Oscar Best Pictures - Why???

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.

A Separation won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film last year.

Anyway, I think the answer to all your questions is "because other people don't necessarily agree with your assessment of the quality of the films." Banal and obvious, maybe, but that's probably why.

Hehe.... Just starting a discussion on them. Thanks for the reminder on A Separation.

Django Unchained is gratuitous because it's a Quentin Tarantino movie.

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Most people learn their first year of being heavy into film how little the Oscars reflect the film climate for the year. While I think your view of Amour is a gross miscalculation, I think there were many better foreign films (as I've listed in the Best Films of 2012 thread) however, and I think it was only nominated outside of FLF category because it received other U.S. awards. I also think that many Oscar favorites only work in the U.S. Look how many prideful or American focused films there are, Argo, Lincoln, Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty, Beasts of the Southern Wild, . Silver Linings Playbook is also such a shallow and disturbingly offensive film that could only be successful in American audiences who prefer to see problems, but be held at way more than arms length from them. The Oscars are American, cinema is worldwide.

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Mubi

I agree that some of the picks for best Picture nominees where disappointing and i would rather see some other movies in the place of lets say the Silver Linings movie. For example i would prefer if they had nominated The Master or Moonrise Kingdom. Also i have a question, why is Amour nominated both for a best picture and a best foreign language film? Shouldn't it be in just one of these categories?

I also hated Amour. But it is strange that it was nominated for Best Picture. It makes it looks as though 8 of the 9 best movies of the year were in English, which, although I haven't seen many foreign films this year, is absurd.

I thought the whole point of Silver Linings Playbook was to have characters that couldn't really exist and do things that were out of their norm in order to provide maybe a happy ending, which ties into the whole Hemingway rant. At least that's what I got out of it. I definitely didn't find anything offensive about it.

Well that's usually how the academy, and the vast majority of American's feel.

For SLP, if, as you say, the characters aren't meant to be realistic than there can be no offense, as they're not actually people. But if they are mean't to be realistic, which is how most of the populous views it, it's absurd and rude.

Django feels kind of disjointed and that's one of the few flaws that I found in the film. But gratuitous for no good reason? I strongly disagree. Overly long? Again, I disagree, as a matter of fact I would've added another half an hour, and I'm not saying this just because I'm a huge QT fan. Had it been longer the film would've definitely looked a lot more complete.

It's a highly stylized western, which consists of gruesome violence mixed with slapstick humour, superb acting, it's full of quotable Tarantino dialogue, it has a terrific soundtrack... the list goes on. Those were just some of the reasons why I think Django thoroughly deserves the Best Picture nomination.

I've seen Silver Linings Playbook too and I loved it. One of the best films of the year imo.

That's exactly why I mentioned the local connection. I've eaten at the diner they were in (it's a landmark here) but the entire depiction of these people, for me, makes me wince of people thinking this is what it's like to be a Philadelphian.

There are some thing in films I will object to or love depending on how they're presented. For example, take the concept of "quirky". Moonrise Kingdom is definitely quirky as was Thin Ice (Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin). However, you know immediately that it's part of the allure and approach and it's done well. Silver Linings Playbook was quirky too and, for me, it made it a bore. Why? The quirkiness felt like it wasn't embraced. It just was and that wasn't the point. Thinking of it I can only clearly recall two memorable scenes other than ones that were negatively quirky (DeNiro's final speech not to blow it and the adorable but very unreal chase down Sansom Street).

Another example is realism. There are times we can all suspend disbelief but other times we just don't buy in enough to do so. I can do it for Star Wars where a scientist would have a field day but not for Looper where I can drive a large truck through every plot hole.

Several of the nods this year, for me, teetered on these types of points and just didn't flow for me. Django, SLP, etc.

Silver Linings Playbook and Django Unchained are the 2 best that I have seen. It's a down year for best picture contenders, but I still haven't seen Les Mis, Life of Pi, Zero Dark Thirty, or Beasts of the Southern Wild.

I have to agree that it is kind of a dull year for contenders.

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Also, I've never quite understood the Best Picture/Best Director distinction... surely the best film of the year would be the best directed?

Not necessarily if it were the best written. Besides the directors nominate the directors while everybody nominates Best Picture.

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I get a film being strongly written yet only adequately directed but then I wonder, how is it really the best film of the year if it isn't strongest in both categories? What does Best Pic mean if not overall quality? I'm not saying they shouldn't have awards for everything except Best Pic. I'm saying Best Pic seems kind of pointless after awarding different films for different strengths.

Well I'm talking about awards from flawed humans such as Academy members, not "special" people like us MoFos.

Got it.

Specially the people working at the Oscars.

I stopped caring for the Oscars a long time ago. IMDB ratings are a way better way of guessing the quality of a movie (if it is good or bad). While If a movie is great or just good is pretty up much to you.

I generally agree with the critics that a movie like Resident Evil 5 is not good, but great movies are only taken from the set of good movies that affected me the most.

Anyway, caring for the oscar is like caring for the Grammy's in music, I mean, who cares if your favorite pieces of art in a select year are not voted by a select group of Americans as the best of the year? Appreciation of art is subjective.