The (Other) Thing About The Oscars
I seriously look forward to the Oscars all year long. People have asked me today if I'm excited for the awards ceremony. Like most (recent) years, I've only seen a handful of the nominated movies in the major categories (Best Picture, Best Actor and Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, Best Director and Best Adapted and Original Screenplay). It's actually just been Juno and Gone Baby Gone. If you open it up to the other awards, I've also seen August Rush (Original Song), Transformers (Sound, Visual Effects, Sound Editing) and Golden Compass (Art Direction, Visual Effects).
I don't see as many movies in the theater anymore, and when I do go, I tend to see movies that I can't possibly wait to come out on video (or, as I call them, "the Harry Potter movies").
Most of the Oscar-nominated movies in the main categories aren't out on DVD yet, although they're all in my Netflix queue. I don't like all of them (coughJUNEBUGcough) but I like most of them, and I love a lot of them, too.
I hear a lot of people complaining that the Oscars tend to only nominate the more pretentious movies and tend to ignore the popular movies. This is true--the Oscars theoretically reward the best movies of the year. (Let me stress "theoretically."
I haven't seen every Best Picture winner since 1927's Wings, but I think I've seen a decent number. Some are, I think, very viewer-friendly (if you haven't seen All About Eve, for example, rent it now. I can't imagine anyone not loving it) and others...well, not so much. I considered trying to watch all the Best Picture winners once, but then I saw that there are a LOT of military movies in there, and I don't watch those.
Of the 27 in my lifetime, I've seen 18 of them. Most of those I think are pretty popular (Terms of Endearment? Silence of the Lambs? GLADIATOR?!) but for the most part, yeah. A lot of times "best" and "most popular" tend not to intersect.
I am a very shallow person, and left to my own devices, I'll probably watch Harold & Kumar go to White Castle far more often than I'll pop in, say, Schindler's List.
That said, I don't want to live in a world where Harold & Kumar gets an Oscar nomination.
I haven't seen any of the Best Picture nominees except for Juno, but I really want to see the other four (Atonement, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood). They may not be my favorites, I may not buy them on DVD (although every year, I always seem to buy at least one of the nominees) and there's a decent chance I'll only watch it when I'm in the mood for something really good (read: serious), but they usually really are the best movies I'll watch in any given year.
Comments
Unfortunately I haven't seen any of the nominated films (I don't get out much..lol). And though I'm curious & interested, I don't know if I'll ever see "No Country..." or the other one w/ Daniel Day Lewis that are supposed to be so awesome but VERY violent & bloody. Not exactly my idea of "entertainment". Though I love Schindler's List & think it's a very important film.
One year while living with roommates (a single Dad & his 2 pre-teens) I got a wild hair & decided that WE were going to have an Academy Awards party. We made hors d'oeuvres, got sparkling cider & champagne, etc. And I INSISTED that we dress up. The male roommates grumbled but in the end they both wore nice shirts & slacks (vs shorts & a stained tshirt), I wore a fancy dress w/all the "trimmings", & my bf at the time wore his tux! The teenage girl wore a little black dress from my closet. How I talked these people into doing all of this I still don't know, because there was a LOT of eye rolling. :-D. It was silly but fun!
If I ever manage to have Oscar Sunday off from work, I am TOTALLY throwing an Oscar party. :) It may be silly but I bet it totally IS fun. :)
I've seen 42 of the Best Picture winners all time, and 30 of the thirty-eleven since I was born, and 19 of the ones during your scant tenure on the planet. ;-)
The crazy thing is that I haven't seen any 'Best Picture' since "A Beautiful Mind." I'm with you, though: if it's a Harry Potter film, or something else that really REALLY needs to be seen on a big screen, I might go. Otherwise, I'll just wait for the DVD.
Schindler's List was an amazing, heart-rending film...
...but I don't know that I've ever laughed as hard in the theater as at Harold and Kumar. Between Neil Patrick Harris licking the headrests and the two British girls playing Battleshits, I about plotzed.
I love Crash and Million Dollar Baby. I actually really didn't like A Beautiful Mind, but there are some that I don't agree with. (American Beauty though is awesome, and I have gotten into several arguments about that movie.)
I actually am totally seeing the sequel to Harold and Kumar in the theater. That's the first one coming out this year that I know FOR SURE I have to see in the theater. (I also want to see the new Batman movie and of course Half-Blood Prince.)
I've seen 38 of the Best Picture nominees. I honestly want to see most of them, but the military movies would end up killing me. War movies = my least favorite genre.
I liked American Beauty, too. It was a strange movie, but I'm somewhat strange myself. I'm not a big fan of WW2 movies, simply because I've seen so many documentaries on the damn thing. Apocalypse Now would be my favorite Vietnam movie; it has almost nothing to do with Vietnam, except as a backdrop. Still, my all-time favorite war movie is "Dr Strangelove," which shows just how absurd the entire concept is.
In 2002, I would've gone with In the Bedroom or Moulin Rouge.
I did really like Gladiator, although I probably would've gone with Chocolat. (I haven't seen Traffic and I wasn't a huge fan of Crouching Tiger.)
The only war movies I like are the ones where there aren't any (or many) battle scenes. Casablanca, To Have and Have Not, From Here to Eternity...stuff like that.
I need to see Best Years of Our Lives and Apocalypse Now (Jen swears the latter is absolutely brilliant).
The Kel!
First off - yes you do need to see all of this years nominated films. What follows are my thoughts and reasoning why... for what it's worth...
While "No Country" was not my favorite of the bunch - it is solid. Very disturbing and very dark and frankly when it's done you feel like you just got the snot beat out of you... but still - very solid. I wouldn't have selected it as the best of the nominees... but eh.
Atonement is simply brilliant. It was my choice to win. I just thought it was so beautiful. Heartbreaking as can be. But ultimately so inspiring and gorgeous. I think you'd really like it.
There Will Be Blood. Again - not a real happy go lucky film here. But it is a very good film. I really liked it. A lot.
Juno - you already know this - but it was adorable. Absolutely adorable. Probably not deserving of best picture. But still a very fun and feel good movie.
Michael Clayton - this would probably be my second favorite of the bunch. It seriously was awesome. It didn't get much love at the ole' box office - oscar nods often don't alas... but it was seriously great.
Also - if you have not seen "Once" - PLEASE - you must! You know how you felt after watching their acceptance speech? Just warm and fuzzy and full of love? Well - that is what that whole movie left me feeling like. Seriously - so wonderful!
Hmmm... did I send you that tv shack link? I think I did. If not - check it out. It's where I did most of my oscar film viewing. And yes I do recognize that that makes me a bad person.
Sigh.
Well, Big Momma's House 2 was #1 at the box office its opening weekend, so I don't consider popularity a sign of a movie being good.
I definitely want to see all of them. I have Michael Clayton at home now and I have all the others in my Netflix queue.
You did send me the TVShack link, but my computer at home doesn't have working speakers and I probably shouldn't break the law at work. :)
I liked Juno okay but I don't think it's worthy of all the hype it's gotten so far. (I may well change my mind, though.)
I also have Once in my queue. I have most of the major nominated movies in there somewhere, I think.
Update your blog, Rob. :)