Comments | dawn_felagund: The 2015 Oscar Post!

dawn_felagund

The 2015 Oscar Post!

Feb 22, 2015 10:34

I started doing this last year, since discovering the Majestic Theater in Gettysburg means that I do actually get the opportunity to see many of the Academy Award nominees each year. (We live just far enough from Baltimore and DC to make it impractical to go there just to see a movie, and our local theaters don't tend to show them. Good movies ( Read more... )

academy awards, movie

Comments 17

samtyr February 23 2015, 04:07:22 UTC

I was really hoping that 'Guardians of the Galaxy' would do better because, dang, that movie was *fun*! :)

Because while I adore 'serious cinema' (maybe a little too much sometimes, more than once I've been called a 'movie snob') sometimes I just want to go out and relax for a couple of hours, y'know?

dawn_felagund February 23 2015, 04:28:37 UTC

I loved GotG! :) And I think it was better than some of the Best Picture nominees. But I knew going in that it was in the class of movie that wouldn't even get looked at by the Academy for more than the technical categories. Which is a shame. I wish they could relax in some of the categories the way they have in the animated categories.

(I'm also a movie snob! :D)

samtyr February 23 2015, 05:14:55 UTC

To be honest, I went to see GotG expecting to sit through a scifi movie being at least entertained. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I was utterly *charmed* by it!

Apparently though, they decided to give GBH with awards. And sadly, I can't say I'm surprised that Cumberbatch didn't win either because Oscar has no balls. (Yes, I'm still bitter about 2006.)

dawn_felagund February 24 2015, 00:38:51 UTC

I think Cumberbatch's loss was the one I was most disgruntled about. I felt like he did a phenomenal job in The Imitation Game and really brought so much emotional power to the role. He pulled me in, and while I loved Kiera Knightley in her role, Cumberbatch stole the show. The movie was mediocre without him. (He also made me a fan of Benedict Cumberbatch! :)

Eddie Redmayne was excellent as well as Stephen Hawking, but I didn't feel like he was as powerful in his role. (Also, as my husband pointed out when we were driving home, the fact that Redmayne had ample examples of Hawking's mannerisms and speech made his job somewhat easier than Cumberbatch's, who had to create a challenging character from whole cloth.)

binkaslibrary February 23 2015, 07:13:59 UTC

I haven't seen any of these films yet. However, I kept my fingers crossed for our movie "Ida" in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

AND WE HAVE IT!!!

\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/

dawn_felagund February 24 2015, 00:41:05 UTC

I was thrilled for Ida (and for Poland! Yay mother country! :D) It was the only of the Foreign Language nominees that I've seen so far, but it was incredible: so powerful, so brilliantly written and acted. So my sincerest congratulations! :D

binkaslibrary February 24 2015, 07:09:50 UTC

Thank you! "Ida" is a Polish/Danish co-production so both hrymfaxe and I are happy :D

Dziękuję!

dawn_felagund February 24 2015, 22:57:42 UTC

Woohoo! That makes me doubly happy too, for both of my friends who countries were honored! :D

talullahred February 23 2015, 09:09:09 UTC

I still have several of those movies on my 'to watch' folder, so I can't comment with a comprehensive view, but I loved reading your post ( ... )

dawn_felagund February 24 2015, 00:55:46 UTC

I just loved Patricia Arquette in Boyhood. I saw the movie months ago, but hers was the character that stuck with me the most. I read an article that said she was something of a lead in a supporting role. I agreed with that: The "boy" in "boyhood" is obviously the lead, but her struggles, her triumphs were the ones that felt most compelling to me.

I haven't seen Still Alice yet, but it is on my list! Whiplash is out tomorrow, and my husband and I are planning to watch it this weekend. If I like it, I might break my fannish monogamy long enough to read that story. ;)

I think it sits on the edge of the razor, it just shows and abstains from telling you what to think, which is great - I'm so done with moralizing movies... but maybe it could show a little bit more, to push it over the edge? Like Kyle's darker side, which is completely left out?Yes, I felt like it needed to go a bit further. As it stands, I feel like it confirms whatever opinion the viewer brings to the theater. My father-in-law, a firearms instructor and red-blooded ' ( ... )

talullahred February 24 2015, 07:54:38 UTC

Whiplash slash -> meh, don't waste your time. I was sorely disappointed. I didn't read the whole 14 stories that were on AO3, but those I did, well... they are predictable.

dawn_felagund February 24 2015, 22:41:50 UTC

Bah. I guess I shall remain monogamous after all! :D

angelica_ramses February 23 2015, 23:10:28 UTC

Try to watch Wild Tales just to see how crazy we Argentines are ;)

dawn_felagund February 24 2015, 02:46:08 UTC

Added to the list--thank you! :) The only nominee in the Foreign Language category that I've seen so far is Ida (the Majestic gets relatively few foreign language films for whatever reason), but I'm looking at the IMDb entry now, and this looks really intriguing!

ignoblebard February 24 2015, 20:33:56 UTC

I didn't see all the Oscar nominees this year, or indeed even most of them, but after watching the awards the two I want to see are Whilplash and Still Alice. I was glad to see J.K. Simmons win. I've always thought he was a good actor, and he sure can play a scary son of a bitch. I remember his turn as a neonazi on Oz. Chilling ( ... )

dawn_felagund February 24 2015, 22:53:30 UTC

Few people know that Alzheimer's used to be called presenile dementia, which meant it turned up before a person got old. Then doctors didn't want to diagnose if for a while, now it's back to being a thing again. They really need to find effective treatments for it. A cure would be better but I don't see that in the offing anytime soon.

Alzheimer's is probably my greatest fear. To be so afflicted would be to lose the things I value the most. I am less afraid of pain and far less afraid of death.

I remember as a psych undergrad 10ish years ago being taught that Alzheimer's couldn't be diagnosed before death (although there were certain circumstances where a diagnosis was fairly certain) and that it wasn't deadly. I hear references now to both diagnosis and death of Alzheimer's, so I'm assuming thinking has changed on this subject.

Anyway, to come back around to cheerier Oscar territory :D ... I remember seeing discussion of Still Alice now. It is definitely on my to-see list.

the academy always rewards a turn as a real person, ( ... )

ignoblebard February 26 2015, 01:37:40 UTC

I agree about Alzheimers/Dementia. It robs a person of their personality, everything that makes us who we are. I think people don't die of Alzheimer's per se but of various complications.

LOL about Birdman. I liked that movie but I don't think I would have chosen it over The Imitation Game, and Cumberbatch would have won any other year.

That's what I like about the awards too, the pre-Oscar hype, seeing who and what is getting the buzz and how that fluctuates over the season, which movies sound like something I should seek out and which I can wait for on cable. We don't get a lot of the nominated movies here, especially the smaller independents, but a lot of times they'll play at the theaters after the Oscars and that makes the dry season more bearable.