up there with Crash in the Best Film winners this one
― jamiesummerz, Monday, 23 February 2015 14:12 (nine years ago) link
How quickly we all forgot The King's Speech.
No, I mean literally, how quickly we all forgot it.
― Eric H., Monday, 23 February 2015 14:14 (nine years ago) link
Crash is by several measures worse than Birdman, The King's Speech a somnolent eighties prestige film throwback (remember when those were supposed to make a comeback?).
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 23 February 2015 14:15 (nine years ago) link
Big Thinkpiece #2:
As for the big winner: Voters were obviously mad about Birdman, and everyone who was rooting for something else is … you know, mad about Birdman. It is possible to admire the exquisite craft and technical facility with which the movie was made, to be amused and charmed by its droll, darkly comic take on narcissism, artistic aspiration, and the fight of a creative individual to make a mark, and still feel a slight twinge of … This again? Another movie about showbiz and its lovable nutcases? There are stretches in which the Oscars seem to go into hibernation; think of the 1980s, when Chariots of Fire and Gandhi and Amadeus and Out of Africa and The Last Emperor won and it was hard to discern how much curiosity, or much of anything other than a desire to retreat from the world and the country into a kind of pictorial/historical splendor, the Academy had. In retrospect, I think those movies won not because Academy voters didn’t care about what was going on in America, but because they didn’t know what was going on with American movies. The 1980s — post–Raging Bull, pre–indie boom that began with 1989’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape — were a decade of uncertainty and trepidation about what American films were supposed to be, other than blockbusters.
http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/decoding-the-2015-oscars-the-birdman-win-and-what-it-tells-us-about-hollywood/
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 23 February 2015 14:17 (nine years ago) link
birdman was great btw anyone who hasn't seen it should watch it instead of reading this outraged tantrum of a thread
― local eire man (darraghmac), Monday, 23 February 2015 14:31 (nine years ago) link
totally mcscrotally
― i blow goat farts, aka garts for a living (waterface), Monday, 23 February 2015 14:44 (nine years ago) link
i'm sure to love it when i rescreen from my newly enlightened perspective
― rip van wanko, Monday, 23 February 2015 14:55 (nine years ago) link
there's hope for everyone yet thats shat I learnt from watching best picture tm birdman motherfuckers
― local eire man (darraghmac), Monday, 23 February 2015 14:57 (nine years ago) link
uh what
Harris, as always and forever, OTM.
― Eric H., Monday, 23 February 2015 15:25 (nine years ago) link
His theory about eighties film (borrowing bits from A.O. Scott) makes sense, but nineties commercial filmmaking was just as confused. Look at that decade's BP winners.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 23 February 2015 15:27 (nine years ago) link
If the Academy's definition of "prestige" has drifted away from Out of Africa and Gandhi, it really doesn't matter at all what they've drifted toward IMO.
― Eric H., Monday, 23 February 2015 15:41 (nine years ago) link
https://vine.co/v/OQwTawxZhI0
:-(
― gr8080, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 15:01 (nine years ago) link
it could've been a flask
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 15:04 (nine years ago) link
otm
― AKA Thermo Thinwall (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 15:15 (nine years ago) link
read that as "outraged rectum of a thread"
punchier, imo
― describing a scene in which the Hulk gets a boner (contenderizer), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 15:26 (nine years ago) link
For a guy who's such the center of attention in all of his other movies, it's funny that no one mentions Zack Galifinakis in this.
― bit of a singles monster (Eazy), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 15:39 (nine years ago) link
that was whatchoocallhim mr Hollands opus, not Zach. he was playing zach.
Dreyfuss thats the guy. it was Dreyfuss.
― local eire man (darraghmac), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 16:07 (nine years ago) link
i only see Zack Galifinakis when he's not the center; there have been others
this is another movie that tells you how great it is, well played
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 17:07 (nine years ago) link
David Bordwell on structure, style and the "long take":
http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2015/02/23/birdman-following-riggans-orders/
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 18:19 (nine years ago) link
I found the long-take in this distracting and not at all germane to the story, it drew attention to itself and seemed unnecessarily showy
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 18:28 (nine years ago) link
I actually really liked the long take as a means of condensing the story while keeping the focus on Riggan's crisis. It's a long take, but not real time, which is something different.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 20:20 (nine years ago) link
it wasn't a long take either
going for Thursday as when someone actually reads the DB piece
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 20:24 (nine years ago) link
Well, yeah, it's not so much a long take (clearly, since there are traditional cuts) as the illusion of a long take, which I actually found less distracting/show-offy than the usual look-at-me long takes a la Scorsese/Anderson.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 20:32 (nine years ago) link
I was using long-take for shorthand, it was p obvious to anyone paying attention from the get-go that it's not actually a long/single take
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 20:33 (nine years ago) link
the wrong-shake(y)
― gr8080, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 21:24 (nine years ago) link
Just finished watching this for the second time, taking notes and trying to make sense of my first impressions. For the most part, I like it. I don't quite love it, and the insistent reach for ~significance~ that's always been an irritant in Inarritu's films still irritates here, but it's rich, funny, technically dazzling and hugely energetic.
where's do u see richness in this?
― Hungry4Ass, Friday, 27 February 2015 03:31 (nine years ago) link
razzle dazzle does the trick
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Friday, 27 February 2015 05:02 (nine years ago) link
What a great looking, intelligently cast stupid film. Mr. Iñárritu, watch some European Max Ophuls flicks to see what long takes with a good script and flesh and blood characters can accomplish! It's awesome, bro. Check it out.
― Acid Hose (Capitaine Jay Vee), Monday, 2 March 2015 18:54 (nine years ago) link
bartonfinkman was pretty entertaining. mostly bc of the drums.
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 2 March 2015 19:18 (nine years ago) link
After 20 minutes I felt bad for the cast, the cinematographer and the drummer. 20 minutes is when gimmick fatigue set in and I realized these (mostly) talented folk had been coerced into a shitshow if epic proportions.
― Acid Hose (Capitaine Jay Vee), Monday, 2 March 2015 19:22 (nine years ago) link
*of
poor cast, cinematographer and drummer prbly won't have a careers after this one. what a disaster.
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 2 March 2015 19:25 (nine years ago) link
no 'a' obv
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 2 March 2015 19:26 (nine years ago) link
or maybe I threw it in there for a bit o jazz*pish**pap!**pow!*
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 2 March 2015 19:28 (nine years ago) link
qn: why did keaton take another hit off that roach after pretending like he'd sucked the hot embers of the last remaining weed into his mouth by accident?
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 2 March 2015 19:36 (nine years ago) link
ILX: this is definitely the worst movie ever made. literally worse than cancer and Hitler combined x 1,000. part way through watching, i was forced to gouge my eyes out and ram them into my ears. the second time i watched it (somehow), in order to document all the crimes committed against humanity, I literally died on the spot. i once walked past a movie theater that was showing American Beauty and this was almost as bad.
― AKA Thermo Thinwall (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 2 March 2015 19:42 (nine years ago) link
lol otm
― local eire man (darraghmac), Monday, 2 March 2015 19:45 (nine years ago) link
Crash vs. American Beauty vs. this shitshow
― Οὖτις, Monday, 2 March 2015 19:46 (nine years ago) link
I would rip Thinwall's eyes out and put them in my own skull so that I could see ILX that way again
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 2 March 2015 19:49 (nine years ago) link
If you don't know Crash is in a league all its own, I don't even know where to begin.
― Eric H., Monday, 2 March 2015 19:50 (nine years ago) link
yeah Crash is def the worst
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 2 March 2015 19:51 (nine years ago) link
but Crash vs. American Beauty vs. Spider-Man 3 would be tough
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 2 March 2015 19:54 (nine years ago) link
i still legit hate Crash.
― AKA Thermo Thinwall (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 2 March 2015 20:04 (nine years ago) link
the only equivalence I was referencing was their award-winning (and, to a lesser extent, their "big statement"/of-the-moment commentary nature)
― Οὖτις, Monday, 2 March 2015 20:06 (nine years ago) link
Haggis is not afraid to be stupid
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Monday, 2 March 2015 20:51 (nine years ago) link
and, to a lesser extent, their "big statement"/of-the-moment commentary nature
What "big statement" is this supposed to be making?? I'll say it again: it's clichéd and over-the-top in the service of comedy. The Ophuls comparison Jay Vee should be making is the circus in Lola Montes. Not that Birdman is a masterpiece of cinema. But it's using its technical devices to similar effect.
― Cherish, Monday, 2 March 2015 21:09 (nine years ago) link
The closest Birdman comes to an American Beauty moment is ...
http://media.giphy.com/media/Ya6TjOP90uoJa/giphy.gif
― Eric H., Monday, 2 March 2015 21:29 (nine years ago) link
"big statement" in Academy terms = jampacked w references to contemporary cultural flashpoints
― Οὖτις, Monday, 2 March 2015 21:39 (nine years ago) link
Big Statement in Academy terms = an actress' breasts.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 2 March 2015 21:42 (nine years ago) link