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Marj
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 3:47 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan
Nancy - I'm confused. Gwyneth Paltrow wasn't in Babel. Did you mean Cate Blanchette?
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inlareviewer
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:00 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
Well, now that the Blanches are over WAY TO GO, CHILLY, I concur with Nancy on Babel, which I admired considerably and loved not much. Two of its storylines convinced me; one storyline meandered beyond Resnais' wildest imaginings, if not Kurosawa's CATscans; and one storyline actively put me off -- I think Nancy meant Cate Blanchett -- wearing down my goodwill to a nub. Alejandro González Iñárritu is a fantastic stylist and a visionary auteur, but I found Babel an honorable failure as a film. It was infinitely better than the Crashing Pile of Haggis last year, and I understand why people responded to it, there's undoubtedly art and craft and integrity afoot there, but I was mainly relieved and curiously unmoved when it was over. The fault must be mine, not Alejandro's, but there it is.

My other against-the-Blanche-grain reaction was spurred by Notes on a Scandal, whose two mesdames were sensational. Given its faux-lofty bowdlerizing of the original's tone and tenor, no more sensational than, say, Diana Rigg and Naomi Watts or Vanessa Redgrave and Natasha Richardson or Lynn Redgrave and Nicole Kidman or Eileen Atkins and Rachel Griffiths or Brenda Blethyn and Emily Watson or Glenda Jackson and Kate Winslet or Helen Mirren and Geraldine Somerville or, yes, Meryl Streep and Uma Thurman might have been with the same obviated material.

The Departed is Scorsese!'s most entertaining film since Goodfellas, but it's not a masterpiece. Neither is Goodfellas. Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull remain his masterworks, with the uncut New York, New York not far behind. The Aviator is a very entertaining biopic, Gangs of New York is an ambitious mess.

Tickled about the upsets and ties last night, it was a fantastically off-the-cuff presentation, and everyone looked so purty. Hoo boy, good Blanchin', not to mention, good boozing and Blackberrying and god-knows-whatting. And, now, my awards-show nightmare begins in earnest. Ah, theatre.

Edited because, why drop a trademark motif after the fact?


Last edited by inlareviewer on Tue Feb 27, 2007 4:48 pm; edited 7 times in total

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Jynx
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:16 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 750 Location: Nowheresville
I'm sticking to my guns and saying Winslet should have won. This poor woman has been so overlooked and her performances HAVE been Oscar worthy. I voted for her and I'm rooting for her, although the sad mess that the Oscar's have become will indeed prove me right again. It will be Mirren, Whitaker, Hudson and Murphy. No doubt.

I also agree that Marty has never 'gunned' for an Oscar. I think he is an incredible film maker and has a passion for every film he's ever done. IMO he sets the bar for a director today, the up and coming if you will. Ditto Eastwood, I don't want to steal his thunder b/c I saw both of his movies but I truly believe that this is Marty's year. I think Eastwood having two movies out cancels his chances.

Taxi Driver is the best movie MS has made with Raging Bull coming in a close second. Goodfellas, while amusing and hippy-mo-tizing, isn't quite the same. It seemed to be too commercial vs. RB and TD. If he ever gunned for a gold boy, I think GF would be the vehicle he used, but I wouldn't use that term.

It would be an entirely different conversation had MS not made so many Oscar worthy movies, but this man is a genius, pure to the core. To be slighted so many times brings Sean Penn to mind; he was applauded for Mystic River (duly so) but not for Dean Man Walking (his should have won filme); Denzel Washington was given his just dues for Training Day when he should have walked away with snaps for Malcolm X; and I won't even go on my Ed Harris rampage.

I wonder if the Oscar community ever stumbled across our Blanches, if they saw our postings, awards, tirades, snaps and gags, what they would think.

I guess what drives our movie passion are the stolen moments, each different and our own, that we believe to be true cinematic treasurers.

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inlareviewer
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:18 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
Jynx: Indeed, hear, hear. It's all so subjective, and did we not give Kate, Kate, Fairest Kate in Winsletdom the Blanche for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Or was that Uma's Kill Bill year? It's all a blur.

Don't bet the farm on either Whitaker or Murphy just yet. SaltPeter O'Implement is riding very high, and so are both Grandpa Arkin and Rogue Cop Wahlberg.

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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim
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Marj
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:27 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan
Inla,

I just posted on Babel in Current Film. Please explain the cat there for me. I missed this or maybe I was just too tired since I saw it so late the other night.

Pam,

How I wish the academy voters could read our board. And especially your last post. Excellent! Excellent! [in place of Hear! Hear!]
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Jynx
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:28 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 750 Location: Nowheresville
OOOOOOOhhhhhhh my, inlare, I can't go outside the box. It's them, I know it, I can feel in me bones argh!

I hope Kate doesn't become a gold boy statistic, so overlooked yet so deserving.

So just to get this out of the way, before telecast tonight,

And the Oscar goes to ....

Helen Mirren

Forest Whitaker

Jennifer Hudson

Eddie Murphy

ACK! GADS!

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mo_flixx
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:29 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
No one has mentioned Marty's CASINO, one of his films I could watch over and over again.
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Jynx
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:29 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 750 Location: Nowheresville
Oops, I forgot:

And the Oscar goes to ...

Martin Scorsese

Babel

WOO HOO! PHUCIN' A!!!!!

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Jynx
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:32 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 750 Location: Nowheresville
Casino, with all it's glory, was a fine film. But, to me, was on the same level as Goodfellas. Very commercial, very pre-dick-table.

And, honestly, will they ever give an award to a film that uses the word phuc 80 kajillion times?

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inlareviewer
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:39 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
Jynx wrote:
And, honestly, will they ever give an award to a film that uses the word phuc 80 kajillion times?
This, I think, would be more of an issue before last year's Debacle broke down the "standards," and, am sadly suspicious that it' s not just Boston mobsters who talk like that. Easily half the audience in the Kodak and more of the American sector at home talks like that. I think if Departed loses it will be because of logjam voting more than a reaction to a script whose profanity could make Mamet blush.

I don't worry about Kate becoming a never-won statistic. She's got lots of great performances in her, heaven willing, yet and I still think she needs to play Hedda Gabler on stage, like, yesterday.

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Marj
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:40 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan
That's part of the problem, Pam. Academy voters don't like to award films that use too much profanity, blood or violence. The Departed has all three so I doubt it will win. If it does it would be the greatest upset of the night.
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inlareviewer
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:42 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
Uh-uh. Last year's Crashing Pile of Haggis was peppered with four letter words, and there are precedents going back to Midnight Cowboy and The Deer Hunter. Departed and Babel are neck and neck in the Buzzstakes. No upset if either of them wins. The upset will be if Little Miss Sunshine wins.

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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim
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Jynx
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:44 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 750 Location: Nowheresville
I haven't revisted it in a while, even though I own it, but didn't Midnight Cowboy have quite a bit of profanity? I mean, for it's day?

I don't think they would award it to movies like GF or Casino, but I also don't think they were contenders.

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Jynx
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:45 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 750 Location: Nowheresville
inlare - we posted about Midnight Cowboy at the EXACT SAME TIME!

Coinky dink or some weird planet alignment thingy?

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Marj
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:48 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan
Well, if anyone knows it's you, Inla. I'd be thrilled with a tie. But not LMS. Please, not LMS?

Gotta run. See you all later.
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