92nd Annaul Academy Awards (nominations)

I've seen four of the ten

Don't Look Up
Dune
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog

Out of those, "Don't Look Up" is without question my favorite of the bunch. The only other film I'm excitied about watching it "Licorice Pizza", everything else is kind of just meh in terms of my interest level.

 

None of the nominated movies are going to spike viewership. I wouldn't be surprised if last year's ratings debacle is equaled. Maybe an actual host will help, or not taking place inside a train station with the sun blaring through every window. Maybe nothing will help. Maybe the allure of Hollywood is dead. Certainly nominating 10 movies with a low combined box office isn't going to improve matters.

I'll watch every Best Picture nom, but I'm off to a rough start. Belfast is NOT my cup of tea. What a smug bore.

Just watched CODA. I was stunned by how good it is. It's funny and emotional AF.

I enjoyed Don't Look Up. It's not as funny as it thinks it is, but it says a lot about modern politics that's actually pretty scary.

Drive My Car is decent, but holy f--k is it long. Reading a movie for three hours felt like six by the time it finally ended. Has some great scenes, but crawls.

Dune is long, ugly, and pointless.

King Richard is okay. Will Smith is pretty good, but his performance reminds me of Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems; he can get irritating in a hurry.

Licorice Pizza mostly stinks. It's so proud of how quirky it is that it forgets to include a plot. There's virtually no conflict.

Nightmare Alley starts great, gets dull as hell, then ends predictably. I'll never watch it again.

The Power of the Dog is about as dreary a movie can get, and it's instantly forgettable.

West Side Story is a purposeless waste of time, money, and resources.

 

What I've seen:

Belfast - This was a fair one-time watch, but not something that left a huge impression. As I mentioned already, the highlight is the big musical number near the end of the movie.

CODA - I thought this was a really lovely and moving crowd-pleaser. It's basically Running On Empty with a hearing teenager in a deaf family. I watched it last August when it premiered on AppleTV and thought it was a great little streaming gem, but I really haven't seen much chatter about it so I'm a little surprised it got a Best Picture nomination. My personal favorite of the bunch.

Don't Look Up - This movie is fun and frighteningly on-point, but if it wasn't littered with awards darlings like Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, etc I doubt it'd be here. I'm not complaining.

King Richard - I only watched this because it was on HBOMax and ended up liking it more than I expected. For the most part, it operates well as a mainstream crowd-pleaser. That said, if you've seen The Pursuit Of Happyness, Seven Pounds, or any other Will Smith vehicle with him trying to win an award, this is the same old same old.

Nightmare Alley - My reaction to this was pretty much identical to Paff's, and I wasn't crazy about the original either. Honestly, the big draw for me here was that

Spoiler

I wanted to see Bradley Cooper bite the head off a chicken

and in that regard it failed to deliver.

The Power Of The Dog - This is one of those movies where I did not enjoy it at all while it was on, in fact I found it a bit tedious at times, but the ending leaves you thinking about it and I perhaps appreciated it more upon reflection. Still, I would never take the time to ever watch it again.

I've also seen various other nominees like tick tick... BOOM!, Spencer, Being The Ricardos, The Lost Daughter, The Eyes Of Tammy Faye, and meh to all of the above although tick tick was the best of those.


I don't think we did the formal top 10 lists here for 2021, but my personal favorites from last year that weren't so awards season masterbatory were Last Night In Soho, Titane, Zola, Shiva Baby, and The Night House. Also, Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar and Everybody's Talking About Jamie were just plain fun, and 2021 needed fun.

 

You just described every Jane Campion movie I've ever seen.

 

I don't watch many new movies when they come out but Shiva Baby was some kind of masterpiece. Completely hilarious with fantastic writing and performances.

 

I only saw Power of The Dog. Watched it around Christmas.

It was pretty good, I sensed it back then, it could possibly be nominated for something.

 

My wife and daughter plan to watch them all leading up to the awards. I said I'll join them for Dune, Nightmare Alley, and West Side Story. The 2 remakes solely out of curiosity.

So far I've watched Nightmare Alley, and it was a bore. Beautiful production design, but completely lacking the atmosphere and emotional weight of the original. Why remake a noir and remove everything about it that makes it a noir? I liked del Torro a lot more before he started taking himself so seriously.

 

And to think, at one point in last nights show I thought the most controversial thing was going to be what a shitty job they did on We Don't Talk About Bruno...

 

WOW, best moment of the Oscars ever!

What was the problem? Will Smith is clearly laughing at the joke what set him off?

 

He probably didn't notice that Jada got annoyed by the joke, and when he did, he stopped laughing, and went up there to "defend her honor".
I also saw Will's speech afterwards, and what a fucking tool he is. Yes, poor him. Another rich asshole, with their Hollywood problems.

Chris took it as a champ though.

 

Will go down in history as the last ever time that testosterone was involved in the oscars.

 

The most interesting part of that incident. It that you can clearly see(after Will said what he said the second time) Chris Rock was ready to say something back, then he checked himself. I figure he wanted to just end it.

We all know he could have destroyed him with a comeback. Let's just say it would involved something like......Oh but other men could put their **** in your wife's mouth.

 

What a world we live in, when physical violence is accepted and awards given afterwards.

But provide an opinion that certain types don't like and your banished forever. Lower than murders and sex offenders. Weird, weird times.

 

I'm seeing a lot of this around: https://www.joe.co.uk/entertainment...ails-proving-will-smiths-slap-was-fake-325866

I also honestly felt like the entire thing seemed like it was obviously planned and scripted. It just looked like an anticipated "stunt slap" when I watched it the first time, and even more when I watched it again.

 

Poorly planned and scripted at that.

Will Smith's reaction would have made more sense if there hadn't just been a cut-away showing him clearly laughing at the joke.

In Chris Rock's case, if you make an off-color joke about someone's wife and they make that approach to the stage for a confrontation... you'd think he'd at least have the sense to pull his arms out from behind his back.

No security involvement, whatsoever.

 

So the same organization that couldn't even manage to put the right name in the final envelope a few years ago is now capable of orchestrating an elaborate con on live television? Involving levels of acting chops that Smith (not to mention Rock) have been withholding thus far? Nonsense.

 

Will hit Chris because Jada was gonna hit Will later that night. I'm so disappointed in Will for acting a fool like that and let that ruin that win.

 

I'm holding out slim hope this was a Kaufman and Lawler act. Not holding my breath on it.

As for Smith and his family, I've long considered them to be performers, not actors, and over rated at that. But the talent level they have is grossly dwarfed by repulsive levels of ego and entitlement. This isn't the first time I've reacted to Will Smith's behavior with disgust, just the latest and only possibly the worst.

And I'll say it again. Even dead, William Smith could still kick Will Smith's ass.