Film Fanatics Society - Chat Thread

The Academy like to be sentimental with best leading actor and actress in particular. They like it when it's somebody's 'time'. I think it's Colin Firth's 'time' to win.

Has Colin Firth ever really been deserving, though? Like, really really deserving, in the Peter O'Toole sense? He's never really been in a stone-cold classic or anything...

Neither was Sandra Bullock, but there was a definite sense of "it's her time" last year.

Ahhh, but her performance in The Blind Side was genuinely very good. The only good performance she's ever given in anything, perhaps. Seriously, I can't think of one good movie that she's made.

Has Colin Firth ever really been deserving, though? Like, really really deserving, in the Peter O'Toole sense? He's never really been in a stone-cold classic or anything.

Ahhh, but her performance in The Blind Side was genuinely very good. The only good performance she's ever given in anything, perhaps. Seriously, I can't think of one good movie that she's made.

Ahhh, but her performance in The Blind Side was genuinely very good. The only good performance she's ever given in anything, perhaps. Seriously, I can't think of one good movie that she's made.

He's been putting in solidly good performances for a while now, and he was unfortunate he went up against Bridges last year otherwise he'd probably have won.




She was in Crash.

Nonsense. Often times what you don't see is far more disturbing than what you do.

The Academy like to be sentimental with best leading actor and actress in particular. They like it when it's somebody's 'time'. I think it's Colin Firth's 'time' to win.

Ah, most of the time The Academy are a bunch of hacks. They gave the award to Scorseses many years after his best films. He should've won for Taxi Driver or Raging Bull (at least De Niro took home the Best Actor for Raging Bull). Firth did win the Bafta last year, so there's a good chance he'll win it this year.

I also think Fincher is now fully deserving of an Oscar. Nolan will probably make a movie in the next couple of years that will get him an Oscar, but it's probably Fincher's time now.

Edit: A friend also said that Day Lewis should've been Cobb in Inception. I, however, just don't see it. I mean, Day Lewis doesn't strike me as the type to go for a big budget blockbuster like that, albeit one that has a pretty good plot for a summer blockbuster.

Really? I'm not intimately familiar with his filmography or anything, but the only thing of note he seems to have done in recent years is A Single Man. He's never been a bad actor, but he never struck me as outstanding, or someone undeservedly snubbed by the Academy.

And Crash didn't really do it for me. Struck me as a less engaging version of Magnolia. I didn't hate it or anything, and I certainly didn't think it was less deserving of the Best Picture award than Brokeback Mountain (although it definitely was less deserving than everything else nominated), but I didn't find it to be the amazing, life-affirming masterwork that some people think it is.

I feel you've taken it a bit out of context. I said "typically" a director would show the gore. True, some directors don't show what happened, leaving us to imagine and yes, I've heard the sound of the bones of that scene in 127 Hours is far more gruesome. However, I was also talking a lot about Boyle and how he has made movies that don't flinch away from the subject matters. For example, he gives a full portrait of the lives of heroin abuse and shows us completely the tragedies of their lives (the dead baby) and he also shows us those who live in extreme poverty (Slumdog Millionaire). He doesn't shy away from showing us these things and I was just saying that I imagine he doesn't when portraying a man stuck in a desperate situation where there is only one way out. Maybe I'll be proven wrong when I actually see the scene. Also, it would be impossible to make a film like this without showing the scene.

Anyway, I'm rambling.

Edit: A friend also said that Day Lewis should've been Cobb in Inception. I, however, just don't see it. I mean, Day Lewis doesn't strike me as the type to go for a big budget blockbuster like that, albeit one that has a pretty good plot for a summer blockbuster.

has anyone ever won Best Actor two years running before?

x

Getting some films for my train journey to York tomorrow. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and 2001: A Space Odyssey so far. I feel terrible that I've never seen them before

Any other recommendations in the same vein?

X

x

About to pop Red in the player, hope I like it!