NBR Winners

flipp525
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Re: NBR Winners

Post by flipp525 »

I know it’s pretty divisive on this board, but I loved Beatriz at Dinner. Salma Hayek and John Lithgow would both make my personal lists this year.
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Re: NBR Winners

Post by ThePianist »

Just read the results. 'The Post's' Wins actually cracked me up a bit. :lol: I should've seen this coming. (But who really cares, this sh*t doesn't matter.)
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Re: NBR Winners

Post by Big Magilla »

Mister Tee wrote:Oh, and I've seen only five of the ten best indie choices, but they managed to single out two movies I actively disliked -- Beatriz at Dinner (which I actually stopped watching after about an hour, I found it so insufferably smug) and Lady Macbeth, a movie I can't believe the critics rated so high, full of loathsome characters from top to bottom.
I figured they'd go for Beatriz at Dinner, which I didn't like, but Lady Macbeth, which I loathed even more, was a bit of a surprise. The extremely tedious A Ghost Story was even worse. They really had to stretch to come up with that list.

I can't get too excited over the snubbing of I, Tonya, which I guess I'll have to eventually see to fully appreciate. It just looks too over-the-top to me to be really good.
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Re: NBR Winners

Post by Mister Tee »

So, I didn't really register it till I read the dread Sasha Stone, but the notable omittees from NBR's list (Three Billboards, Shape of Water and I, Tonya) all have female protagonists...while a number of pure-bro movies did get chosen: Dunkirk expectedly, but also Baby Driver, Logan and The Disaster Artist. Taken in isolation, this might not be significant, but remember, two years ago, female-centered movies that seemed a big part of the race did poorly in the opening rounds as well (Carol of course; Brooklyn got less than many of us expected; and Room was only rescued by AMPAS, having been mostly dismissed by precursors). Even in a year when you'd think everyone's sympathies would be with women, the lean seems to be away from films that feature them too heavily. (If you really want to push the point, you could say the two films that did well today and had strong female characters were centered on a high school student and a woman who inherited a newspaper from her husband.) I'm hoping NY/LA offer some offset to this.

Magilla's mention of Wind River prompts me to note I watched it the other night and thought it was decent enough. Had Harvey not become persona-never-again-grata, I wonder if he might have pushed Jeremy Renner into the perilously thin actor race -- he had a couple of scenes that I think gave him Oscar clips.

Oh, and I've seen only five of the ten best indie choices, but they managed to single out two movies I actively disliked -- Beatriz at Dinner (which I actually stopped watching after about an hour, I found it so insufferably smug) and Lady Macbeth, a movie I can't believe the critics rated so high, full of loathsome characters from top to bottom.

BJ, good point about the directors' branch not only favoring proven (i.e., previously-nominated) contenders, but showing a tendency to make people prove themselves more than once before citing them. In addition to the eventual winners you name, we could point to nominees like Alexander Payne, David O. Russell and David Fincher, who had reputations and hot films long before they got their first Oscar mentions. If Gerwig or Peele don't make it this year, it'll more likely be prejudice against their relative green-ness than their race/gender. Not that that will matter once the Twitterverse takes on the issue. It was bad enough in the pre-social media days, when Streisand being omitted for the crappy Prince of Tides was treated as royal scandal. A Gerwig/Peele shutout will go to DEFCON 1, with cable TV mindlessly cheering it on.
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Re: NBR Winners

Post by The Original BJ »

Mister Tee wrote:The lavishing of attention on both Get Out and Lady Bird feels a touch political, but they're both good films. I have my doubts either director can crack the tightly-held directors' branch at AMPAS, but BJ's argument for Gerwig makes sense.
And of course, if Peele doesn't make the list along with Gerwig, you can probably anticipate groaning about a list of a bunch of white dudes.

One big hurdle both Peele and Gerwig have is that it's pretty hard to get a Director nomination when you're a newbie director. As evidence: most of this year's director candidates! Look at Spielberg, Nolan, Del Toro, Anderson -- they all had films that were a part of the Oscar conversation in a big way (Jaws, Memento/Inception, Pan's Labyrinth, Boogie Nights/Magnolia), but weren't enough a part of the club yet to break through with the directors. (And I guess, to a lesser extent, McDonagh/In Bruges might qualify too, though that wasn't as central to that year's discussion.) And a number of recent director winners suffered similar omissions their first time legitimately competing for a directing citation -- Chazelle/Whiplash, Cuarón/Children of Men, Lee/Sense and Sensibility.

Obviously, it's not impossible to come from nowhere to snag a directing spot (Barry Jenkins, Lenny Abrahamson, Benh Zeitlin), but a lot of times the directors want their contenders to have been around the block a little bit before honoring them.
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Re: NBR Winners

Post by Sabin »

There is no conventional wisdom with these people. Sometimes they hit, sometimes they don't. In my opinion, the ONLY thing they've done is this: we have two films left this year basically that almost nobody has seen. 'The Post' and 'Phantom Thread.' They just informed us that they are in fact good. In other words, "Yay! It turns out that the new films by Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson are worth seeing!"

But they're still largely unknown quantities. The biggest winner IMO is 'Lady Bird.' Mentioning Greta Gerwig as Best Director is a big deal because it would be all too easy to toss her off as a screenplay nominee. But this changes that. She's a writer/director and could be nominated for both, just like Sofia Coppola.

Biggest loser? 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.' For sure. This film is in the process of expanding very wide and has the appearance of a movie that could sweep in at least two categories (Actress and Original Screenplay). And...nothing. But don't cry for this film. The New York Film Critic's Circle is this Thursday and it's likely to pick up at least one award there. After last year, I am DONE calling anything over and done after one award. If I'm not mistaken, I said somewhere that 'La La Land' was the biggest loser because the National Board of Review was its only shot at a critic's award before the Golden Globes. And then it won the NYFCC.

Also getting a big push is 'The Disaster Artist.' With a Gotham win for Best Actor and a National Board of Review win for Best Adapted Screenplay, it no longer appears to be "just" a comedy.

They also reminded voters that despite his baffling Indie Spirit snub, Willem DaFoe is worth consideration for Best Supporting Actor.
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Re: NBR Winners

Post by mlrg »

flipp525 wrote:Doesn’t conventional wisdom/NBR tradition tell us that one of these acting winners doesn’t get nominated come Oscar time? Which one is it this year?
My guess is Hanks
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Re: NBR Winners

Post by Big Magilla »

I'm completely flummoxed.

Well, yes, The Post is topical, seemingly on the surface, but then I haven't seen it yet.

Another of-the-moment selection is Wind River, one of my favorite films of the year, which is named despite the fact that it was distributed by the Weinstein Company, the day after Trump throws shade on Elizabeth Warren with his Pocahontas retread while honoring nonagenarian Native American heroes, the subject of the film, under the painting of Andrew Jackson no less.

Another interesting choice - Frantz, a remake of Ernst Lubitsch's under-appreciated pacifist classic, Broken Lullaby, one of the few foreign language films I've seen this year.

Among those films I would never have expected to see on an NBR list are Baby Driver, Logan, Logan Lucky and Downsizing.

Interesting to see that an animated film, Loving Vincent managed to slip in.

Most perplexing snubs: Three Billboards, The Shape of Water.
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Re: NBR Winners

Post by Mister Tee »

Folks at other sites are saying A24 has joined Warner Brothers as NBR faves, and the results for Lady Bird, Florida Project and Disaster Artist seem to bear that out.

My overall reaction is, there really are a ton of contenders this year. For a list to leave out Three Billboards, Shape of Water and I, Tonya and still not seem to be totally slumming it is not something could have been done in recent years. (They also omitted Darkest Hour, from the less-hip end of the spectrum.)

I don't ever take NBR completely seriously -- they'll always be the group that chose Quills and A Most Violent Year as best of the year -- but this list does have its interesting elements. Phantom Thread showing up in two places seems to suggest it's not too out-there for mainstream honors. Ditto The Disaster Artist (which has the phenomenal luck of competing in the two Oscar categories most in need of candidates this year, actor and adapted screenplay.) The lavishing of attention on both Get Out and Lady Bird feels a touch political, but they're both good films. I have my doubts either director can crack the tightly-held directors' branch at AMPAS, but BJ's argument for Gerwig makes sense.

I'd really thought Janney might dominate supporting actress voting to Metcalf's detriment. It'd be great fun if both of them won enough prizes to make it a contest. Supporting actor is shaping up as a category where a whole bunch of people could win prizes along the way -- Stuhlbarg and Rockwell seem certain to pick up some trophies, and maybe somebody else might win at a random place (Dafoe, in fact, was someone I thought might drop from consideration; maybe this is just a blip, but a prize is a prize.) The Hanks win confirms me in my belief that people just aren't that excited about voting for Gary Oldman -- though if, having lost here, he wins both NY and LA, it'll feel like the world turned upside down. The best actress vote for Streep might be just last seen/first voted...or a sign the group just flipped for The Post in general. Choosing Spielberg's film seems like the old-school NBR -- a stately, serious-minded, liberal-but-not-radical film that your grandmother could enjoy.
Last edited by Mister Tee on Tue Nov 28, 2017 4:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
flipp525
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Re: NBR Winners

Post by flipp525 »

Doesn’t conventional wisdom/NBR tradition tell us that one of these acting winners doesn’t get nominated come Oscar time? Which one is it this year?
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

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Re: NBR Winners

Post by The Original BJ »

Well, I guess The Post is just going to be that movie this year that I find perfectly respectable, but which I'm flummoxed could receive "best of the year" level enthusiasm. As I wrote earlier, I think Hanks and Streep are totally fine in their roles, I just don't think either has that much of a showcase, and genuinely wonder why so many are responding so enthusiastically to the performances (whereas I completely understand Oldman's appeal.)

The screenplay winners were probably the recipients today that got the biggest boost: Phantom Thread's prize suggests it may not be too outre for mainstream awards, and The Disaster Artist's award gives it some gravitas when it could have been pigeonholed as a broad comedy.

Lady Bird is the kind of movie that could feel a bit small in the Director category -- perhaps the reason many predictors don't have Gerwig on their lists -- but I've been wondering if there might be a serious movement to get another woman nominated there. With both Lady Bird and Mudbound in serious awards contention, and Wonder Woman one of the year's top box office hits, you have to imagine there will be some griping if it's an all-male lineup given the cultural climate. Whether or not that's enough to win over the boys club that is the directors branch remains to be seen, but I think it'll come up in the conversation for sure.
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Re: NBR Winners

Post by flipp525 »

The Hanks win is very perplexing. I mean, that wig is bad, right?
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
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Re: NBR Winners

Post by The Original BJ »

Reza wrote:Who won supporting actress?
Edited. Thanks for catching!
flipp525
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Re: NBR Winners

Post by flipp525 »

Reza wrote:Who won supporting actress?
Laurie Metcalf
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-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
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Re: NBR Winners

Post by Reza »

Who won supporting actress?
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