Outrageously good?
Film Oscars 2025
- Thread starter Salt Bailly
- Start date
The Oscars have become way too insular. I don't know if it's because the campaigning swallowed them up, or the growing gap between financial success and critical acclaim, or what. But they're very bad at picking anything with staying power these days.
Last edited:
Is it me or that's a terribly weak apology? Sprinkled with a little "Even me, a european white actress nominated to the Oscars, have suffered from this" on top?
Has anybody seen The Brutalist? Is it good? I liked the trailer but I'm not sure if I want to invest the runtime of 1.1 Titanics on it.
I liked The Substance but it isn't even close to the kind of movie that I would expect to win best picture. Haven't seen the rest but I only have some interest in seeing Conclave and Anora.
Is staying power necessarily a sign of quality?
Just finished the Conclave. A solid 8 for me but it's all Ralph Fienes and the rest is just meh. I haven't watched the rest (planning for Emilia Perez tomorrow) but hard to top his performances. It's practically a one man show for him
Conclave and Anora are good films. Like you, most of the other noms aren't that interesting to me. Emilia Perez sounds sort of fascinating (in a negative way), might give it a watch just to see if it's as bad as it seems
I see Kieran Culkin has been nominated for best supporting actor in A Real Pain.
I think that’s a good shout. He was great and thought the film was really good (unexpectedly). There’s so many layers to his character that you aren’t told fully and it leaves you discussing him well after the film ended.
Hope he gets it. Rated this performance.
I think that’s a good shout. He was great and thought the film was really good (unexpectedly). There’s so many layers to his character that you aren’t told fully and it leaves you discussing him well after the film ended.
Hope he gets it. Rated this performance.
I think so, yeah. But I'm thinking more about 'they' not knowing how to pick 'Best Pictures' anymore.
The list of winners from the 70s is incredible and (mostly) has staying power: Patton, The French Connection, The Godfather, The Sting, The Godfather II, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rocky, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs Kramer. Most of those are regularly in 'top films of the 70s' lists. But I think it was easier to pick these winners because many of these movies were massive hits. Some of them were the highest grossing movie of the year they were released in. So you have audience reception, critical reception, 'cultural impact', all these are helpful cues to make a pick that is more likely (but by no means certain) to be a "genuine" great movie than a "flash in the pan."
But now these types of movies don't make that much money, some don't even get much of a theatrical release, and a lot of them are good in quality. So the voter has less cues to guide them, and I think they end up led by the 'consensus' (which is often the product of campaigning) or stupid horseshit like 'backlash against the frontrunner.'
She tweets like a John Waters character from Pink Flamingos.
I mean remaking a film with a better cast and a better director, making it twice as long and yet somehow managing to have less depth of character, symbolism and narrative cohesion and still winning Best Picture and Best Adapted screenplay is certainly outrageously something
But it did have a lot more shouting in fairness
Last edited:
Very funny how god awful every Oscar nominee is this year
She's French, what do you expect.
(I'm French it's ok I can say this)
The whole ceremony should be a 3h loop of wholesome David Lynch clips and interviews.
You didn’t enjoy the Substance then?
As a body horror about self hatred it’s fine. It’s worth watching for Demi Moore great performance.
But it has nothing to say on the modern world. Why is a fitness show and New Years Eve talk show the most popular tv programs in 2024 ? What benefit does Demi Moore get from the taking the substance ? How are Demi Moore and Sue the same character ? Why doesn’t social media exist in this film ?
The answer to all of these is because the Fargeat is more interested in cheap references to horror movies of the past than anything else. Ironically the film does in fact lack substance.
I recently saw a critic describe the Substance as the Sue version of a David Cronenberg film which is a pretty spot on description.
Agreed. There are some great films in there alongside some dismal ones.
Pretty poor considering the last 20 years of film
The first part of Hurt Locker is good, the Guy Pearce scene, and it quickly goes downhill after that before becoming unintentionally hilarious.
Departed isn’t in Scorsese’s top 5 for me. It was entertaining but my god Wagkberg and DiCaprio suck. The films you listed seem grandiose, (successful) Oscar bait. LOTR is the only keeper in that bunch.
Argo was entertaining even though the real mission wasn’t anywhere near as sexy and dangerous. Affleck is a very good director (mediocre actor). I also liked CODA.
Thank feck Gravity didn’t win anything, wow, what a dumb fecking movie that was! I liked La La Land though.
Mostly same opinion.
Good answer
Yes and yes. Crash is stunningly bad with some laughable acting. The worst best picture winner I can think of.
I think it was the Academy making amends to Scorsese, a career achievement award.
She killed her and the movie’s chances of winning anything. Anora is fun.
It didn’t feel at all like a Scorsese movie, although its miles better than his recent two.
Yeah, it's not a bad watch if you turn off your brain and not try to make sense of it. The director and many critics see it as something deeper than its trashy and mindless nature. When you dissect it, its content is very surface level and any interesting ideas are buried in the dumb script and sacrificed for the director to show off. Fargeat doesn't seem like a good writer. If anyone has seen her first film, it's not a great film but has a much simpler idea and script and is better than The Substance because of it.
I disagree with just about everything you wrote, but even so it wasn't like it was up againt great films as far as I am concerned. Looking at the BP nominees from that year it's hard to argue they didn't pick the right winner.
It did win a ton if Oscars though, Best Director included. I think it's a great cinematic achievement, and it was a brilliant watch in the cinema. I would love to see it again in IMAX.
Parasite and Birdman stand out as my favourites out of that. But I’m surprised at just how many I’ve not seen. Special mention to the hurt locker and moonlight for being painfully bad
Pretty poor considering the last 20 years of film
Did it? feck. Maybe I was in jail that year and don’t watch the broadcast. Two words for how bad that movie is: George Clooney!!