Poll: Your Favorite Among the Best Picture Nominees

I don't understand this. Why do you feel the movie doesn't offer anything?

 

I'll vote for Arrival, with the caveat that I've only seen it, Hell Or High Water and Hacksaw Ridge. I don't have any interest in the others, save for maybe Manchester By The Sea which I might rent some time. Maybe. It doesn't even look appealing to me, but I generally like Casey Affleck, so I'll probably give it a chance sometime.

 

Well, the movie isn't a true story - it's fiction. Thus I feel the story should have led somewhere. The movie concludes with the story still unfolding. And that was probably the point. I would be fine with it if it was factual, but if you're telling a make-believe story that mirrors real-life, at least give the broken people presented to us a glimmer of hope that they may be healed. The best we got (and I was thankful for it!) was the wrenching scene between Affleck and Williams outside near the end.

I don't need a Hollywood happy ending, and this movie would have been a waste if that was indeed thrown at us, but I nonetheless feel it could have offered the characters a bit more redemption.

 

As I was exiting the theater during the end credits, I got the impression others in the audience thought the same as you. I'm used to this type of movie, so I knew to expect the ending we got here.

Btw, one of my favorite things about Manchester (it's in my top five for the year) is how damn funny it is despite the depressing subject matter. The audience laughed repeatedly throughout the movie, as did I.

 

I feel like this is an art house film that escaped and snuck into the multiplexes, where it is likely to defy audience expectation.

John Mellencamp wrote "Sometimes you get sick and you don't get better". Sometimes you are devastated and you never recover, even when a circumstance presents itself that might allow you to if you let it. "I can't beat this". Line of the year.

 

I like ''Nocturnal Animals''. Voted for ''Hell or High Water''.

 

While listening to the current and thought-provoking two part panel on the Lincoln Center's podcast, Close-Up I perused their list of recent, streamable episodes, noticing that Manchester by the Sea's Kenneth Lonergan also recently appeared. I'm holding off until I see the film but others may want to dig in. Should be fluff-free and insightful. Great stuff for the Film Comment set.

Many other recent nominees or contenders also have installments with Jim Jarmusch, one with Fences' Denzel Washington and Viola Davis as well as Paterson's Adam Driver, and an extended conversation with Scorsese (part one, part two). Considering how fast Scorsese talks, that's like a four parter for us mortals.

Another program, The Hollywood Reporter's more performer-centric Awards Chatter has several episodes with the likes of Dev Patel, Viggo Mortensen, Adam Driver, Michael Keaton, Lin Manuel Miranda, Emma Stone, etc. Most are in the 40-60 minute range. Fluffier than the sometimes stuffy Lincoln Center but still more substantive than typical interviews. I discovered it when they did a great one with Spielberg after Bridge of Lies that was more in-depth than he often is.

Back to the films themselves, my personal must-see list titles are no longer showing locally. Most are hitting video soon so I'll probably rent Moonlight and Salesman then blind buy Fences and my two most anticipated: Jarmusch's Paterson and Manchester by the Sea. Speaking of Jarmusch, I'm about to listen to his interview. Should be marvelously tangential and slow. Oh, if only he were interviewed by Steven Wright (or Eeyore).

 

I would have gone for Hacksaw Ridge, but the last ten minutes kind of wrecked it for me. So Manchester it is, although Moonlight and La La Land have stuck in my brain as well.

 

The interviews with the real people ... or soccer-kicking the grenades?

 

No, the squad members apologizing one by one and the floating in the clouds shot, as well as all gathering at the base of the cliff and staring in amazement.

 

Pretty much from the grenade kicking, through Mel's cameo and the stuff you mentioned - I wasn't taken with the end of the film either.

 

Are you sure you didn't leave the theater before the movie ended? Because the last scenes offer strong implication that the characters are healing.

No, not "healed", but certainly much farther along than at the start - and certainly signs of "redemption"...

 

Yeah, it's definitely much funnier than its reputation implies. I keep hearing people talk about how depressing it is - how it's the kind of movie that'd push you over the edge if you're suicidal.

That's not the movie I saw!

 

I saw "Toni Erdmann" last night, one of the nominees for best non-English film.

It was definitely different and a nice breather from Hollywood movies (it moved at a leisurely pace, and certainly didn't wrap up neatly in the least). On the other hand I didn't really see what the critics saw. It's a fairly disjointed film with major plot points that seem to be more McGuffin than interesting sidebar.

I don't believe that any of the other 4 nominated films even made to a "theater near me".

 

Okay, I've seen all nine now.


1) La La Land ****
2) Arrival ****
3) Hell or High Water ****
4) Moonlight *** 1/2
5) Manchester by the Sea ***
6) Fences ***
7) Hidden Figures ** 1/2
8) Hacksaw Ridge **
9) Lion * 1/2

It is cruel deciding between the two best films of the decade. Both are genre movies happy to break the rules, and both pack an unexpected emotional wallop at the end. The crazy go-for-broke exuberance pushes La La Land to the top. Lion is a bad movie, overlong, stuffed with new age “mood” where emotion should be, and saddled with a completely unnecessary romance. Hacksaw Ridge, like many war films, falls apart toward the end. Hidden Figures is a Disneyfied take on history, too sanitary and loaded with swing-for-the-parking-lot dialogue to be as effective as it wishes, despite a great cast.

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

La la land is empty drivel. all style and empty posturing. homage at its worst. I love musicals, and it doesn't touch anything made by Vincente Minelli or Jacques Demy because it lacks a genuine soul and heart. Similar to Whiplash, it yearns to be great and you can see its' trying so hard. But for what reason? What does it have to say about humanity? Its actors try so hard, but are only given paper cutout characters...

Moonlight is very clearly a young directors' vision and has some filmmaking decisions that seem questionable (that first shot!!), but it clearly has something to say and a genuine specific vision that will stand the test of time. If there's any young talent at the oscars we should truly be championing, it should be Barry Jenkins.

Manchester is very good, but among Kenneth Lonergan's other works pales (You Can Count on Me is still great!). It is by far the most emotionally complex film, but tbh the performances were very mixed. Michelle Williams was actually a bit overwrought to me, she was much better in this years' Certain Woman by Kelly Reichardt.

The real best films of the year are not nominated

 

Well done, Academy. Well done.