Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards

IanTheCool CS! Gold Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 21,493 Likes: 2,864 Location: Last Online Nov 22, 2024 19:04:47 GMT -5	Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 8:34:00 GMT -5 Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by IanTheCool on Mar 13, 2022 8:34:00 GMT -5 I'm not a big doc fan, but from the ones on your list that's the one I want to see.

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Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 14:42:43 GMT -5 PG Cooper, donny, and 1 more like this

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Post by Dracula on Mar 13, 2022 14:42:43 GMT -5

Going to reveal the final top ten over the course of the afternoon and evening...

#10

SPOILER: Click to show

The Green Knight

Directed by: David Lowery
Written by: David Lowery
Based on: “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” by Anonymous
Starring: Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, Sean Harris, Sarita Choudhury, Ralph Ineson, and Barry Keoghan
Distributor: A24
Country: USA
Language: English
Rating: R
Running Time: 130 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Format: Digital
Date released: 7/30/2021
Date seen: 7/30/2021
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $18.9 Million
# of Oscar Nominations: 0
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 4 (Set-Piece, Makeup, Editing, and Cameo)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 0

There are kind of three different David Lowerys: there’s David Lowery the maker of slightly mythic crime films like Ain't Them Bodies Saints and The Old Man With the Gun, who I can probably take or leave. Then there’s the David Lowery who tries to find interesting ways to sell out like his Pete’s Dragon remake, which I’m curious about from afar. But then there’s the David Lowery who really goes all out in making outlandish visions like A Ghost Story and that’s who we got in the making of the dark Arthurian fantasy film The Green Knight. Honestly there’s kind of a lot here that I don’t one hundred percent understand. My knowledge of Arthurian legend is minimal and the medieval codes of honor that are at the film’s center are pretty foreign to me, but I do get a sense from the outside that Lowery has done his homework about all of this stuff because he certainly presents the film with conviction. But even more impressive is that the film is not a slave to traditionalist sentiment either, it tells this story using very modern aesthetics and techniques like that “A24 horror” tone or its use of modern if unconventional special effects. Despite its indulgence in modern stylistic trends this isn’t really a movie that’s all that easy to lump in with any major trends or genres, it’s generally just a really unique movie unto itself.

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PhantomKnight CS! Gold Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 20,527 Likes: 3,130 Location: Last Online Nov 22, 2024 0:32:12 GMT -5	Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 15:04:16 GMT -5 Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by PhantomKnight on Mar 13, 2022 15:04:16 GMT -5 Happy to see support for Last Night in Soho. The Green Knight, though...hmm. Well, I admire it on a technical level, but beyond that, the movie didn't do a whole lot for me, personally.

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Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 15:35:16 GMT -5 Doomsday, PG Cooper, and 1 more like this

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Post by Dracula on Mar 13, 2022 15:35:16 GMT -5

#9

SPOILER: Click to show

A Hero

Directed by: Asghar Farhadi
Written by: Asghar Farhadi
Starring: Amir Jadidi, Mohsen Tanabandeh, Sahar Goldoost, Fereshteh Sadr Orafaie, and Sarina Farhadi
Distributor: Amazon Prime
Country: Iran
Language: Persian
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 127 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Format: Digital
Date released: 11/12/2021
Date seen: 10/24/2021
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $2 million
# of Oscar Nominations: 0
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 1 (Original Screenplay)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 0

I haven’t given out many Golden Stake nominations or wins to Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero and I guess I haven’t talked about the movie all that much in general. I don’t know, I guess the movie is bigger than the sum of its parts and its distributor hasn’t done a great job of keeping it at the center of conversation, but make no mistake this is a movie that’s more than worth seeing. The film sees Farhadi once again working in Iran and looking at characters who find themselves enmeshed in a messy situation where everyone has an understandable position that’s at odds with everyone else. This time around there’s more of a sense of Kafka-esque absurdity to the predicament of the character at the film’s center as a small lie turns into a web of misunderstandings which requires him to make bigger and bigger lies to cover it up, eventually ending up in this situation that’s nearly impossible to explain to people. It’s a marked improvement over Farhadi’s last two films The Salesman and Everybody Knows, though perhaps not quite up to the level of A Seperation or The Past. Still, it’s a strong piece of writing that’s executed very well by the auteur and speaks very well for his ability to remain relevant making films going forward.

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Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 16:49:27 GMT -5 PG Cooper and donny like this

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Post by Dracula on Mar 13, 2022 16:49:27 GMT -5

#8

SPOILER: Click to show

The French Dispatch

Directed by: Wes Anderson
Written by: Wes Anderson
Starring: Bill Murray, Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Owen Wilson, Christoph Waltz, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, and Anjelica Huston
Distributor: Searchlight Pictures
Country: USA
Language: English/French
Rating: R
Running Time: 108 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Format: Super 35
Date released: 10/22/2021
Date seen: 11/6/2021
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $45.6 million
# of Oscar Nominations: 0
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 8 (Chase, Art Direction, Score, Supporting Actor, Ensemble, Line of Dialogue, Poster, and Comedy)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 1 (Art Direction)

The French Dispatch is kind of like the White Album of Wes Anderson movies. It’s overflowing with ideas that are kind of coming from all sorts of different direction; looked at from one perspective that means it’s overstuffed and messy but from another perspective it means that our cup runneth over with cool stuff from an artist close to the height of their powers. Anthology films are always tricky and prone to issues like this but Anderson does a pretty admirable job of keeping things consistent through the film. I definitely think the first and third stories are the best but that second story also has a lot going for it and together they do feel like a pretty effective tribute to mid-century France. It’s also interesting to see Anderson, a director who is generally associated with extreme formal control, seemingly kind of go crazy with his style mixing his usual meticulous set decoration with a seeming complete disinterest in medium consistently and shifting at will between color and black and white and constantly rotating aspect ratios at will. The sheer number of celebrities Anderson managed to rope into this thing is also really impressive, again even if this isn’t the best Wes Anderson movie it’s certainly the most Wes Anderson movie and the sheer quantity of fun ideas and moments he throws at us is kind of undeniable.

Last Edit: Mar 13, 2022 16:49:57 GMT -5 by Dracula

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Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 16:51:29 GMT -5

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Post by PG Cooper on Mar 13, 2022 16:51:29 GMT -5

Fuck yes. Delighted to see that make the top ten.

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PhantomKnight CS! Gold Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 20,527 Likes: 3,130 Location: Last Online Nov 22, 2024 0:32:12 GMT -5	Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 17:01:02 GMT -5 frankyt likes this Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by PhantomKnight on Mar 13, 2022 17:01:02 GMT -5 Am I the only one on here who didn't like that movie?

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Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 17:03:43 GMT -5

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Post by PG Cooper on Mar 13, 2022 17:03:43 GMT -5

Mar 13, 2022 17:01:02 GMT -5 PhantomKnight said:

Am I the only one on here who didn't like that movie?

We finally agree on a movie thanks to The Batman but between this and your Handmaiden review you're really working over time to push me away

Last Edit: Mar 13, 2022 17:03:58 GMT -5 by PG Cooper

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Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 17:05:30 GMT -5

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Post by PhantomKnight on Mar 13, 2022 17:05:30 GMT -5

Mar 13, 2022 17:03:43 GMT -5 PG Cooper said:

Mar 13, 2022 17:01:02 GMT -5 PhantomKnight said:

Am I the only one on here who didn't like that movie?

We finally agree on a movie thanks to The Batman but between this and your Handmaiden review you're really working over time to push me away

You've already been doing that to me the past few years, so...I guess this is me catching up?

thebtskink CS! Silver Join Date: Jul 2000 It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. Posts: 19,462 Likes: 4,984 Location: Last Online Nov 22, 2024 15:43:24 GMT -5	Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 17:09:55 GMT -5 via mobile Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by thebtskink on Mar 13, 2022 17:09:55 GMT -5 Mar 13, 2022 17:01:02 GMT -5 PhantomKnight said: Am I the only one on here who didn't like that movie? I'll eventualy watch it, but I hate Wes Anderson by default.

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Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 17:15:49 GMT -5

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Post by PhantomKnight on Mar 13, 2022 17:15:49 GMT -5

Mar 13, 2022 17:09:55 GMT -5 thebtskink said:

Mar 13, 2022 17:01:02 GMT -5 PhantomKnight said:

Am I the only one on here who didn't like that movie?

I'll eventualy watch it, but I hate Wes Anderson by default.

I also happened to watch The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou two weeks ago, and didn't like that one, either.

Though I'm honestly a really big fan of The Royal Tenenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel.

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Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 17:42:51 GMT -5

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Post by Dracula on Mar 13, 2022 17:42:51 GMT -5

#7

SPOILER: Click to show

Titane

Directed by: Julia Ducournau
Written by: Julia Ducournau
Starring: Agathe Rousselle, Vincent Lindon, Garance Marillier, and Laïs Salameh
Distributor: Neon
Country: France
Language: French
Rating: R
Running Time: 108 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Format: Digital
Date released: 10/1/2022
Date seen: 9/30/2022
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $5 Million
# of Oscar Nominations: 0
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 4 (Set-Piece, Makeup, Actress, and Trailer)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 2 (Set-Piece and Makeup)

Titane is a movie that certainly started its life in the cinematic world with a bang. When it debuted at Cannes it shocked and excited audiences and ended up walking away with the Palme d'Or. Since then it seems to have slowly lost some momentum and did not really end up being the phenomenon we maybe hoped it would be, in fact I almost feel like it’s being taken for granted at this point. The film is Julia Ducournau’s follow-up to Raw and is exactly the kind of bold leap forward you hope to see from a sophomore effort like this and really establishes Ducournau as a major voice. The film has unfortunately been kind of spoiled for a lot of people but even when you know what’s coming the film retains some ability to shock. The film’s premise is of course wild but Ducournau plays things straight and dives into the sheer body horror at the core of this idea while making a movie that isn’t necessarily trying to scare or disgust her audience so much as give them a certain thrill and make them think about what they’re watching. While I’m not quite sure the film pulls off a somewhat dramatic change in direction at about the midway point but once it gets into that second half it does present a different and almost kind of sweet parable about broken people being there for each other. Just a really bold vision brought to the screen and a great example of the kind of thing I want to see more of.

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frankyt CS! Gold Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 21,945 Likes: 2,015 Location: Last Online Nov 22, 2024 19:22:22 GMT -5	Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 17:43:16 GMT -5 via mobile PhantomKnight likes this Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by frankyt on Mar 13, 2022 17:43:16 GMT -5 French dispatch is decidedly lower tier Anderson for me. And I'm an anderson stan.
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Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 19:31:07 GMT -5 donny likes this

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#6

SPOILER: Click to show

Drive My Car

Directed by: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Written by: Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe
Based on: “Drive My Car” by Haruki Murakami
Starring: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tōko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Park Yu-rim, Jin Dae-yeon, and Masaki Okada
Distributor: Janus Films
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 179 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Format: Digital
Date released: 11/24/2021
Date seen: 1/22/2022
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $4 Million
# of Oscar Nominations: 4 (Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and International)
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 2 (Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 1 (Adapted Screenplay)

On some level I’m a little surprised that Drive My Car was a movie I merely “really really liked” rather than a movie I outright loved given its status as a the art house film du jour from this year. I don’t know, I guess it just isn’t the noisy “statement” I was expecting it to be, but let’s focus less on what it isn’t and more on what it is. At its heart this is a rumination on grief and also about how emotions like that can be processed through art. The film is very much a product of the here and now (in fact I think it’s the first Best Picture nominee to reference, if only briefly and obliquely, the pandemic) and has a modest visual style and yet it’s still hard not to call a lengthy drama like this “daring” given its willingness to slowly unfold its portrait of a man coming to terms with his messy marriage after the random death of his wife. In some ways I’m not sure I was entirely equipped for this movie, I haven’t read a lot of Haruki Murakami (upon whose short story this is based) and have only a passing familiarity with Chekhov’s “Uncle Vania” which is an important plot point in the film, and I also haven’t seen any of director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s other film’s and can’t really place it into the context of his body of work. And yet I was still absorbed by the film and intrigued by it from beginning to end and look forward to revisiting it sometime in the future.

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Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 20:29:44 GMT -5

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#5

SPOILER: Click to show

Quo Vadis, Aida

Directed by: Jasmila Žbanić
Written by: Jasmila Žbanić
Starring: Jasna Đuričić, Izudin Bajrović, Boris Isaković, Johan Heldenbergh, Raymond Thiry, and Emir Hadžihafizbegović
Distributor: Neon
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Language: Bosnian/English
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 102 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Format: Digital
Date released: 3/5/2021
Date seen: 3/19/2021
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $732,022
# of Oscar Nominations: 1 (International Feature 2020)
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 2 (Actress and Underappreciated)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 1 (Actress)

I’m really not sure why there was so much unanimity about Thomas Vinterberg as the obvious winner of the Academy’s Best International Feature Award last year, to me it seemed obvious that another film nominated that year (and released to theaters this year), Quo Vadis, Aida? was a far greater accomplishment. The film is in many ways a reenactment of one of the great tragedies to occur within recent memory, the Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnian War, but it’s also a tense thriller and a wrenching character drama. The genocide itself is mostly off screen, instead this is a film about the lead up to the violence and the failures involved in preventing it. At the center of it all is a Bosnian woman acting as a translator for UN troops on the ground but whose family are among those in the firing line, so she has to make difficult decisions as she sits in on meetings that leave her less than confident in the UN’s ability to keep the Bosniak Muslim refugees safe. She scrambles to keep her own family safe but as things begin to fall apart in slow motion with no one quite sure how this is all going end while having good reasons to fear the worst. In terms of subject matter the film is comparable to the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda but it lacks that film’s Hollywood sheen and attempts at uplift. But it’s also not an unwatchably ugly or inaccessible film either and like some of Paul Greengrasses’ best work director Jasmila Žbanić finds a great way to split the difference between historical recreation and fictionalized thriller.

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Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 21:23:09 GMT -5 PG Cooper likes this

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#4

SPOILER: Click to show

Red Rocket

Directed by: Sean Baker
Written by: Chris Bergoch and Sean Baker
Starring: Simon Rex, Bree Elrod, and Suzanna Son
Distributor: A24
Country: USA
Language: English
Rating: R
Running Time: 128 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Format: 16mm Film
Date released: 12/10/2021
Date seen: 12/25/2021
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $1.3 million
# of Oscar Nominations: 0
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 3 (Actor, Original Screenplay, and Comedy)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 1 (Actor)

There may be better movies this year than Red Rocket but this is the one that is probably most directly emblematic of the era we’re living in even though it’s set five years ago during the 2016 election, which we see going on in the background. At first I found that a bit on the nose, but it’s become increasingly clear to me that this has less to do with some kind of statement about any of Trump’s policy idea and there appeal or lack thereof to the characters in the region the film is set in and more to do with the fact that Trump is a grifter and this movie is all about the appeal of grifters. Its central character is a bullshit artist who uses his charm and tenacity to get him through life and it’s what he tries to do over the course of the film to very nefarious ends. I’ve heard the film called “The Wolf of Wall Street but for poor people” and there’s a truth to that in the sense that it’s a really funny dark comedy about a pretty unforgivable central character. This makes it a bit more prickly and difficult than some of Sean Baker’s other films which, while willing to look at the dark side of life, are ultimately movies trying to build empathy for their central characters in that old neorealist way. This one on the other hand is pretty willing to depict its protagonist as a piece of shit, but that isn’t to say Baker’s empathetic eye is shut here. He’s once again depicted an area on “the other side of the tracks” in a vivid but non-condescending way and even as this character does some really repugnant stuff Baker can’t help but see some humanity in him. Oh, also the movie is really funny, which helps a lot.

Top three will be revealed within the hour

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Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 22:18:06 GMT -5 PG Cooper and donny like this

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Post by Dracula on Mar 13, 2022 22:18:06 GMT -5

#3

SPOILER: Click to show

The Worst Person in the World

Directed by: Joachim Trier
Written by: Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt
Starring: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum, and Maria Grazia Di Meo
Distributor: Neon
Country: Norway
Language: Norwegian
Rating: R
Running Time: 128 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Format: 35mm Film
Date released: 10/29/2022
Date seen: 2/11/2022
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $6,755,454
# of Oscar Nominations: 2 (Original Screenplay and International Film)
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 2 (Actress and Original Screenplay)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 0

One of the running themes of 2021 is that I’ve increasingly learned to stop worrying and love the episodic narrative. In the past I frequently used “episodic” as a pejorative but this year there have been a lot of movies that could just sort of exist as a series of moments and still thrive (maybe it’s something to do with pandemic shoots?). The Worst Person in the World is not the most episodic movie this year by any stretch though in some ways it does want to appear episodic what with it being divided into twelve chapters along with a prologue and epilogue despite only running a little over two hours. Over the course of the movie we look into the life of a woman in her late twenties and early thirties and sort of witness her navigate these important years where she’s tasked with kind of making some big decisions about where her life is going. By the end of the film, she still hasn’t made her final decisions, but she’s learned a lot from the journey just the same. That could be true about a lot of coming of age type movies of course but Joachim Trier brings this to screen with a special panache. The film’s screenplay is sly and humorous, there’s a definite degree of social satire at play here and it’s not afraid to get a bit scatological at times, but the film is not exactly a comedy and instead tells its story with a degree of formal seriousness that give the whole thing weight. That mix of humor and drama is perhaps what I'd been missing from a lot of director Joachim Trier’s previous movies but he finally gets the formula right here and the final movie is a gem.

#2

SPOILER: Click to show

Night of the Kings

Directed by: Philippe Lacôte
Written by: Philippe Lacôte
Starring: Koné Bakary, Isaka Sawadogo, and Steve Tientcheu
Distributor: Neon
Country: Côte d'Ivoire
Language: French
Rating: R
Running Time: 93 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Format: Digital
Date released: 2/26/2021
Date seen: 8/9/2021
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $31,207
# of Oscar Nominations: 0
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 4 (Editing, Cinematography, Original Screenplay, and Underappreciated)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 1 (Underappreciated)

Am I putting this movie all the way up to number two just because I thought it got a raw deal and hasn’t gotten the recognition it deserved? Well, I certainly didn’t do that intentionally but maybe, who knows. Honestly I’m not really sure what the rest of the world thinks about this movie, most of the voices I looks to have been silent about it. But man, when I saw this more than half way through what had to that point been a pretty disappointing film year it really hit the spot. The film takes place over a single night at an infamous prison in Côte d'Ivoire where the inmates kind of run the asylum and they force one of the new arrivals to take part in a ritual where they must entertain the rest of the prisoners with a story. To do this he tells the life story of a gang member he knew but turns it into a sort of tall tale that ties back into the nation’s history, both recent and ancient. The whole thing is plainly trying to play within the tradition of oral history and ritualized storytelling but bring it into a modern gritty context. Director Philippe Lacôte does not, however, film this like a prison drama. Instead he films it like an epic, almost mystic night where something meaningful has transpired. We don’t get a lot of great movies out of Africa, largely because very few movies of any kind from that continent tend to reach us, and it’s kind of shocking to me that they’d send us something this interesting to the general apathy of the world’s audiences.

#1

SPOILER: Click to show

Licorice Pizza

Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, and Benny Safdie
Distributor: MGM
Country: USA
Language: English
Rating: R
Running Time: 134 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Format: 35mm Film
Date released: 11/26/2021
Date seen: 12/11/2021
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $27 million
# of Oscar Nominations: 3 (Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay)
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 10 (Source Music, Soundtrack, Editing, Cameo, Actress, Ensemble, Line of Dialogue, Original Screenplay, Trailer, and Comedy)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 4 (Cameo, Original Screenplay, Trailer, and Comedy)

Falling in love with a movie is a lot like falling in love with a person, it doesn’t mean you think it’s perfect but it is perfect for you. I don’t think Licorice Pizza is the most flawless movie to emerge in 2021, in fact I could imagine a fairly convincing argument that The Worst Person in the World is a more mature and honed movie along similar themes this year… but I didn’t love that movie like I loved Licorice Pizza. Also like a lot of real live relationships my love for Licorice Pizza is in many ways a factor of timing. I’m not sure that I would have been this head over heels for the movie if it came along in another year, in fact I’m not even 100% sure I’m going to end up ranking it in my top five Paul Thomas Anderson movies when all is said and done… but it’s absolutely the movie I needed this year. 2021 has been a weird year for all of us, it’s inarguably a million times better than 2020 but everything that still sucks in the world has sucked for that much longer and that adds up. It’s been a tough year cinematically as well, we have theaters back but going to them has remained fraught; what should be a great escape has become an almost nerve-wracking experience in which you stress out about finding a relatively empty showing and getting a distant seat often while breathing into a necessary but uncomfortable mask. I was doubly nervous about my Licorice Pizza screening, a sold out sneak preview showing that was guaranteed not to have even the slightest bit of social distancing… but man, once Anderson’s movie started play all those troubles finally slid away. I forgot I was even wearing a mask and for the first time in a while felt that communal comradery of being in a crowded room full of people laughing together at what we were seeing. Still, I don’t want to suggest that this is entirely a sentimental choice, it isn’t. Paul Thomas Anderson filmed this movie during the pre-vaccine pandemic and on some level I think he knew the world needed a nostalgic comedy more than it needed, say, a movie about oil magnates or cult leaders and boy did he deliver one.

CS! Record Holder: Quickest Review in the Film Club (1 hour 10 minutes). January 28th, 2021, 9:43 PM-

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Doomsday Administrator Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 23,298 Likes: 6,764 Location: Last Online Nov 22, 2024 18:28:15 GMT -5	Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 22:44:17 GMT -5 Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by Doomsday on Mar 13, 2022 22:44:17 GMT -5 Lots of good picks, I'm glad I was able to get Drive My Car under my belt. And eff I need to see Red Rocket.
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Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 22:47:44 GMT -5 via mobile

Quote

Post by PG Cooper on Mar 13, 2022 22:47:44 GMT -5

Mar 13, 2022 22:18:06 GMT -5 Dracula said:

#3

SPOILER: Click to show

The Worst Person in the World

Directed by: Joachim Trier
Written by: Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt
Starring: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum, and Maria Grazia Di Meo
Distributor: Neon
Country: Norway
Language: Norwegian
Rating: R
Running Time: 128 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Format: 35mm Film
Date released: 10/29/2022
Date seen: 2/11/2022
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $6,755,454
# of Oscar Nominations: 2 (Original Screenplay and International Film)
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 2 (Actress and Original Screenplay)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 0

One of the running themes of 2021 is that I’ve increasingly learned to stop worrying and love the episodic narrative. In the past I frequently used “episodic” as a pejorative but this year there have been a lot of movies that could just sort of exist as a series of moments and still thrive (maybe it’s something to do with pandemic shoots?). The Worst Person in the World is not the most episodic movie this year by any stretch though in some ways it does want to appear episodic what with it being divided into twelve chapters along with a prologue and epilogue despite only running a little over two hours. Over the course of the movie we look into the life of a woman in her late twenties and early thirties and sort of witness her navigate these important years where she’s tasked with kind of making some big decisions about where her life is going. By the end of the film, she still hasn’t made her final decisions, but she’s learned a lot from the journey just the same. That could be true about a lot of coming of age type movies of course but Joachim Trier brings this to screen with a special panache. The film’s screenplay is sly and humorous, there’s a definite degree of social satire at play here and it’s not afraid to get a bit scatological at times, but the film is not exactly a comedy and instead tells its story with a degree of formal seriousness that give the whole thing weight. That mix of humor and drama is perhaps what I'd been missing from a lot of director Joachim Trier’s previous movies but he finally gets the formula right here and the final movie is a gem.

#2

SPOILER: Click to show

Night of the Kings

Directed by: Philippe Lacôte
Written by: Philippe Lacôte
Starring: Koné Bakary, Isaka Sawadogo, and Steve Tientcheu
Distributor: Neon
Country: Côte d'Ivoire
Language: French
Rating: R
Running Time: 93 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Format: Digital
Date released: 2/26/2021
Date seen: 8/9/2021
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $31,207
# of Oscar Nominations: 0
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 4 (Editing, Cinematography, Original Screenplay, and Underappreciated)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 1 (Underappreciated)

Am I putting this movie all the way up to number two just because I thought it got a raw deal and hasn’t gotten the recognition it deserved? Well, I certainly didn’t do that intentionally but maybe, who knows. Honestly I’m not really sure what the rest of the world thinks about this movie, most of the voices I looks to have been silent about it. But man, when I saw this more than half way through what had to that point been a pretty disappointing film year it really hit the spot. The film takes place over a single night at an infamous prison in Côte d'Ivoire where the inmates kind of run the asylum and they force one of the new arrivals to take part in a ritual where they must entertain the rest of the prisoners with a story. To do this he tells the life story of a gang member he knew but turns it into a sort of tall tale that ties back into the nation’s history, both recent and ancient. The whole thing is plainly trying to play within the tradition of oral history and ritualized storytelling but bring it into a modern gritty context. Director Philippe Lacôte does not, however, film this like a prison drama. Instead he films it like an epic, almost mystic night where something meaningful has transpired. We don’t get a lot of great movies out of Africa, largely because very few movies of any kind from that continent tend to reach us, and it’s kind of shocking to me that they’d send us something this interesting to the general apathy of the world’s audiences.

#1

SPOILER: Click to show

Licorice Pizza

Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, and Benny Safdie
Distributor: MGM
Country: USA
Language: English
Rating: R
Running Time: 134 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Format: 35mm Film
Date released: 11/26/2021
Date seen: 12/11/2021
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $27 million
# of Oscar Nominations: 3 (Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay)
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 10 (Source Music, Soundtrack, Editing, Cameo, Actress, Ensemble, Line of Dialogue, Original Screenplay, Trailer, and Comedy)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 4 (Cameo, Original Screenplay, Trailer, and Comedy)

Falling in love with a movie is a lot like falling in love with a person, it doesn’t mean you think it’s perfect but it is perfect for you. I don’t think Licorice Pizza is the most flawless movie to emerge in 2021, in fact I could imagine a fairly convincing argument that The Worst Person in the World is a more mature and honed movie along similar themes this year… but I didn’t love that movie like I loved Licorice Pizza. Also like a lot of real live relationships my love for Licorice Pizza is in many ways a factor of timing. I’m not sure that I would have been this head over heels for the movie if it came along in another year, in fact I’m not even 100% sure I’m going to end up ranking it in my top five Paul Thomas Anderson movies when all is said and done… but it’s absolutely the movie I needed this year. 2021 has been a weird year for all of us, it’s inarguably a million times better than 2020 but everything that still sucks in the world has sucked for that much longer and that adds up. It’s been a tough year cinematically as well, we have theaters back but going to them has remained fraught; what should be a great escape has become an almost nerve-wracking experience in which you stress out about finding a relatively empty showing and getting a distant seat often while breathing into a necessary but uncomfortable mask. I was doubly nervous about my Licorice Pizza screening, a sold out sneak preview showing that was guaranteed not to have even the slightest bit of social distancing… but man, once Anderson’s movie started play all those troubles finally slid away. I forgot I was even wearing a mask and for the first time in a while felt that communal comradery of being in a crowded room full of people laughing together at what we were seeing. Still, I don’t want to suggest that this is entirely a sentimental choice, it isn’t. Paul Thomas Anderson filmed this movie during the pre-vaccine pandemic and on some level I think he knew the world needed a nostalgic comedy more than it needed, say, a movie about oil magnates or cult leaders and boy did he deliver one.

My man.

CS! Record Holder: Quickest Review in the Film Club (2 hours 19 minutes). April 18th, 2013, 9:24 PM - January 28th, 2021, 9:43 PM

I make video essays about movies: www.youtube.com/channel/UC_7BpJ5krodZJGERJ9JPNjQ?

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PhantomKnight CS! Gold Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 20,527 Likes: 3,130 Location: Last Online Nov 22, 2024 0:32:12 GMT -5	Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 13, 2022 22:53:33 GMT -5 Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by PhantomKnight on Mar 13, 2022 22:53:33 GMT -5 Yeah, I still need to see Red Rocket.

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Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 14, 2022 9:42:51 GMT -5 PG Cooper likes this

Quote

Post by Dracula on Mar 14, 2022 9:42:51 GMT -5

As a bonus, here's something I've been meaning to put together for a while.

The Top Ten Winningest Directors at the Golden Stakes

Here's a list of directors whose films have won the most Golden Stakes over the years, meaning I'm crediting them with any win by one of their movies even if it's for something like Best Poster that they likely didn't have a ton of personal input on.

10. (Tie) Barry Jenkins - Seven Golden Stakes

Cinematography 2016 (Moonlight)
Supporting Actress 2016 (Naomi Harris - Moonlight)
Editing 2018 (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Cameo 2018 (Brian Tyree Henry - If Beale Street Could Talk)
Ensemble 2018 (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Adapted Screenplay 2018 (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Best Film 2018 (If Beale Street Could Talk)

10. (Tie) David O. Russell - Seven Golden Stakes

Source Music 2010 (The Fighter)
Soundtrack 2010 (The Fighter)
Source Music 2012 (Silver Linings Playbook)
Adapted Screenplay 2012 (Silver Linings Playbook)
Cameo 2013 (Robert De Niro 0 American Hustle)
Soundtrack 2013 (American Hustle)
Ensemble 2013 (American Hustle)

8. (Tie) The Coen Brothers - Eight Golden Stakes

Best Villain 2007 (No Country For Old Men)
Best Supporting Actor 2007 (Javier Bardem - No Country For Old Men)
Comedy of the Year 2008 (Burn After Reading)
Shootout 2010 (True Grit)
Musical Performance 2013 (Inside Llywn Davis)
Original Screenplay 2013 (Inside Llywn Davis)
Line 2016 (Hail Caesar)
Shootout 2018 (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs)

8. (Tie) Zack Snyder - Eight Golden Stakes

Sound Design 2007 (300)
Art Direction 2007 (300)
Source Music 2009 (Watchmen)
Fight 2013 (Man of Steel)
Score 2013 (Man of Steel)
Underappreciated 2013 (Man of Steel)
Action Movie 2013 (Man of Steel)
Fight 2016 (Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice)

6. (Tie) Martin Scorsese - Nine Golden Stakes

Cinematography 2010 (Shutter Island)
Art Direction 2011 (Hugo)
Source Music 2013 (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Editing 2013 (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Line 2013 (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Comedy 2013 (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Supporting Actor 2019 (Joe Pesci - The Irishman)
Best Line 2019 (The Irishman)
Adapted Screenplay 2019 (The Irishman)

6. (Tie) Edgar Wright - Nine Golden Stakes

Shootout 2007 (Hot Fuzz)
Cameo 2010 (Brandon Routh - Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World)
Chase 2017 (Baby Driver)
Source Music 2017 (Baby Driver)
Sound 2017 (Baby Driver)
Soundtrack 2017 (Baby Driver)
Action 2017 (Baby Driver)
Soundtrack 2021 (Last Night in Soho)
Horror Movie 2021 (Last Night in Soho)

4. David Fincher - Fourteen Golden Stakes

Source Music 2008 (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Makeup 2008 (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Art Direction 2008 (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Score 2010 (The Social Network)
Ensemble 2010 (The Social Network)
Best Line 2010 (The Social Network)
Adapted Screenplay 2010 (The Social Network)
Trailer 2010 (The Social Network)
Source Music 2011 (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo)
Trailer 2011 (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo)
Villain 2014 (Gone Girl)
Actress 2014 (Rosamund Pike - Gone Girl)
Adapted Screenplay 2014 (Gone Girl)
Art Direction 2020 (Mank)

3. (Tie) Paul Thomas Anderson - 16 Golden Stakes

Original Score 2007 (There Will Be Blood)
Best Actor 2007 (Daniel Day Lewis - There Will Be Blood)
Best Film 2007 (There Will Be Blood)
Cinematography 2012 (The Master)
Supporting Actress 2012 (Amy Adams - The Master)
Actor 2012 (Joaquin Phoenix - The Master)
Original Screenplay 2012 (The Master)
Best Film 2012 (The Master)
Trailer 2014 (Inherent Vice)
Score 2017 (Phantom Thread)
Actor 2017 (Daniel Day Lewis - Phantom Thread)
Cameo 2021 (Bradley Cooper - Licorice Pizza)
Adapted Screenplay 2021 (Licorice Pizza)
Trailer 2021 (Licorice Pizza)
Comedy 2021 (Licorice Pizza)
Best Film 2021 (Licorice Pizza)

3. (Tie) Quentin Tarantino - Sixteen Golden Stakes

Chase Scene 2007 (Grindhouse)
Soundtrack 2007 (Grindhouse)
Makeup 2007 (Grindhouse)
Set-Piece 2009 (Inglourious Basterds)
Editing 2009 (Inglourious Basterds)
Villain 2009 (Inglourious Basterds)
Supporting Actor 2009 (Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds)
Casting 2009 (Inglourious Basterds)
Original Screenplay 2009 (Inglourious Basterds)
Best Film 2009 (Inglourious Basterds)
Soundtrack 2012 (Django Unchained)
Best Comedy 2012 (Django Unchained)
Original Screenplay 2015 (The Hateful Eight)
Soundtrack 2019 (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
Cameo 2019 (Julia Butters - Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
Actor 2019 (Leonardo DiCaprio - Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

1. Christopher Nolan - Twenty-Two Golden Stakes

Chase Scene 2008 (The Dark Knight)
Editing 2008 (The Dark Knight)
Best Villain 2008 (The Dark Knight)
Best Supporting Actor 2008 (Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight)
Best Line 2008 (The Dark Knight)
Best Poster 2008 (The Dark Knight)
Best Action Movie 2008 (The Dark Knight)
Fight Scene 2010 (Inception)
Set-Piece 2010 (Inception)
Art Direction 2010 (Inception)
Editing 2010 (Inception)
Original Screenplay 2010 (Inception)
Action Movie 2010 (Inception)
Best Film 2010 (Inception)
Fight Scene 2012 (The Dark Knight Rises)
Villain 2012 (The Dark Knight Rises)
Set-Piece 2017 (Dunkirk)
Editing 2017 (Dunkirk)
Fight 2020 (Tenet)
Shootout 2020 (Tenet)
Editing 2020 (Tenet)
Action Movie 2020 (Tenet)

CS! Record Holder: Quickest Review in the Film Club (1 hour 10 minutes). January 28th, 2021, 9:43 PM-

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PG Cooper
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Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 14, 2022 9:51:33 GMT -5

Quote

Post by PG Cooper on Mar 14, 2022 9:51:33 GMT -5

Drac's been Zacktivated since 2007.

CS! Record Holder: Quickest Review in the Film Club (2 hours 19 minutes). April 18th, 2013, 9:24 PM - January 28th, 2021, 9:43 PM

I make video essays about movies: www.youtube.com/channel/UC_7BpJ5krodZJGERJ9JPNjQ?

"Rising from darkness where Hell hath no mercy and the screams of vengeance echo on forever. Only those who keep the faith shall escape the wrath of the Metallian...Master of all metal."

Dracula CS! Gold Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 26,101 Likes: 5,731 Location: Last Online Nov 22, 2024 19:36:00 GMT -5	Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards Mar 14, 2022 9:59:39 GMT -5 PG Cooper and thebtskink like this Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by Dracula on Mar 14, 2022 9:59:39 GMT -5 Mar 14, 2022 9:51:33 GMT -5 PG Cooper said: Drac's been Zacktivated since 2007. The dude has always been great at individual elements... overall picture, less so.
	CS! Record Holder: Quickest Review in the Film Club (1 hour 10 minutes). January 28th, 2021, 9:43 PM- Check out my review blog Follow me on Letterboxd Follow me on Twitter

Dracula Presents: The Fifteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards

Post by IanTheCool on Mar 13, 2022 8:34:00 GMT -5

Post by Dracula on Mar 13, 2022 14:42:43 GMT -5

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Post by Dracula on Mar 13, 2022 15:35:16 GMT -5

Post by Dracula on Mar 13, 2022 16:49:27 GMT -5

Post by PG Cooper on Mar 13, 2022 16:51:29 GMT -5

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Post by PG Cooper on Mar 13, 2022 17:03:43 GMT -5

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Post by Doomsday on Mar 13, 2022 22:44:17 GMT -5

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Post by PhantomKnight on Mar 13, 2022 22:53:33 GMT -5

Post by Dracula on Mar 14, 2022 9:42:51 GMT -5

Post by PG Cooper on Mar 14, 2022 9:51:33 GMT -5

Post by Dracula on Mar 14, 2022 9:59:39 GMT -5

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