The problem with the Oscars is that they somehow managed to piss off mainstream audiences AND movie buffs.

I enjoyed basically every best pic nom last year.

I'm generally easy to entertain.

I'm done with this awards season.

Saw Hugo last night. I really enjoyed it, but I still think The Tree of Life and The Artist are better films.

Doubtful. The Hurt Locker (2009) has the lowest adjusted gross of any best picture winner at $15,582,000 (domestic) and it didn't get to that number until after it won the Oscar. The Artist is currently at $12,365,758 and is sure to get a bump in the lead-up to the Oscars with all of its nominations. If it wins, it will get an additional bump.

I think The Hurt Locker will hold that title for a long time.

Really? Really?!



That was tired in 1998.

I've seen most of Malick's other films (not The New World). I was fine with the conceit in The Thin Red Line, because it contrasted with the war setting and gave us insight into the characters as they went through this harrowing experience. It didn't work for me in Tree of Life because the performances as they appear on screen are enough to sell what Malick was going for. The whispered stuff on top of it felt superfluous and undercut the effect that was being woven on screen.

So was SNL, so my remark appears to be in good company.

I haven't read the first six pages of this thread and nor do I care, so I'll just throw in my comments. It's really hard to be pissed at this year's Academy Awards because this year sucked for cinema. While I would watch an Academy Awards telecast where Attack the Block and The Muppets sweep the night, I don't think others would be as happy. However, I'm just dumbfounded by a few of the choices.

Drive should've been nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Ryan Gosling), Best Supporting Actor (for both Albert Brooks and Bryan Cranston), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score and Best Cinematography. 2011 will go down in film history as a particular shit year for the quality of films released, but Drive was a phenomenal piece of work and will actually be remembered years from now.

Speaking of Best Supporting Actor, were those the five best supporting actors of the year? Nope. Christ, you could've just randomly chose five men from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (like say Cumberbatch, Hardy, Hurt and Strong) and you would've had a better list of nominees. The Jonah Hill nomination is what really fucking stings. Seriously? Better than Brooks and Cranston? Fuck you Academy, fuck you.

How many cocks did Scott Rudin and Alan Horn have to suck to get Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close nominated for anything? It's good to see a film that nearly shits on the events of September 11th get a Best Picture nomination and not say a far superior picture from five years ago.

Does Katzenberg have an issue with Spielberg not doing The Adventures of Tintin at DreamWorks and that's why it's not nominated for Best Animated Picture?

However, I'm glad that Bret McKenzie will be an Academy Award winner this year. Too bad it wasn't for a far superior song ("Life's a Happy Song") from the same film.

I agree with you for the most part but I disagree that it was a crappy year. I thought it was a pretty solid year.

It was a so-so year. There were some very good films (a few of them even managed to get nominated), and a whole lot of crap, with some coming in at forgettable but okay.

I thought it was an average to slightly below average year...mainly because there were few big highs....at least for me.

The sad thing about the Academy Awards, (if you are using it as a gauge for the year), is that there were some very good films that got overloooked so they made the year in film look worse than it really was.

Like many of you, I really enjoyed Drive and wish it had gotten some more recognition. While I thought Gosling's performance was definitely very good, he was excellent, and even better to me, in both The Ides of March and Crazy, Stupid, Love. 2011 was the year of Ryan Gosling, IMO.

Ryan?

That reminds me, I still need to watch Crazy, Stupid, Love.

I re-watched the other night for the first time since theaters and liked it even more the second time around. Not your typical romcom. Enjoyable story and easy to watch. Steve Carrell is also great.

Crazy Stupid Love is very good. I especially liked Marisa Tomei in it.

I think the whispered stuff really was the core of the film as it works with the imagery to show the characters pleading with God or thinking they are speaking with God - whichever way you want to look at it. God's response is the world around them (or the absence of God is the world around them).

To those who saw this movie, how does it shit on 911? I don't even want to bother seeing it if that is the case.

My hope would be that Woody Allen wins best director, and actually shows up. However, the chances of either happening are extremely remote.

Last time (only time?) Woody Allen showed up was in 2002, and that was to introduce the "Tribute to New York" segment.

The film panders to the lowest common denominator and there's numerous reason why it's the worst reviewed film to be nominated for Best Picture in years.

It turned into one in the last 20 minutes. Stupid ending for a pretty decent flick.

It's definitely the absence of God, because even God couldn't stand all that torturous whispering.

Surprised this wasn't posted yet. It's Patton Oswalt's twitter:

Join me for a drink at The Drawing Room, @AlbertBrooks? Me and Serkis have been here since 6am.
@AlbertBrooks See you later tonight. Might be out of booze -- Serkis has Pogues on the jukebox & Fassbender just showed up in a pirate hat.
@AlbertBrooks Oh shit -- we're DEFINITELY going to run out of booze. Charlize & Tilda just pulled up in a stolen police car.
@AlbertBrooks Dude, GET DOWN HERE. Gosling is doing keg stands and Olsen & Dunst LITERALLY just emerged from a shower of rose petals.
@AlbertBrooks Nolte & Plummer just drove past, mooning us. Serkis & Tilda are signing "Is There Life on Mars?"
@AlbertBrooks Oops -- Von Trier just pulled up in a pass van dressed as Goering. "Let's go to Legoland!" With a boozy hurrah, we're out!
@AlbertBrooks Oh. My. God. Just pulled up to Legoland. DiCaprio's rented the park for the day. Dibs on the Duplo Gardens! #andscene