YOUR Best picture 2014?

[yovargas]

Did you see Still Alice? I just checked and it was never in more than 84 theaters. I doubt I could've seen it even if I had wanted to.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

No, I haven't seen it, but I don't go to many movies (although I did see, and like very much, Wild).

[JewelSong]

I should probably see "Wild" - I read the book and it was a good read, but I disliked the protagonist so much that I have hesitated to see the movie.

[yovargas]

Now that I have seen Whiplash, I have seen all the top contenders I expect to see. Here are my rankings of this year's Best Picture contenders:


Birdman - A+
American Sniper - A-
Selma - B+
The Imitation Game - B-
Whiplash - C-
Boyhood - D-


My irritation that Boyhood is going to win is quite high.......

[Primula Baggins]

So we did watch Grand Budapest Hotel last night, and we both thought it was delightful. Very weird, very artificial in a way (though a familiar way—stories set in fake European countries while war is breaking out and with decayed nobility among the characters have a decades-long history in film). Dreamlike sets, especially the hotel which we see in its glory and its decline, caught behind the Iron Curtain to wither and be stamped over with bureaucratic signs and hideous cheap furniture.

But I thought the dialogue was extraordinary. Not naturalistic at all by modern standards, but it could have been taken from a novel written a century ago . . . by a writer with a keen ear, a dry wit, and a humane heart.

I don't know if it actually is the best picture of the year; it's the only nominee I've even seen. But it belongs on the list.

(yov, my guess is, you'd hate it for some of the same reasons it will probably stick with me. I definitely see why it's gotten reactions like that. I just have weird tastes.)

[yovargas]

I'm very familiar with the director's style. I respect Wes Anderson for his strong vision and remarkably distinct style. But respect doesn't equal like - his movies drive me nuts! All that artifice and tweeness and it's all so mannered and ACK! Yeah.....I don't begrudge the man his fans but keep him away from me!

[Primula Baggins]

Yes, it's mannered, and I'm very glad that's it's only one way of making films. I actually do prefer a more natural style. But done that well, with complete conviction, and with good writing . . . I liked it a lot.

[Passdagas the Brown]

I like most Wes Anderson films myself, for many of the reasons Prim gives (though I also prefer naturalism). He's an auteur, with a strong personal style in a market that's saturated with focus-grouped films. But Grand Budapest felt like he was imitating himself. I suppose I'm just tired of the safe and comfortable artifice that he's settled into, and want to see him evolve.

[Primula Baggins]

Apparently it collected five Baftas yesterday . . . for what I would have predicted: original music, costumes, hair and makeup, production design, and original screenplay.

I haven't seen many Wes Anderson films; they end up moldering on our list of Films We're Really Going to See Real Soon Now, Boy Howdy. I think there are three lists on the fridge alone. In a year when I didn't even get to the Hobbit movie before it left theaters , we've basically watched almost nothing. Sometimes the dual-freelancer lifestyle has serious drawbacks. You slip into a mindset where any time you're not working, even on weekends, you are "slacking off."

[yovargas]

Don't make me come up there, tie you down, and force you to relax and have a bit of fun!

[Primula Baggins]

Oh, things should be better soon. We're going over to the coast next weekend, just us two. So there's hope.

But thanks.

[kzer_za]

Selma, followed closely by Birdman. But I've only seen four of them.

Boyhood was pretty good, but I can't help but feel that the critics are more in love with the way it was made than the movie itself. It kind of meanders around a lot, especially in the teen years. I do like the way it captured the pop culture of the 00s, though.

Hotel Budapest was my introduction to Wes Anderson and I didn't like it at all. I find that kind of super-self-conscious "look how clever I am" orientation insufferable (I don't like Amelie for the same reason). My friend who generally likes Wes Anderson but wasn't wild about Budapest told me I should see another one before writing him off, though.

[Beutlin]

Well, out of the 87th Academy Awards Best Picture nominees I have only seen Boyhood, so I guess my vote goes to Boyhood (sue me, yov! ). Personally, I thought it was (and that might sound strange) a nice little film that deteriorated in the last third. Some have argued that the film is nothing more than a gimmick, but so what? For the most time it works and I enjoyed it. Having said that, the last thirty minutes or so are pretty weak and I did not particularly care for the adult version of the main protagonist. I think Linklater failed to finish the film as he had started it.

My not-nominated favorite film of the year was “Calvary”. To be honest, I did not watch many films this year. I am one of those strange fellows who know tons of films (their directors, actors, and synopsis) but have only seen a fraction of them. Out of the other Best Picture nominees I would really like to see American Sniper and Whiplash. From what I have heard, I do not particularly care for Birdman, The Imitation Game or The Theory of Everything (that does not mean that I think those films are bad on their own terms). I thought the Selma trailer looked bad (as in Lifetime-bad) but often the trailer does not give its film a proper service and I might go and see it (whenever its released here).

Edited spelling mistake.

[yovargas]

*files suit against Beutlin*




I have about a thousand criticisms of Boyhood but even if you liked it more than me, I'm glad we can agree that the last third is the most problematic (criticism #725: he grows up to be such a terrible actor).


Also, I thought Selma's trailer looked lame too so was pleasantly surprised with how good it was.

[yovargas]

YAY BIRDMAN!!

[kzer_za]

I'm happy with it. Selma was my choice, but Birdman is a worthy winner and probably a more original movie.

*files suit against Beutlin*I have about a thousand criticisms of Boyhood but even if you liked it more than me, I'm glad we can agree that the last third is the most problematic (criticism #725: he grows up to be such a terrible actor).

As someone who moderately liked Boyhood but didn't think it lived up to the hype, I'd be curious to hear a few of them.

[yovargas]

Well, I did think almost all the acting asides from the mom and dad was dreadfully bad with the adult-ish Mason in particular giving possibly the worst performance I've ever seen in a major film. You can sort of excuse Mason since they were stuck with him but why were so many of the other actors sooo bad?? Ugh.

Visually, it looked about as artful as an ABC family drama. That stuck with me a lot throughout the movie, how much it looks like some network TV show. Not what I expect from a film hailed as a new cinematic masterpiece.

IMO, much of the writing, specially later on, was very clunky or awkward or heavy-handed. There were tons of examples but of course the one that sticks out the most is the final line and its laaaame attempt at profundity: "Maybe it's not you that seizes the moment, it's the moment that seizes you." Ugh. Maybe that'd be a nice bumper sticker but that shouldn't be winning any awards...

But most of all, above everything else, is that for most of its run time, the movie gives you almost no knowledge of who Mason is as a person. If I were to pause the movie at the 2ish hour mark and ask an audience to describe Mason, it'd be impossible. Before he turns into a mopey teen in the final third, I know next to nothing about his opinions, interests, character, attitudes, or anything. It's like the movie is uninterested in its own protagonist!

Possibly the most egregious example of this for me is a scene where some older boys ask him if he's ever had sex and he says "Yes, I had sex with a girl named Jessica." Did he have sex with a girl named Jessica or is he lying? I have no idea! Is he the kind of boy who would lie about that or would I expect him to be honest? I have no idea! That scene takes place probably two hours into the movie and you realize that someone its protagonist is still a total stranger. I am genuinely baffled by how anyone managed to feel any kind of connection with him at all when the movie leaves his entire character a near-total blank space! It shows us things happening to a boy without ever really showing us the boy.

Until suddenly when he's a teen - No pesky character development, just *snap* at some point (too) late in the movie they decide to give Mason a personality and they pick "mopy, artsy, and aloof" out of a hat. Even putting aside how unpleasant I found him personally and how bad of an actor he is, that the movie completely and utterly fails at showing us how he became that mopy, artsy, and aloof semi-adult is, as I see it, a total failure of the entire basic point of the whole thing.

(I could go on but this is already twice as long as I intended it to be. )