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The “Oscar movie” is dying

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Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#151

Post by bmitc »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #145
bmitc wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's a good one that you think I might have missed?

My picks for "best TV of the last decade": Better Call Saul, Atlanta, High Maintenance, Maniac, Severance, Game of Thrones (S1-5 only), Undone, and The Expanse. Maybe an honourable mention to Black Mirror, Bojack Horseman, and Silicon Valley. I have some others I'd personally rate up there, but which are probably more niche (not as widely appealing).

I have actually seen some of those, including two (Silicon Valley and Game of Thrones) to fruition. Those two are actually excellent examples of what I am talking about, and you even called it out by cutting off the later seasons of Game of Thrones.

The types of TV series that are not episodic seem to always devolve in this way towards worse quality and inter-character romantic relationships, not to mention having cliff hangers at the end of every episode. It's a tension and resolve tactic that gets pretty annoying.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#152

Post by datapolitical »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #133
gfxgirl wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The critics and audience don't always agree. The Oscars are not decided by critics. They're decided by peers. Directors vote for best Director. Actors vote for best Actor. Composers vote for best Music. Etc...

This is not how it works. Anyone in the Academy can vote on the nominees. The nominees themselves are decided by the people in their specific category.

Other way around. See above.

Source: my family is in the Academy

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#153

Post by atoav »

mc32 wrote: post #2

I wouldn't overdramatize it. The movie business didn't start with Oscar awards and it does not need them to continue. The Oscars are essentially a self-congratulatory award which often were at odds with the public. The critics and audience don't always agree. And now with less capture by the studios and cinema resulting in people having more choices of what to watch, people are choosing the more basic and entertainin…

In regards to basic plotlines: These might go well if you look at movies in pure commercial terms or a made up metric of "how many people did a single piece of media manage to distract from their lives for a few minutes".

But both as a musician and a film maker I'd be warn about relying overly on such metrics alone. People (can) form connections to the media they interact with that go beyond these metrics and the functions culture itself performs for humanity is more than the money it produces and the minds it keeps busy. It is also about reflection, documentation, memories, meaning, representation and similar hard to define things.

Some of the most important pieces of music I heard or films I experienced have been commerical flops and have small (but passionate) audiences.

Humans are wildely different in their tastes and psychological needs — the media we really love is a reflection of that. Commercially successful media is media that a broad majority of people find good or at least worth consuming and there is nothing bad about that. But it is often more specific productions that really strike a deep chord withing their audience. Maybe it brings up memories from their childhood, maybe it expresses feelings they always had, but never could put their finger on, maybe it is a particularily good expression of a (power) fantasy that individual has and so on. There might be a film with horses in it that saved a teenage horse loving girl from suicide and even if 99% of the world (including me) thinks that movie sucks, it might not have sucked for that girl.

The point here is: Often the stuff that really hits deep for one personally might not woo the broad commercial audiences at all. Because what hits you might not hit all. And what hits most might also hit you, but not as hard or deep.

Obscure media has it's value.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#154

Post by CyberDildonics »

datapolitical wrote: post #152
CyberDildonics wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not how it works. Anyone in the Academy can vote on the nominees. The nominees themselves are decided by the people in their specific category.

Other way around. See above. Source: my family is in the Academy

I think you have misunderstood either what I said or what they said.

https://variety.com/feature/who-votes-on-oscars-academy-awar...

Each person belongs to one of 17 branches. Each branch nominates for its own category — e.g., editors nominate editors, actors nominate for the four acting categories. Everyone gets to nominate best picture. For the final voting of the winner, all branches vote for everything.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#155

Post by Shorel »

ciupicri wrote: post #148
pcthrowaway wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My picks for "best TV of the last decade": Better Call Saul, Atlanta, High Maintenance, Maniac, Severance, Game of Thrones (S1-5 only), Undone, and The Expanse. Maybe an honourable mention to Black Mirror, Bojack Horseman, and Silicon Valley. I have some others I'd personally rate up there, but which are probably more niche (not as widely appealing).

Black Mirrors is just a bunch of unrelated short stories which aren't that great compared to a movie. Bojack Horseman is pretty good indeed, but mostly because it's a comedy. The drama isn't very interesting. I've heard that a character dies in every Game of Thrones episode, which means some characters will lack depth since they won't have the time required to develop it.

Some of Black Mirror episodes are better than many films, and their concepts would absolutely work if expanded to full length features.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#156

Post by djitz »

sheepybloke wrote: post #113
jdlyga wrote: post #6

Going to the movies was always a habit left over from an earlier time. Of course when all you have is a standard definition tube TV and VHS movies, going to see something on the big screen is exciting. But nowadays, large 4K HDR TV's are cheap now, and you can get almost everything on streaming. Covid really hit the big reset button and made people question a lot of their habits, including still going to movie theate…

Went to the movies recently and was disappointed about how bad the screen looked compared to my TV at home. I've got a nice OLED TV, but I was still shocked about how muted the colors were on the screen.

Find the nearest AMC Dolby theater. Everything else stinks if you have a quality setup at home.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#157

Post by jdmtheNth »

pimlottc wrote: post #109
DeetrixDotter wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing quite breaks the immersion for me like having so many gay and interracial couples crammed into the cast that I end up sitting there wondering if there is any place on Earth that's anything like the "normal" town Hollywood is presenting to me.

I get what you’re saying, but think what it was like for non-white and non-straight people who saw practically nobody like themselves on screen in a “normal” role for decades.

I realized this yesterday: Representation is worthless in terms of peoples feelings, but it gives certain cultures examples of appropriate behaviour and people to look up to, so that they're not only influenced by their single parents and local culture.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#158

Post by 0x445442 »

lacrosse_tannin wrote: post #77
0x445442 wrote: post #31

I don’t want to spend my entertainment dollars subjecting myself to political gaslighting. I want to be entertained by a good story. Sadly, this seems to be an insurmountable hurdle for Hollywood at the moment.

are you one of the people replying in the comments of the article?

No. I just skimmed the article and decided I’d give the reason I thought the Oscar movie is dying.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#159

Post by 0x445442 »

jdmtheNth wrote: post #157
pimlottc wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get what you’re saying, but think what it was like for non-white and non-straight people who saw practically nobody like themselves on screen in a “normal” role for decades.

I realized this yesterday: Representation is worthless in terms of peoples feelings, but it gives certain cultures examples of appropriate behaviour and people to look up to, so that they're not only influenced by their single parents and local culture.

This can be done in a natural way though. Take the movie Million Dollar Baby. The movie portrays a woman with strong physical characteristics but does so within the context of a good story that tackles a complex social issue. At no point in the movie does the main character’s physical abilities seem un-natural or forced. There are many other examples where socially desirable characteristics are portrayed by minority groups within the context of a good story without being forced or out of place.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#160

Post by gamblor956 »

pradn wrote: post #115
darth_avocado wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Oscars are essentially a self-congratulatory award which often were at odds with the public. Not to state the obvious, but Oscars over the years have degraded into “who can wine and dine the voters the most”. There was a time (more than a decade ago) when almost all “Best Pucture” nominees were really entertaining and fun to watch. You look at the more recent lineups and almost all of them are a drag to watch.…

The new West Side Story is incredible. It's what a 100-million dollar musical looks like. Every frame is planned out, the actors are vulnerable, the songs are touching and super fun. The dance numbers are exuberant, some of the best ever produced by Hollywood. The film brings together the very best of American artists: Tony Kushner for the screenplay, Gustavo Dudamel conducts, the NY & LA philharmonics for recording,…

I went in with someone who was unfamiliar with the musical, and they walked out halfway deeply offended by the excessive and casual use of slurs throughout the movie directed at a specific racial group. If that had been a different group and the slur had started with a "k", nobody would think West Side Story is incredible.

And on a substantive note, the plot is fairly nonsensical.

Yes, the movie was technically well made but that's about it.

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