There will be no sandbox Detrius 2011 thread.

ages since i saw boonmee, but re: good or great; i remember talking to a friend who wasn't crazy about it & thinking that, perhaps if more films or all films were like weerasethakul's, i'd be more critical, but that a big part of what makes them special is just that they are & exist and are treading that path, which makes me less critical about the specifics. it wasn't as cohesive as a couple of others but i still think of a lot of it & think it's a p unique, interesting achievement

think of it a lot, probably what i was shooting for there

also why the fuck did everyone like melancholia so much. did anyone here like it? it was vague & unfocused, took the wrong tone or pursued the wrong threads, & compensated with a kinda generic autopilot-grandiosity.

I quite liked Boonmee but I've accepted that I risk foolishness explaining what makes this man's films worth watching.

ha, i think that's part of it, that they're somewhere slightly off radar or out of reach. (i remember coming out of syndromes, having seen it with a few others, & each having as broad & entirely disparate a set of opinions about it as you really could about a single text (i don't think i'd even grasped it was about his family))

also why the fuck did everyone like melancholia so much. did anyone here like it?

I thought it was pretty great, but I'm no LvT fan.

I thought it was pretty great, but I'm no LvT fan.

ha, that's a weird disclaimer. i like a bunch of von trier, i thought it was so confused though - maybe some of that is relative to how strongly he manages to embody a theme & stay on-point in dogville or whatever else. i was so surprised at how loose the first half was, & then how drably procedural & perfunctory the second half proceeded.

I really liked the end-of-the-world stuff, beginning and end; the wedding set-up (conceding they're bound together) seemed ordinary to me.

I much preferred Antichrist.

I actually thought it was pretty straightforward. Messy, perhaps, but overall it had an emotional honesty I've never found in his work before.

Also it was really beautiful.

xpost

I've only seen LvT's Breaking the Waves-and-after stuff, and I've only liked this, Antichrist, and The Five Obstructions.

Caught Young Adult this morning - admirably grim and, for Cody specifically, self-effacing. (Key scene near the end fails to deliver the goods, though.)

Want to see it but ugh Reitman

Yeah, i'm weirdly anticipating it despite hating all of Reitman and Cody's previous work

fwiw it doesn't resemble the other Reitman flicks much at all. it's pretty close to a no-frills character study.

and appropriately it will probably earn fewer accolades than all his other flicks.

I liked the 'prelude' and the wow finish of Melancholia, but not a lot else. (so yeah it's way better than Dogville)

finally saw The Help tonight, which should definitely be a ride at Disneyland.

The least they can do is offer a Terrible Awful at the concession stand

Liked Antichrist a good bit despite its legitimately questionable premise. Melancholia was mostly shit. The high-speed cam prologue was probably the worst part of the film. It was used effectively in Antichrist but it was pretty corny LOL Art Film in Melancholia.

And I'm glad The Tree of Life is on there even if I was one of 2 holdouts.

why exactly?

you know, Ambition, Pitt, Lubezki

(unless you mean why did I not think it was one of the 20 best?)

wow, was My Week With Marilyn vaporous -- an irrelevant movie.

was it redeemed at all by MW?

The freckled lede is cute, and Williams had her moments, but Branagh wasn't the least bit convincing.

*lead

Eddie Redmayne playing an unconvincing str8 again?

Kept wishing Branagh would "dear boy" him into bed.

Guess I'll have to finally watch Savage Grace.

that kid was soooo creepy as Matt Damon's son in The Good Shepherd

like, I never want to see him again creepy.

Chicago Film Critics Association (voters include Ebert and my Film Critic Friend):

Picture: The Tree of Life
Director: Terrence Malick — The Tree of Life
Actor: Michael Shannon — Take Shelter
Actress: Michelle Williams — My Week with Marilyn
Supporting Actor: Albert Brooks — Drive
Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain — The Tree of Life
Best Original Screenplay: Michel Hazanavicius — The Artist
Best Adapted Screenplay: Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin — Moneyball
Best Cinematography: The Tree of Life — Emmanuel Lubezki
Best Original Score: Drive — Cliff Martinez
Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation
Best Animated Film: Rango
Best Documentary: The Interrupters
Most Promising Performer: Elizabeth Olsen — Martha Marcy May Marlene
Most Promising Filmmaker: Sean Durkin — Martha Marcy May Marlene

dullsville ^ also steve saillian and sorkin is b.s.

Williams is cleaning up.

playing a dead celebrity = award bait

meryl streep - julia child
Marion Cotillard - edith Piaf
Cate Blanchett - Queen Elizabeth I
reese witherspoon - june carter
salma hayak - frida

and my confreres of the Florida Film Critics:

Alexander Payne’s The Descendants, the comic drama starring George Clooney as a man whose life is upended after his wife is seriously injured in a boating accident, won three awards at the Florida Film Critics Circle’s year-end honors, include Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (for Shailene Woodley) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash.)

Michael Fassbender was named Best Actor for his portrayal of a sex addict in the NC-17 drama Shame. Michelle Williams won Best Actress for her performance as Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn. Albert Brooks collected yet another Best Supporting Actor honor for his turn as a murderous gangster in Drive.

Best Original Screenplay: Michel Hazanavicius — The Artist

"original"

The only one of the repeat winners I'm cool with is Brooks.

I really only loved Brooks in one scene in particular (that last one with Walter White).

The performance clicked once I imagined him as his nest egg whiner in Lost in America suddenly going homicidal.

drive winning the michael mann award this year for, you know, cool shots of action that are Art.
michael fassbender winning the gary oldman award for showing his Bidness grittily
descendents winning the peter greenaway award for movie that people with uppercrust aspirations talk about over tapas parties.

all goes to my theory that all most awards are bestowed on the most conspicuous, egregious display of capital T talent in the niche area of filmmaking (cinematography, editing, gender dynamic) that the organization/bestowing critic values the most highly, with not a helluvalot of concern about the actual movies

I dunno, remy: cinema would be vastly improved with more scenes at tapas parties.

I've yet to see any Greenaway films, good or bad, that seemed like The Descendants.

but yeah I prefer The Muppets to nearly all the award winners.

I prefer Muppets Take Manhattan.

more Serkis awards, pls.

pref Capt Haddock to Caesar

Nothing by Greenaway is anything like the Descendents – just discussed in similar wine-affecting circles

affectationing? ehh, screwit

Caught Young Adult this morning - admirably grim and, for Cody specifically, self-effacing. (Key scene near the end fails to deliver the goods, though.)

― Simon H., Sunday, December 18, 2011 2:07 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Permalink
fwiw it doesn't resemble the other Reitman flicks much at all. it's pretty close to a no-frills character study.

― Simon H., Sunday, December 18, 2011 4:00 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Permalink

and appropriately it will probably earn fewer accolades than all his other flicks.

― Simon H., Sunday, December 18, 2011 4:02 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Permalink

this is all otm and i will push and shove to the front of the line of previously despising reitman

http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/39591/oscarmetrics-the-case-for-brad-pitt-plus-six-questions-that-could-reshape-the-race

6. Does the fact that this wasn’t a great year for movies affect the race? I know the premise of this question is a fight-starter, but look at the films. To choose two recent points of comparison: 2011 is not 2009, which featured in its Best Picture contest a blockbuster that was also a groundbreaker (Avatar), an instant classic about war (The Hurt Locker), a high-water mark for Pixar (Up), a Sundance breakout that dwarfed any this year (Precious), a rare studio movie that tapped into the economic zeitgeist (Up In the Air) and a major Tarantino comeback (Inglorious Basterds). 2011 is also not 2007, a year in which There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, Into The Wild, and The Diving Bell and The Butterfly seemed to herald a renaissance of American directing.

This year was, relatively speaking, a tentative and uncertain one for American movies. What this Oscar contest offers is a series of choices between the good-but-not-great and the great-but-flawed. The reason that matters is that masterpieces raise our standards and sharpen our thinking. A year in which three or four all-out great movies are at the center of the race raises the bar in every category because they remind us that there’s a difference between the merely good and the truly outstanding.

2011 is a year with a different complexion—one in which voters will have to decide what matters to them most. Those who go for the just-good-enough (“I liked it,” “it made me smile,” “I thought it was sweet,” “It was nice to escape for a couple of hours,” and so on) have plenty from which to choose. But there are other voters who prefer to champion filmmakers who take bold leaps even if the results are imperfect. Those voters constitute enough of a coalition to defy, usually once a year, the predictions of those who say that a movie is too dark, arty or alienating to be recognized by the Academy. That’s one reason I think The Tree of Life is still in the hunt for a Best Picture nomination. But it’ll be interesting to see if that odd, loose voting bloc — which can include, at various times, New Yorkers, Brits, Europeans, writers and directors, younger members and recent inductees — is powerful enough to unite around any other film or performance. What will they champion? Drive? A Separation? Shame? Take Shelter? Or will 2011 go down in Oscar history as a year in which “good enough” was as good as it got?

guy is daft about '09

and 2007...

Otherwise Harris' essays have been as much a pleasure as Oscarbuzz crap can be.