88TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS Discussion Topic (LIVE! Today's discussion begins on pg 33)

[stripe]

46 minutes ago, Gamb1993 said:

Last year I was saying that they should've released Selma in this years Oscar race, like Foxcatcher had done the year before. I think the nominations all prove this would've been the right thing to do, I've no doubt that Selma would've been more of a frontrunner this year, Oyelowo would've gotten an acting nomination DuVernay could've made it into the Directing category and so-forth.

 

I think the problem for black people this year was that it was overall a weak year for them like last year, only Elba really stands out this year and maybe Will Smith (only because the Lead Actor category is so weak). I find that saying Michael B. Jordan or any of the SoC actors should've been nominated is a weak argument, as although they were all great, I wouldn't say they were on the same level as those nominated already in the category, and that's even with a weak one as I mentioned before.

 

Welcome to the forums!

 

I don't thin we had a weak best actor line-up. Just a predictable one, with contenders you could have been guessed months ago. B.Jordan and Hanks delivered great performances and were left out. Also, Tremblay was in the conversation as a lead. Even Michael Caine with a strong performance didn't gain traction.

 

This was a very different year with such great female focused films and the male focused films were more like ensemble films.

 

Regarding Selma, I think the problem wasn't the year it was released. They didn't promote the film properly, so not many members of the Academy saw it. In fact, I think that this year line-up for almost every category is stronger than the line-ups we saw last year.

[Jake Gittes]

They shouldn't have waited to release Selma this year, Paramount just shouldn't have fucked up the campaign last year. And Jordan and Jackson were at least as good as Fassbender and much more deserving of nominations than Damon and Di Caprio, while Del Toro was good enough to get into supporting actor. 

[WrathOfHan]

I don't know if releasing Selma in 2015 would have changed anything. PGA and DGA ignored it even after it came out.

[bapi]

I understand Selma is only for american audience but honestly what's so special about that movie? I find it very boring and 'average', it's like a TV movie.

[CoolioD1]

i will say on the weakness of the best actor race that the worst lead actress nominee (probably lawrence) gave a better performance than the best lead actor nominee (fassbender)

[Joel M]

Fassbender wasn't that great imo.

[Jessie]

17 hours ago, CoolioD1 said:

michael b. jordan, sam jackson and abraham attah are all better than the entire best actor set.

 

That's bullshit. Neither gave Oscar worthy performances this year. Sam Jackson got outshined in his own film.

[Jessie]

Tom hardy in legend was better than Tom hardy in revenant 

[movieboner]

That Ridley Scott snub for best director doesn't make any sense, when The Martian is nominated for Best Picture, Actor, and Adapted Screenplay.

[pieman]

14 minutes ago, movieboner said:

That Ridley Scott snub for best director doesn't make any sense, when The Martian is nominated for Best Picture, Actor, and Adapted Screenplay.

It just means that the directors branch didn't respond to it as well or liked other movies more. The branches don't always line up perfectly, so that would probably explain it.

[WrathOfHan]

14 minutes ago, movieboner said:

That Ridley Scott snub for best director doesn't make any sense, when The Martian is nominated for Best Picture, Actor, and Adapted Screenplay.

I'm a big Martian defender on here but it's easy to see why he was snubbed. It's a competently directed movie, nothing special on that front.

[filmlover]

58 minutes ago, Jessie said:

Tom hardy in legend was better than Tom hardy in revenant 

Virtually no one saw Legend and Hardy got in for The Revenant as a coattail nomination with Leo. Deal.

[Impact]

I could say the winner of the DGA or PGA will win picture this year, but stranger things have happened. This does look to be the first time since Braveheart though where the BP winner was not nominated for the SAG. (Birdcage is the only SAG winner not to be nominated, 3 directors have won the DGA without being nominated for director, don't remember the PGA stat, but I don't think there has been a winner in ages that wasn't nominated for picture if ever)

[MovieMan89]

9 hours ago, Gamb1993 said:

Last year I was saying that they should've released Selma in this years Oscar race, like Foxcatcher had done the year before. I think the nominations all prove this would've been the right thing to do, I've no doubt that Selma would've been more of a frontrunner this year, Oyelowo would've gotten an acting nomination DuVernay could've made it into the Directing category and so-forth.

 

I think the problem for black people this year was that it was overall a weak year for them like last year, only Elba really stands out this year and maybe Will Smith (only because the Lead Actor category is so weak). I find that saying Michael B. Jordan or any of the SoC actors should've been nominated is a weak argument, as although they were all great, I wouldn't say they were on the same level as those nominated already in the category, and that's even with a weak one as I mentioned before.

Oyelowo in Selma was one of the decade's finest performances. And DuVernay's direction was superb. Now those were legit reasons to get upset on the whole #oscarssowhite topic, but as you said it could have also been due to that movie's botched campaign and release. This year's controversy is pretty ridiculous though. Sorry, but SOC is not a BP worthy nominee, not even in a category of like 15. It's a cool little biopic for fans of the group, really nothing more. Smith and B. Jordan turned in good but not great performances, that any white actor would have also been ignored for.

 

Elba maybe should have been in, but I guarantee that was far more to do with the Netflix politics than anything. And who should he have replaced? Was an extremely competitive category this year. Shannon, Dano, Del Toro, and Tremblay could also be highly contested as "unfair" snubs there. So that leaves See You Again, which yes probably was snubbed because it's rap. Are we supposed to call the Academy racist because they don't have much of a fondness for rap though? There was still a white guy there singing the hook. They just didn't care for the song apparently. Hey, a lot of black people don't like country. In the end, the African American centric actors and movies were just on the weaker side this year, that's all. 

[Cmasterclay]

7 minutes ago, MovieMan89 said:

Oyelowo in Selma was one of the decade's finest performances. And DuVernay's direction was superb. Now those were legit reasons to get upset on the whole #oscarssowhite topic, but as you said it could have also been due to that movie's botched campaign and release. This year's controversy is pretty ridiculous though. Sorry, but SOC is not a BP worthy nominee, not even in a category of like 15. It's a cool little biopic for fans of the group, really nothing more. Smith and B. Jordan turned in good but not great performances, that any white actor would have also been ignored for.

 

Elba maybe should have been in, but I guarantee that was far more to do with the Netflix politics than anything. And who should he have replaced? Was an extremely competitive category this year. Shannon, Dano, Del Toro, and Tremblay could also be highly contested as "unfair" snubs there. So that leaves See You Again, which yes probably was snubbed because it's rap. Are we supposed to call the Academy racist because they don't have much of a fondness for rap though? There was still a white guy there singing the hook. They just didn't care for the song apparently. Hey, a lot of black people don't like country. In the end, the African American centric actors and movies were just on the weaker side this year, that's all. 

Again, do you really think that every single one of the best 20 performances of the year was all white people? That doesn't represent the people that are in movies or watch movies, or our country. That's ridiculous that all 20 just happen to be white, like only the best performances and stories are about white folks. Also, Jordan and Jackson were fucking far beyond Cranston or Redmayne. Those are the most actor-ly, give me an Oscah performances I've ever fucking seen. This whole "no POC deserved it" thing is just objectively bullshit and intelligence insulting. LOL @ movies involving POC being on the weaker side this year, by the way. Elba? Del Toro? Attah? Isaac? Jordan? Coogler? Jada Pinket Smith? Tessa Thompson? Jason Mitchell? Samuel L Jackson? Tangerine, Creed, both of which are universally loved? Give me a break. If anything, this year was STRONGER than usually for artists of color. 

[CoolioD1]

it's true at least 60% of the best actor nominees are just acting exercises, not true lived-in character work. something I think jordan does perfectly in creed. (which is a top 5 performance of the year to me so all this "was he really that good?" stuff is bullshiiiiiit 

[Cmasterclay]

1 minute ago, CoolioD1 said:

it's true at least 60% of the best actor nominees are just acting exercises, not true lived-in character work. something I think jordan does perfectly in creed. (which is a top 5 performance of the year to me so all this "was he really that good?" stuff is bullshiiiiiit 

Jordan's work was that of an actual real human being that can be seen somewhere in real life. Believability in acting has become an almost lost art, and boy, did I believe that performance. Powerful as it gets, too. I'm not saying anyone who thinks he didn't deserve it is a racist, but I can say that they don't really have the best taste .

[Gamb1993]

8 hours ago, stripe said:

 

Welcome to the forums!

 

I don't thin we had a weak best actor line-up. Just a predictable one, with contenders you could have been guessed months ago. B.Jordan and Hanks delivered great performances and were left out. Also, Tremblay was in the conversation as a lead. Even Michael Caine with a strong performance didn't gain traction.

 

This was a very different year with such great female focused films and the male focused films were more like ensemble films.

 

Regarding Selma, I think the problem wasn't the year it was released. They didn't promote the film properly, so not many members of the Academy saw it. In fact, I think that this year line-up for almost every category is stronger than the line-ups we saw last year.

Thank you! Lurker since the start of the Star Wars run and finally decided to get involved.

 

I think it's weaker than most recent years have been though.

 

IIRC Selma also suffered from a botched release to the Academy members, DuVernay hadn't finished the film and so last minute sent quite a rough copy to the members which I think annoyed them, then a botched campaign added to its misfortunes. I think that, while it wouldn't necessarily win anything, I definitely think Oyelowo would've been nominated this year, maybe DuVernay too.

8 minutes ago, MovieMan89 said:

Oyelowo in Selma was one of the decade's finest performances. And DuVernay's direction was superb. Now those were legit reasons to get upset on the whole #oscarssowhite topic, but as you said it could have also been due to that movie's botched campaign and release. This year's controversy is pretty ridiculous though. Sorry, but SOC is not a BP worthy nominee, not even in a category of like 15. It's a cool little biopic for fans of the group, really nothing more. Smith and B. Jordan turned in good but not great performances, that any white actor would have also been ignored for.

 

Elba maybe should have been in, but I guarantee that was far more to do with the Netflix politics than anything. And who should he have replaced? Was an extremely competitive category this year. Shannon, Dano, Del Toro, and Tremblay could also be highly contested as "unfair" snubs there. So that leaves See You Again, which yes probably was snubbed because it's rap. Are we supposed to call the Academy racist because they don't have much of a fondness for rap though? There was still a white guy there singing the hook. They just didn't care for the song apparently. Hey, a lot of black people don't like country. In the end, the African American centric actors and movies were just on the weaker side this year, that's all. 

Indeed, his was a real snub last year, as was DuVernay's, but I do think a bad campaign killed off its chances. And thank you! I thought their performances were good, but not on that level frankly, each year there's a controversy like this people go overboard and claim every good POC performance that year is worthy of Oscars.

 

Elba was good, and I maybe would've swapped Bale out for him. Then again I think Tremblay was even better than Elba so there's that. But I agree, like last year Gyllenhall got snubbed alongside Oyelowo (as did Fiennes).

[CoolioD1]

There's a quote about how "laymen are impressed with effort. experts are impressed with ease" or something. probably applies.

[filmlover]

Yeah, Elba had the misfortune of his film being from Netflix. That's likely what cost him, although some saw that coming ever since the streaming service picked it up.