Amph guys we need an Oscars thread

I thought the film did an excellent job of portraying that. I think the film actually does a pretty good job of examining Turing without being a biopic. Because it still tells the story of Bletchley and the importance of Ultra as well. You should see it.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure the 5 o'clock shadow is a good look for an awards show. Either go full beard or go clean shaven.

 

How can you be sure it was him, then?

 

I think the ramp-up for Patrica Arquette in Boyhood on the awards circuit makes her winning Best Supporting almost a certainty. which is okay because she's pretty great in the flick. (although I'd argue she's a lead in the movie, same with Hawke and certainly the same for JK Simmons in freakin' Whiplash). I still wanna see Emma Stone win something because I kinda love her, and I think her tearing-a-strip off of Regan in Birdman was one of my favourite bits of the year.

 

Indeed he was.

Way I see it PGA and Sag pretty much tell us our winners.

Birdman best picture

Linklator for best director

Redmayne for best actor

Moore for best actress

 

I thought Redmayne's performance was pretty good (the movie certainly isn't anything special), but I hate that it's going to encourage another onslaught of actors faking disabilities for awards.

 

I liked Redmayne in the role but the flick is very standard bio-pic-y. It's my least favourite of the noms but I think it was at okay and very well made. Personally, I got more outta the other Best Actor Nominations in the category (Carrell - the makeup is odd but he does a good crazy. Cumberbatch and Keaton had actors who I thought went through the most stuff, and I'd go with Keaton because I love his crazy Birdman persona, and I really liked Cooper in Sniper because he does a great job of showing that Kyle gets extremely twichy when he's off duty.)

Just to go back to the Best Actor / Best Supporting Actor, to me, Carrell in Foxcatcher is a supporting role (the lead of the movie would be Tatum) and JK Simmons in Whiplash is a lead (the entire movie revolves around him)

 

I saw Boyhood yesterday and I truly appreciate the patience and commitment to make the film, as well as the ambitious approach to the making of the film by the writer and director. However, I really did not enjoy the film as I thought the story and characters outside of Patricia Arquette was pretty flat. For me, it felt like watching an uninspired, humorless and meandering marathon version of The Wonder Years.

 

What is the difference between Best Director and Best Picture? I think it's odd that the same films aren't always nominated for both.

 

God, Cuba Gooding Jr in Radio. Ughh. The worst. And I like Cuba.

 

Best Picture goes to the producers of the film. And, it's for the production as a whole. Best director goes to just the director of the film.

 

I think Arquette is good in Boyhood. Not really what I'd call Oscar worthy.

Well, it's based on her book. Which was about their relationship. That's kind of the movie they had to make if her book was the basis for the movie.

That said, the whole "picking up the pen" scene was probably the single stupidest thing in any of the BP nominees. If the movie hadn't kind of lulled me into a warm, fuzzy "Lifetime biopic" state by that time, I would have been infuriated probably. Honestly, I don't know how anyone could have a really passionate opinion about that movie; it was just so lulling. But Redmayne was fantastic, if that still needs to be said.

 

amen.

 

Yeah, Jane was the central character because it was her story, I don't understand why anyone was expecting otherwise. I liked that it was a love story, if you want a movie about Hawking's theories, watch a couple episodes of Nova or something, biopics aren't for hard science. I also don't think that focusing on the parts of Hawking's life other than his career is "reducing" anything in this circumstance, especially since his scientific thought is what's already in the public consciousness about him, his personal life was a natural subject for a story like this. Also, I have to admit that I sat in the theater ruefully fantasizing about all the people who would get all tied up in knots about a male scientist having a love story told about him when most famous historical womens' stories are reduced to love stories and there's no widespread complaining from the same people who would inevitably hate this movie.

I saw Whiplash finally on Friday, which just leaves me American Sniper and The Imitation Game for Best Picture nominees. Whiplash was one of the most intense experiences I've had in a movie theater, ever. JK Simmons was superb, and Miles Teller really impressed me, too. I thought it made a really powerful statement about depression and perfectionism, but my friends during the post-movie discussion in the lobby thought maybe I was overthinking it. Either way, it was definitely one of my favorites of the year (or last year, I guess).

 

i didn't dislike ToE because it focused on Jane, i just disliked it because i didn't think it was that good of a movie. it felt like a lifetime movie.

whiplash was soon intense tho. i've never been on the edge of my seat, literally speaking, but that movie made it close. my face muscles hurt afterwards because of all the squinty eyes teeth gritted faces i was making. great flick.

 

Yeah, that's fair. I agree with R1.5 that the moment with the pen at the end was schlocky and ridiculous. I love Lifetime movies, though, and this one had slightly more consideration given to aesthetics and cinematography than typical Lifetime movies, so I enjoyed it.

 

If it had been a Lifetime movie, Stephen Hawking would have been a murderer.

 

I saw American Sniper. The flag waving **** aside, I felt nothing from this movie. The accusations of racism fell flat, the war scenes were polished and the implicit pro-/anti- war commentary was tepid when you think of Generation Kill. The film was a bit like Oliver Stone's W insofar as watching it and not really understanding why it was made. It didn't address any points at all.

 

Uh, the point was clearly an elaborate troll by Clint Eastwood to see how many people would defend a scene with a blatantly fake baby.

 

The fake baby was more of a statement than anything in the entire film.

 

Yeah, that final sequence of Whiplash . . . I can say this as a musician (and one of my instruments is actually the drums, though on no level anywhere close to the level of these drummers): no film that I've seen has captured so perfectly the marriage of terror and exhilaration that you feel when you're performing live and reaching for your true limits. The intensity of the emotion in that final scene is absolutely, dead right. No other film about music has gotten that feeling so right.

As to American Sniper . . . Cooper's performance? I think he's really good; the film doesn't give him enough to do, particularly in getting into his PTSD, but I think it was a really great minimal performance. Cooper really does kind of disappear into the role; even the way he moves is different.