pacaway

Whoa! You weren't kidding! This was a heavy one. They don't make too many films like this anymore. Travis, I admire you for your forthrightness in talking about your mental health issues. I can see why this would be so hard for you to watch. It was great to watch all of these seasoned actors exercise their craft. The young actors were all excellent as well and Timothy Hutton's Oscar was well deserved. Thanks for commenting on the film or I may never have seen it.

Mao

Reminder: Attica is only on Amazon Prime Video until 2/28

Travis McClain

I'm glad you got something out of watching it, being that it was on my recommendation that you took the chance on it! It comes back to the point I was making in that earlier post, though, about how important an Oscar win can be for a film's legacy. I only even watched it because it won several, including Best Picture. I watch plenty of movies that don't win Oscars, so it's not like I use those little statuettes to screen my viewing selections, but in all this time that film has never crossed my path in any other context. I've had plenty of conversations with movie fans in the mental health community over the years and it's never come up in those conversations, either. (I guarantee it will now, though!)

I found it emotionally compelling, but I didn't find it hard to watch. It was more a matter of being drawn in because so much of it rang true that I felt understood. In the week leading up to Ordinary People, I watched Sleepless in Seattle; Last Tango in Paris; Then Came You; Jeffrey; An Officer and a Gentleman; and Top Gun. I liked some of those and was drawn in by some of them, but clearly none of them were even trying to have the same conversation as Ordinary People.

lisadoris

Thanks for this heads up. I read Heather Ann Thompson's book about the uprising and I didn't think I could be more horrified. I was wrong. Pictures and video make it even worse. How the hell has no one been held responsible for that travesty.

lisadoris

Every couple years, I watch Seven Samurai for this challenge and I freak out because it doesn't appear in the Oscar Database as "Seven Samurai." I don't know Japanese but is the correct translation Seven Samurai or The Magnificent Seven (that's what the nominations are listed under).

pacaway

IMDB shows this under "Also Known As..."



but I've never seen it referred to that way before. However that is definitely the title used in the Oscar database. Weird!

pacaway

I think I just watched the winner for animated feature. The animation in Raya and the Last Dragon is amazing. They threw everything they could think of into this one including mist and water (even flowing backwards) and every landscape you can think of. I don't know if they judge by the quality of animation or by the story quality (probably a combination of those things - I should look it up) but even the story is quite good (stronger than Encanto, IMHO). Flee has the advantage of being a true and harrowing story, including an LGBTQ angle and multiple nominations, and differs in its animation from the rest (less polished and more hand drawn looking) and is a strong contender. Pixar's Luca, even though it looks great, is basically retelling The Little Mermaid (without the awkward love story.) The only off-putting thing for me in RatLD was Awkwafina's voice... Don't get me wrong, I LOVE HER, but her voice is SO recognizable that it took half the film for me to not get pulled out of the story every time she spoke. I haven't seen The Mitchells vs. the Machines yet but it would have to be pretty spectacular to sway my opinion.

Mao

While I agree that "Raya..." is a great film, "Encanto" simply has the momentum in this category. Beautiful story, swirling colors of animation, so much heart! Honestly, my second choice would be "Mitchells vs. the Machines". See it! Amazing animation, great laughs, prefect voiceover work.

pacaway

I have to admit, I haven't paid much attention to any indicators, so you may be right, and I really look forward to watching The Mitchells now. I just didn't find the Encanto story very compelling. Of the two Disney films (3 counting Pixar, I guess) I really preferred Raya.

Mao

Comcast has a free movie week starting on March 8th. HBO Max is included, so if you want to catch Drive My Car, Nightmare Alley and West Side Story.....

pacaway

Alright, I will humbly concur with you, Mao, that The Mitchells vs the Machines is actually a great film! My 26 year old son and I literally laughed out loud about every minute or two throughout the movie. It also has a really cool animation style, like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, This is a REALLY strong batch of nominees, all deserving to win in their own way.

pacaway

And then there was ONE!

I've completed the list of nominated features for 2022 (I will be seeing all the shorts this weekend as well) except for the elusive Writing with Fire documentary. I can only seem to find it (in Canada anyway) for release on iTunes on March 15th. If it is available somewhere else, it still eludes me. I'm finishing with the nominees right on time, as I start previewing for our international festival on the 17th, which will severely limit my ability to see other films.

Mao

Two more to go for me - "Hand Of God"...don't know why I've been putting it off. "Writing With Fire" was initially going to be available before the show. Now in the U.S., it says March 29th.

Just for that, I hope it doesn't win!

Have access to all the doc shorts but "When We Were Bullies"....I buy the Shorts package from iTunes each year the Tuesday before the show.

Mao

For those that have access to Kanopy, "Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom" just showed up today.

It's a delightful film!

davidh777

I finally got around to watching The Revenant, which I knew nothing about other than “Leo vs bear.” Kind of a grim slog but I can see how it was a showy acting role.

West Side Story and Don’t Look Up were my fifth and sixth BP watches. Drive My Car just hit HBO so maybe I can check that off in the next week.

pacaway

Hand of God is a really good coming-of-age film. I enjoyed it a lot. This year I'm going to see all the shorts in theater, but I too have bought quite a few of the packages over the years. It's quite irritating when some are missing, such as the Pixar entries.

pacaway

Not in Canada, apparently, but I rented it on iTunes. I really enjoyed it too. That community, and especially those kids (who've never seen a movie in their lives), are so endearing!

davidh777

I thought about watching Hand of God last night, but it was Friday night at 8 pm, and it sounded like work, so I gave the wife a choice of “Disney or foreign language film.” So we watched Cruella, which was fine.

pacaway

Wow! I have already used 15 different streaming services for my first 59 entries!

pacaway

As promised, the Indian documentary, Writing with Fire, was released for sale on iTunes today! I have FINISHED my viewing of all 2022 nominees! Thank goodness for the extended time this year! lol.

BTW, did anyone else watch all 5 Live Action shorts back to back like I did this past weekend? Wow, one at a time they were all great, but all back to back (on a theatre screen) was gut wrenching. It's hard to believe, but the documentary shorts afterwards were unusually more uplifting! Some years are like that I guess.

Mao

I cannot believe that they're not releasing "Writing With Fire" on iTunes in the U.S. before the show!

pacaway

Is that right?? That just seems like a really bad decision. Must be some deal with PBS to not release before they show it on the 28th.

Mao

Ugh! Yeah, I saw that....it's not like it's going to win (gotta be honest...if no one is talking about it and even we muggles don;t get to see it.... there's no buzz!)

pacaway

I liked it but it probably would have been much better as maybe a 50 minute short. It would have still made its point and had more impact I think.

HyperWeather

The Please Hold short is on HBOMax! I read on the shorts tv twitter the other day that they won't be releasing a whole digital package this year due to various rights, but hopefully they'll be able to release the last 2 live actions not already available elsewhere.