There's always a film or two that makes you scratch your head (War Horse was, in my opinion, a total bore last year) but this year seems like a real stand out in that regard.
For example:
Amour -- I have nothing against foreign films, subtitles, independent films, quirky films but this one is, for me, this year's Poetry (which was my worst film of last year). I saw this with a few people and the entire art house theater and my friends sat there in shock at the end. Everyone was muttering about what a total waste of time this was. It was like watching paint dry. Look, they're eating again. They're washing dishes. They're...... really? We watch them sleep too? Geez. Why not just turn on a web cam and call it a movie? For me this entire movie comes down to one scene and then a totally unsatisfying ending and yet the reviewers fawn over it.
You want a great foreign film this year? Go with Headhunters, A Royal Affair or A Separation which were all much better than this.
Argo -- Ben Affleck got screwed on earlier films that deserved this honor. Argo, for me, is hobbled by the pure fact that 100% of all the interesting parts of the film are entirely made up out of thin air. Generally that's fine but not in a movie that's heavily suggesting that it's a factual retelling of a real, major event. I mean, why not just make them time travelers and set it in space? Even beyond that it was pretty tedious in spots.
Beasts of the Southern Wild -- Curious, interesting but mainly pretty dull. The a couple good actors doesn't make for a Best Picture nominee.
Django Unchained -- Disjointed, overly long, gratuitous for no good reason. Waltz is stunning again but, see above.
Lincoln -- My worst-named movie of the year. If I go see a film called Churchill I'd expect it to be the life story or Churchill, not about a few months of his life. Another overly-long acting experience. Daniel Day-Lewis deserves the accolades. The film doesn't.
Silver Linings Playbook -- Maybe it's because I live next to Philly (South Jersey) and am there every weekend but this film was just too odd and dull to be a best picture nominee. DeNiro is totally unbelievable. In fact, so is everyone and unlike a Wes Anderson movie where that's kind of expected, here they're supposed to be representing reality. No one is like him and his wife. Come on. The only believable role is Cooper's and it's supposed to be the odd one. Jennifer Lawrence is adorable and you just want to hug her like she's a life-sized teddy bear but this still isn't anything special. Your Sister's Sister and Safety Not Guaranteed were much better in virtually everything this tried to be.
Zero Dark Thirty -- Why? Nearly three hours long and only the last 20 minutes wake you up. The rest is cliche after cliche after cliche and it's confusing and dull. I keep joking that the final sequences were so oddly shot that I'm still not sure we got bin Laden based on what we saw. hehe
I'm really shocked at the great films that were totally ignored by the academy this year especially for these heavily handicapped films.
For example:
Amour -- I have nothing against foreign films, subtitles, independent films, quirky films but this one is, for me, this year's Poetry (which was my worst film of last year). I saw this with a few people and the entire art house theater and my friends sat there in shock at the end. Everyone was muttering about what a total waste of time this was. It was like watching paint dry. Look, they're eating again. They're washing dishes. They're...... really? We watch them sleep too? Geez. Why not just turn on a web cam and call it a movie? For me this entire movie comes down to one scene and then a totally unsatisfying ending and yet the reviewers fawn over it.
You want a great foreign film this year? Go with Headhunters, A Royal Affair or A Separation which were all much better than this.
Argo -- Ben Affleck got screwed on earlier films that deserved this honor. Argo, for me, is hobbled by the pure fact that 100% of all the interesting parts of the film are entirely made up out of thin air. Generally that's fine but not in a movie that's heavily suggesting that it's a factual retelling of a real, major event. I mean, why not just make them time travelers and set it in space? Even beyond that it was pretty tedious in spots.
Beasts of the Southern Wild -- Curious, interesting but mainly pretty dull. The a couple good actors doesn't make for a Best Picture nominee.
Django Unchained -- Disjointed, overly long, gratuitous for no good reason. Waltz is stunning again but, see above.
Lincoln -- My worst-named movie of the year. If I go see a film called Churchill I'd expect it to be the life story or Churchill, not about a few months of his life. Another overly-long acting experience. Daniel Day-Lewis deserves the accolades. The film doesn't.
Silver Linings Playbook -- Maybe it's because I live next to Philly (South Jersey) and am there every weekend but this film was just too odd and dull to be a best picture nominee. DeNiro is totally unbelievable. In fact, so is everyone and unlike a Wes Anderson movie where that's kind of expected, here they're supposed to be representing reality. No one is like him and his wife. Come on. The only believable role is Cooper's and it's supposed to be the odd one. Jennifer Lawrence is adorable and you just want to hug her like she's a life-sized teddy bear but this still isn't anything special. Your Sister's Sister and Safety Not Guaranteed were much better in virtually everything this tried to be.
Zero Dark Thirty -- Why? Nearly three hours long and only the last 20 minutes wake you up. The rest is cliche after cliche after cliche and it's confusing and dull. I keep joking that the final sequences were so oddly shot that I'm still not sure we got bin Laden based on what we saw. hehe
I'm really shocked at the great films that were totally ignored by the academy this year especially for these heavily handicapped films.