OSCAR NOMINATIONS OMG

[cleolinda]

@christylemire: Greetings from the Academy. It's Hollywood's biggest morning. We are all very glamorous. And jacked up on caffeine.

@ropeofsilicon: Hugo leads the pack with 11 nominations followed by The Artist with 10.

Comments

[keleri]

Bridesmaids is pretty funny. Basically, the character Megan steals the entire show. So hard. There are some good moments aside from her, but she is the best.

I saw a preview for Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close and I was overcome with disgust. I really hate overt emotional manipulation in movies (e.g. cheaply referencing major human disasters to get the audience to feel sad) and this is a movie that is entirely cheap emotional manipulation.

[cleolinda]

See, because... yeah. I saw the EL&IC preview and was just... ugh. I feel bad just outright saying, "This looks terrible and I will never see it," because any opinions or "facts" I feel tempted to spout after that will have no basis in reality. But... well. I'll just point out what critics who did see it have said. I'm sure there are positive reviews somewhere, but I have not come across them.

Also, the flipbook of the jumper in reverse that was apparently in the book. I can't even.

[darth_snarky]

I had to find a copy of the book and see that for myself because I couldn't believe it. It's there. I saw the pictures and did not flip and put it right back on the store's shelf.

[greyduck]

Wait, that's an ACTUAL THING?

Buh.

(I will never, ever, see EL&IC. It looks as mechanically manipulative as FUCK, and that particular day in history is one I do NOT like to revisit for any reason at any time.)

[cleolinda]

I think there's a reason WWII movies (and, in War Horse's case, WWI) are so popular: most of us weren't around at the time.

[greyduck]

There's a lot of potential subject matter and ground to cover, though, with a dubya-dubya film. For 9/11, it's pretty much "planes hit buildings, people died horribly, and here's what happened next." At that point you either make a documentary, or you go for the maudlin sappy angle.

[cleolinda]

Well, I think Pearl Harbor is the direct 9/11 analogue there; you could make movies set either overseas or "back at the home front" during the Iraq/Afghanistan engagements. I mean, that's basically what movies like The Hurt Locker and Brothers are. Who knows how pop culture will look back on this past decade 20, 30, 40 years from now? I mean, I know WWII is portrayed as a rah-rah feel-good war we can all be proud of, but even Vietnam has its own well-regarded subgenre of films. And yet, the Platoon/Full Metal Jacket twofer didn't show up until 1986-1987. If Vietnam ended in 1975--that would be the equivalent of Iraq War movies showing up ten years from now.

I think there could be a lot of movies made about the effects of war in 2001-2011. I just don't think people are going to want to see them for a while.

[greyduck]

Good points, there. It's not just 9/11 itself, it's the things we got up to on account of it. I'll give you that one.

Perhaps pop culture will look back on these years and collectively facepalm...

[darth_snarky]

We did get a Dubya biopic (though I don't know anyone who saw it), and the movie of V for Vendetta definitely seemed to be working the post-9/11 angle hard (particularly the marketing). Though nowadays the Fawkes mask seems to have nothing to do with either what that story was about or the Gunpowder Plot. But it is really soon, and I think usually the earliest movies dealing with a war or similar are more indirect--MASH was about Vietnam, but set in Korea and there's a whole host of stuff dealing with the peak of the Cold War and McCarthyism that pretty much sticks to plots that didn't literally happen (Manchurian Candidate, Johnny Guitar, Invasion of the Body Snatchers).

But of course, dealing with a difficult event indirectly means you can't appropriate that event for maudlin, manipulative purposes.

Eta: Honestly, the movie that most makes think of the Bush years is Brazil, which obviously was not an intentional commentary on post-9/11 America. Though TSA so would make a Tuttle/Buttle mistake.

fawkes masks

[sevenmarie]

yeah, My husband was V for Halloween this year and when i bought his mask the kid at the store was like "oh, anon right"

and the rest of the conversation went approximately thus:

me: umm hell no those guys are assholes, this is V
him: blank stare
me:was like whats that and I'm all v...for vendetta? the movie this mask is from (pointing at the tag)
him: never heard of it
me: well take you 12-year-old self to the video store or even pirate bay* and get that shit. that movie is awesome *paid and walked out in an old-lady rage*

*note to internet police: i certainly did NOT encourage a minor to pirate a movie.....yeah

Re: fawkes masks

[darth_snarky]

I still don't get people wearing them for Occupy protests. I mean, what?

(Also, I think the mask use was originally inspired by the movie--the initial bout of Scientology protests weren't long after.)

[julietvalcouer]

I can't see it for reasons related to but different from why I cannot watch United 93--in the latter case, I lived it first-hand in DC, I really don't want to go through it again. In the former...I know it's been 10 years now but I'm still not ready for treacley family drama quasi-magical-realism coming of age stuff about 9/11.

Jumper flipbook--never mind, I don't want to know.

[rachelmanija]

Even if it was good, I wouldn't want to see it. There are some things that I just don't want to subject myself to, and that is one of them.

(Only piece of 9/11 art I have liked to date: Bruce Springsteen's album The Rising. Oh, and Ex Machina managed to reference it in what I felt was a thoughtful and non-exploitative manner, but mileage probably varies more on that one.)

[notemily]

Love Ex Machina.

[foresthouse]

I did actually say pretty much that, out loud, as soon as the trailer stopped playing. Just...eurgh.

[detritius]

I haven't seen it either, and I do sort of feel bad for having such a strong reaction based entirely on trailers and hearsay, but Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close makes me very uncomfortable in a variety of different ways. If it wasn't bad enough that it appears to be using 9/11 as a backdrop just to wring emotion of of its viewers, but it also gives me the impression that it's using Asperger's Syndrome/Autism Spectrum Disorder/something along those lines as something for its kid protagonist to overcome in a contrived feel-good way, which also strikes me as incredibly skeevy. I don't know for a fact that this movie is really doing any of these things, but it seems like an obscenely manipulative piece that trivializes the suffering and struggles of real people in an attempt to cloak itself in borrowed gravitas, and that sense alone is enough for me to avoid ever seeing it and to not want it nominated for anything.