Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Let me file that under fuck it.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

T R E 4 5 O N

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

So many bastards, so little time.

You are here: Home / TV & Movies / Movies / Late Night Movie Open Thread: More Oscar Buzz

Late Night Movie Open Thread: More Oscar Buzz

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Also, there are people who are mad at the Washington Post‘s film reviewer because she [SPOILER!] accurately describes what happened to the ‘star’ of biopic American Sniper. Not everybody pays attention to the news! Not even the ones who read newspaper reviews, apparently…

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52Comments

  1. 1.

    Tree With Water

    Please don’t tell me the sniper in question is the one that topped himself at a gun range in Texas. Because I’m a big Clint Eastwood fan. In fact, I’ve decided Unforgiven is the greatest western of them all.

    Then again, the man talks to empty chairs nowadays, doesn’t he?

  3. 3.

    Marc

    Maybe, just maybe, portraying the opposite of the documented record (and the truth) about a major historical figure in a movie claiming to be historical bothers people for reasons not tied to race. Perhaps if the director hadn’t turned the historical LBJ upside down to make him a civil rights villain the movie might be getting a better reaction. Just saying.

  4. 4.

    Mike in NC

    Clint Eastwood needs to seriously retire. Isn’t he rich enough?

    The Washington Post used to employ a gun nut movie critic named Stephen Hunter. Thank God they got rid of that wingnut hack.

  6. 6.

    srv

    Robert Downey Jr. should just do a movie every year in blackface and then he could get renominated.

  8. 8.

    Mike J

    @wasabi gasp: He’s come out as anti fracking, but I don’t know how the pope will do on the red carpet. The previous guy? Oh yeah, he knew all about the expensive shoes.

  9. 9.

    Alison

    I’m getting a “Join the NRA and get a free pocket knife” ad, for some odd reason. You’d have better luck getting Joni Ernst to join PETA.

  11. 11.

    ruemara

    @Marc: you keep saying he’s the villain. He’s not. It’s a level of complications that has played out in real-time, such as ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell via executive order versus Congress. At a certain point in Obama’s history, many lgbt blogs were sure of his secret homophobia. It sure looks different now. If you tell the story in a movie of these times from the perspective of the activists, you’re going to be very upset with Barack Obama’s seeming reluctance and waffling. The fact that the activists do triumph will not erase all that.

  12. 12.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @Tree With Water:

    Unforgiven is the greatest western of them all.

    Sorry, that would be Outlaw Josey Wales…. or if you’re not in a Clint Eastwood mood, Lonely Are the Brave.

  13. 13.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @Mike in NC: Hunter, formerly of the Baltimore Sun. Writes sniper novels now. Some good, some bad. The latest, set on the Eastern Front, flipping back and forth between the present and 1944 wasn’t too bad.

  14. 14.

    lamh36

    @ruemara: I’ve goven up on this guy. It’s obvious he has his ax to grind and no matter what is said by people who have seen the film or what is actually written by people who have seen the film, this guy says EXACTLY the same thing on this subject. I’m not kiddin go check out previous pair on this and he says the same thing.

    No matter how many time you tell em that the LBJ was not the villain in the movie, there was more focus on the villainy in the real overt racism of the time, but doesn’t matter. Nevermind he hasn’t seen the movie (I don’t believe anyone who has would be continue to tow his line. In fact even people who weren’t happy about the LBJ portrayalnone the less agreed the movie was beautifully directed and acted and filmed

    Im done even engagin him directly on the topic

  15. 15.

    lamh36

    As Spike Lee said in an interview today…”fuck em”. I’ll say it again, this week end of all weekends I hope people go out and see Selma for themselves. It is a great film and deserves better treatment than its been given on the part of people who won’t even see the film

    ‘Selma’ gets snubbed by Oscar, but not the Obamas

    “Selma” might have gotten a cold shoulder from Oscar — it earned a “best picture” nomination, but director Ava DuVernay notably was frozen out of the “best director” category, and its actors didn’t get nods — but it’s getting a warm welcome elsewhere. Specifically, from the White House, which is hosting a Friday screening of the film, set during Alabama’s famed civil rights protests.

    The intimate late-afternoon gathering (one source said it would be “a very small group”) will include members of the cast and crew, including Common (whose song “Glory,” written with John Legend, received an Oscar nomination for best original song), and Washington notables like Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.). We’re on high alert for an Oprah sighting (she was a “Selma” producer).

  17. 17.

    wasabi gasp

    The machinations of the Oscar process and results has always been a sloppy mess. I can sometimes understand being upset about particular instances of snub, but tallying black and white nominees isn’t a helpful fix.

    Then there’s last year’s Best Picture. I thought Twelve Years a Slave, while possibly important in its own right, was not a film worthy of a nomination, let alone Best Picture Oscar. But it did win. And then went on to win a total of three. But Gravity took seven, so…snub…or something.

  19. 19.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @wasabi gasp:

    Yeah, but other than Best Director, Gravity won in film nerd categories. Hell, even Best Director is something of a film nerd category.

    OTOH, 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress, which, imo, resonate much more with casual viewers. I think that if you use a figurative set of scales, 12 Years a Slave‘s awards outweigh Gravity‘s.

  22. 22.

    cckids

    @lamh36:

    I’ll say it again, this week end of all weekends I hope people go out and see Selma for themselves.

    I can’t see it till next week, but it is #1 on my list right now. At least one of the theaters here in Vegas is letting students (any age) in to see Selma free this weekend. They just have to bring some kind of student ID or report card or something.

    I think that is a great thing to do.

  24. 24.

    JDreyer

    Best Pic: They’ll pick Grand Budapest. The Academy has a history of going with lighter fare over more serious stuff for best pic. Remember how they went with Shakespeare in Love over Private Ryan, or Chicago over The Pianist?

    Best Actor: Keaton, both for his performance and nostalgia. Cooper has an outside chance because War Movie.

    Best Actress: Moore. Haven’t seen it, but everyone says her performance is amazing, and she’s basically incredible in everything else I’ve seen her in. Also the Academy loves the After School Special.

    Supporting Actor: Simmons. Just an amazing performance.

    Supporting Actress: Arquette, not because it’s the best, but because the Academy will want to throw Boyhood a bone for it’s rather amazing accomplishment.

    Directing: I’d say it’s a tossup between Anderson and Inarritu. Too close to call.

    Animation: Big Hero 6

    Cinemetography: Budapest. Shots are framed, lit, and shot so perfectly, but also so blatantly that even Academy members can’t miss it.

    Best Costumes: Hard one to call. Going with Budapest for the momentum vote.

    Documentary: Going with the Edward Snowden one. Academy members notoriously don’t watch all the docus, so I’m going with the one about the most famous person.

    Skipping a few here. I really don’t think Zimmer will win score for Interstellar. That score was too on the nose.

    Best Song: Going with The Lego Movie song, because it was everywhere.

    Skipping a bunch more.

    Visual Effects: Tough one to pick, but going to go with Apes. All of those movies had fantastic effects though. Interstellar would be my second choice because they used Science for their black hole.

  29. 29.

    raven

    What I have read in the review is a caption on the picture that notes how Kyle died. Do reviewers write photo captions? Otherwise it’s a pretty weak review.

  30. 30.

    Keith G

    Zzzzzzz

    Edit

    The Academy’s history is so fraught with “trouble”, it’s process so corruptible, it’s logic so Byzantine, that anyone complaining of unfairness might as well be complaining that outhouses stink.

  33. 33.

    Keith G

    @raven: Writ large, making movies is about creating a package that earns it’s financial investors a (hopefully large) return. Luckily every now and then a film maker pops up who does a bit of an end around run and creates an actual bit of visual art. Ava DuVernay seems to have done so. I say ‘seems’ since I have yet to see the film.

    That good, even great, directors are getting overlooked by the Academy is an ongoing story. I do not know what their deal is, but long ago I gave up caring.

  35. 35.

    Alex S.

    There are too many biopics. 4 of 8 best picture nominations are biopics, not counting Boyhood. Did it really have to be The Imitation Game AND The Theory of Everything? Gay English scientist vs. disabled English scientist? If Unbroken had been nominated, there would have been another biopic. Biopics are for people who are too lazy to read books.

  36. 36.

    zzyzx

    Why people care about who wins an awards ceremony that has no defined standards other than it’s what a few dozen people like has always confused me, but I’m an outsider to movie/tv culture for the most part. I watch a couple a year and that’s about it.

  38. 38.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I would think the snubing of Selma would be less about LBJ and more about it not being a blackplotation movie full of stock African American characters The fact that the Lego movie which is a cerebration of creativity got ignored says it all about the way Hollywood thinks.

  41. 41.

    Marc

    @ruemara: FYI, there seem to be two people around here posting with the same name. I was the one posting in the thread last night, not the guy at comment 3.

    It’s also worth noting that unlike this other commenter, I haven’t said Selma portrays LBJ as “the villain.” That is a handy argument for you and lamh36 to respond to, since it’s so much easier to dismiss.

    Perhaps you two should thank this other commenter who uses my name for making it in such a timely manner!

  42. 42.

    Marc

    @lamh36:

    It’s obvious he has his ax to grind and no matter what is said by people who have seen the film or what is actually written by people who have seen the film, this guy says EXACTLY the same thing on this subject.

    Might want to take a look at your own comments there, buddy.

  43. 43.

    Paul in KY

    I did really enjoy Grand Budapest Hotel. Thought the young man who played the Lobby Boy should have got consideration for a supporting Oscar.

  44. 44.

    MCA1

    Wait, didn’t a biopic about a black man win best picture last year, with one of its black actors also getting an Oscar, for a film in which white people were portrayed some of the most evil mofo’s ever? Now all of the sudden because the director didn’t get a nomination for Selma, while the film did get nominated, everyone’s all white biased and stuff? Does not compute. Also, best director went to a Mexican guy last year.

    I haven’t seen Selma, but it’s not as rare now to have a film nominated without its director getting the complimentary nomination, now that there are up to 10 best picture nominees but still just 5 best director nominees. Maybe it’s not that much of a feat to portray the story of Martin Luther King, Jr. and have it rise to a best picture type of film, I don’t know. Maybe it’s wonderfully directed and it’s an oddity in the voting.

    On a separate topic, I don’t doubt that American Sniper will not be that good. In addition to the apparent unwillingness to tell the whole story, or to grapple with any of the obvious topics that could be explored in telling the story of a soldier who killed hundreds of Arabs, Eastwood’s lost his touch. He hasn’t made a better than pretty good film since Letters from Iwo Jima, and that was 9 years ago. That’s got nothing to do with his 2012 RNC embarrasment or his politics generally. He still mostly handles characters with care, but there’s a lack of depth to his treatment of subject matter generally and his hand is heavy, and tipped too early, when there are any thematic elements that go beyond the particular psychology of individual characters. See Million Dollar Baby, as one prominent example.

    To the person upthread who predicted Grand Budapest Hotel wins best picture: you’re nuts. Boyhood’s like 2-5 odds.

  45. 45.

    gogol's wife

    Cary Grant and Barbara Stanwyck never won competitive Oscars. ’nuff said.
    ETA: oh, and Alfred Hitchcock

  46. 46.

    Elizabelle

    @Paul in KY: Yeah, I loved Grand Budapest. Glad to see it get some Oscar nomination love.

    And that young actor was terrific, as were Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton (in her brief part). Think the actors enjoyed their roles. (Willem Dafoe, in particular.)

  48. 48.

    Cervantes

    @ruemara:

    At a certain point in Obama’s history, many lgbt blogs were sure of his secret homophobia. It sure looks different now. If you tell the story in a movie of these times from the perspective of the activists, you’re going to be very upset with Barack Obama’s seeming reluctance and waffling.

    That’s a fair point. Are you suggesting that what the movie portrays is LBJ’s “secret racism” and his “seeming reluctance and waffling” — the way these things were perceived by Dr. King et al. at the time?

  49. 49.

    ruemara

    @Marc: 1. Responding to comment 3, if that’s not you, then it’s not about you so why are you talking to me about it?

    2. Comment 3’s Marc clearly says LBJ is portrayed as a civil rights villain. Again, not my axe to grind.

    3. Seriously, you’re saying it’s not you so jumped into this thread to say that’s not you but I’m the one with an axe to grind?

  51. 51.

    tam1MI

    @Marc: Your contention that SELMA got snubbed in the Directing category because of the Academy’s deep reverence for historical accuracy is refuted by it’s inclusion in the Best Picture category, not to mention the inclusion of the risible AMERICAN SNIPER.

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