April 2012
95 posts
Play
Oscar winners suck!!!
In the entire history of the Academy Awards I’ve really liked 101 of the movies that were nominated or won for Best Picture. That’s from 1927-2011. 21 from my list won Best Picture. I haven’t seen “The Artist” yet although my original enthusiasm for it has waned.
I’ll tell you why. I watched “Blue Valentine” a week or 2 ago. It premiered at Sundance and the story sounded right up my alley (just like “Tree of Life” AHEM!). It’s 24 hours in the life of a couple whose relationship is unraveling fast. You find out in flashbacks how they got together and major events in their life together.
It was good enough. I really liked Ryan Gosling but I think Michelle Williams is overrated. I say that but I should also say that was the first time I ever saw Gosling and the second time I’ve seen Williams. Gosling is memorable and incredibly personable, Williams is as wimpy to me as the characters I’ve seen her play. Gosling wasn’t playing a winner either so I’m looking forward to getting “Drive”. Do I have “My Week with Marilyn” in my queue? Hell NO!!! So I can see Williams wimp up Marilyn? Screw that!!! If they stream it I’ll watch it.
There’s a debate that the Oscars are too mainstream. There’s also a debate that the Oscars are too pretentious. I think the Oscars are perfect for the mainstream. They get people to watch movies they ordinarily wouldn’t since there’s usually at least one good movie somewhere in there. That’s Annie good…not frickin’ “Forrest Gump” good.
I think most of my facebook friends love “Forrest Gump”. I watched it…with my WTF look on my face pretty much the whole way through. “This sentimental (yet likeable) piece of crap won an Oscar?!?!” was my main thought.
Yeah…that’s right, I said “Forrest Gump” is a piece of crap.
“Pulp Fiction” was nominated for 1994…and “Forrest Gump” won. SERIOUSLY?!?! Just like “Dances with Wolves” won for 1990 instead of “Goodfellas”. I’m speechless at that ridiculousness…”Goodfellas” is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. I’ve watched it countless times…next to “Taxi Driver” it’s Scorsese’s best.
Of all the Best Picture nominees ever which do I consider the best?
(*-won Best Picture)
“Gone with the Wind” *
“Rebecca” *
“Citizen Kane”
“The Lost Weekend” *
“The Best Years of Our Lives” *
“The Red Shoes”
“Sunset Boulevard”
“A Streetcar Named Desire”
“Auntie Mame”
“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”
“Judgement at Nuremberg”
“To Kill a Mockingbird”
“Darling”
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
“In the Heat of the Night” *
“Bonnie and Clyde”
“The Graduate”
“A Clockwork Orange”
“The Last Picture Show”
“Cabaret”
“Chinatown”
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” *
“Barry Lyndon”
“Taxi Driver”
“Annie Hall” *
“Julia”
“Star Wars”
“The Turning Point”
“The Deer Hunter” *
“All that Jazz”
“Apocalypse Now”
“Ordinary People” *
“On Golden Pond”
“Raiders of the Lost Ark”
“E.T.”
“Terms of Endearment” *
“The Big Chill”
“Hannah and her Sisters”
“The Last Emperor” *
“Hope and Glory”
“Goodfellas”
“Pulp Fiction”
“The English Patient” *
“Fargo”
“As Good as it Gets”
“The Sixth Sense”
“Gosford Park”
“The Pianist”
“Lost in Translation”
“Little Miss Sunshine”
“No Country for Old Men” *
“Juno”
For me to consider a movie really good and/or great I have to want to watch it again…and again. How else can you catch all the nuances? Plus it’s so damn good you can’t help but watch it over and over!!!!
Only 3 movies on that list have I only seen once…because once was enough! They’re great films but difficult to watch (and I’ve watched “Sophie’s Choice” multiple times—that film’s brutal!).
“In the Heat of the Night”— I don’t like watching racial tension AT ALL. It made an incredible impression when I watched it in my late teens. “American History X” is another excellent movie that I watched once and will never watch again.
“The Pianist”— Based on a true story it’s so harrowing I can’t watch it again. I’m still haunted by many of the scenes in it and it’s been at least 5 years since I’ve seen it. Once.
“No Country for Old Men”— Javier Bardem’s character is spine chilling to me. It’s a fantastic movie and Bardem is frighteningly amazing in it.
“E.T.” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark” are the only ones I haven’t watched in 25 years. They’re on my list because I still remember how I felt when I watched them and how I felt weeks afterwards. That says enough. :-)
Don’t even ask me what movies are my very favorites that weren’t nominated…although since I just went on a used dvd buying spree I can say off the top of my head (and from my Netflix streaming queue):
“Rushmore”
“Lost Highway”
“Mulholland Drive”
“Shampoo”
“The Big Lebowski”
“Harold and Maude”
“The Royal Tenenbaums”
“Trainspotting”
“Jackie Brown”
Anyway…my point was Oscar nominees/winners have been on the lame side for awhile now. I’ve been wary of “but it’s an Oscar winner!!” for years now, but this year is the first time I’ve watched not one but 2 Oscar nominees where the stories sounded perfect for me…and just weren’t.
I LOVE this movie!!!! And no one ever talks about it. Another true story….
“Last year, historian and travel writer, Tony Perrottet, published his fifth book The Sinner’s Grand Tour. In his book, the celebrated author of The Naked Olympics and Napoleon’s Privates, explores the naughty remnants of Europe’s past. Together with”
—The European History of Sex: Interview Tony Perrottet
