Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Caravan (Arthur Crabtree, 1946) 9/10

A noblewoman (Anne Crawford) is loved by two men - a penniless half gypsy writer (Stewart Granger) and a cunning murderous upper class twit (Dennis Price). Stealing the film are Jean Kent as a fiery gypsy (with an absurd spanish accent) in love with Granger and campy Robert Helpmann as an assassin. Completely over the top melodrama with all the Gainsborough ingredients of sex, villainy and adventure intact. Great fun.

The Seventh Veil (Compton Bennett, 1945) 9/10

A suicidal pianist (Ann Todd) relates her life story under hypnosis to a doctor (Herbert Lom). Swooningly romantic psychological drama with music rising and falling in tune to the heroine's complicated mood swings. Ann Todd is superb as the troubled woman whose mind holds the key to all her torment and James Mason matches her every step of the way as the neurotic cousin who has brought her up and has a strange hold over her.

Fanny by Gaslight (Anthiny Asquith, 1944) 8/10

Victorian melodrama with surprisingly very modern things to say about sexuality and the British class structure. After Fanny's (Phyllis Calvert) foster father dies at the hands of a cruel man (James Mason) the illegitimate girl is taken in as a servant by her real father, a Cabinet Minister, who commits suicide. Following that her life takes her from one nightmare to another - as a barmaid, a lowly laundress - all the while being loved by a nobleman (Stewart Granger). Lavishly produced and with a great supporting cast - Jean Kent, Wilfred Lawson, , Helen Haye, Cathleen Nesbitt - the film is one of the key Gainsborough melodramas and Calvert was the quintessential spunky damsel-in-distress....what Lillian Gish was to silent cinema, Calvert was to the melodramas of British cinema during the 1940s.

The Man in Grey (Leslie Arliss, 1943) 9/10

The first Gainsborough melodrama with its familiar running theme of cruelty, lust, sex, betrayal and murder. A virtuous kind woman (Phyllis Calvert) falls in love with an adventurer (Stewart Granger) after her sadistic husband (James Mason) dallies with her best friend (Margaret Lockwood) who hopes to take her place. The film virtually typecast all four actors and made James Mason into a huge star. Superbly produced film with exceptional shadowy cinematography complimenting the lurid goings on. The story borders strictly on camp and follows the Mills & Boon school of literature but the high melodrama makes it compulsive viewing.

The Guest (2014) Adam Wingard 6/10
Violette (2013) Martin Provost 6/10
Kinetta (2005) Yorgos Lanthimos 4/10
The Judge (2014) David Dobkin 1/10
In Order of Disappearance (2014) Petter Moland 4/10
Citizenfour (2014) Laura Poitras 4/10
Siddharth (2013) Richie Mehta 6/10
Housebound (2014) Gerard Johnstone 5/10
What We Did On Our Holiday (2014) Andy Hamilton & Guy Jenkin 4/10
Decoding Annie Parker (2014) Steven Bernstein 5/10
Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 P.M. (2001) Claude Lanzmann 5/10
The Last of the Unjust (2013) Claude Lanzmann 5/10
The Police Officer's Wife (2013) Philip Groning 7/10
Jupiter Ascending (2015) Andy & Lana Wachowski 4/10

Repeat viewings

The Hustler (1961) Robert Rossen 7/10
Les Patterson Saves the World (1987) George Miller 6/10
Maps to the Stars (2014) David Cronenberg 9/10
Stations of the Cross (2014) Dietrich Bruggemann 10/10

Running On Empty
1988, Sidney Lumet

I took the opportunity to watch this, for the first time, on TCM last night.

I found it to be a moving portrayal that is still dragged down by the logistics of its story.

River Phoenix, playing a boy constantly on the run with his parents, played by Judd Hirsch and Christine Lahti, and younger brother, provides just the right amoumt of inner turmoil as someone who always must keep a lot of himself beneath the surface when he is with others. This is done best when he gradually confides to his girlfriend, played by Martha Plimpton. I liked how humor is mixed with pathos as the family moves from place to place every few months. I especially loved the scene of Phoenix practicing piano on a carboard-simulated keyboard.

My biggest problem is with Naomi Foner's Oscar-nominated screenplay that too-lazily sets up unbelievable plot contrivances to move the story along. I was just not able to believe that the 60s-radical parents would have been able to maintain enough of an underground support network to obtain all the phony personal documentation and even off-the-books medical care they could still obtain. I also did not buy that Phoenix's public school music teacher would have been able to afford such a nice house with a maid.

While I agree that Phoenix gave a performance that is worthy of an Oscar nomination, his is clearly a lead and not a supporting role.

B+

Ida (2014)

4/10

What a waste.

Uri wrote:Fair enough. Basically, I can't truly denounce most of your arguments though I do find your judgement far too harsh.

mlrg wrote:(when the end credits started I was expecting the international socialist anthem to start).

And what's wrong with that?

Well, nothing is wrong with that. The movie is so pamphletist I think it was the only thing missing

Fair enough. Basically, I can't truly denounce most of your arguments though I do find your judgement far too harsh.

mlrg wrote:(when the end credits started I was expecting the international socialist anthem to start).

And what's wrong with that?

Uri wrote:

mlrg wrote:Two Days One Night - 1/10

I'm not a big fan of this one - as I said elsewhere, I found it to be too pamphletish - but, as Marco might say - objectively - this is in no way a 1/10 film. Could you elaborate please?

I didn't buy the story for a single second and every characther was borderline cartoonish and some scenes made no sense whatsoever. The couple is on the verge of losing income but they eat out half the time during the weekend. She takes a whole bottle of xanax and an hour latter she is out of the hospital... I could keep going on and on.

The film is only 1h30 but it goes on forever back and forth with the same reactions by Cotillards character. There is absolutely no development on her professional career up until the weekend prior to the voting and the movie is only focused on money vs. solidarity making it a total ridicular pamplhet (when the end credits started I was expecting the international socialist anthem to start). In the final scene the script could have included a scene where she goes on to receive the Nobel Peace prize for such a good moral beahaviour.

But I understand the european adoration for this type of shit. This is cinematically orgasmic to the so called european "intelligentia" as much as, let's say, The Blind Side is for american redknecks

Dreadful moralistic pamphlet drivel.

mlrg wrote:Two Days One Night - 1/10

I'm not a big fan of this one - as I said elsewhere, I found it to be too pamphletish - but, as Marco might say - objectively - this is in no way a 1/10 film. Could you elaborate please?

Birdman - 9/10
Boyhood - 6/10
The Theory of Everything - 5/10
Whiplash - 6/10
Wild - 7/10
Two Days One Night - 1/10
The Grand Budapest Hotel - 8/10

I liked Braveheart as a teenager but I don’t know how I’d feel I saw it now for the first time. I have been avoiding seeing that film again precisely because I’m worried about ruining the memories.

I didn’t like Crash and I hated A Beautiful Mind. But I do know plenty of people who liked these films.

OscarGuy wrote:You mean someone actually liked Braveheart and A Beautiful Mind and Crash?

All these three films are so much better than horrible Boyhood. I mean, I wouldn't hate it that much if it wasn't the frontrunner at the Oscars. I can't see any reason why would Patricia Arquette win the award. I can't see any reason why Ethan Hawke would be nominated at all. Best editing? Really?? Directing??

OscarGuy wrote:You mean someone actually liked Braveheart and A Beautiful Mind and Crash?

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Well, I liked Crash, found Braveheart entertaining and loathed A Beautiful Mind