Friday, February 20, 2015
WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT SNUFFLEUPAGUS: Sesame Street presents Big Bird Man. (FWIW, having seen all eight nominated films? Boyhood>Selma>Whiplash>>>>Grand Budapest Hotel>Birdman>>>>Imitation Game>American Sniper>Theory of Everything, and I'd gladly substitute Wild or Gone Girl for ones in the bottom 3.)
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And then there's the best movie of 2015 for me, Under The Skin, which besides everything else it should have been nominated for had a score by Micah Levi that was completely hosed in the nominations.
ReplyDeleteSeen five of the eight (missing Selma, Whiplash, and Sniper) and agree with your rankings. Boyhood has to win, right? Please, Academy. I'd sub in Guardians and the Lego Movie in the list of nominees (it was expanded so more commercial films would be in the mix).
ReplyDeleteNot having seen Selma or Sniper, I gnereally agree with your tiers, though I'd put Whiplash in the middle tier with Grand Budapest and Birdman. (Of those, Grand Budapest was by far my favorite, or maybe I just haven't been feeling crazy jazz drums so much)
ReplyDeleteSo Whiplash wasn't quite your tempo?
ReplyDelete(And for what it's worth, my tiers are "top-notch," "Interesting artistic experiment that didn't work for me," and "well-made, but ultimately cookie-cutter." All of the 8 nominees have decent qualities--I found Budapest overly twee and indulgent of Anderson's worst impulses, but you can't deny the production/costume design.)
Using your tiers, I'd rank:
ReplyDeleteBoyhood, Birdman, Grand Budapest Hotel
Selma, Whiplash
The others.
And yes to substituting Gone Girl or Wild, either of which beats Whiplash for me.
I haven't seen Sniper or Budapest, but I'm glad to know I am continuing my mission as a Liker of Things People Hate. I would love to see Hollywood embrace more genuinely entertaining movies, rather than creating dull films that feature tremendous performances. If, after an hour, you think to yourself how amazing the lead is, but you have no idea what's happening in the movie, that should indicate a problem.
ReplyDeleteAre you talking about Birdman specifically? Because that was pretty much my exact reaction.
ReplyDeleteNo, I was pretty much on board with Birdman. I was more thinking of Theory of Everything, Foxcatcher, Mr. Turner, etc. Movies with excellent performances that are too dull to pay attention to, so you (I) have trouble following them.
ReplyDelete