2018 Films and Oscars - Movies & TV - Forums : Best Ever Albums

Hayden

Location: CDMX

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/10/films...202015860/

Yeah, don't think anyone's particularly happy about the decision.

PurpleHazel

Filmstruck's not allowing people to sign up for the final month of operation. Insult to injury! The way AT&T's unceremoniously cutting them loose is so undignified. They should've announced this at least 3 months in advance to give people a last chance to further their film education before they pulled the plug. I was planning to get it for a month or two before the end of the year -- 7 or so films I really want to watch on there (at the present moment).

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

I wanted to repost a couple things on this thread:

Hayden wrote:

Finally got around to Black Panther and thought it was... kinda... bad? Neutral

Not sure how anyone could think it's an Best Picture contender.

The fact that it's #1 on RT for the year is also puzzling.

Agreed. I was disappointed in Black Panther. I don't think it's bad, but it's pretty average. I give it a 5 or 6 out of 10. The whole Best Picture campaign is a joke (at least I hope it is).

badseed wrote:

I don't usually post in this thread but I think this one is worth the read.

The horror groups I'm in have been raving over Mandy, directed by Panos Cosmatos and starring Nicolas Cage.

Now I'm usually pretty easy to please. I mean I think it's known that I strongly dislike most movies that are generally hated. But I was lead to believe this was one of those "love it or hate it" films, artsy and maybe a bit pretentious. Something like Antichrist or Mother! So I figured it was just my type of movie, an easy candidate for my top 5 horror films of the year, possibly #1.

Damn, I was wrong.

This is like if Mad Max Fury Road got hooked on meth, and Suspiria got bad off smoking crack. Well they fucked and made twins, a boy and a girl. Of course, due to their parents' bad habits they were born a little messed up. Cock-eyed, missing fingers, unable to properly communicate, the whole shebang. Anyhow the siblings managed to get hooked on meth as young children, and started fucking at age 13. Sure enough, Max Jr knocks up lil' Spiria. Now due to the fact that they were born disabled, and because they started shooting up, and because they're siblings, they gave birth to the most disgusting looking inbred mongoloid in the history of mankind. And that little freak's name is Mandy.

Anyone who thinks this film is artsy has clearly never seen anything more artsy than Fight Club. The cinematography and editing are so flashy, so over the top, so ridiculous, so aesthetically unpleasant. The acting is fine and the story was alright. But this is the ugliest shot film I've ever seen in my life, by a very large margin.

Once I voiced my opinion in my horror circles, I found that I wasn't the only one who feels that way. Basically, it is the Fight Club of horror films. It's so far from "generic" that anyone who's never seen a film by the likes of Bergman, Tarkovsky, Jodorowski, Malick or Roeg are going to think it's the most unique film they've ever seen. But anyone who knows anything about art films will recognize it's a steaming pile of shit.

4/10

--------------

But yeah, 2018 has been solid thusfar from what I've seen, and I haven't even got into the Oscar contenders yet (and likely won't until next year sometime). Black Panther is a contender for best Marvel film ever. Infinity Wars was also a blast. Hereditary may be the best horror film this decade. The latest Halloween and Puppet Master films were quite good; even Tales from the Hood 2 was way more fun than it had any right to be (and I've got high hopes for Suspiria to be the high art horror film that Mandy wasn't).

I respectfully disagree with most of this.

Hayden

Location: CDMX

StreetSpirit wrote:

I don't think it's bad, but it's pretty average. I give it a 5 or 6 out of 10. The whole Best Picture campaign is a joke (at least I hope it is).

To be fair, I think my 'score' is also a 5/10. I dug the cultural references and I can't fault most of the acting, but it was just so boring. But yeah, the Oscar campaign def isn't a joke. Disney's been trying to scrape Best Picture for 80-ish years now Laughing

To be fair, they probably should have gotten it with Wall-E, Up or Coco, but they're still empty-handed. Like, yeah, they get an Oscar for something every year, but they reeeaaallly want a Best Picture under their belt. They're going to push Mary Poppins pretty hard from what I understand, and I've heard they're submitting Infinity War as well (another 5/10 from me...)

And yeah, haven't seen Mandy. Might give the score a spin though (RIP)

PurpleHazel

Good news. Filmstruck is coming back in Spring 2019 as The Criterion Channel with the same format: special features, themes etc.

Criterion Collection Newsletter wrote:

We are incredibly touched and encouraged by the flood of support we’ve been receiving since the announcement that FilmStruck will be shutting down on November 29, 2018. Our thanks go out to everyone who signed petitions, wrote letters and newspaper articles, and raised your voices to let the world know how much our mission and these movies matter to you.

Well, if you loved the curated programming we’ve been doing with our friends at FilmStruck, we have good news for you. The Criterion Collection team is going to be carrying on with that mission, launching the Criterion Channel as a freestanding service in spring 2019.

We’ve been trying to make something a little different for the past two years—a movie lover’s dream streaming service, with smart thematic programming, where the history of cinema can live and breathe, where a new generation of filmmakers and film lovers can explore the classics or revel in rarities, where adventurous cinephiles can champion films that have never gotten their due, and newcomers can easily find guidance from major filmmakers, top scholars, curators, and other experts from all walks of life.

The Criterion Channel will be picking up where the old service left off, programming director spotlights and actor retrospectives featuring major Hollywood and international classics and hard-to-find discoveries from around the world, complete with special features like commentaries, behind-the-scenes footage, and original documentaries. We will continue with our guest programmer series, Adventures in Moviegoing. Our regular series like Art-House America, Split Screen, and Meet the Filmmakers, and our Ten Minutes or Less section will all live on, along with Tuesday’s Short + Feature and the Friday Night Double Feature, and of course our monthly fifteen-minute film school, Observations on Film Art.

The new service will be wholly owned and controlled by the Criterion Collection. We hope to be available in U.S. and Canada at launch, rolling out additional territories over time.

Our library will also be available through WarnerMedia’s new consumer platform when it launches late next year, so once both services are live, Criterion fans will have even more ways to find the films they love.

We will be starting from scratch, with no subscribers, so we will need all the help we can get. The most valuable thing you can do to help now is go to Criterion.com/channel and sign up to be a Charter Subscriber, then tell your friends to sign up too. We need everyone who was a FilmStruck subscriber or who’s been tweeting and signing petitions and writing letters to come out and to sign up for the new service. We can’t do it without you!

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

PurpleHazel wrote:

Good news. Filmstruck is coming back in Spring 2019 as The Criterion Channel with the same format: special features, themes etc.

This is great news. I'm already looking forward to it even though Filmstruck hasn't shut down yet. Wow, that didn't take long.

Anyway, I just got off a three-week shoot. What have I missed in theaters, besides everything?

Hayden

Location: CDMX

Hayden wrote:

I'm 50/50 on whether or not I could see Criterion Collection beginning their own service. Their sales keep them alive, but if there's a gap in the market... well... could work.

Glad to hear the good news.

Quote:

Anyway, I just got off a three-week shoot. What have I missed in theaters, besides everything?

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is fantastic. A Star Is Born is also a little stronger than I anticipated. The new Fantastic Beasts is slightly dreadful. And that's all I got.

Tha1ChiefRocka
Yeah, well hey, I'm really sorry.

Location: Kansas

Although I have about 12 papers to write over the next couple of weeks, I've started to catch up on 2018.

"Sorry To Bother You" was great. In a perfect world, that kind of movie would be nominated for best original screenplay, but it might be too weird for the academy. I was thoroughly entertained.

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

Tha1ChiefRocka wrote:

Although I have about 12 papers to write over the next couple of weeks, I've started to catch up on 2018.

"Sorry To Bother You" was great. In a perfect world, that kind of movie would be nominated for best original screenplay, but it might be too weird for the academy. I was thoroughly entertained.

Agreed. I liked Sorry to Bother You a lot.

I also wanted to repost Skinny's fine description of Widows:

Skinny wrote:

Went to see Widows last night and I have to say that I was very impressed - it's on a par with Shame in terms of being among McQueen's best yet. It packs a whole lot into two hours, potentially too much, though the editing is sublime and entire stories are often fleshed out in mere seconds. It's quite the ensemble cast, and whilst Davis' heartbroken, suspicious stoicism and Kaluuya's ravenous psychopathy will undoubtedly claim most of the plaudits, I was most impressed with the stumbling, accidental heroism of Elizabeth Debicki's extremely watchable Alice and the paranoid, shouty Robert Duvall in his best role in years. The film feels David Simon-esque in its symmetrical, oft overlapping portrayal of criminals and politicians, not to mention its attempt to represent America as a whole through the eyes of one corrupt, rotting city, but for all of its overt sociopolitical messages it is never as gruelling as any of McQueen's previous films. I particularly enjoyed a scene in which Colin Farrell's entitled career politician offers empty platitudes to a tiny, minority crowd in an impoverished, primarily black area of the city, only to get into his car, display his own bizarre insecurities in a fit of misplaced rage, and alight only a couple of blocks later in his spacious, leafy suburb, an uncomfortable scene that lays bare an even more uncomfortable truth. The film is also something of a companion piece to the early episodes of WBEZ's recent Making Obama podcast, with its history of corrupt white aldermen clinging desperately to power and, by extension, their overly comfortable way of life in an ever-changing world. For a heist film, the heist feels strangely secondary, but when it arrives it is as tense, claustrophobic and consequential as one could hope, even if it may be a little too far to ask the audience to believe that all of the film's various strands are able to be tied together in such an easy bow, though that's honestly a minor quibble about a film that otherwise refuses steadfastly to spoonfeed. It's a smart, stylish, arresting work that feels like a real team effort, and one that is as ambitious as one could hope of what is, in essence, a genre piece. Also, that new Sade song that ushers in the end credits is a thing of beauty. Go see it.

I still haven't seen Widows, but I am certainly looking forward to it.

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/netflix-...00612.html

Well well well. Only two months after I criticized Netflix for their distribution model and Oscar quest (see page 2 of this thread and the post from Oct 3), Netflix is taking a more traditional approach with Roma. Wow, I had no idea Roma was a Netflix-distributed film. But anyway, Netflix has released Roma in theaters three weeks before making it available to stream in what certainly appears to be a gesture to be a major contender at this year's awards. I guess this means the Academy still holds a lot of power in the industry. Netflix has changed their distribution plan in order to appeal to them. Wow.

This is good news, not because I think Netflix films should be winning Oscars. But because their films deserve to be seen on the big screen. Roma is currently playing in 4 theaters here in LA. Hopefully I'll have time to check it out. And if you're interested in seeing this film, try to see it on the big screen if you have a chance. I just hope Netflix gives it a wide release instead of just NYC and LA. We'll see. But yeah, screenings of Roma have been selling out here. When I saw The Favourite earlier this week, I saw it at one of the theaters that was screening Roma. I saw the lines and crowds for that film, and one the employees told me it's been selling out most of its shows. That's a good sign.