It's gold, baby

[listersgirl]

This is the first year that I can remember where I have actually been interested in the majority of the Oscar frontrunners. I know, eh? I mean, not all of them, obviously, but still.

The actual nominations haven't been announced yet (I guess soon, right?), but EW had a list of 25 movies to watch before Oscar night*, so I've started working my way through them. I'd seen two already (Brokeback Mountain and The 40 Year-Old Virgin), and there are a few I have no interest in seeing (Cinderella Man, King Kong and Narnia), but that still leaves 20.

I saw Mrs. Henderson Presents while I was in Halifax (very fun and fluffy, and Judi Dench is wonderful, as I'm sure you can imagine), and I watched Crash last night, which was an exhausting, painful, powerful experience. I'm hoping that Junebug is coming next from Zip, but we'll see. The rest, well, a few of them are or will be out on DVD before Oscar night, and I might try to see a few of the others in the theatres, especially if I can catch them at cheap rep theatres. Especially I'd like to see Capote, Munich, Syriana, A History of Violence, Transamerica, Match Pointand The Squid and the Whale.

And I'll probably re-organize my list once the actual nominations come out.

*I don't really know how they picked these movies. Some of them I can't imagine are going to be winning anything. But I do love a good list.

Comments

[marginalia.livejournal.com]

nominations are tomorrow. i have scheduled my morning for bitching about them ;)

and ... a lot of random stuff gets nominated in smaller awards, so maybe that's how they came up with it. i do not know. also, the most important one to see is capote. omg capote. i need a capote icon.

[listersgirl]

Oh, goodie. I will watch for your bitching!

Maybe this weekend will be Capote weekend. Indeed.

My favourite awards are the screenwriting awards - that's usually where the kind of movies I like get nominated.

[marginalia.livejournal.com]

i read somewhere once that the winner of the best original screenplay is the film the academy -really- thinks is the best of the year, and that the best picture is the one they think they should choose.

which might be giving them too much credit ;)

[offscreen.livejournal.com]

You read that in my Livejournal. :)

[marginalia.livejournal.com]

ahaha! yes! :D

[listersgirl]

Aw, but it's a nice story, right? Like a fairytale for movielovers.

[jeejeen.livejournal.com]

I'm very behind on my movie-watching. BOOOO ON ME. I haven't even seen Brokeback yet. In any case, The Squid and the Whale was awesome, and Syriana, not so much. I'd be interested to hear your take on it, though.

[listersgirl]

I'm pretty good at telling what movies I'm going to like, and I feel fairly certain that the squid will be for me. :)

[marginalia.livejournal.com]

*is pro-squid*

[alltheleaves.livejournal.com]

I expect the list of 25 probably comes from what members of the Academy have been asked to watch and consider for nominations. We have a Bafta member upstairs and he keeps being asked to watch specific films at the moment.

[listersgirl]

I would like that job -- the job of watching movies and making nominations. But possibly that's just because I have too many opinions.

[eanja]

I only just saw a preview for Mrs. Henderson Presents, but want to see it now when it comes round my little cheap local theater.

I have seen so few of the movies on the list- mostly because I see relatively few movies to begin with. But I keep seeing mention of this Squid and Whale thing that I've never heard of, so I think I need to see what that is. Otherwise, Brokeback Mountain and King Kong are the only 2 on your list that I've seen. (I don't know if our taste in movies overlaps at all, but King Kong was excellent. And not just because I think Brody is really pretty. Than again, I think you liked the 40-year old virgin, and I don't have the slightest interest in seeing that, so possibly we don't like too much of the same thing. Although I am curious- that one got reasonably good reviews, so perhaps the commercials made it look much more sophomoric than it really was?)

[listersgirl]

It was somewhat sophmoric, yes, but it was also very clever, and really sweet. And I loved the supporting characters. I think the commercials were really aimed at a totally different demographic, though.

My disinterest in King Kong is mostly just from the fact that I generally don't like BIG movies -- meaning, movies where the special effects are more important than the dialogue. I don't think I'd dislike it, just that I'd be bored. :)

[eanja]

Sometimes I think commercials deliberately try to make movies look dumber than they are. I can enjoy dumb movies as well as the next person, if they're good dumb movies, but the commercials made it really look like one of those teenage boy, "virginity is only for dorks, but even dorky guys should be entitled to bang hot chicks, so lets laugh at the schmuck until he manages to nail someone" type films. If it was sweet and clever, I'm guessing that wasn't actually the case. Maybe I'll give it a try on DVD when I feel like something silly.

As for King Kong- I don't generally care for SF only movies either, but this really wasn't one. They don't even get to the island until an hour and a half into the film, and by then I felt like I knew enough about the characters that I cared what happened to them. And yes, I personally could happily have skipped the bit where King Kong fights the T-Rex, or where the guy gets eaten by giant worms, but mostly, it was about the people, and whether and how they were going to get through things. It was sort of like the Lord of the Ring films in that respect- there was lots of CGI stuff, and they had lots of fun with it, but it mostly came after the dialogue, not the other way round.

Nominations are out now.

[starfishchick]

http://www.oscars.com/nominees/print.html

Re: Nominations are out now.

[listersgirl]

And now I need to re-order my list. :)

Re: Nominations are out now.

[(Anonymous)]

Ooh. Walk the Line is in there as well. One more I've actually seen. (And liked.)

Re: Nominations are out now.

[starfishchick]

I still want to see Transamerica if you do.

I think my Mom and I might see Mrs. Henderson Presents instead of going to GotterWhatsItsName. :)

Re: Nominations are out now.

[listersgirl]

Heh. 5 1/2 hours of Wagner vs. singing, naked girls and Judi Dench. No contest. :)

And yes, I'm totally into seeing Transamerica.