Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Well I haven't seen all the nominees because life is short and there are tons of good films, or bad-in-interesting-ways films, still to see. But of the four I've seen - Tree of Life - a masterpiece, and as such, I'd say it's in the highest echelon of films nominated for Best Picture. Kind of shockin...

Did I make cultural generalizations? I don't think so. I was only joking about the debate that broke out in this thread. And yes, it looks like Milan thoroughly outplayed Arsenal in this match. It would be easier to take if Arsenal had actually played well, but their form has been so inconsistent t...

(By the way, Marco - I recall that you have greater affection for Atalanta, but since you live near Milan I just want to say that I hope Arsenal runs rampant over your local team soon ... though I certainly don't expect that will be the case.) Since when do you root for an ENGLISH team? :) Last yea...

Reading over the last page of this thread, I had no idea what exactly was being debated anymore. Here are a few brief thoughts on 2011(ish) films I saw recently ... Sleeping Beauty (Julia Leigh) - friends whose tastes I admire have made some strong defenses for this movie. But I admit that on my one...

Like The Help, Moneyball is a move made by Americans for Americans (it's a big flop here in Italy - I don't know about the rest of Europe). Even more than The Help, it's about something that not only I'm not interested in - something that I don't know ANYTHING about, even. What is this baseball? Wh...

I haven't really added anything new to what I've already said, but for what it's worth, I wrote up a few lines about Damien's passing on my blog, here . I know I'm not the most active presence on the UAADB, nor have I been for a long time, but coming here and reading these posts has been incredibly ...

I haven't confirmed this with anyone in New York, but to the best of my knowledge, today is the day that Damien is leaving us - if it has not already happened. Nothing on his facebook wall indicates otherwise, anyway. Damien and I were close, as most people who are reading this thread might know. He...

Au hasard, Seabiscuit. That is all.

It's not just this board. None of the movie boards are exactly bursting with energetic participation. I think the problem is Facebook, Twiter and the other social media which take up a lot of people's on-line time. I think this is right on the nose. Message boards and list servs, whatever the topic...

Oh, and has anyone here yet seen the new Monte Hellman feature, Road to Nowhere ? Hoping to see it tonight. To answer my own question: for what it's worth, Road to Nowhere is a quite good, intricate, and twisty movie. Catch it on video or stream it since it may not show up at your local theater. Or...

I should see Return to Me... You should! It's a really chaste movie (amenable to religious grandparents and young children), but the overall sense of sweetness and bonhomie, the individual quirks afforded to each character (not over-emphasized & wooden as such "characterization" so of...

Some vague spoilers for Crazy, Stupid, Love … Reasonably entertaining, and extremely uneven. A bit of excellence, a few cringe-inducing scenes, and some average filler for the rest. I thought the climax (i.e., the real one, not anything having to do with the graduation day) was a terrific sequence/s...

Yes, Richard Neer's erudition, and the openness of his mind, are impressive! Cavell is a fairly major philosophical name in Anglo-American philosophy - yet at the same time, kind of a loner in that he's not part of a "school" or a "wave." I admit I haven't read much Cavell - most...

For anyone interested in Malick, I came across a link to this article on facebook - it's on The New World rather than The Tree of Life , but it covers some of the issues of Malick's aesthetics as well as his relationship to philosophy. http://nonsite.org/issue-2/terrence-malicks-new-world I've only ...

I also thought of Kubrick and his work with, say, Ryan O'Neal and Tom Cruise. Still - and this is very subjective, I can't prove it of course - I feel that in this case Brad Pitt did understand his character, that he got it. He was certainly very well directed, but his approach to the role didn't s...