The Oscars (and other awards)

Nolan is too bold.

After 3 viewings I'm convinced it's the best thing he's done.

As for the rest, clearly the Academy went too black last year and now they're having to compensate.

Never such a true statement, been spoken.

This should get a hashtag on Twitter and than gets tweeted like crazy!

It was really good, it finished in my top 10 for the year.  I haven't seen the other films because I rarely watch animated features, but I have a hard time believing any of those were better than it.  It should've won Best Animated Film, it was a huge surprise and very well received.  At least a nomination, who the fuck cares about "The Boxtrolls", it has a 70-something% on RT while "The Lego Movie" is in the 90s, so stupid.

If it helps...

American Sniper will get its wide release this weekend. It's expected to make LOTS of money thanks to Warner Bros' excellent marketing.

Selma is in most theaters.

Boyhood is available for renting everywhere.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is on HBO. Everyone should have seen it by now.

And... um... I think everything else is tough to see at the moment. The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything were released ages ago. They might be re-released because of the Oscar nominations... but... that's stupid. Just put them on Redbox and Netflix already. No one is gonna pay $12 to see those movies. The same with Whiplash.

Birdman still being in theaters is silly. Boyhood and Gone Girl are available for renting and they're both doing excellent business. It doesn't matter that it got nine Oscar nominations. Most people aren't gonna pay $12 to see it. It's too wacky of a movie. Putting it on Redbox and iTunes and all that would do wonders. American Sniper is getting negative reaction from bloggers and certain critics, but people are hyped to see it. It's gonna be "the blockbuster" of the Oscar nominees. If people actually like the movie, and it creates positive buzz, it could potentially change the game. Let's not kid ourselves. Boyhood is the frontrunner, but it's NOT a strong frontrunner. It could be dethroned in a heartbeat. And Birdman is the #2 movie. If Boyhood loses its heat, forget it, Birdman is fucked. Fox Searchlight is making a GIANT mistake by not making Birdman available for renting right now. They need to get public support before Academy members start voting.

Birdman had a platformed release, that's kind of how it works, you start in a couple theaters and then expand as the buzz rises until it's hopefully a wide release just as the award nominations are out.  They probably screwed up the timing a little on that, but the nominations should drive some people to the theaters.  Besides, it's only been out since late October, that isn't that long ago.  Either way, what makes you think that the Academy (which you think just nominated a bunch of movies that "no one cares about") cares about public support?

American Sniper isn't going to do that good.  It might make about a hundred million over time (about what Zero Dark Thirty and Lone Survivor made) which is good money but that's not quite "blockbuster" level.

You're right that Boyhood is far from locked in.  The Social Network was in pretty much the same position that year (winning the Golden Globe and having widespread critical support) only to get smacked down by some "inspirational" British biopic released by The Weinstein Company.  

www.cinemablend.com/new/Interstellar-Got-Robbed-Why-It-Deserved-Way-More-Oscar-Nominations-69184.html

Interstellar Got Robbed. Why It Deserved Way More Oscar Nominations.

The Academy Award nominations have been officially announced, and already there's a lot to talk about in terms of what made it and what didn't. One of the biggest snubs in this year's interesting, if not milder than usual, Oscar race is the fact that Interstellar only received nods for Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Score. That's right... Interstellar is the new Transformers. It dominates the tech categories, but fails to do much else in the major categories.

Categories like Best Director, which has seen Christopher Nolan snubbed time and time again for the work he's put in on films like Inception and The Prestige, as well as The Dark Knight trilogy. For a man who's usually cited as being technically proficient, but emotionally sterile, Nolan's efforts in bringing his talents to a more Spielbergian project were successful enough on Interstellar that he deserved more recognition. Anyone who can get Matthew McConaughey to cry that perfectly obviously has the emotional handle on the material in front of them.

This also points to the bigger snub of a failure to secure the nomination for Best Original Screenplay, as Jonathan and Christopher Nolan's work on Interstellar's story turned it from a stereotypical science fiction film, complete with zero-g sex, into a story about trying to save the world – while finding your way home. While some of its elements don't really work the first time you experience them, it's after the entire film has gelled in your mind that you begin to see its brilliance on the whole. Gravity received more nominations last year, as well as a seat at the front-runners' table for Best Picture, and it was considered by some to be emotionally underwhelming. What this says for The Martian's chances for golden glory in next year's race is not certain, but it also seems to be stranding poor Mark Watney on more than the Martian surface.

So how did the Academy get it right with Interstellar? They recognized the film's acute technical prowess with Visual Effects, as well as its Production Design of real spacecraft sets. While most of the technical awards obviously understood Interstellar's artistic beauty, even they managed to turn a cold shoulder on Hoyte Van Hoytema's gorgeous cinematography, showing that even when they get it right, there's just a little bit of shade thrown towards the end product.

Most importantly, Interstellar's Academy Award nominations contained a well deserved nod for Hans Zimmer and his tremendous work on the film's score. If I were to bet on what swayed the Academy voters to give this nomination to it's talented composer, I would wager two stacks of high society on the track, "No Time For Caution," aka "the docking scene music." Take a moment to listen to that track, and tell me that's not the ace in the hole for Interstellar's score.

Some say that Christopher Nolan is the new Stanley Kubrick, as his cerebral brand of popcorn movies are consistently passed up for awards that a good number of his fans believe he deserves. While I'm perfectly fine with that analogy, as that would mean that the Nolan legacy will be one for the history books and film academics to relish in ad infinitum, it's still a damned shame that Interstellar isn't more recognized as the work of artistic craftsmanship that it is. Maybe one day, The Academy will give up their grudge against honoring science fiction, but today is not that day. Here's hoping that despite its limited nominations, Interstellar cleans up in its categories... or at the very least lands a much deserved win for Hans Zimmer's musical opus.

The thing is, that movie works particularly well in a theater with the music blasting through a good surround sound system and each drum hit really visible on a big screen.

I'm seeing so much controversy being published online about these nominations. Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems to me that this hornets nest is being kicked up solely because of two particular snubs; Best Director and Actor for Selma. Just those two, that's it. If we had missed some deserving film with a strong female ensemble or any other films with prominent African American roles then I could see making a some stink. But if we're talking about just those two nominations and using it to describe some underlying wave of racism and misogyny, hmmmm....

Also Gillian Flynn being overlooked for Gone Girl. I do agree though, the accusations of racism/sexism seem a bit exaggerated.