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Post by Jeremy on Mar 22, 2022 7:38:10 GMT -8
Yeah, it's a pretty good lineup overall. Nice to see the Academy lighten up after last year's parade of dramatic downers (not that they had as much to choose from then). This year has a good mix of moody dramas, light comedies, and includes a non-English film, a musical, and a sci-fi flick.
And some actual suspense about who will take the top prize, since The Power of the Dog's momentum has slowed and CODA has picked up speed. Would be unusual for a film with only three nominations total to take Best Picture, and Dog probably still has the edge, but we've seen some pretty wild upsets over the years.
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Post by ThirdMan on Mar 22, 2022 11:36:53 GMT -8
Watch Belfast get a bunch of second- and third-place votes and win the damn thing.
Actors make up a fair number of the voters in the Academy as well. Mind you, they might just vote for the Campion film.
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Post by Jeremy on Mar 22, 2022 19:13:38 GMT -8
Watch Belfast get a bunch of second- and third-place votes and win the damn thing. I actually think that's how CODA won the PGA award. The Producers' Guild uses a ranked-choice system and it's a more broadly appealing film than Power of the Dog (especially for Oscar voters looking for a more positive pick after last year's dour Nomadland). It probably will get a lot of #2 and #3 spots on the Oscar ballots, which could be enough for a win. I think Campion is still the favorite for the Best Director award, although the online backlash to her speech (actually, just one line of the speech) at the Critics' Choice Awards may have dented her momentum.
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Post by ThirdMan on Mar 22, 2022 19:19:17 GMT -8
Was the line related to Sam Elliot? Or was that a backstage interview after she won the award?
(And yes, I would say she'll almost certainly win Best Director, even if her movie doesn't win Best Picture.)
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Post by Jeremy on Mar 22, 2022 19:35:07 GMT -8
No, the line was in middle of her acceptance speech, directed at Serena and Venus Williams ("You’re such marvels. However, you don't play against the guys like I do"). She said it in middle of a mostly complimentary speech praising the hardworking women in Hollywood, but naturally social media plucked the one sentence out and admonished Campion for it (since it sounded like she was dismissing the hardships that the Williams sisters have faced over the years). It trended on Twitter, she apologized, you know the drill.
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Post by ThirdMan on Mar 22, 2022 20:00:48 GMT -8
No, the line was in middle of her acceptance speech, directed at Serena and Venus Williams ("You’re such marvels. However, you don't play against the guys like I do"). She said it in middle of a mostly complimentary speech praising the hardworking women in Hollywood, but naturally social media plucked the one sentence out and admonished Campion for it (since it sounded like she was dismissing the hardships that the Williams sisters have faced over the years). It trended on Twitter, she apologized, you know the drill. Oh, OK, yeah, I remember that. The comment was probably a bit harsh (I'm sure Serena Williams would be glad to play against some men -- she certainly practices against them -- were she permitted), but context is certainly always key.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Mar 23, 2022 14:27:24 GMT -8
I did see ONE of the contenders this year (nu-West Side Story), which puts me above 90% of the filmgoing public.
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Post by ThirdMan on Mar 23, 2022 14:43:53 GMT -8
I'd say it puts you at about equal, Quiara, as quite a few folks saw Dune. One apiece! Anyways, Jeremy, given your fondness for Pig, you'd might as well check out Nic Cage's new film, whenever it's available to you. It's called The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, and Cage is playing a fictionalized version of himself. Much hilarity will ensue.
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Post by Jeremy on Mar 23, 2022 19:42:19 GMT -8
Yeah, despite my intense phobia of films with double-digit-syllable titles, I will probably check it out. On the Cage scale, it sounds like it'll be closer to Pig than Willy's Wonderland.
Quiara, did you click with West Side Story? I know we discussed the potential of the remake a ways back (pre-pandemic, before it got postponed a full year) and if I recall, you sounded skeptical that Spielberg could pull it off.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Mar 24, 2022 12:31:49 GMT -8
Yeah, despite my intense phobia of films with double-digit-syllable titles, I will probably check it out. On the Cage scale, it sounds like it'll be closer to Pig than Willy's Wonderland. Quiara, did you click with West Side Story? I know we discussed the potential of the remake a ways back (pre-pandemic, before it got postponed a full year) and if I recall, you sounded skeptical that Spielberg could pull it off. I mostly liked it. The Robert Wise WSS was really good because it had a ~*~*magic*~*~ to it that made it beside the point that the film wasn't grounded in reality at all, so I was pretty worried when the film looked like it was going to aim for realism and POLITICAL RELEVANCE. I was particularly cynical coming off of Ivo Van Hove's Broadway revival of WSS which was very in-your-face about that sort of thing in ways that were mostly laughable. My fears were mostly unfounded - there were very few moments where it felt like the film was winking towards the camera with the political commentary, mostly at the very start of the film with the Jets singing about keeping control of their turf while they're, oho, standing on top of a pile of rubble.
But mostly the realism here works, particularly with characters who are mostly ciphers in the original film. A lot of people seemed to go out of their way to talk about how bad Ansel Elgort is in this film, which was clearly motivated not by the quality of his performance (straight upgrade over Richard Beymer) but by the sexual misconduct allegations against Elgort himself (which are legit but like... he's a 20-year-old who sent a dick pic, not Kevin Spacey)... anyway, I totally bought Tony's angst here. Rachel Zegler and Ariana Debose are both awesome here, duh, and they feel more like characters than vessels for arguably the greatest musical theater score ever. David Alvarez is *also* phenomenal here as Bernardo and I can only chalk him not getting any attention for this role to George Chakiris not being around for the press tour. Weirdly the character who gets the greatest upgrade in this film is CHINO!!! CHINO!!! who goes from nebbish dork to killer in a way that's fittingly tragic and totally believable. The tomboy character from the original film is now fairly explicitly transgender which... actually mostly works, except for his arc culminating in a "trans men are men" moment of acceptance from the Jets which would be nice if it didn't happen literally right before they attempt a gang rape?
But yeah, the musical numbers here are all brilliant - in particular the handling of "I Feel Pretty" which could have been pretty whiplash-inducing (or overly sentimental) if played straight or way too blunt in its irony if you went that route, is basically perfect - and Spielberg's direction is great. I definitely think this is a "legacyquel" rather than its own thing, but it's a really really good legacyquel.
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Post by ThirdMan on Mar 24, 2022 12:43:27 GMT -8
It's a real shame that the film didn't perform better commercially, as it's really well-made. Apparently it had a $100 million production budget, likely spent at least $50 million on advertising, and it only made ~$75 million worldwide. Anyways, I thought Elgort was fine in the film as well, and any shortcomings in his character simply relate to the supporting characters often getting the "juicier" material, as they don't want to take too many risks with the personalities of the leads (thus Ariana DeBose, who's very good, getting most of the attention).
Rachel Zegler's YouTube channel is also pretty amusing, in that's she's nothing like her WSS character (she's got quite the potty-mouth, for one).
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Post by Jeremy on Mar 24, 2022 19:57:49 GMT -8
Richard Beymer was the weakest actor in the original film, so... I guess it makes sense that Elgort would be the weakest actor in the remake? It's not like Tony is a particularly deep character; Maria gets some raw dramatic material to work with in both films, but Tony has always been a cipher, far less interesting than the movie built around him.
Chino's character is indeed the biggest upgrade over the original film, and I was impressed by how much depth he was given to a character who isn't remembered much outside of the story's finale. Impressive work from Josh Andrés Rivera, in what is apparently his very first acting role. Also of note is the film's decision not to use subtitles to translate the Spanish dialogue, which manage to communicate more than it would have if all was spelled out.
The "America" number is one of the most dynamic sequences I've seen onscreen all year, and it's just one of many memorable musical moments in the film. ("I Feel Pretty" is quite good, though it may have worked better had it not been slotted directly after a brutal death scene.) There were a fair number of good musicals last year - In the Heights; Tick, Tick... Boom!; Encanto - but WSS was easily my favorite, in great part because of how strikingly its musical numbers were executed.
I'm not too surprised that it financially fizzled - it's a film aimed at older audiences, released during the Omicron surge, and right before Spider-Man swung into theaters. It may get some juice on the streaming service after DeBose's (seemingly inevitable) Oscar win, but I expect this will be the last $100 million musical we'll get for a while.
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Post by ThirdMan on Mar 24, 2022 20:07:32 GMT -8
("I Feel Pretty" is quite good, though it may have worked better had it not been slotted directly after a brutal death scene.) There were a fair number of good musicals last year - In the Heights; Tick, Tick... Boom!; Encanto - but WSS was easily my favorite, in great part because of how strikingly its musical numbers were executed. I'm not too surprised that it financially fizzled - it's a film aimed at older audiences, released during the Omicron surge, and right before Spider-Man swung into theaters. It may get some juice on the streaming service after DeBose's (seemingly inevitable) Oscar win, but I expect this will be the last $100 million musical we'll get for a while. You can say that again, w/r/t "I Feel Pretty". LOL. Yeah, I generally like all four of those musicals, though "We Don't Talk About Bruno" is really the only truly memorable song in Encanto. So naturally the producers of the film submitted a different song for the Oscars, thereby nearly ensuring that Billy Eilish wins for her Bond theme. And yes, it's gonna be tough for any reasonably-budgeted films aimed at older audiences to make much bank in theaters while Covid's still a major concern. It's probably not going to turn any actual profit regardless of how it performs on other media, though. Oh well, it's not like they need to get a greenlight for a sequel or anything, but as you said, future musicals will definitely have to keep their budgets in check.
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Post by Jeremy on Mar 25, 2022 9:41:59 GMT -8
My guess about the timing of the "I Feel Pretty" number (which Spielberg originally wanted to cut out of the film entirely) is that it was influenced by the fact that setting the scene at night would allow them to use the rhyming lyric with the word "bright" (like in the original play) instead of "gay," since some viewers may have found the outdated use of "gay" to be offensive. This may sound like wild speculation on my part, but considering that West Side Story is the first big-budget Hollywood film to prominently cast a nonbinary actor who uses zie/hir pronouns and has a name consisting entirely of lowercase letters, I don't think it's that much of a stretch. I sort of get why Disney chose to submit "Dos Oruguitas" as their Oscar song - it's the least memorable song in Encanto, but it's a bit more highbrow than the other songs in the film, and they expect it would appeal to Oscar voters more, even if it will probably still lose to No Time to Die. "Bruno" is incredibly catchy, but it's also more of a minor-key midtempo that doesn't have the same feel as Disney's other top hits. (And I actually slightly prefer "Surface Pressure," both as a song and a musical number within the film.) Anyway, the important thing to note is that the most memorable musical number in 2021 cinema was this.
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Post by ThirdMan on Mar 25, 2022 11:26:02 GMT -8
Anyway, the important thing to note is that the most memorable musical number in 2021 cinema was this. Heh. Continuing the theme of that being the most ubiquitous rock-riff of the 21st Century. Much of Jack White's other work is far more eccentric, diverse, and interesting to me (going to his Vancouver concert in June), but that simple melody has proven most infectious with the culture-at-large. It becoming a soccer chant during the World Cup many years ago really shot it into the stratosphere.
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