I think that is what we’re starting to see now and will be the biggest shift in movies over the next decade. The rise of TV as a credible medium in telling big epic stories has taken that away from movies. Why condense a story down to 2 hours when it could be better told over 12 hours? I think we’re going to see more and more compact movies. Look at “Darkest Hour” for example. I didn’t really know anything about it going to it, but I assumed it would cover at least a good chunk of WWII. Instead it didn’t even cover a full month.
I think all the fuss over HOW a movie is made, i.e. camera angles, special effects, arresting visuals, etc. is meant to cover up the fact that nobody can write a decent script anymore.
I read some snotty critic, (I can’t remember his or her name) that actually said that dialog was the least important factor in movies. Oh wonderful. Maybe we should go back to silent films, only I didn’t think Best Picture Winner The Artist was any great shakes either.
By and large I’m down with cancelling the Oscars, except Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri was Shakespeare and you have to admit the special effects in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? are getting dated. The dream sequence when George Segal and Sandy Dennis build scalar weapons to fight the space dinosaurs was better when left to the imagination in the Broadway version.
Aren’t you sort of cherrypicking the years?
Before River Kwai, the previous Best Motion Picture winner was Around the World in 80 Days, hardly a masterpiece. The winner afterwards was Gigi.
Yep. Comparing 2017 to a cherry-picked list of the best years over a 10-year period is hardly fair.
It’s just another in a long example of SDMB threads that all have the same basic OP. “I am not interested in this popular thing, therefore this popular thing should disappear because my interests are the only ones that matter.”
That quote is pretty funny when you consider that classical statues were in fact garishly painted 
I almost made reference to that, but figured it would be painting the lily.
“Moonlight” is the best film I saw last year. It’s gorgeously written, acted, and directed. The plot is lovely, the dialogue is painfully good, and the cinematography is exceptional.
If you’re going to judge movies, at least see the fucking things first.
I agree. This is the first year in a long time that I’ve really had some resonance with the Oscar slate. The leading overall nominee is an intertext of the Creature from the Black Lagoon series done by one of the greatest living directors - and it utterly lives up to its billing. Get Out is one of the most provocative non-documentaries I’ve seen in years, and it is amazingly effective in the theater. I’m rather astounded that the Academy had the insight to nominate such a “little” film - which underscores the profundity of its impact. I haven’t seen Call Me by Your Name, but the Academy has shown some insight here as well, nominating a queer film with negligible star power. Likewise the writing nomination for Logan. A comic book movie nominated for screenplay? Who’da thunk it?
There are years that the Academy’s picks have left me scratching my head. By and large, this isn’t one of them.
Fair point. I haven’t seen it. I will correct that tonight.
Surely you see the disconnect here?
If they were any good, he would have kept up with them.
I’d love to hear your impression. I have no issue with someone not wanting to see it or not liking it.
Some of the films you list are very good. Some are overrated, in my opinion. Some I haven’t seen. Reminds me of the Oscar nominees from last year. “Moonlight” was very good. “La La Land” was overrated. I didn’t see “Manchester by the Sea.”
The fact that you picked specific years makes me wonder about the years you avoided.
See, that’s where preferences come into the picture; I liked La La Land quite a bit. More so than Moonlight, actually.
I know a number of people who loved LLL. I thought it was very enjoyable.
I thought LLL was fine. Moonlight blew me away. Manchester was wonderful. This year I’ve seen Get Out which was fantastic. I haven’t seen the rest but I am jonesing to.
+++. Fargo had great dialog. Does anyone claim Three Billboards is in the same class?
But I will watch Moonlight and Get Out. (And I expect I’ll like The Post and Darkest Hour enough to watch, but not as much as I’d like excellent fiction.)
For years the Oscars heavily favored dramatic films. This resulted in a lot of classic movies being snubbed because they were action/fantasy or comedy. I stopped watching after they snubbed Raiders of the Lost Ark. I’m also still irritated that they passed over Star Wars for an overrated Woody Allen film that I didn’t particularly like, Annie Hall.