The Oscars (and other awards)

Nicolas Cage disagrees with you.

There's always "Leaving Las Vegas", but now it's "Left Behind"

You can. He did that movie, Joe. And he's gonna be in Oliver Stone's Edward Snowden movie.

Much as I love the new direction Iñárritu took with Birdman, I still love his "Death Trilogy". I rewatched Babel last night and that movie definitely holds up. Amores Perros is still my favourite of his films.

I think the tools we have today for filmmaking should really garner the idea of what it means to win Best Picture. Use of sound, CGI/Visuals, acting, directing, cinematography really should encompass an entire vision of the win for "Best Picture"

But for whatever reason... if you make a small indie movie, you win best picture. Which is always baffled me. Politics in the Academy, old farts look for the same old crap and can't move on to what's happening in Cinema today.

You're saying Birdman didn't display mastery over every aspect you listed?

"Crash" is a pandering piece of crap, but it's also not an independent or small film in any way, it's a major studio release. That was more an example of the Academy being too afraid and stupid to choose much better movies over it, like "Brokeback Mountain" for one example.

It's not that it's terrible, but that it represents a sort of lazy, Oscar bait type of filmmaking. Generally, the film is just lacking in any type of ambition in either subject matter or execution. It's just a totally unremarkable piece of fluff, but it's breezy entertainment for a middlebrow adult audience. The fact that you had other nominees like Inception, Black Swan, and The Social Network trying new things along with standard but well-executed films like True Grit, 127 Hours, Toy Story 3, and The Fighter all losing to such a middle of the road film is where a lot of the rage comes from.

Black Swan would have been my #1 that year. I wish I still had my favorite movie by year from my original Doomsday thread. Damn you, Mirko!

CLEARLY!

Actually... you're right. I exaggerated. Winter's Bone was boring and the "I hate men" agenda in The Kids Are All Right was insulting.

My rank, at the time, was:
Black Swan
The Social Network
The Fighter
Toy Story 3
Inception
True Grit
127 Hours
The King's Speech
The Kids Are All Right
Winter's Bone

But right now I would put Inception at #1. The movie grew on me over the years. I always liked Inception, but Nolan's over-explanation of everything annoyed me. Now... I don't really care anymore. It's such a fun and inventive movie that it's difficult not to love.

And... you know... this is another issue with awards in general. You're voting on impulse. If I were an Oscar voter in 2011, I would have voted for Black Swan. Now, I would vote for Inception. Awards don't give movies an opportunity to breath. There's a great documentary on Netflix - assuming it's still there - about the National Film Registry. They have a rule that a movie has to be at least 10 years old in order to qualify for preservation by the U.S. goverment. Their argument is that it takes an entire decade to know if a movie is great and relevant to the culture. And they're right. And this is something I often tell PG Cooper because in 2006 my favorite movie was The Departed. When it won Best Picture I was thrilled. The Oscars actually voted for my favorite movie. Fast foward 9 years later, and I hate to say it, but The Departed is no longer my favorite movie of 2006. The Prestige is better. Casino Royale is better. Shit, I think Nacho Libre is better. Seriously! Have you seen Nacho Libre? That movie is hilarious. So in 9 years, you guys may no longer think that Birdman was the best movie of 2014. You might be like, "you know what movie was awesome in 2014? Chef!"

Also begin again was good