The Oscars are this Sunday, and as you might know, the Best Picture balloting is unique among the AMPAS categories because it operates on a preferential ballot (which is different from a weighted ballot).
So in addition to voting for who would be your #1 choice, please rank all the nominees in your order of preference if you could vote for the award, so we can tally the SDMB votes more similarly to how the Academy itself does it.
I’ve only seen *Manchester by the Sea *so far. it was good enough to get my vote, but I’m not voting since I haven’t see the competition.
I’ve seen them all except Hacksaw Ridge (which I’ll see before Sunday) and Lion (which is iffy). I think La La Land will win, but Manchester should win. Here’s my ranking:
I didn’t dis-like any of them, but I thought Fences worked better as a play and didn’t really adapt to film very well. Hell or High Water was entertaining and Jeff Bridges was great, but I’m not sure what I missed that put it over the top as a Best Picture nominee. Arrival was almost great but I hated the twist, which was the whole essential conceit of the film. So that kind of ruined it for me.
My rankings (from most to least favorite)
Moonlight
Manchester by the Sea
Hidden Figures
Arrival
Hell or High Water
Fences
Hacksaw Ridge
Lion
La La Land
I haven’t seen them all. I’ve missed Hacksaw Ridge, Fences, Hidden Figures and Lion.
For me La La Land is the clear #1. I can understand those who say it is not the best film of the year, but it is the one I most enjoyed and kept coming back to rewatch.
The rest are all very close for me, and honestly numbers 2 through 4 could switch depending on the day.
Moonlight I liked. The first third I thought was excellent, and the second act was also good. But the third fell a little flat for me.
I honestly wouldn’t be upset if any of these films won.
Moonlight was my most favorite and La La Land was my least favorite.
Hunt For The Wilderpeople.
The actual nominees are blatant oscar bait.
Have not seen the rest, but I did watch 45 minutes of La La Land and quit. It was terrible, but I may need to watch it on my own sometime to diagnose my mental illness.
Not only have I not seen any of the nominees, I have very little awareness of any of them at all.
And I used to love movies, at one stage going weekly. I guess that’s what happens with three kids under 6…
Only seen three so far and rate them:
La-La Land (just a fun and entertaining picture without a lot of pretense)
Hell or High Water (reminiscent of the Coens, but a good yarn)
Hidden Figures (good story, but a lot of continuity and anachronism problems)
I agree that Hell or High Water felt like a Coen Brothers film - but not quite as good as a Coen Brothers film. It kept reminding me of No Country for Old Men specifically.
As for Moonlight, I like it better the more I ponder it (I just saw it last night). I agree with Medellin Mike that the first act was the strongest, but I thought the actor who played Chiron in part 3 was tremendous. A street-tough, drug dealing thug with a very damaged, vulnerable, love-starved teenage boy inside.
I have seen them all and choose **Lion **as my favorite. My biggest disappointment was Hacksaw Ridge.
I would be OK with any of the top 5 below winning. I predict La La Land will win.
Here is a similar thread started by me in January.
My ranking:
Seen 'em all.
Arrival
Lion
Hidden Figures
Moonlight
those three are so close I considered giving them a 3-way tie
right here is the dividing line between deserving and undeserving nominees. The above were all quite good movies. If any of those get the best picture, I won’t consider it to be a horrible outcome.
Those two weren’t “I want my money back” or “I want those hours of my life refunded” bad movies or anything but IMO they don’t belong on the list.
I haven’t seen **Lion **or Moonlight, but Manchester By the Sea is my enthusiastic pick.
I saw them all, sitting right next to AHunter3, and our rankings of the films are very similar.
I enjoyed them all except for the second half of Hacksaw Ridge, which was too gory and violent. And I really don’t know why the last two were nominated.
For the record I have seen Hidden Figures and La La Land, and I hope to see Lion. So to be fair, my list should be like this:
3-8. Moonlight, Fences, Manchester by the Sea, Hell or High Water, and Hacksaw Ridge
Saw Hacksaw Ridge last night, which I liked more than I expected to (which was a low bar). I thought the first half was better than the second half. I did appreciate the skill and reported authenticity of the battle scenes - Gibson knows how to direct big battles. Vince Vaughn didn’t exactly disappear into his role, but the rest of the cast ranged from adequate to good. Here’s my updated list, with tiers added to indicate clustered groups:
Manchester by the Sea
Hidden Figures
La La Land
Moonlight
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Fences
In evaluating Awskah cuntendahs, you have to weight movies about LA, Hollywood and the industry 275% or more.
Curiously, this is only true in recent times. The first film in Oscar history to predominantly be set in California, let alone LA, to win Best Picture was Million Dollar Baby (the 77th awards year). For while some films about Hollywood fared well at the Oscars, it was far from a slam dunk that it would score top awards compared to other topics (war) or locales (London, New York).
But in the last 12 years, the primary locations of the Best Picture winners have been:
Los Angeles* - 4
Boston - 2
Louisiana, New York, Texas - 1
England, India, Iran*, Iraq - 1
(*equal time in Argo)
And the almost inevitable La La Land will make it 5 times in 13 years.
The closest analogous period is 1969-80, when 6 of the Best Picture winners were set in NYC, with 2 taking place in Chicago, and 2 more in Pennsylvania.
Honestly, I thought “Moonlight” was one of the most flawlessly made movies I’ve seen in years. It’s movies like that that make me like watching movies.