This is the thread where we discuss matters pertaining to the detrius that accompanies the "End of the Year in Cinema" -- 2022

Watched the Navalny doc in HBO today—worth watching for the middle section when they figure out who attempted his assassination and how they did it. Really a mind blowing scene.

Mike D'Angelo's started up his annual unveiling of the Skandies with the 20th place finishers:

Picture: Benediction (36/5)
Director: James Vaughan, Friends and Strangers (36/3)
Actress: Anna Cobb, We're All Going to the World's Fair (30/3)
Actor: RJ Cyler, Emergency (40/4)
S. Actor: Dave Bautista, Glass Onion (40/3)
S. Actress: Anne Hathaway, Armageddon Time (35/4)
Screenplay: Emmanuel Mouret, The Things We Say, the Things We Do (31/3)
Scene: [Arrgh!] (30/3)

Because a lot of voters lazily allotted 10 points across the board in Scene this year, there's actually a fucking six-way tie for #20, as that's how many films wound up with 30 points from three votes. Here they are, with a link to the scene in question (or part of it) if I could quickly find it on YouTube:

• Bonfire, Bones and All
• Eve's kitchen, Confess, Fletch
• Benoit Blanc vs. Gillian Flynn, Glass Onion
• "KIMI, play 'Sabotage,'" KIMI
• Lydia's new gig (final scene), TÁR
• "New Body Rhumba," White Noise

Benediction just barely making the top 20 is a flat out crime

it’s hard to see most of these films winning the Academy Award for Best Picture honestly. Top Gun is way too up its ass in being macho and it is pedestrian and not of the moment, Everything Everywhere All At Once is a mess and is super chaotic and hard to watch, The Banshees of Inisherin is as my sister says a completely pointless film albeit with good acting, The Triangle of Sadness has some elements of interest but it should have had an hour of it cut out easily, Elvis was a few electrifying performance scenes in a very long and flaccid movie, Women Talking is not going to win let’s be real, All Quiet On the Western Front was so tedious, and Avatar, come on.

That leaves The Fabelmans and Tár. One of those two has to win Best Picture imo

Those are the only two I particularly like and neither has a shot

I did a double feature of All Quiet and Top Gun, which just made TG all the more laughable.

Started watching All Quiet... tonight; I'm about an hour in and it's pretty good so far. The only thing I don't like is the stupid three-note score. This movie shouldn't have any music at all.

Everything Everywhere is still considered the favorite, right? It certainly has its enthusiasts, though it also seems like a movie that you're either on board with or you're not. With ranked-choice voting, I could see Everything Everywhere getting a plurality (but not a majority) of 1st-place votes -- but then Banshees overtaking it with more 2nd- and 3rd-place votes.

That's the going theory, that Banshees will CODA its way to a surprise win. (It'd be just about dead last on my ballot.)

Still, the raw enthusiasm factor may be enough this contest:

Biggest applause-getters when their names were announced: Everyone from EEAAO (the actors, the directors, and producer Jonathan Wang) Colin Farrell, Nan Goldin, and Tom Cruise

— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) February 13, 2023

All Quiet was as pointless and dreadful as I feared. I think it's gonna beat EEAAO for the best picture Oscar, for sure.

After the BAFTAs win, it's putting me in the position of suddenly rooting for EEAAO, which would at least be an interesting Oscar winner, even if I'm lukewarm on the movie itself.

(Interestingly, though, of the previous eight BAFTA Best Film winners, only one -- Nomadland -- went on to win the Oscar.)

Just finished watching Close, my first from the director. Visually beautiful, but too visual. It starts on identity, before turning to grief / trauma. The first 20 minutes are quite perfect, you think of Malick. But after that, there's an event where I had to suspend my judgment to let the film go, which is "fine, ok". But then it becomes heavy-handed, and it drowns in repetition, and the narrative becomes sluggish. Especially, I found the lack of meaningful dialogue irritating, for example the choice to depict the children entirely cut out from parents and adults is rather unrealistic. I would still recommend a watch to make your own opinion.

With each nominee I catch up with, I get increasingly irritated at The Fabelmans’ inevitable across the board snub

If it weren’t a preferential ballot I’d say EEAAO has it in the bag, but I expect a LOT of last-place votes for that one

I still haven’t seen EEAAO, The Fablemans, or Tar, but I’ve been catching up on a lot of the other films that have been nominated across the categories and thus far it’s all just really underwhelming.

All Quiet was as pointless and dreadful as I feared. I think it's gonna beat EEAAO for the best picture Oscar, for sure.

― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.),

Really?!

Here's the thing that I still don't get about All Quiet, which tbf I haven't seen: I know ppl are impressed by the technical achievements, but are they connecting with it emotionally? I really haven't gotten any sense of that, which is why it's hard for me to believe it as a Best Picture winner.

"That's the going theory, that Banshees will CODA its way to a surprise win"

On an elemental emotional level I loved CODA so much more than Banshees. I'm not that on board with the almost certain win for Everything Everywhere All at Once. I think The Fabelmans and Tár were the best of these

All Quiet was as pointless and dreadful as I feared. I think it's gonna beat EEAAO for the best picture Oscar, for sure.
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.),

Really?!
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, February 25, 2023 4:29 PM

I honestly don't really know. Maybe tomorrow's SAG awards will make me feel better about predicting an EEAAO win, but the people who hate it really hate it and are not a small group of people in general.

Thought One Fine Morning was okay--so determined to be quiet and observant, though, that it could have used...I really don't know; something. I liked Eden from a few years ago better.

Now that Everything Everywhere All At Once has won the DGA, PGA and SAG awards, it will inevitably win the Oscar. I really liked the speeches given by the winners at the SAG awards

It got three of the four acting wins as well as Ensemble. The Jamie Lee Curtis win was a surprise, and she gave a great speech

SAG award winner Biff Wiff

Agreed that EEAAO has solidified its chances as the Oscar favorite, though there's an argument that All Quiet missed out on guild nominations only because it crested too late and, now that people have seen it, it has the momentum to take Best Picture. I'm skeptical of that, but also not 100% sure about EEAAO.

Can't remember the last time that 3/4 acting nominees felt so up in the air before the Oscars.

Was gonna say just that … for even two to be real toss ups in the final stages is really rare at this point

All Quiet on the Western Front won't win Best Picture.

I think Cate Blanchett gave the best performance of the year, in any category. It was so fierce and memorable

I also really liked Michelle Yeoh and will be happy if either of them wins

my favorites are

Cate Blanchett

Colin Farrell, give him the Oscar already

Brian Tyree Henry, who I think illuminated a believable and lived-in character who revealed who he was without many words but with a mesmerizing performance

Stephanie Hsu or Jamie Lee Curtis or Kerry Condon, can't decide

Meantime, an urgent and key thread

In honour of the fact that there is now one week left until the Oscars, here is Kate Bush as each of the ten Best Picture nominees. 🧵

— 𝕋𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕤 (@cinema_gay) March 5, 2023

I maybe obliged to do that, but with Björk, before the week is up

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/oscars-brutally-honest-ballot-top-gun-riseborough-1235342054/

2022's Best Supporting Actress Oscar Nominees

I maybe obliged to do that, but with Björk, before the week is up

Done.

Alright, let's do this. Björk as each of the ten Best Picture nominees. 🧵

— Eric Henderson (@ephender) March 10, 2023

a state of emergency!

The Quiet Girl is very quiet. I liked its quiet better than One Fine Morning's--I should see it again, as my mind tends to wander these days. Some beautiful images and moments.

ooh I've been looking to talk to someone about One Fine Morning. It's rare for me to have a reaction as unabashed as I did last weekend -- I loved it.