much we loved it.
posted by nadawi at 4:28 PM on January 25, 2012

In all seriousness, though, I am unreasonably excited about this.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:39 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

oooooooh.

Why the name change?
posted by Artw at 4:43 PM on January 25, 2012

Well I was born in 80 and I think Rocky is incredible.

I didn't say 'all' dude. But If you were around, it's appeal goes even deeper.
posted by jonmc at 4:44 PM on January 25, 2012

Cohen Brothers movies have this odd things where nine out of ten times they come out to modest success and lukewarm reviews, and then six years later it's a complete critical darling that everyone loves.

The other one time they just have hits. ( we do not speak of Ladykillers in this house )
posted by The Whelk at 4:45 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Artw, I have no idea, except that I'm guessing that Arrietty might work better for licensing.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:46 PM on January 25, 2012

Intolerable Cruelty?
posted by Artw at 4:46 PM on January 25, 2012

Shut your word hole.
posted by The Whelk at 4:47 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

The poster for The Help is hilarious because the first time I ever saw an ad on tv for this movie, the only thing I could thing is "This is the most condescending and racist fucking movie idea I've seen in a long, long time.

No kidding. And it's unfortunate because the book was okay. It's not hard to imagine, however, that the book was written with the expectation of it being turned into a movie. Hollywood seems to love that kind of crap.

I don't have anything against Viola Davis but I can't wait until the broadcast to see her face when the winner is announced and it isn't her. IMO, these kinds of movies should not be encouraged, even if they do give a lot of Black actresses work that they might not otherwise get. In the long run I think movies like this do more harm than good.

Shame is pretty good although the person quoted should be "Straight Men."

"...and Some Straight Women". Shame wasn't nominated for anything, was it?
posted by fuse theorem at 5:11 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

"Also: Drive was scorchingly good... "

Well...it was very interesting. Funny that we're talking about how many of Coen Bros films wear better than they appeared and it seems possible to me that Drive might be like that. It's very stylized in some interesting ways and the dialogue and acting choices are very odd in ways that I found fascinating. I was reminded a few times of House of Games with what seemed deliberate awkwardness. So, yeah, it might unveil some greatness upon repeated viewings and some marination.

But, for now, I'd put it more in the "interesting and slightly brave fluff" category.

That said, I think Albert Brooks should have been nominated for supporting actor. Maybe it wouldn't have been totally deserved because there's a big playing against typecast thing going on. But, whatever it is, it works very well. I've always deeply admired Brooks for the depth of his comic performances, but I wouldn't have—but should have—expected a deep well of terrifying menace available to him. But there it is.

I think Fargo was a perfect film; and perhaps for that reason I didn't enjoy Lebowski as much as I expected to when I first saw it. Don't misunderstand, I loved it and admired it for many reasons right away. But it has grown in my estimation in every subsequent viewing, becoming something far more exalted in my opinion than mine was when I first saw it. It is interesting in that way because I don't think this is unusual about this film.

Indeed, I was just thinking the other day about how much I like and respect Buscemi, but that the only truly distinct performance I've seen of his from all the others is in Lebowski. In contrast, Goodman was great and arguably only he could have played that role...but, still, Walter Sobchak is much more like Goodman's other characters than is the case with the other performances. Those other performances are representative of the sui generis perfection of that film in general.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 5:44 PM on January 25, 2012

Eight hours after this post, and the site is still not coming in.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 5:48 PM on January 25, 2012

but, still, Walter Sobchak is much more like Goodman's other characters than is the case with the other performances.

Have you ever seen footage of John Milius talking? The first time I did, knowing sort of vaguely that he was the inspiration for Walter Sobchak, my mind started screaming with laughter. It made me love Goodman in the role even more, and I'm not sure I can explain why.
posted by COBRA! at 5:50 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

A couple mefites and I went to a community theater production of Big Lebowski ("The Big L") last month that was surprisingly great. Helped that it was in a bar and I had a lot of white russians.

Site's working for me, and what it says about The Descendants: dead on. Very much a "I'm a capital-A Actorrrrr" for the Cloonster. Well-written, but still to me, depressing as all fuck.

Another vote for Captain America being really good and definitely worth your time.
posted by waraw at 6:07 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

No. Not everyone agrees. I like Kubrick well enough, but I think every single one of his movies is sadly flawed (with the exception of Paths of Glory--

Not everone agrees ;)

The International Communist Conspiracy must have sapped and impurified all of your precious bodily fluids.
posted by ersatz at 6:08 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

John Milius talking about how tough it is being a hollywood conservative.
posted by waraw at 6:10 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

SO many of these movies I have not seen. Like...all of them. Having a young child makes it hard to watch movies, something they don't put in those parenting books. I did see Rango, and I liked it very much; at the very least the gorgeous animation, but the grown-up quality of the script was a nice surprise. A friend of mine saw Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and he was frustrated with it. He said there were too many unresolved and undeveloped subplots, so the movie would've worked only if 1) the subplots were cut out entirely, or 2) the subplots were fleshed out fully, resulting in a 3 or 4-hour movie.
posted by zardoz at 6:25 PM on January 25, 2012

I am really still baffled at what the big deal about Hugo is. I saw it a few weeks ago and thought it was charming enough and well-made, but the story itself was just incredibly predictable. And it was kind of overly precious, which is something I don't mind sometimes, but which did absolutely nothing for me in Hugo. Is it the early film history stuff that has all the critics and awards voters in raptures? I like movies, but don't consider myself that into film, so perhaps I'm just missing the emotional connection there.

I am also totally baffled by Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close getting a nomination, because I have not heard anyone say they liked this movie. There were barely any critics who liked this movie. The very trailer for this movie made me kneejerk hate it with its blatant, terrible emotional manipulation and use of 9/11, and I am usually the kind of person who wants to be emotionally manipulated and can get all invested in trailers for the shittiest of movies.
posted by yasaman at 7:21 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh, and Rocky III is the first movie I ever cried at.

Ugh, as my family reminds me I cried when Bambi died. First movie in the theater (Age I think 4). I was too small to keep the folding seat down. I probably cried about that too.

Also, I cry at any movie I see on a plane. Everything. I think I cried seeing Just Go With It.
posted by sweetkid at 8:43 PM on January 25, 2012

Also, I cry at any movie I see on a plane. Everything.

I think it has something to do with the altitude. Seriously. It can't be a coincedence.
posted by nathancaswell at 9:41 PM on January 25, 2012

If you haven't seen The Artist, it's worth trying to see it in a theater with other people. It's fun to feel the crowd's reaction to it.

It's a charming movie - if you enjoy Gene Kelly, go see it. You don't need to know anything about silent film.
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:53 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

So, according to the linked video, Iron Sky, a movie about space nazis, is premiering in Berlin. Wouldn't that somewhat problematic given German laws that ban displays of Nazi symbols?
posted by Hello, I'm David McGahan at 9:53 PM on January 25, 2012

(that is, don't be put off if the posters suggest "this is super classy or high tone aaaahrt". It is a good time.)
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:54 PM on January 25, 2012

I've cried at epiisodes of 30 Rock on a plane, it's the stress and recycled air, you're breathing in everyone's collective agita.
posted by The Whelk at 9:54 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ugh, as my family reminds me I cried when Bambi died.

Um... I'm pretty sure Bambi doesn't die in Bambi, so I can only infer that your first moviegoing experience was this.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:55 PM on January 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

After this thread I am way more excited about seeing Iron Sky and the Studio Ghibli The Borrowers* than I am about all the best picture nominations. I mean I'll see some of them (NOT War Horse), but I just can't get excited about any of them.


*Like holy shit I did not know this was happening, and now I AM SO EXCITED. !!!
posted by grapesaresour at 10:06 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

"Um... I'm pretty sure Bambi doesn't die in Bambi, so I can only infer that your first moviegoing experience was this ."

I'm pretty sure sweetkid was thinking of when Bambi's mother was killed in Bambi, which is an infamously traumatic memory for many children.

But it would be way cooler if it were Bambi Meets Godzilla that sweetkid is remembering.

The Wikipedia entry on BMG says that Marv Newland (Mr. & Mrs. Newland, Producers) drew the cartoon in a room he was renting from Adriana Caselotti, the actress who played Snow White in Disney's film. I kinda wish he'd done Snow White Meets Godzilla instead. Like, the opening song, birds, cuteness...Godzilla.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:23 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

Bambi is such a strange movie.
posted by The Whelk at 10:35 PM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Doleful Creature: "Also: Drive was scorchingly good"

Oh, wow. I totally forgot that Drive and The Guard were from last year.

Both of those movies taught me valuable lessons:
Drive taught me that I am, in fact, not completely desensitized to movie violence.
The Guard taught me that I am capable of laughing at some extremely dark humor.
posted by schmod at 11:16 PM on January 25, 2012

After this thread I am way more excited about seeing Iron Sky and the Studio Ghibli The Borrowers* than I am about all the best picture nominations.

I saw The Borrowers and it is perfectly fine, if rather forgettable. It's actually a bit of an homage to Studio Ghibli's own classic My Neighbor Totoro: there's magic afoot in a bucolic country house, there's a sick person, and it's all as light an fluffy as cream puff. Just know it's a very simple film by Ghibili's standards--they usually have some dense and heady stuff like the amazing Princess Mononoke. But it's a perfectly charming, if minor film. With Miyazaki in (quasi? semi?) retirement, it'll be up to the next batch of animators to keep Ghibli afloat. Actually, it's Hayao's son (forget his name) who seems to be the new boss there. He's directed two films that were received with minimal enthusiasm, so...*shrug*
posted by zardoz at 11:54 PM on January 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

So, yeah, it might unveil some greatness upon repeated viewings and some marination.

I've only seen Drive twice so far, but the second time made it better, not worse. That elevator scene, the play of light and dark on Irene and the Driver are so perfectly done. And I love the way the film goes beyond "show, don't tell" to "assume, don't show": there are any number of moments where the film cuts away from what, if the camera remained, would be banal dialogue where Driver and Irene are making friends (for example); the director seems to be saying, "you know what goes here, you've seen other movies, let's not waste your time and insult your intelligence with insipid footage when you can fill in the blank."
posted by rodgerd at 1:04 AM on January 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Over here in the UK Radio One did an survey of it's listeners' fave films recently and I was a bit surprised to see Lebowski was in the top ten, given that R1 audience is basically kids (well 18-24). They also did a report from a Lebowski convention... so it's pretty much a cult. But a big cult.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:09 AM on January 26, 2012

Arrietty isn't out in English yet? It's two years old already! Now you know how we feel in Japan, getting everything at least half a year later. Anyway, don't get too excited; Arrietty is good but not great. (Hey, does that mean it might win an Oscar?)
posted by donkeymon at 5:25 AM on January 26, 2012

Man, getting back to this late.

Come again? You think Scorsese gave less thought to framing, lighting, composition and editing than Kevin Costner did?

Not at all - if anything, I'm saying the opposite; that Scorsese's work scales down, but Costner's just doesn't. When you don't have all that grandeur to look at, the flaws with DwW become that much more obvious.
posted by mhoye at 5:48 AM on January 26, 2012

So Arriety is like that Earthsea one everyone forgets exists?
posted by Artw at 6:54 AM on January 26, 2012

I've never seen a movie that explained as little as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy did

I'm thinking that's because the book has been out forever and the filmmakers kind of assumed that a large portion of the audience has read it.

I haven't read it, nor seen the series, but it was easy enough to follow. It was hardly an Inception style mess with your head structure (though that again was a film that was much simpler to understand for anyone who'd read, say, a novel with a nested story structure like Cloud Atlas than the press made out). It might have helped that I was British and so subconsciously aware of the world it was set in, mind. (Also I see now why people like Tom Hardy.)

Some of these films aren't out here yet - I remember the book of Extremely Loud... being quite touching at the time, but what I've seen of the film looks v.mawkish.
posted by mippy at 7:02 AM on January 26, 2012

"Um... I'm pretty sure Bambi doesn't die in Bambi, so I can only infer that your first moviegoing experience was this ."

I'm pretty sure sweetkid was thinking of when Bambi's mother was killed in Bambi, which is an infamously traumatic memory for many children.

But it would be way cooler if it were Bambi Meets Godzilla that sweetkid is remembering.


Haha, sorry, yes, I meant to say when Bambi's mother died. I won't click on that link though! Don't really need to see Bambi vs. Godzilla.
posted by sweetkid at 7:47 AM on January 26, 2012

I won't click on that link though! Don't really need to see Bambi vs. Godzilla.

Sure you do. It's 1 minute 30 of pure pleasure. Suitable for (older) kids, sweet or otherwise; I first saw it at age 11 on the Kenny Everett Show, and loved it.
posted by rory at 7:59 AM on January 26, 2012

Don't really need to see Bambi vs. Godzilla.

I strenuously disagree.

Also, that montage from Rocky IV made up of montages from Rocky's II and III? Best montage ever.
posted by cottoncandybeard at 7:59 AM on January 26, 2012 [3 favorites]

There's no easy way out.
posted by Artw at 8:02 AM on January 26, 2012

And it has a robot! Best film ever!
posted by Artw at 8:12 AM on January 26, 2012

"Dances With Wolves"? They should have called it Dances With Foxes!

Can anyone help me remember where this came from, and why it's stuck in my brain? Please?
posted by wenestvedt at 8:38 AM on January 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Tinker, Tailor was perfect, though, IMO, apart from Benedict Cumberbatch's awful natural hair colour. Please keep dyeing it dark brown for the rest of your life, Cumberbatch.

The only good thing about the best picture list is that Benedict 'perfect in every conceivable way' Cumberbatch is in two of them.
posted by Summer at 9:17 AM on January 26, 2012

And it has a robot! Best film ever!

Oh wow...I'd totally forgotten that... *sniff sniff sniff* "yeah, and put a robot in it, the kids love then!"

This, of course is the greatest line in the series, if not the whole of Hollywood history (I remember someone - Jonathan Ross? - did a great overview nee montage of the films and that line came up about every 30s)

I think a re-watch of the whole series will be coming in the near future (I don't I ever got around to watching Pensioner Rocky)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:07 AM on January 26, 2012

This, of course is the greatest line in the series

"...also, spinach!"
posted by Artw at 10:11 AM on January 26, 2012

I saw Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in a theater with my wife and some older couples. Man, the ass-rape scene was the most awkward I've ever felt watching anything. It was excruciating.

Mara Rooney owned that movie. I've never seen an actress become a character like she did. I know there's no chance in hell she's gonna win the Oscar, and yeah, who really cares, but at the same time, I think she deserves it.
posted by Fister Roboto at 1:56 PM on January 26, 2012

DRAGON TATTOO SPOILERS FOLLOW

(In case you haven;t seen or read it it in some form by now, you weirdo)

My wife recommend someone go see that movie after they'd broken up with their boyfriend and were moping around. "What", I said, "that sounds like a terrible idea!" - turns out it was actually a great idea, she really loved it. It's all about the tasering and revenge, setting that up and then executing it is key to the movies appeal. Certainly when we went to see it the second visit got applause. Also, contrary to what I thought, great breakup movie.

It's sort of weird thing about TGWTDT when considered in isolation form the rest of the books/films - the rape/revenge story is s the story everyone remembers, and it's actually isolated from the entire rest of the story, and it's resolved so very early on. There's echoes of it in the story about the hunting of the serial killer but it;s all rather remote and less immediate.
posted by Artw at 2:09 PM on January 26, 2012

Mara Rooney owned that movie. I've never seen an actress become a character like she did.

She plays Noomi Rapace brillaintly.
posted by Artw at 2:10 PM on January 26, 2012 [4 favorites]

"Dances With Wolves"? They should have called it Dances With Foxes!

- Wayne's World (iirc)
posted by Flashman at 2:22 PM on January 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Mara Rooney owned that movie. I've never seen an actress become a character like she did.

She plays Noomi Rapace brillaintly.

I haven't seen the movie but in a way I'm glad to hear this since I heard an interview with her over the radio the other day on a long drive. Apparently she was very insistent on playing the character in her own way and really got into it - piercing her, changing her weight and look etc
posted by infini at 9:34 PM on January 26, 2012

I haven't seen the movie but in a way I'm glad to hear this

infini, I think you missed the point of the second quote. Noomi Rapace isn't the name of the character; it's the name of the actress who played the character in the original film.
posted by tzikeh at 10:07 PM on January 26, 2012

er, too early in the morning, not enough coffee?
posted by infini at 10:27 PM on January 26, 2012

So, according to the linked video, Iron Sky, a movie about space nazis, is premiering in Berlin. Wouldn't that somewhat problematic given German laws that ban displays of Nazi symbols?

IIRC the law accounts for exceptions -- for historical/educational reasons and there might be an artistic proviso too considering all these Nazi-baddies films. The Thin Red Line got a Golden Bear for instance.

Arrietty isn't out in English yet? It's two years old already!

It was screened at some point at my local cinema.
posted by ersatz at 4:18 AM on January 27, 2012

Randy Newman was really snubbed this year.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:11 PM on January 27, 2012

Guillermo del Toro on pounding Pixar with “Kung Fu Panda 2″ and “Puss in Boots”
posted by Artw at 2:42 PM on January 27, 2012

Best (Not) Original Song? How The Academy Lost Touch With Movie Music
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:00 PM on January 27, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm a big fan of the nutso ineligible cover of Immigrant Song at the beginning of Tattoo. A bizarre mutant thing and something I'd instantly declare a bad idea, it shouldn't work, and yet it does!
posted by Artw at 4:16 PM on January 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yeah, the title sequence is about the best thing in the film... I actually found the music a little bit intrusive and out of place in the rest of the film (unlike Social Network where it's great)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:24 AM on January 28, 2012

Download scripts of award contenders
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:24 AM on January 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Man, I just saw Drive last night. It really shows the nomination list up as the hollow sham it is.
posted by Artw at 11:33 AM on February 2, 2012

IIRC the law accounts for exceptions -- for historical/educational reasons and there might be an artistic proviso too considering all these Nazi-baddies films. The Thin Red Line got a Golden Bear for instance.

Where there Nazis in The Thin Red Line?
posted by brundlefly at 12:58 PM on February 2, 2012