Inmate Central

So must merit be secondary?

99.243.250.41

Feanor

In Reply to: RE: "Everything Everywhere All at Once" - I'm a *racist*? posted by tomservo on March 14, 2023 at 12:33:20

To even imply there might be something wrong with that is "politically incorrect" or frankly "racist". "Affirmative action" run amuck.

Dmitri Shostakovich

Follow Ups:

RE: So must merit be secondary? - RGA 16:30:38 03/14/23 (6)
You are not racist but race is a factor when you assume it "only won because it is stars a mostly Asian cast" while not nothing that there are tons of "mostly caucasian casts" in films that didn't deserve to win jack best picture (Ahem Titanic, Silence of the Lambs, The English Patient, LOTR, Nomadland, and a bunch more).
- Yeah, but ... exactly - Feanor 18:32:05 03/14/23 (5)
  Those mediocre, Caucasian-cast films didn't win because they were Caucasian-casted. As for Everything... , well, you understand what I was saying.
  
  Dmitri Shostakovich
  
  Edits: 03/14/23
  - Note that it is tiered voting - RGA 18:58:20 03/14/23 (4)
    But then what about the many many many many films that starred non-whites that should have won but didn't?
    I chose EEAAO over the other ten because I think out of those ten it was the best movie - if it starred an all-Black cast, White cast or Asian cast would be immaterial.
    A few years ago the Korean film Parasite won best picture. I gave it 4/5 which would have been my top pick this year.
    But in 2020 it would have placed 5th.
    Jojo Rabbit *****
    Once Upon a Time in Hollywood *****
    1917 ****
    Joker ****
    Parasite (Winner) ****
    Ford v Ferrari ***1/2
    Marriage Story ***
    Little Women ***
    The Irishman **1/2
    
    I think people choose what they like the best. The Academy voters are skewing younger and Science Fiction "seems" to be more popular than ever and EEAAO is impressive visually (artistically).
    Quite often in film history - multiple viewings of a film can help and if one begs for this is EEAAO. With a younger audience growing up with smartphones and more instant gratification and impressive video games (that often have superior stories to movies) I am not all surprised that young people like EEAAO - more than me for that matter.
    Lastly, the Academy is preferential voting - so they choose their top 5. Actors choose actors and directors choose directors but everyone votes on picture.
    
    That's why "polarizing films" don't tend to win. Many film critics (most of them) and people with degrees in the arts will choose Pulp Fiction for the best picture all day every day over Forrest Gump.
    Pulp Fiction will gain far far more 5/5 ratings but it will also be off-putting to the old geezers who don't like the F-Word or any blood. So it will also get a lot more 0/5 ratings. Forrest Gump is amiable - it's a good movie, entertaining, a family movie - likely gets a boatload of 2nd or third votes. The other movie that year was The Shawshank Redemption which no one at the time actually watched. And poor ole Quiz Show probably would have won a bunch of other years but no chance against those three in 1994.
    For me, it would have been
    Pulp Fiction 5/5
    Shawshank Redemption 5/5
    Crumb 4.5/5
    Quiz Show 4/5
    Ed Wood 4/5
    Forrest Gump 4/5
    The Last Seduction 4/5
    Maverick 4/5
    Natural Born Killers 3.5/5
    Heavenly Creatures 3.5/5
    Speed 3.5/5
    
    Anyway - I think this is the first year in many years where my pick actually won best picture. And really it would have been my 7th choice in 2020!
    
    Edits: 03/14/23
    - I'm an old geezer who liked Pulp Fiction - Feanor 05:14:38 03/15/23 (3)
      Shawshank Redemption was great of course. I don't think I've seen any of the others you just listed.
      Does it matter? I don't have your film critic impulse, I just watch flicks for entertainment. In case of Everything Everywhere All at Once I gave up on about halfway through for it being boringly silly; I only returned to watch the rest after hearing about the great critical reviews. Awareness of the reviews didn't change my first impression however.
      
      Dmitri Shostakovich
      
      Edits: 03/15/23
      - RE: I'm an old geezer who liked Pulp Fiction - RGA 19:18:43 03/15/23 (2)
        
        In Reply to: RE: I'm an old geezer who liked Pulp Fiction posted by Feanor on March 15, 2023 at 05:14:38
        
        I wanted to be a film critic at one point but there were too many bad movies I had to sit through to find a good one.
        
        Reviews at their best will make me rewatch a movie that I didn't get or perhaps I was not in the right mood to see. Sometimes I change my mind greatly (A Clockwork Orange) and sometimes it doesn't.
        
        I don't have time to see that many movies so I usually wait for the oscar nominations and see those - after all these are "supposed to be" the best movies of the year. Since I didn't give any of them a score higher than 7/10 I don't think the "reviews" influenced me much - just as they don't with audio gear, watches or anything else.
        
        Personally, I would have chosen The Batman - a film noir take on Batman over any of the nominated films. I don't much care for comic book movies either so I was pleased by it. In fact, like Joker, I feel like they could have changed all the names and just made it without the Batman shtick and it would have been even better. Joker was an arthouse film about a non-universal healthcare system not providing badly needed anti-psychotic drugs to a man who then goes off his nut. But that film makes $1 million at the box office (maybe). Call it Joker and loosely tie it to the Batman universe and it's a massive money maker. That film was also much better than anything on this year's list.
        
        It's funny but you say you give EEAAO 7/10 and All Quiet.. an 8/10
        
        Most of the time I'd be happy with that. I gave Nomadland 4/10 and it won the best picture! Jeez.
        
        Last year CODA won - I was happy enough with that because while it's a Hallmark Movie it was done about as well as a Hallmark Movie can be done. So no problem there. Drive My Car was a 3-hour Japanese movie that requires some work and while I loved it I was just happy to see it get nominated. Titane which won the Palme d'Or was IMO the best film and didn't even get nominated. Polarizing to say the least though.
        
        If you look back over all of the Academy Award-winning films in your lifetime - how often do you really concur with the best picture winner? And even just taking the ones they nominated not the ones you thought were the actual best movie that year that got skipped. How about all the movies you love and will watch if it happens to be on the box?
        
        Here's a list of all the Academy Award best picture nominees and winners. I have not seen them all by any stretch.
        
        I'd take
        Raging Bull over Ordinary people (1980)
        Raiders of the Lost Ark over Chariots of Fire (1981)
        E.T. or Tootsie over Gandhi (1982)
        The Killing Fields over Amadeus (1984)
        Witness, Prizzie's Honor, or The Colour Purple over Out of Africa (1985)
        Field of Dreams or My Left Foot or Born on the 4th of July over Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
        
        PS there aren't enough comedies. That's why I like the Golden Globes with their best comedy/musical section. How the hell can you really compare a movie like EEAAO to a film like All Quiet...?
        
        Or take your absolute favourite comedy of all time and your absolute favourite war film of all time. Most people probably want to award the war film (it's serious after all and awards are serious business). Eesh. So much for escapist entertainment - let's throw you into a trench in WWI and watch people get run over by a tank - pass the popcorn. We're all mad I tell you.
        
        Goodfellas over Dances With Wolves
        
        Best Pictures (Open in New Window)
        
        Was a time when I'd usually see all Best Picture nominees before they we annouced - Feanor 04:36:01 03/16/23 (1)
        
        In Reply to: RE: I'm an old geezer who liked Pulp Fiction posted by RGA on March 15, 2023 at 19:18:43
        
        But that was almost 50 years ago. I blame my wife: she wasn't and isn't a big movie goer. In any case I avoid movie theaters so if it isn't free on Netflix or Prime Video, I'm probably not going to see it.
        
        How to compare Everything with All Quiet? Well the Academy had to do it.
        
        The latter is a gritty war story that begins with how callow youths are sucked into fighting by a cynical nationalist and end up all being kill by one ghastly means or another. The former is about a middle-aged women who, (as you mentioned), is losing her business, husband, and daughter -- and gives in to silly fantasies. Which is better? A hard call but, apparently, somebody had to do it.
        
        Dmitri Shostakovich
        
        RE: Was a time when I'd usually see all Best Picture nominees before they we annouced - RGA 22:54:46 03/18/23 (0)
        
        In Reply to: RE: Was a time when I'd usually see all Best Picture nominees before they we annouced posted by Feanor on March 16, 2023 at 04:36:01
        
        And they gave it to EEAAO because it was "different" and/or "original" and All Quiet lost because it's another war film. It probably didn't help that 1917 (a better war WWI film) was nominated a few years ago. If that film were in this year's group I would have chosen it.

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