What Movies Are You Watching? —2017—

Alrighty, here are my final Oscar predictions:

Should win:
Best Picture - Hidden Figures
Best Directing - Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Best Leading Actress - Ruth Negga, Loving
Best Leading Actor - Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Best Supporting Actress - Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Best Supporting Actor - Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Best Cinematography - La La Land
Best Film Editing - Arrival
Best Animated Feature - Moana
Best Original Screenplay - Manchester by the Sea
Best Adapted Screenplay - Arrival
Best Production Design - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Best Costume Design - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Best Original Score - La La Land
Best Original Song - How Far I’ll Go, Moana
Best Visual Effects - The Jungle Book
Best Sound Mixing - Arrival
Best Sound Editing - Arrival
Best Documentary Feature - OJ: Made in America
Best Foreign Language Film - Toni Erdmann
Best Animated Short - Piper

Will win:
Best Picture - La La Land
Best Directing - Damien Chazelle, La La Land
Best Leading Actress - Emma Stone, La La Land
Best Leading Actor - Denzel Washington, Fences
Best Supporting Actress - Viola Davis, Fences
Best Supporting Actor - Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Best Cinematography - La La Land
Best Film Editing - La La Land
Best Animated Feature - Zootopia
Best Original Screenplay - Manchester by the Sea
Best Adapted Screenplay - Moonlight
Best Production Design - La La Land
Best Costume Design - Jackie
Best Original Score - La La Land
Best Original Song - City of Stars, La La Land
Best Visual Effects - The Jungle Book
Best Sound Mixing - La La Land
Best Sound Editing - Hacksaw Ridge
Best Documentary Feature - OJ: Made in America
Best Foreign Language Film - Toni Erdmann
Best Animated Short - Piper

La La Selfie the perfect movie for the age of self-absorbed narcissism.

[quote]. . . the Oscar favourite is a fake movie. Poke your finger through the sugary icing and you find no cake beneath – no heart, no soul, no joy, no warmth, no wonder.

To create the illusion of charm, the film relies not on intrinsic strengths but on external trappings. There is the glamour of its beauteous stars, and recollections of their past, more stirring, pairings. There is the tinselly glitz of Hollywood and the Californian sunshine. Above all, La La Land depends on parasitising other, better films marinated in the nectar of nostalgia.

When Gosling hangs from a lamp-post, it is to tell you this is Singing in the Rain. West Side Story, Funny Face, The Young Girls of Rochefort, Shall We Dance, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and plenty of others are similarly appropriated. La La Land wants you to believe that it shares the joy, humour, tragedy and humanity of such celluloid treasures. It doesn’t.

Most of the films referenced are romances. They celebrate love and life. La La Land does the opposite. Its principals don’t find meaning in each other. For the most part, their relationship is glossed over in montage. Their heart-to-hearts are rendered in stilted cliche.

They get together when their careers are failing, and spend their time sharing notes. Once they have co-mentored themselves on to the road to personal advancement, they ditch each other like a rocket’s blast-off section.

The aspirations they pursue instead of each other involve neither duty nor philanthropy, but only self-realisation. City of stars, are you shining just for me? You damn well ought to be, because I’m worth it.

Mia points out the window from which Bogart and Bergman gazed in Casablanca. That film was about sacrifice for love. In La La Land, love is sacrificed for self. Once this becomes clear, La La Land’s disparate vagaries start to explain themselves. Of course, its characters are humourless and insensitive: narcissists usually are. They can’t be rich and complex, because self-obsessives aren’t. . . . The puzzles of the narrative also begin to resolve themselves. The reason not much seems to happen is that egotists are not deeply conflicted and don’t go in for much interaction with others. When Seb arrives to pick up Mia, he blasts his car horn rather than ringing the doorbell. Never mind the neighbours; it’s only Seb who counts. When Mia is looking for Seb in a cinema audience, she stands in front of the screen and blocks the picture. Of course. She matters; the other filmgoers don’t.

We can now see why these sweethearts separate. On their last night together they pledge eternal love; but they also promise to follow their dreams. For them, the latter was bound to trump the former: self-worship brooks no distractions. If, at the end, Seb seems a little lonely and Mia seems a little bored, no matter. Their final smiles indicate that both have attained what really matters: self-satisfaction.

Still, La La Land is a film for our time. With our self-nurturing, self-promotion, clicktivism, Twitterstorms, sexts and selfies, we are all narcissists now. This being so, many of us would kill to get into Seb or Mia’s shoes. The Strictly and X Factor level of the film’s performances hints that we might. To prepare for this role, Gosling picked up piano-playing in a mere three months. If it is that easy, and you don’t have to be very good, we can all imagine uploading ourselves into the ultimate Instagram ego trip. . . . [/quote]

Agree. Much of today’s “love” between couples is equally plastic and shallow or one sided.

Lalaland is real life in that sense.

It’s not the ideal of love. It’s the reality of synthetic “love”.
Genuine fake wood so to speak.

Personally I find La La Land a very nice film. I don’t find it fake at all.

I’d rank them this way:

Best Picture:
Manchester by the Sea
La La Land
Arrival
Hidden Figures
Fences
Lion
Moonlight
(Didn’t see Hacksaw Ridge and Hell or Highwater)

Best Actress:
Ruth Negga
Isabelle Huppert
Emma Stone
Natalie Portman (I don’t consider her interpretation successful, her performance felt more like a Vogue editorial on Jackie Kennedy than Jackie Kennedy herself)
Meryl Streep (I’m so sick of her)

Best Actor:
Casey Affleck
Denzel Washington
Ryan Gosling
(Didn’t see Vigo Mortensen and Andrew Garfield)

Best Supporting Actress:
Michelle Williams
Viola Davis
Nicole Kidman
Octavia Spencer
Naomie Harris (I think she was terrible in Moonlight)

Best Supporting Actor: (I find this category very weak)
Michael Shannon
Lucas Hedges
Dev Patel
Mahershala Ali (I don’t get his buzz at all, he was barely there)

Best Animated Feature:
I don’t mind either Zootopia, Moana, or The Red Turtle winning. I love them all.

I thought LaLa Land was nice too. There’s a logical leap between nice and best picture of 2016 though that I just wasn’t getting despite asking several people. When I read the Guardian article about why a musical about two narcissists with laughably mediocre singing and dancing ability could strike such a chord in this age of social media self-absorption the gap was suddenly bridged.

That guy says modern, reference millennial culture, make instagram references, yet… The overwhelmingly largest voting demographic of the Academy are old, caucasian men:

Going to be sad when it inevitably beat out Hidden Figures and Moonlight to steal Oscars, which are both better movies, better crafted, much more original, and with better stories.

By the way, just because a film or filmmaker hasn’t won an Oscar, doesn’t mean it isn’t good. I like La La Land. But there were (yes, were) better movies in the race.

Let’s also remember that, while Oscar win is an immense honor, ultimately many cinematic masters who left a lasting legacy - Hitchcock, Welles, Kubrick, etc - never won “best director.” Try to find a director today who has won one of those to tell you that they’re better than any one of those three guys.

I’ll still watch the show (it’s fun), but take it from someone who’s working in the industry - the Oscars, just like any congressional or presidential campaign - are just politics. Last year I couldn’t throw a rock at a party and didn’t hit Leonardo DiCaprio. And while he was outstanding in The Revenant, the ultimate deciding factor for his win was his relentless campaigning.

Ultimately, don’t be too surprised or disappointed when the film you loved most didn’t win. I mean, how many of us today, both young and old, can quote and mimic E.T.? And how many can remember watching Ghandi in the theaters? Both are quality films, but which one has and will continue to make a lasting, global cultural impact? The 1983 Academy Awards certainly couldn’t have told you.

La La Land director Damien Chazelle

The old white dudes haven’t had their say yet so you might yet be surprised. I was just wondering why everyone else leading up to the Oscars seemed so convinced La La Land was best picture material.

Haven’t had their say? If you couldn’t tell that La La Land was basically a calculated imitation of old MGM and RKO pictures back in 'em glory days, then I can’t help ya.

An Academy voter (who, admittedly, isn’t old) told me at a reception last week: “[La La Land] is practically on its knees, begging old white Hollywood vets to vote for it, and simultaneously whispering sweet praises into their hearing-aid assisted ears while ravenously jerking them off.”

It’s politics, man. LLL is both enjoyable and strokes voter egos. That’s why we’re so sure it’ll win. Again, they’re huge, huge honors, but don’t take the Oscars too seriously. Another example: Oliver! won best picture over 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I think La La Land is more of a BP material than Moonlight and Hidden Figures are.

Though if Loving were nominated it should easily win.

And the best picture is La . . . . La . . ., huh?

Hah, hah, hah. The old white dudes and dudettes come thru again.

Most epic fuck-up ever. It was fucking brilliant.:rofl:

Beatty must have been attending the same groupthink sessions Rockafeller’s been attending.

I do wonder if it was all staged.

lol, that was the same argumento on why Trump won.

Glad to have been proven wrong about the overall winner, yay! Also happy Hidden Figures was for the most part ignored.

The Oscar to the white helmets is an absolute shame.

That’s highly possible.

Obviously, I put my money where my mouth is. Enjoy the texts between me and a buddy of mine:

Btdubs, per my ‘Should Win’ list, Barry Jenkins should have absolutely won the directing award if the Academy had any senses - The guy who literally directed their mutually recognized best picture isn’t also the best director? What?

La La Land swept and won 6 Oscars - Even though it should have been given just best cinematography and best original score. At least those 6 wins won me some cash, so not all bad.

Glad Casey Affleck won, and Arrival at least getting gold for Best Sound Editing. They both deserved them.

That was nuts, boys and girls, nuts.

P.S.:

1 Like

People’s reaction. GOLD :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Eh, last year the movie who swept the oscars didn’t win Best Movie.

Re: Best picture/director: Go ahead and do your research, there are ones that haven’t aligned of course, but those are minority outliers. Generally speaking the two awards come hand in hand (makes sense though, right, because how can the film of the director who did the best job within that talent pool not get recognition for the picture itself (or vice versa)?). Look at the previous 88 installments, you’re gonna find more that match than ones that don’t.

Oh man. I LOVE Meryl’s reaction to the best picture snafu:

Alright I’m out. Good night peeps! :sleeping::sleeping:

I would have liked to see all the other contenders before the oscars. AS it was i only saw lalaland so of course i was rooting for that pic :slight_smile:
glad to see it won best song and emma won best actress, i think deserved, those two wins.