Do you think Academy Awards has hurt film?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indepe...ssavetes_Award


Does anyone know/recommend any of the movies that won or were nominated in the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award? I'm surprised that I hadn't heard of a single movie, except two winners, Blair Witch (big hoopla when I was a senior) and The Station Agent, which is probably the most overrated movie on message boards. It's not a bad movie, though.

__________________
https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition

Old Joy
Blue Ruin

In addition to the two movies that you mentioned, I've also heard of these movies:

Brick (2005) - I watched this for a recent countdown, and I liked it.

Thunder Road (2018) - This was nominated in a recent HoF here on MoFo. I thought is was okay, but I think it got good reviews in the HoF thread if I remember correctly.


I haven't seen these two movies, but I've heard of them. Both movies were recently airing on one (or more) of the cable movie channels. (I think either Showtime or Starz.):

Pieces of April (2003)
A Ghost Story (2017)

__________________
.
If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

Have to wonder what message boards you're on where The Station Agent is the most overrated of all movies - it barely gets mentioned at all on this message board.

As for the movies listed, the ones I'd recommend include...

Heaven Knows What - the Safdie brothers do a modern version of a 1970s New York character study with this stark tale of a lovelorn heroin addict and her various misadventures.

Big Fan - pretty decent Taxi Driver riff about, well, a sports fan.

Old Joy - Reichardt is another filmmaker whose whole filmography seems very much essential to me and this short, bittersweet tale of two friends having a weekend getaway is no exception.

Better Luck Tomorrow - before directing the bulk of the Fast and the Furious series, Justin Lin made his own take on the hood film with this scrappy crime drama about overachieving Chinese-American students who start doing side-hustles. Also inspired this classic Ebert moment.



Computer Chess - weird little mumblecore movie set at a convention for, what else, computer chess. Not sure I got it 100% on a single viewing, but it remains a mesmerisingly bizarre experience.

Blue Ruin - blunt, darkly funny, and subversive take on the revenge thriller where one man's bumbling efforts to get even and stay ahead of his enemies prove plenty engaging.

__________________
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

I hope they're all VERY independent.. Usually, we have people who have seen everything. But I want to find these kinds of "far-out" awarded movies -- I'm done re-watching movies, and I need unique, but I'm usually referring to the writing, and not some crazy plot twist.


Thanks! I'll see what's available and where and hope I can access it on Comcast or something.

I saw "Coda", which won Best Picture last year at the Oscars. I thought it was a decent movie. A heart warming, coming of age story, but in my opinion, there was nothing about it that really seemed Academy Award winning. I was very surprised that it won Best Picture. Additionally, I thought that both Emilia Jones, the main actress in the film, and the music teacher, who was portrayed by Eugenio Derbez, gave better performances than the Best Supporting Actor winner, Troy Kotsur. I won't speculate on why I think it may have won, since we've already done a lot of that in this thread. Of the nominees that I did see last year, I felt like "King Richard" was a far more entertaining film, and I thought a similarly themed film from a few years ago, "Sound of Metal", more successfully, and more interestingly, showcased the struggles of the deaf community and how it might feel to live with an inability to hear.

thats a good question i dont have a clue i dont watch the awards much incase if they have my favorites nominated

The difference with Coda is that it's not solely about being deaf, it's about the central character being stuck as the go-between and feeling isolated within her own family. So it's a different take on the subject matter.

The issue with the Oscars is that acting is subjective, yet they try to add objective elements- e.g. if someone's portraying a real-life figure, doing an accent, straight actors playing a gay character, they have something to compare so that it's more about mimicry than acting. Either that or it must have a 'worthy' theme.

Loved Brick and it's unique soundtrack. Some beautiful tunes in it.