Best Book or Movie of The Year 2014

TheTastyGreek · February 9, 2015

Quoted you two, but anyone else who has seen them feel free to answer...thoughts on the live-action shorts?

I kept up with 3 academy-eligible festivals last year, and the only one nominated that was programmed at any of them was Butter Lamp.

I didn't see it, I didn't hear anything about it, and I don't think it won anything. So, probably don't go with Butter Lamp in your Oscar pool.

Censored by Laurie · February 9, 2015

I kept up with 3 academy-eligible festivals last year, and the only one nominated that was programmed at any of them was Butter Lamp.

I didn't see it, I didn't hear anything about it, and I don't think it won anything. So, probably don't go with Butter Lamp in your Oscar pool.

thought it and Aya were the best of the lot. the other three were disappointing.

Coffee and TV · February 9, 2015

Despite lacking the shade of grey that historians paint LBJ with during the civil rights era, Selma was a really, really well done film.

CMJ · February 9, 2015

Quoted you two, but anyone else who has seen them feel free to answer...thoughts on the live-action shorts?

Haven't gotten around to seeing the Live Action shorts yet.

golfingomez · February 9, 2015

my best movies list...
Interstellar(greatness in just about all regards)

Whiplash (JK Simmons made this movie)

Nightcrawler(Gyllenhaal is so underrated)

X-Men: Days of Future Past(just thought it was a really good movie)

movies on the outside looking in:

Fury(Cliche story, but really good characters, the breakfast scene in Germany was amazing)

Blue Ruin(Good, but it was missing something)

Edge of Tomorrow(Was surprised by this)

Still haven't seen:

Enemy (which i've heard good things about)

Imitation Game

Theory of Everything

Selma

TheTastyGreek · February 9, 2015

Blue Ruin(Good, but it was missing something)

If you liked Blue Ruin that much, keep an eye out for Slow West whenever it gets a release.

Not identical; Slow West is a period Western. But, having seen both... I think you'll really like it.

golfingomez · February 10, 2015

If you liked Blue Ruin that much, keep an eye out for Slow West whenever it gets a release.

Not identical; Slow West is a period Western. But, having seen both... I think you'll really like it.

just looked it up... it's got fassbender and Ben Mendelsohn?

I'm in

CMJ · February 10, 2015

I thought Blue Ruin was fantastic. Like i said earlier, I got an early Coen Brother vibe from it. Spare, bleak, but still funny. Kind of like Blood Simple.

Edited February 10, 2015 by CMJ

TheTastyGreek · February 10, 2015

I thought Blue Ruin was fantastic. Like i said earlier, I got an early Coen Brother vibe from it. Sapre, bleak, but still funny. Kind of like Blood Simple.

Well, then you should watch Slow West, too.

Also, if you're looking for a dark horse Best Foreign Language Film 2016... The Second Mother. Great, great movie.

CMJ · February 10, 2015

Well, then you should watch Slow West, too.

Also, if you're looking for a dark horse Best Foreign Language Film 2016... The Second Mother. Great, great movie.

I remember really enjoying Brazil's entry from a couple of years back (unfortunately it was not shortlisted). I believe its title was The Clown. I don't have a lot of experience with Brazilian cinema overall though.

Cerebus · February 11, 2015

Despite lacking the shade of grey that historians paint LBJ with during the civil rights era, Selma was a really, really well done film.

Lack of grey?

LBJ wasn't an obstructionist to the civil rights movement, he rammed it through congress. This is like making a WWII movie and having Britain be part of the Axis.

The day Kennedy died LBJ told one of his aides (paraphrase) "we're going to pass all of that civil rights legislation, and we're going to pass all of FDR's programs too."

At the first cabinet meeting, he was told to go easy on the civil rights legislation because it wasn't going to get past Richard Russell's solid block in the Senate, and that the Presidency wasn't for chasing after "impossible ideals." He just asked "then what the hell is it good for?"

He then set about getting ALL of that passed. He was a master politician, he knew when he needed to kiss up, when to soft sell, when to hard sell, when to twist arms and when to end peoples careers. People don't understand how much of a master manipulator he was. When they hear he was the Senate Majority Leader everyone know thinks "oh, that's powerful position."

However that position had been a joke for over a hundred years because the real power was in the the committee chairmanships. In a period of four years he more or less hypnotized all the chairmen to hand him over the power little by little. He ran the Senate, everything happened exactly like he wanted when he wanted. He completely understood every parliamentary trick. He understood what every senator's weakness was, he understood what every single persons price was on capitol hill.

When he became president he used every thing he knew, called in every last favor, burned every last bridge to get the Great Society legislation passed. Make no mistake, the Civil Rights legislation was going nowhere under Kennedy, and it would have never gotten passed until civil unrest actually put the South to flame.

So you can say I have some serious troubles with the portrayal in Selma. I take it back, this is like making a movie about the American Revolution and having George Washington be a royalist.

Coffee and TV · February 11, 2015

Lack of grey?

So you can say I have some serious troubles with the portrayal in Selma. I take it back, this is like making a movie about the American Revolution and having George Washington be a royalist.

There's no doubt that LBJ had definitely turned in favor of Civil Rights as a congressman where previously he hadn't exactly championed it. It was my understanding that the film wasn't wrong about him being hesitant in pushing for the Civil Rights Act of 1965 as he felt he expunged all of his political capital on the 1964 act. From what I remember, he was in favor of what King was doing at Selma, and had even encouraged it, but wasn't as quick to push for more action as rapidly as King was.

Cerebus · February 14, 2015

Just wanted to put a quick note in for Night Will Fall. Really difficult to watch, but really shows the power of film.

One of the critics in the film says that the original 1945 footage from the concentration camp shows every level of humanity, the entirety of the human story. I have to more or less agree: the best of the best, the worst of the worst.

CMJ · February 18, 2015

thought it and Aya were the best of the lot. the other three were disappointing.

I freaking hated Butter Lamp, but Aya was tremendous. I also dug The Phone Call and Parvaneh. Just going off of general crowd reactions at the screening at the Academy - I think Aya is the favorite. It received rapturous applause.

Censored by Laurie · February 18, 2015

I freaking hated Butter Lamp, but Aya was tremendous. I also dug The Phone Call and Parvaneh. Just going off of general crowd reactions at the screening at the Academy - I think Aya is the favorite. It received rapturous applause.

seriously? Butter Lamp was fantastic. it conveyed humor, emotion and a wonderful commentary on communism without once moving the camera. I felt it was a brilliant and creative idea and execution.

I ducked out to use the loo right after the ambulance departed in The Phone Call because I thought it had ended...came back in with the credits still rolling and the missus told me about the date scene and how it felt forced and superfluous. even before that, I thought her performance was great but took little else from it.

Parvaneh was decent, but felt it could've done much more with the themes it was portraying and had a lot of wasted elements...which bugs the hell out of me while watching a short. felt it below Oscar quality.

The chicken one...cheeky, but damn it must've been a down year for shorts.

Aya...I do believe it will win...it was shot wonderfully and their performances were both fantastic and I think bang-on in keeping with how people would've reacted and responded to their given situations. that said, I didn't "enjoy" it...not sure I've ever spent 30 some-odd minutes in a theater quite so uncomfortable, but that may speak more to me and relationships I've had (have) with selfish, petulant and impulsive women like Aya.

CMJ · February 18, 2015

seriously? Butter Lamp was fantastic. it conveyed humor, emotion and a wonderful commentary on communism without once moving the camera. I felt it was a brilliant and creative idea and execution.

I'm not gonna go one by one down the line, since I disverge with you on most of them, but I just completely disagree with this. Not only that, but given the Q&A that followed, I'm not even certain you're right it's commentary is about communism at all. I gathered it's more about how we want our memories to be different that our reality, but above all we want to prove we exist. Communism never came up once by either the filmmakers or the emcee.

Edited February 18, 2015 by CMJ

FirefightnRick · February 22, 2015

Enjoyed "American Sniper". Bradley Cooper, the complete opposite in body composition as McConaughey in Dallas Buyer's Club gaining 40 lbs to do this movie.. Also, I've never attended a movie in which a full theater there wasnt a word spoken once the lights came on afterwards. Everyone just got up and walked out, many with tears down their cheeks.

Rick

TheTastyGreek · February 23, 2015

The Overnighters is on Netflix for free as of last week.

Cerebus · February 23, 2015

Iced in? Perfect time to watch Becket. Peter O'Toole turning it up to 11 15, with Richard Burton being incredibly... Richard Burtony? John Gielgud just because why not John Gielgud!

It is greatness.

ETA: Holy Frack just realized this movie is 50 years old.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Cerebus

CMJ · February 23, 2015

I still can't believe O'Toole never won a competitive Oscar.

TheTastyGreek · February 23, 2015

I still can't believe O'Toole never won a competitive Oscar.

Shoulda fired his ass.

Cerebus · February 23, 2015

I still can't believe O'Toole never won a competitive Oscar.

O'Toole was nominated 8 times, Burton 7 times. Neither ever won, both were nominated for best actor for Becket.

Whenever people get their panties in a wad over Leonardo DiCaprio not winning an Oscar I point out the above and remind them acting ability is not the the primary reason that award is given to someone.

PS: If any of ever get divorced I strongly recommend cribbing from O'Toole speech here:

Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine: I gave you my youth, I gave you your children.

King Henry II: I don’t like my children! And as for your youth, that withered flower, pressed between the pages of a hymnbook since you were twelve years old, with its watery blood and stale insipid scent, you can bid farewell to that without a tear. Your body was an empty desert, madame, which duty forced me to wander in alone.

Watching this when I was 12 made me realize I would never, ever, hear a better burn. It made me both sad and grateful.

FirefightnRick · February 23, 2015

Ever since getting snubbed for Best Supporting Mascot in "Necessary Roughness" I've refused to watch the Oscars.
— Rick (@FirefightnRick)
February 23, 2015

Rick