This will be my 8th consecutive year of having seen all the Best Picture nominees prior to the Academy Awards ceremony (og willing and the creek don’t rise). I thought it would be fun to issue a challenge to the community to accomplish this feat along with me.
Naturally, some discussion will arise; I request that it be confined to the Best Picture category only. If you are so inclined, go ahead and rate the films you’ve seen from 1-4. The Oscars are on February 24, so there’s lots of time. And away we go…
**Amour **– Not yet seen
**Argo **- **** Beasts of the Southern Wild - *** Django Unchained - *** ½ Les Misérables – Not yet seen; sorta dreading it, to be honest
**Life of Pi **– Not yet seen
**Lincoln **- **** (my pick so far for winner of the category) Silver Linings Playbook – Not yet seen Zero Dark Thirty – Not yet seen
Amour – ****
Argo - **1/2
Beasts of the Southern Wild - ***1/2
Django Unchained - **½
Les Misérables – **
Life of Pi – Not yet seen
Lincoln - ***
Silver Linings Playbook – ***1/2
Zero Dark Thirty – Not yet seen
Amour - Haven’t seen it. It opens here in a couple of weeks. Argo ***½ Beasts of the Southern Wild ** (that high only because the little girl is astonishing) Django Unchained **** (my favorite of the lot, so I’m biased) Les Misérables ½ (that high only because Anne Hathaway and Samantha Berks are pretty great) Life of Pi *** (the opening credits alone are worth an Oscar nom) Lincoln ***½ (it will make a fine and worthy winner) Silver Linings Playbook *½ (that high only because of Jennifer Lawrence) Zero Dark Thirty ***½
**Amour **– Not yet seen
**Argo **- *** 1/2 Beasts of the Southern Wild - ** Django Unchained - *** 1/2 Les Misérables – ***
**Life of Pi **– ****
**Lincoln **- **** Silver Linings Playbook – Not yet seen Zero Dark Thirty – Not yet seen
My favorite this year has been Life of Pi, but Lincoln is more "Oscar"esque.
Amour - Haven’t seen it. Hadn’t even heard of it until the nominations were announced.
Argo ***½ - to me, the best move I’ve seen this year, but it left me pause with so much obviously fabricated content. And it won’t win without a Best Director nom.
Beasts of the Southern Wild - Haven’t seen it. Plan to.
Django Unchained - Will see it this weekend – at QT’s theatre, if possible. I can’t see a movie this graphic winning Academy Award.
Les Misérables - Haven’t seen it and don’t know if I will.
Life of Pi **½ - Visually impressive, but the movie stagnated for me. And never once did it convey the feeling of the belief in God, as the lead character purported. And the guy who played the author seemed like a putz.
Lincoln *** Masterful portrayal by DDL, but otherwise, not enthralling enough for me. Tommy Lee Jones seemed ridiculously miscast (and the wig looked ridiculous). I like Fun Spielberg more than Important Spielberg.
Silver Linings Playbook *** Watched it in fits and spurts (at work & home), which probably hurt my experience, but it just seemed like a very good film, not close to a great one and I would have nominated Looper over it. Jennifer Lawrence was terrific, though.
Zero Dark Thirty ***½ A very well done movie, but I dunno, too much bureaucratic content for me and I found the suspense was lacking (because I knew the ending).
Here is the early leader board (extrapolated to a 0-8 scale):
Amour (average 8)-8--- Argo (7.4)8-8-7-7-7 Life of Pi (7)--6-8-7 Lincoln (7)8-6-7-8-6 Zero Dark Thirty (7)--7--7 Django Unchained (6.75)7-5-8-7- Silver Linings Playbook (5.33)-7-3--6 Beasts of the Southern Wild (5.25)6-7-4-4-* Les Misérables (3.67)-4-1-6-
I wanted to see Zero Dark Thirty before I voted, but I won’t be seeing Amour for a few weeks. I think it’s a pretty good lineup this year:
Amour: TBD
Argo: ***1/2
Beasts of the Southern Wild: ***1/2
Django Unchained: ***
Les Miserables: **
Life of Pi: **
Lincoln: ***
Silver Linings Playbook: ***1/2
Zero Dark Thirty: ***1/2
Amour – Not yet seen
Argo - ****
Beasts of the Southern Wild - ***
Django Unchained - *** ½
Les Misérables – Not yet seen; sorta dreading it, to be honest
Life of Pi – Not yet seen
Lincoln - **** (my pick so far for winner of the category)
Silver Linings Playbook – ***
Zero Dark Thirty – Not yet seen
**Amour **– Haven’t seen it, fairly sure it hasn’t shown anywhere I could have reasonably seen it yet
**Argo **- *** - Well executed, entertaining, if not really special. Alan Arkin’s nom is laughable. Beasts of the Southern Wild - *** - I kind of want to see this again, since it’s been much longer since I’ve seen it than any of the others; I might bump it up another half star on re-watch. Django Unchained - ***½ - This has grown on me as I’ve reflected on it; I feel like it tries to do so much more than most of these movies that even if it doesn’t bat 1.000, it’s still getting a lot more done. Les Misérables – Haven’t seen it, and have no desire at all to see it despite a fairly broad interest in film.
**Life of Pi **– ** - As has been said, definitely visually impressive and well crafted. Not a lot else about it grabbed me.
**Lincoln **- **½ - Only that high because of DDL’s excellent work. He continues his quite long track record of top notch acting in movies that I think are otherwise overrated (with the exception of TWBB, which might even be somehow underrated). Silver Linings Playbook – **** - Loved everything about this, though both of the Best Supporting noms seem kind of silly. In a just world, Lawrence would be about to win her second Best Actress. Zero Dark Thirty – **** - Was kind of dreading this between the subject matter and the length, but I ended up loving it. Would be my choice for Best Picture.
It’s a damned shame the Academy members didn’t nominate Jean-Louis Trintignant for Best Actor. He deserves a nomination at least as much, if not more, than Emmanuelle Riva, who was nominated for Best Actress.
Btw, I don’t know why but I feel the need to say this: my low scores for Beasts of the Southern Wild, Silver Linings Playbook and Les Misérables should not be read as me thinking they’re bad movies. I perfectly understand the acclaim they’re getting and, in the case of Beasts and SLP, am pretty thrilled and happy for all involved. My problems with them are personal to me and don’t affect and shouldn’t apply to anyone else. I would see Beasts and SLP again. In a different mood with a different mindset, I could very well adore them. Les Miz I thought was extremely well-done, I just hated the story it was all based on.*
I’ve seen six of the nine so far, and I’ve liked them all a lot. It’s been a really good year for movies, even non-prestige movies (I thought The Avengers was fantastic, although not an Oscar-y movie).
*Amour *- haven’t seen yet
**** Argo - my personal favorite of the year
*** *Beasts of the Southern Wild - saw it tonight on DVD. The little girl was fabulous. Django Unchained - haven’t seen yet. This weekend, hopefully.
**** Les Mis. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but thought it had a few missteps. Hathaway was not one, though.
***1/2 *Life of Pi *- the most visually beautiful film I’ve seen, maybe ever. Transcendent use of 3D.
**** Lincoln.
*** 1/2 Silver Linings Playbook - I enjoyed this move so much. It was really delightful. Pitch-perfect performances from Cooper, Lawrence and DeNiro. Zero Dark Thirty - haven’t seen yet. Next weekend, I hope.
In order of my own personal preference:
Argo
Lincoln
Silver Linings
Life of Pi
Les Miserables
Beasts of the Southern Wild
It’s a difficult list though, because I liked every movie on it.
Amour: ***1/2
Argo: ***1/2
Beasts of the Southern Wild: ***1/2
Django Unchained: ***
Les Miserables: **
Life of Pi: **
Lincoln: ***
Silver Linings Playbook: ***1/2
Zero Dark Thirty: ***1/2
In preferential order, from most to least favorite:
Zero Dark Thirty
Silver Linings Playbook
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Lincoln
Life of Pi
Les Miserables
As I said before, it’s a good lineup. I’d be happy with anything except Life of Pi or Les Miserables winning.
Amour – Not yet seen
Argo - ****
Beasts of the Southern Wild - ***
Django Unchained - *** ½
Les Misérables – ** ½ (Some very well-done sequences interspersed with incredibly tedious vocal performances; there’s a very good movie in there somewhere)
Life of Pi – Not yet seen
Lincoln - ****
Silver Linings Playbook – ***
Zero Dark Thirty – Not yet seen
In preferential order, from most to least favorite:
I’m amazed Silver Linings Playbook is so high. Besides a terrific performance by Jennifer Lawrence, this was nothing more than a very good movie to me. I smell a very strong scent of Weinstein chicanery going on here.
That said, IMDB has it as #228 all time with an 8.1 rating (out of 10) by IMDB voters.
(also added a half-star to Django; yeah, it’s allowed :))
Amour – Not yet seen
Argo - ****
Beasts of the Southern Wild - ***
Django Unchained - ****
Les Misérables – ** ½
Life of Pi – Not yet seen
Lincoln - ****
Silver Linings Playbook – ***
Zero Dark Thirty – *** ½
In preferential order, from most to least favorite:
**Amour **– **** What a tough movie to watch, and what amazing acting. I won’t say that I enjoyed it, but it’s well worth seeing.
**Argo **- ** 3/4…lightweight and straightforward. It will disappear from my memory shortly, like the Chinese food of cinema. Django Unchained - ***. QT movies are sort of like arming The Simpsons with large-caliber weapons, all clever references and exploding blood. A good movie, both weird and solid. Les Misérables – *. Ugh. I didn’t know the story going in, so the direction/editing felt awkwardly pasted together. And the singing of the leads? Exécrable!