2019 Films and Oscars - Movies & TV - Forums : Best Ever Albums

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

Just like last year's thread (https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/v...hp?t=20159), a thread to talk/discuss 2019 in films, and the 2019-20 Award Season when the time comes.

It's the weekend of very likely the biggest release of the year, so what better time to start this thread?

Continuing the trends of tentpoles and superheroes, 2019 seems to be pushing them further. I found this article intriguing about the state of the business:

https://www.indiewire.com/2019/04/endga...202126985/

So far business is way down, so much Endgame can't bring it back to 2018 levels by itself. I thought subscription services would lead to higher box office returns, so why is attendance down? Could be a few reasons. First, bad selection. There really hasn't been a universally praised big-budget film so far, has there? Second, maybe subscription services are no longer a novelty and are now in fatigue and people aren't using them as often? People are sick of sequels? I don't know.

Business isn't down everywhere. China is having a big year so far.

On another note, I'm glad the Criterion Channel is up and running and it's way better than Filmstruck from what I've seen so far. But not in terms of selection. The libraries are pretty much identical. But the site is better designed and easier to navigate. You can filter movies by decade, country, director, genre. Makes it so easy to discover new things or simply find what you're looking for. And best of all, I haven't had a single issue so far streaming. Filmstruck would sometimes lag, video and audio would fall out of sync, and sometimes it was incompatible with certain browsers and would crash. I certainly missed Filmstruck for five months, but I think we have a better product now.

Lastly, how about the movies themselves? So far from 2019, I've seen Climax and Under the Silver Lake (both 2018 festival films released in theaters recently). Also saw Us and Captain Marvel. None of these movies are great by any means imo.

However, whether you love it, hate it, or fall somewhere in between, Us is a fun movie to talk about since there's several unanswered questions left to the viewer to decide. What did you all think?

What are some of your other faves of the year so far?

Hayden

Location: CDMX

I'll copy paste this here:
(Via Cannes)

Quote:

The Dead Don’t Die (Jim Jarmusch)
Pain & Glory (Pedro Almodovar)
Parasite (Bong Joon-ho)
The Wild Goose Lake (Diao Yinan)
The Traitor (Marco Bellocchio)
Young Ahmed (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
Matthias and Maxime (Xavier Dolan)
Oh Mercy (Arnaud Desplechin)
A Hidden Life (Terrence Malick)
Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach)
Little Joe (Jessica Hausner)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma)
Atlantique (Mati Diop)
Sibyl (Justine Triet)
It Must Be Heaven (Elia Suleiman)
Frankie (Ira Sachs)
Bacurau (Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles)
The Whistlers (Corneliu Porumboiu)
Les Misérables (Ladj Ly)

Keeping in mind there's probably 2 more slots left in competition, and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood will (hopefully?) take one, Cannes looks like an even race this year. With Malick/Dardennes/Loach, we've got got 5 of the last 19 Palmes on the CV, and I think that's already reason to assume none of them will win, but anything can happen with the right film. Hell, maybe Jarmusch will win for a zombie comedy (.... it's not going to happen Anxious ...)

Lot of French... (including Belgium + Canada efforts), with what seems to be an out-of-the-blue modern take on Les Mis, but sadly nothing from the middle east or Africa (albeit, a French-Malian director, and Palestinian-French film), but something might pop up. India's going nearly 40 years without a film in competition now. Nonetheless, I'd be surprised if Sciamma didn't walk away with something. And Dolan will probably snag director or script or something that he hasn't previously won (unless M&M is on par with his last...).

Definitely most pumped to see how The Wild Goose Lake, Parasite, Matthias and Maxime, and The Dead Don't Die turn out. Even with the passing of two of the leads, unless Malick's gone back to form, I'm not terribly excited about A Hidden Life (which is a criminally bland name considering the working title was Radegund). Could also see Bacurau and Little Joe being darkhorse knockouts, and if it's up to Yinan's standards, I could see The Wild Goose Lake winning (likewise with Almodovar's Pain And Glory).

Roy Andersson's About Endlessness not making the cut is a shame, and I'm still looking forward to that one surfacing, but along with Eggar's The Lighthouse, that's about all else I can feel I'm sad to not see up there. Wasn't a tremendous amount of hype around anything apart from Tarantino and Malick to be honest.

Hayden

Location: CDMX

Quote:

Lastly, how about the movies themselves?

So far, it's been 100% animation for me. HTTYD3 (decent/good) and The Lego Movie 2 (disappointing...). Plenty in the queue though. Excluding the Cannes line-up above, I'm looking forward to these:

Jojo Rabbit
Wolfwalkers
The Irishman
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
Beach Bum
The Lighthouse
The Laundromat
Midsommar
The Personal History of David Copperfield
Toy Story 4
Us
Missing Link
Synonymes
Joker
Little Women
Knives Out
Queen & Slim
Where'd You Go Bernadette
Harriet
Clemency
The Report
Fair And Balanced

And I know this is a speculative thing to say, but I'm sold on the fact 2020 will be an insanely strong year. I think there might even be a production hold-out until the beginning of the new decade. No promises or inside knowledge, just a hunch.

Applerill
Autistic Princess <3

Gender: Female
Age: 30
Location: Chicago

I’ve seen about 30 movies so far this year <3

Here’s my list:
https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Cubbierill/2019-cinema/

badseed

Gender: Male
Age: 35
Location: FL

I don't keep up with IMDb much anymore but Endgame is #3 on their top 250. I've seen this happen with the likes of Inception and Return of the King when they first came out as well, so surely it will drop from a 9.0 (it was 9.2 the other day) to a mid to upper 8. Still, without spoiling it, has anyone here seen it yet? I havent made it to the theater this year but we're celebrating my son's birthday this weekend and he wants to see it.

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

Hayden wrote:

And I know this is a speculative thing to say, but I'm sold on the fact 2020 will be an insanely strong year. I think there might even be a production hold-out until the beginning of the new decade. No promises or inside knowledge, just a hunch.

Hmm, maybe. I recall 2009 was a really bad year but then 2010 was great. We could see that repetition here as one decade ends and another begins, but I want to see this decade finish on a strong note.

The new Joe Berlinger film about Ted Bundy comes out on Netflix this week. Mixed reviews so far. Berlinger is well-known for his documentaries (which are great btw) but here's hoping he made the transition well.

Applerill wrote:

Here’s my list:
https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Cubbierill/2019-cinema/

I wanted to see Birds of Passion but I missed it.

badseed wrote:

I don't keep up with IMDb much anymore but Endgame is #3 on their top 250. I've seen this happen with the likes of Inception and Return of the King when they first came out as well, so surely it will drop from a 9.0 (it was 9.2 the other day) to a mid to upper 8. Still, without spoiling it, has anyone here seen it yet? I havent made it to the theater this year but we're celebrating my son's birthday this weekend and he wants to see it.

Ha, I haven't looked at IMDb's top 250 in years but thanks for the update. Have fun seeing Endgame with your son. I'm planning to see it today or tomorrow.

Applerill
Autistic Princess <3

Gender: Female
Age: 30
Location: Chicago

badseed wrote:

I don't keep up with IMDb much anymore but Endgame is #3 on their top 250. I've seen this happen with the likes of Inception and Return of the King when they first came out as well, so surely it will drop from a 9.0 (it was 9.2 the other day) to a mid to upper 8. Still, without spoiling it, has anyone here seen it yet? I havent made it to the theater this year but we're celebrating my son's birthday this weekend and he wants to see it.

I started out thinking it was Antonioni,
But then it gave up everything for killing Tony
Sad

Hayden

Location: CDMX

Quote:

Keeping in mind there's probably 2 more slots left in competition, and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood will (hopefully?) take one, Cannes looks like an even race this year. With Malick/Dardennes/Loach, we've got got 5 of the last 19 Palmes on the CV, and I think that's already reason to assume none of them will win, but anything can happen with the right film.

Did not expect Abdellatif Kechiche to make the competition. Another French, previous Palme winner. And the male-driven backlash isn't helping much on that front either. So, 6 of the last 20 winner are in competition + Quentin. Just really surprised they stuck in another French film. Especially since Canto Uno was a dull slog. Can't believe Scandanavia didn't whip anything up... Some details have come out about Atlantique, and it looks like it's more a Senegalese film than French though. Fatima Al Qadiri did the score too, for those familiar with her.

Still going to take a wild stab at The Wild Goose Lake winning.

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

Hayden wrote:

Did not expect Abdellatif Kechiche to make the competition. Another French, previous Palme winner. And the male-driven backlash isn't helping much on that front either. So, 6 of the last 20 winner are in competition + Quentin. Just really surprised they stuck in another French film. Especially since Canto Uno was a dull slog. Can't believe Scandanavia didn't whip anything up... Some details have come out about Atlantique, and it looks like it's more a Senegalese film than French though. Fatima Al Qadiri did the score too, for those familiar with her.

Still going to take a wild stab at The Wild Goose Lake winning.

Maybe the Cannes board of directors wanted an extra French film there, something else for the local crowd? Maybe if there wasn't a feud between Cannes and Netflix, they could have represented the streaming giant with a title.

Speaking of Netflix...

https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/04/...-position/

Yes there was an important meeting last week for the Academy board. First off, the minor thing. Best Foreign Language Film will be renamed Best International Film. Sounds a little less exclusive, a little more PC. That's cool.

But the verdict came on Netflix vs. Spielberg over Oscar-eligibility. For years, rule was a movie only has to be released in an LA theater for a minimum one week run starting in a calendar year to be eligible for that year. Netflix has exploited this rule in the past by releasing their movies on their streaming platform concurrently with a one week theater release, and only one week. It got them Oscar noms but it's kinda bullshit. Spielberg didn't like it and proposed a rule increasing the theatrical window to a minimum of 1 week to 4 weeks to be Oscar-eligible. Well the Academy voted on it...and rejected Spielberg's proposal.

Personally I didn't mind Spielberg's proposal. The theater is a better way to watch. And the movies should profit if marketed well and had its own exclusive release window before streaming. In addition, if Netflix releases movies for four weeks, it would make their Oscar intentions clear, generating buzz and ticket sales. And it would also show which titles they have confidence in.

But I understand, the movies could lose money, so why would Netflix risk that?

It's not a big deal. 1 week is still better than 0.

This could all be a moot point anyway. At the bottom of the article, it says Netflix is interested in buying the iconic Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Blvd. That would be cool. Netflix could screen their movies there, and not have to deal with theater chains over distribution fees. But if they don't buy the Egyptian Theater, Roma demonstrated Netflix may be willing to release future films for longer than a week anyway.

Thoughts?

Hayden

Location: CDMX

Quote:

Maybe the Cannes board of directors wanted an extra French film there, something else for the local crowd? Maybe if there wasn't a feud between Cannes and Netflix, they could have represented the streaming giant with a title.

Still, there's 9 credits to France in the line-up, with 2 additional French-language films Laughing

... out of 21. I think they usually shoot for 5-6. Sad About Endlessness isn't premiering... been looking forward to that one.

Will get back to your Netflix comments in a sec.