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Best picture oscar and comment in OSCARS thread

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  1. #11

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    😬

    Everyone I know finished the movie so it's just me. Going by the usual Academy logic and the contenders this year, I can also understand why it won. I just got bored so fast - barely 20 minutes in, right at that tax meeting during her 2nd mental fade in/out of the janitor closet after changing her shoes. The next 31 minutes before I paused it was really me hanging on for dear life cuz I was trying to like it. I really think Michelle Yeoh was 👍in it and the lines of her pov on her life/marriage were refreshingly brutal and raw, I think it's a first!

    Apart from that, the entertainment factor is mostly seeing on big screen and laughing along at familiar aspects of the Asian family stereotype living in western country, showcased as THE primary setting in a Hollywood movie for once, and not as one of the stories within. I think the balance was just nice, authentic so asians will find it funny but not overly so 'western' audiences who have been exposed to asian behaviour will also chuckle along. Which means for audiences from countries that don't really have the whole chinatown community going on and therefore less intuned with it - the movie is likely to suck monkey balls cuz it's watching a bunch of unfamiliar actors warping in and out of universes (the jump thing gets old real quick by the 3rd time..) with a matrix knockoff operator support that's not really humor, fun absurdity or satire at all. Plus you can guess the ending from by the time they say Jobu..

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  2. #12

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    I liked it a lot. Lots of moments where I'd most probably be snorting drink out of my nose if I was drinking at the time. I guess it's cliche to say that it's all very personal. For example I found the bit where Michelle says something like 'Not time to play. Very busy la' very funny. As much as I enjoyed EEAO, I haven't rewatched it. Like almost all films, it won't really benefit from overanalysis particularly of plot points. Sometimes you go with the flow, and it either grabs you in a big way or not.

    Different strokes as they say. I liked Maverick, and I thought pretty much all the Marvel phase 4 or wherever we are were pretty mediocre. Spiderman no way home and Dr Strange 2 were the best of the bunch but were really flawed. All Quiet on the Western Front, but I wouldn't say I enjoyed it, it's so damn depressing and I know the source material and the other film versions.

    I've lost count of the number of times that I've not enjoyed the 'Best film', so it makes a nice change.

  3. #13

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    EEAO
    Fun movie. Love multiverse movies. All actors were great and thought it would be chosen as best movie and win many other awards, but will probably wait a long time until I see it again, as it somehow got tiresome halfway through for me.

    Tar
    Great acting and screenplay. Learned a lot about how musicians compete to be in an orchestra or as soloists for a piece. Cate Blanchett on her A game here. 91 critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Would see again, but it's lonnnnngggg.

    Triangle of Sadness
    Zany takedown of the 1%ers and a youtube influencer with her male model boyfriend and their petty jealousies. Ending stayed with me and gave the movie an additional layer of complexity and questions. Bonus: Woody Harrelson as the drunk Marxist captain of a $250 million yacht. Have seen 2x already. Viewer warning: extended vomiting scene.

    Women Talking
    Amazing feminist movie with indeterminate setting in time and space, but overall looks of a 19th century agrarian community in the US. Yet there are antibiotics and gas powered vehicles, and a reference to 2010. Overall they come across as an Amish community in the US, but there's a reference to the southern cross constellation, which can only be seen from southern Florida, Texas, and Hawaii. The movie's terrain rules out all but Texas. There's not much action because the movie is women talking, confronting what to do in the face of awful living conditions and whether to stay and fight or leave the community. Cast has one male role: a transcriber of the meeting, as all the women were kept illiterate and could neither read nor write. Francis McDormand is in this movie, but her role is very small. Watched this movie 2x.

    The Banshees of Inisherin
    Absolutely great movie. I laughed, I cried, I rubbed my eyes in disbelief. Is it a horror film or a comedy? A tragedy? Or a buddy movie? A metaphorical tale about historic events in Ireland at the time with the two friends representing opposing sides? All of the above? One brother is fearful he'll be forgotten when he's dead, the other to be forgotten while he's alive. Have seen 2x.

    The Whale
    All action takes place in one room. No exteriors. Couldn't sound more boring, but I saw it and the screen play and Fraser's amazing acting made this a well-spent evening.

    Yet to see:
    Top Gun
    The Fabelmans
    All Quiet on the Western Front

    I think I know what to expect to get from those movies, so I'll probably get to them later in the year.

    Last edited by SirNotAppearing; 17-03-2023 at 09:18 AM.
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  4. #14

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    Finally found it on Cathay on the flight home last night. After this thread I was a bit nervous - but absolutely loved it. I don't think you need to be Asian at all to like this movie. It's sci-fi but it's also all about redemption, missed opportunities and how messed up families are. Fantastic. Totally recommend it. I would recommend NOT watching it on a tiny screen with tinny Cathay economy headphones LOLOL. May do it again later with a bigger screen and decent sound.

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  5. #15

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    I thought I was going to love it but sadly I couldn't get it into it at all either. Didn't watch until the end... so maybe if I had I would have liked it more?! I am happy to see Michelle Yeoh win though.

    Devastated that Banshees didn't win anything to be honest.


  6. #16

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    Haven't found the mood for TAR yet but definitely will watch at some point cuz Cate Blanchett. I don't know if this made the news back then or maybe someone here remembers.. when I first read the TAR plot, I thought of the HK Philharmonic Orchestra pesticide case immediately. Nothing in common but it was that million to one chance of a trigger that set off such a bizarre psychological chain reaction that no one could have foreseen. Summary: HK 1980s, the HKPO timpanist plaintiff arrives for rehearsal when a pest control op fumigation was happening same time, setting off a series of life changing events for his mental health and life :x

    Case link below for anyone interested..

    https://www.hklii.org/cgi-bin/sinodi.../1997/353.html

    Quote Originally Posted by chobochobo:
    For example I found the bit where Michelle says something like 'Not time to play. Very busy la' very funny
    Yeah those would be the bits very funny for specific audience. My favourite - at the very beginning first line in when Ke snatches receipt from Michelle Yeoh to get her attention and she says in sanitized unaccented putonghua (ie sounds a bit PRCish putonghua :p) Stop playing we don't have time and she goes Ayo. Lol I consider that breaking speech character which continues rapidly from that point on for the rest of movie haha cuz Michelle Yeoh is in fact Malaysian. I was very amused :p

    The Whale - maybe and also possibly never. I watched The Father (Anthony Hopkins) recently, too much of same type for the time being..

  7. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by Irishmum:
    I thought I was going to love it but sadly I couldn't get it into it at all either. Didn't watch until the end... so maybe if I had I would have liked it more?! I am happy to see Michelle Yeoh win though.

    Devastated that Banshees didn't win anything to be honest.
    How far did you get into it? It really warms up in the middle and the end is fantastic. It's a slow burn start, but I had no problem with that either.

  8. #18

    I made it to probably just after half way before thinking that I really wasn't understanding any relevance to any scene I had seen. and that this film was on what was, from me, a completely different wavelength