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Post by Jeremy on Feb 25, 2019 21:25:15 GMT -8
What? I liked this much more than the other events. I think Editing et al deserve to be in the main show, and that the host is just there to deliver a lame late-night opening monologue that the ceremony could skip with no loss. If they're serious about saving time, they should get rid of the presenters recapping each Best Picture - this isn't the Tonys, there's no reason to haul out Queen Latifah et al just to show a trailer for each of the eight movies we're already going to see twelve clips from this evening. I would much prefer a lame opening monologue over a super-lame Queen intro. (For a minute there, I thought the ceremony was going to go the Rob Lowe/Snow White route, but it thankfully didn't last long.) True, the host usually becomes kind of a dead weight after that. but a good opening is important if you want to set a compelling tone. Agreed about the Best Picture recaps, though - those should be cut. They're not even all that entertaining as trailers. And I'm glad they kept the secondary categories in, if only because we got to see Mindy O'Dell's onstage reaction. And yes, J.C., I cheered quite loudly at the Spider-Verse win. And all the Black Panther wins. I was quite the Marvel fanboy last night.
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Post by Jay on Feb 25, 2019 22:36:10 GMT -8
As I observed to a friend, this year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Driving Miss Daisy, which went on to win Best Picture. If there's anything the Academy loves, it's solving racism while driving around in cars (and as another friend quipped, this is probably the only way we can explain Crash)
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Post by Jeremy on Feb 26, 2019 7:14:08 GMT -8
I dunno about that - I don't see too many cars in the upcoming White Savior.
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Post by guttersnipe on Feb 26, 2019 15:46:09 GMT -8
Does “big, loud crowd-pleaser” really sound like Oscar material? Golden Globes, maybe, but HFPA and the Academy are often on wildly different pages. My theory is that after the push (and subsequent pushback) over the Best Popular Picture category, a lot of Academy members are making a more conscious effort to give more attention to popular films, which explains how both Bohemian Rhapsody and Black Panther got nominated. Yeah, I'd say so. I mean, "loud" may be a variable, but there's Dances with Wolves,Titanic, The Greatest Show on Earth, Braveheart, Rocky, Ben-Hur, Gladiator, The Sound of Music, Chariots of Fire, Forrest Gump, The English Patient, Gone with the Wind, Around the World in 80 Days, etc. The main guy is usually fighting Injustice and Prejudice instead of asteroids or a massive robot and the dramatic beats are usually weightier (usually because it's Serious and Historical as opposed to sci-fi or spy games or a tongue-in-cheek heist), but the Best Pictures are often just the flipside of the summer blockbuster.
As I observed to a friend, this year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Driving Miss Daisy, which went on to win Best Picture. If there's anything the Academy loves, it's solving racism while driving around in cars (and as another friend quipped, this is probably the only way we can explain Crash) I haven't watched the ceremonies for about seven years now, but in the morning after I did catch a bit of footage of Spike Lee hoovering up all the attention by a) dressing like a pimp, and b) refusing to be drawn by the BBC's journalists on how he really felt about Green Book. I especially liked how he said that even though he lost again to "Driving Miss Daisy with the seats the other way 'round", at least this time he was nominated. His claim that the Academy's made some progress seemed like it was easier for Oscar to accept black people in general than it was for them to accept him.
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Post by guttersnipe on Feb 26, 2019 15:54:23 GMT -8
Incidentally, I've just started a new job at the local arts centre where I've been attending film screenings since 2004, and if I was ever in doubt that folks are swayed by the Oscars, our first run of The Favourite barely made a stir until it generated some nominations, whereupon the public started buying up seats like waterproofs in a monsoon. We sent out our new brochure yesterday (the morning after the awards and Colman's win), and its 'victory lap' screenings sold out by 5PM.
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Post by Jeremy on Feb 26, 2019 16:27:13 GMT -8
Yeah, I'd say so. I mean, "loud" may be a variable, but there's Dances with Wolves,Titanic, The Greatest Show on Earth, Braveheart, Rocky, Ben-Hur, Gladiator, The Sound of Music, Chariots of Fire, Forrest Gump, The English Patient, Gone with the Wind, Around the World in 80 Days, etc. The main guy is usually fighting Injustice and Prejudice instead of asteroids or a massive robot and the dramatic beats are usually weightier (usually because it's Serious and Historical as opposed to sci-fi or spy games or a tongue-in-cheek heist), but the Best Pictures are often just the flipside of the summer blockbuster. I'd say there's a big tonal gulf (not to mention level of critical love) between many of those films and Bohemian Rhapsody, which even many of its ardent fans will admit is better viewed as a "Greatest Hits" piece than as a quality piece of work. Granted, it didn't win Best Picture, but it did somehow snag Best Editing - the same award that went to Dunkirk last year. (Seriously, observe the editing in Dunkirk, and then the editing in Bohemian Rhapsody, and then despair over how far we've fallen so quickly.)
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Post by guttersnipe on Feb 26, 2019 17:08:36 GMT -8
Eh, I'm really not seeing much difference in intention and result, and (as with all other films) I had no idea until just now what its critical consensus amounted to. As for my perspective, I found myself enjoying it way more than expected given that I mainly watched it out of a kind of (oft-tested) loyalty to Singer even though he doesn't even seem to be able to get an X-Men picture right these days (and this is the guy who put the superhero movie back on the map after Batman & Robin had practically driven it into the ground). I don't need a film to reinvent the wheel provided that its familiar elements are strong, and on that basis I felt Bohemian Rhapsody not only delivered but endeared, to the point where I beamed with the rest of audience at Freddy sticking it to Ray "The Man" Foster (and I'm not much into Queen). And whilst its editing is hardly the equivalent of Dunkirk's, I was very fond of how the the farmhouse rehearsal scenes were assembled and really dug the montage of authentic headlines. Altogether, I don't really accept the term 'guilty pleasure' but I suspect that this is a new one of mine. As for the rest of the awards, I typically see few of the nominees at the time of the ceremony and this year is no exception, but I hope Roma's cinematography is incredible if I'm to be believe it's better than that of Cold War.
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Post by Jeremy on Feb 26, 2019 17:16:57 GMT -8
Oh, I may not have loved Roma, but its cinematography is pretty incredible. Haven't seen Cold War yet, but I'll be able to compare/contrast it once it shows up on Amazon.
Incidentally, I think Roma would probably have won Best Picture had it been given a proper theatrical release. Streaming it on Netflix probably didn't allow Academy members to have the "immersive experience" Cuaron wanted. And of course, the fact that so many Academy members hate Netflix didn't exactly help its chances.
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Post by Jay on Feb 27, 2019 15:57:04 GMT -8
I uh... made that quip about prior Best Pictures without seeing Spike Lee's commentary but if we're on the same page for quips, that's cool, I guess?
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Post by guttersnipe on Mar 4, 2019 13:36:23 GMT -8
I should imagine it was foremost in many people's minds; it's what I figured when I first heard of it from those annoying IMDb sidebars.
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 23, 2021 13:15:24 GMT -8
It's that time of year again! Though it's understandable if some of you forgot. Here are my predictions for Sunday's Academy Awards. (Such as the obvious prediction that no one will watch.)
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Post by ThirdMan on Apr 23, 2021 15:41:47 GMT -8
Jeremy, the television landscape has changed. People consume a lot of these programs via YouTube and other streaming services. By today's standards, 23.6 million viewers is a lot. Heck, these days, a "hit" show is often one that only has, like, nine million viewers a week.
Obviously this year's Oscars will be the least-watched, because very few films got a wide theatrical release, given the pandemic. But people still do pay attention to these things, via whatever distribution service they choose. It's not the same as sports, which are far and away most palatable in a live context: people can portion out watching these awards show segments at their leisure.
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 24, 2021 17:59:34 GMT -8
I am well aware that the TV landscape has changed, but that doesn't explain how the Oscars lost 20% of their viewership between 2019 and 2020. And while a few clips from the ceremony go viral on the Internet every year, that doesn't carry the ratings weight as getting viewers to sit down and watch the show.
I'm not trying to spread unfounded doom-and-gloom here. The Oscars are in serious trouble, and they know it. The ratings for tomorrow night's ceremony are expected to be dismal. Most people - including many film fans - have not watched the Best Picture nominees, and hardly even know what they are. Between the lack of buzzy nominees and the lack of a buzzy host, there isn't much reason for folks to tune in.
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Post by ThirdMan on Apr 24, 2021 19:27:30 GMT -8
Well, whatever the ratings end up being for this year's broadcast (if there's a 50% drop, or whatnot) are mostly due to circumstances beyond their control.
Regardless, my point stands: over 20 million viewers are still a lot of eyeballs by today's television standards, as would be 12 million viewers. And they aren't gonna stop producing or airing the broadcast even if it only draws ten million viewers, because it's a once-a-year broadcast, and that's still more than most TV shows draw.
And even if they suddenly stopped producing and airing the show, all that really means is that awards shows aren't palatable to modern, live-TV audiences. And that, obviously, some viewers will turn away when some celebrities espouse a social or political view that the viewer doesn't subscribe to. Oh well, oh well.
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Post by guttersnipe on Apr 25, 2021 6:16:31 GMT -8
Most people - including many film fans - have not watched the Best Picture nominees, and hardly even know what they are. This isn't unusual for me every Oscar season, but I've only seen two of the nominees full-stop. But speaking as someone who by dint of location gets American cinema regularly late, don't the pictures gain box-office weight retroactively? I don't really pay much attention to the business side of things (numbers bore me if I haven't any skin in the game; I'd never make an accountant), but I've seen many an occasion here where a hitherto-no namer suddenly warrants repeat screenings post-season because of the excitement in the interim.* That doesn't help the ceremony itself tonight, but hey, as George C. Scott said, that's just a meat parade. * The slightly snotty part of me got a bit annoyed when The Artist snowballed post-awards attention, rather wishing they'd go the whole hog and watch Show People instead. But that's just me.
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