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The “Oscar movie” is dying

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Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#71

Post by gota »

havblue wrote: post #47
mc32 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mr Plinkett is not everyone's cup of tea for various reasons. But it does some deep dives into some key movies.

The rlm guys are very insightful and have great taste in movies. I think the difference is that they do a great job explaining why a movie is entertaining while Ebert was great at explaining why a movie is art.

RLM guys (at least the main ones) seem great at pointing out when a movie sucks, mostly because of:

- poor structure. Bad setup/payoffs, useless sequences, confusing narrative without any merit behind it

- poor pacing. Too much "brain-off" action, shitty dialog, too fast/slow for the theme

- uninteresting characters, with no redeeming characteristics (e.g. a great actor or enough plot quality to compensate)

These in decreasing order of importance for them -

They will certainly critize other things (plain scenes, bad framing, technical flaws, bad lighting, etc.) but I don't think I've ever seen them give a purely negative review based only on these.

If any of those three criteria above are met, though, (and god forbid all three) they will absolutely pile on a terrible rating with complaints on how the scenes are ugly and general filmmaking is lazy.

Oh, and also, they'll point out most editing errors, seeing as they are editors too.

And insert pointless Star Trek references no matter what, of course

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#72

Post by bitwize »

raydiatian wrote: post #14

I mean, one part of the problem I see at a local level is Black Panther 2 is currently occupying 50% of available projectors at all of my local movie theatres. I’m sort of just waiting and hoping the silly capeshit phenomenon will die out already. I think we need to see that the cinematic universe concept was a novelty and is extremely difficult to execute, especially when it’s driven by soulless profiteering. I mean…

I used to not take people who grouse about capeshit too seriously. I would go okay, maybe this whole superhero thing is starting to get played out, but I'll go see the next Marvel just to be sure.

Up until Captain Marvel (2019), the Marvel films were solidly entertaining if not great, and very respectful of the characters. There were still some Marvel films like that after that, but most of Phase IV has been a hard skip for me.

Now I'll sometimes watch anime or science fiction on streaming, but the last movie to make me really want to go to the theaters was Maverick.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#73

Post by Waterluvian »

jfengel wrote: post #26
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…

As an actor myself, I find that the Oscar bait is often the "Academy Award for the Most Acting". It has become a cliche that you seek an Oscar by playing a highly damaged character with obvious quirks. More subtle performances are usually passed over, even though I consider them more challenging. They're often nominated, but rarely win. Which is fine, since those kinds of films are usually not going to attract big au…

I cannot find a single accolade for J.K. Simmons' role in The Accountant. Heck, I don't even care to evaluate an entire role: that hallway scene[1] is seared into my head and that alone deserves an award if we're going to be giving out awards.

Stephen Root has countless memorable scenes if not entire characters. They're not "acting a lot" or playing highly damaged, complex characters. But they're absolutely nailing the characters in a way that I think, "no other actor could play that character."

Not that these actors don't get the credit they deserve. They're well-known and beloved. But if we're going to hand out awards, character actors like these, and countless others, are incredibly underrepresented.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRPvXbh-rLM

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#74

Post by havblue »

allturtles wrote: post #35
dangus wrote: post #10

This article feels so very out of touch, like a car enthusiast telling parents with 4 kids that their minivan should have a manual transmission since it's a better driving experience. It gets the whole situation backwards: it blames the modern audience for not wanting to take the time and money to go out to the theater unless they get a theme park-style spectacle. In other words, the article is blaming the customer.…

> The article laments that things aren't right in the world when Steven Spielberg can't draw a theater crowd. Well, Steven Spielberg is an old, wealthy man now, and he is making movies for himself, not for the kind of audience that made Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park massive successes. I sort of agree. I've enjoyed many of Spielberg's movies, but I have no interest in watching a fictionalized Spielberg biopic. West…

It's funny that the column implied that West Side Story's failure was a surprise. It was a remake of a classic movie that never should have been made. You can't compare this to the ground Spielberg movies of the 70's through the 90's.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#75

Post by unwind »

schaefer wrote: post #56
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…

I went to the movies last weekend. I was one of 5 people in the entire theater. The posted movie start time was 1:30. At 1:50, the movie still hadn't started. Even the previews hadn't started. They were still spamming us with TV quality advertisements for Coke-a-cola and other stuff I couldn't care less about. 20 solid minutes of ads. Under no circumstances is that acceptable. If I hadn't been with other people I wou…

That sounds horrible and rather disrespectful, what a bad experience.

That said, is "coke-a-cola" a humorous spelling (like "Micro$oft") or just a misspelling of Coca-Cola?

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#76

Post by mehlmao »

DeetrixDotter wrote: post #40
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.

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.

No post body was provided.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#77

Post by lacrosse_tannin »

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?

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#78

Post by PaulHoule »

boppo1 wrote: post #62
jfengel wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just an amateur, and I only do local theater. I'm very glad to be able to do programming for a living so that I can do theater the way I want to do theater, rather than having my dinner depend on whether I win an audition against long odds. It sounds like a terrible way to suck the joy out of the craft. I have nonetheless helped a few actors build minor careers. Despite the fact that my main advice is "don't".

I'm not interested in acting as a career at all, but I realized I'd love to try playing in local theater. How do I get in with no/low (I once read 'an actor preparss') background? Last I looked at it the local place was a bunch of people who went to school and had credentials. As far as starting my own, I'm worried there would be too many who would join and make a farce* out of it instead of striving for a serious, i…

To get acting gigs at any level the one thing you have to do is go to auditions.

There is all kinds of training you can get which can help but ultimately you have to “just do it”.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#79

Post by yoz-y »

For me this is mainly because the home cinema experience is getting better. I want the big screen for good visuals, sound and music. I can watch a story driven movie at home, where I don't need the speakers to drown out the sound of somebody wolfing down popcorn.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#80

Post by PaulHoule »

nonameiguess wrote: post #16
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…

The Oscars often don't agree with critics, either. I don't think anyone had Ordinary People, Dances with Wolves, Titanic, Shakespeare in Love, Crash, Green Book, even CODA at #1 on their year-end best of list. Best Picture is usually going to favor something that is at least serious enough that the voters don't feel like children for loving it, i.e. they're never going to award a tentpole or franchise entry, sci-fi,…

Hugo. A movie I had mixed feelings about. I liked the stereoscopy in Hugo because it can add a lot to human interactions (for one thing the two eyes see a little bit more of the muscles around the edge of the face which are obscured in a single view), but unfortunately the business model of ‘pay more for 3d’ and the fact that 20% or so of people are stereo blind makes 3d a tough sell for most movies. But yet there is something a little sleazy and self-serving about movies that celebrate movies.
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