Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Amour joins my choices of The Cabin in the Woods, Looper, and Moonrise Kingdom. Easily.

Django Unchained does not.

There are some good scares, but it's not scary. I think this is largely a made up argument that's happening. As a comedy, The Cabin in the Woods is entirely successful. I see no reason to penalize it for not being a terribly good Western either. I am always rooting for the kids. They remain entirely charming and likable. When I read these impression of The Cabin in the Woods, I come across phrases like "too meta" or "not very original". I really don't understand. It's such a fantastic premise to start with and it takes such full advantage. I understand Marco's point about why it could have been scarier, but that's easily the part of the film I was least interested in so it's hard to meet that one half way. But for me (IMO) it can only be "too meta" if there isn't a joy behind all of it. It's all in the service of fun. Not meta-quirkiness, but real laughs. Ah, well..

I'm with FilmFan720. It's awful, but I don't blame Aubrey Plaza. I think that she's actually reasonably good. The film just asks nothing of her besides longing gazes. This kind of thing would be perfect for her to break out of her Parks and Rec persona or at least expand upon it, but there's no real opportunity for her to do so. Mark Duplass is truly awful in the film. As miscast as anybody this year. Talk about hipster, Safety Not Guaranteed is a blender full of hipster ground up like a frog.

I don't think I have hated a movie in the past year (or even past few years) as much as I hated Safety Not Guaranteed. Aubrey Plaza gives the year's worst performance, the screenplay piles on every independent film cliche into one jumbled mess and the whole thing is unfunny and fairly insulting to real human feelings.

I loved Cabin in the Woods, and ITALIANO, I thought it was scary on top of the metaness.

Yes, it's definitely too "meta" (and not as original as it thinks it is). Plus, movies of this kind are really successful if they can still preserve the "horror" element - in other words, if, despite all the intelligence and the intentional references etc, they can still be, simply, scary. And Cabin in the Woods isn't.

My problem with The Cabin in the Woods is that while it's clever and does some decent send-ups of horror tropes, most of it is just "hey! look out meta I can be! Oh. Look! Here's another point to be meta at. And I think the end only exacerbates the problem. I was bored at that point and hoping for something other than the obvious, but got the obvious. Being a lover of horror films, perhaps my experience will be a bit different from other "hipsters" who admire the film.

Hah! I guess we're not going to meet on this one. Every scene in The Cabin in the Woods forwards the story, and pretty much every single beat in The Cabin in the Woods forwards the story, and always in a funny, entertaining, and innovative way. I found it to have a strangely beautiful ending. I did not expect to be as moved as I was.

Talk about contrived, Safety Not Guaranteed is a work of hipster navel-gazing that I couldn't stand. I didn't like the writing or the direction. I know some people who did like it, so I'll just chalk it up to not liking how it wanted to go about its business with whether or not the time travel thing was legit (and those agents! ugh!). I'll give Aubrey Plaza credit for proving she can carry a film even though she's not far from April Ludgate territory but she's not given enough to do with how the film plays out. Mostly she just bats her eyes. Mark Duplass is miserably cast in this film. I like him quite a bit as an actor but he's all wrong. I hated Jake Johnson in it, but now that I'm a huge fan of The New Girl I might come around on him a bit. The film is mainly worth seeing for a couple of scenes with Jenica Bergere.


EDIT:

Of these scripts, I would say Flight, Magic Mike, and Safety Not Guaranteed have no business being there. I've only seen The Master and Zero Dark Thirty once each and I feel I need to watch them again to get onto their auteur's vision (Mark Boal is certainly a major visionary force of the film) but I find it hard to buy that I'll overcome some fundamental problems I have with the structuring. Your Sister's Sister is entirely improvised and it's terrific until the third act which just deflates entirely. Lovely film until then and in spite of all that. I am a fan of Lynn Shelton's. Seven Psychopaths is fun and full of good writing. I don't think that's quite enough to overcome a lot of stupid things in the movie.

Of these films, The Cabin in the Woods, Looper, and Moonrise Kingdom would make my five. I have hopes for Amour, Arbitrage, and Django Unchained making the cut.

I loved Safety Not Guaranteed and enjoyed The Cabin in the Woods, but found it far too contrived, especially that terrible ending.

I haven't quite seen all of these, but I don't think there's a screenplay I disliked more this year than Safety Not Guaranteed and the more I think about it, I don't think there's one I liked more than The Cabin in the Woods (minus one AWFUL! screenwriting choice).

Pick 5