Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

I thought this category was a lot better than the animated category this year. None of them were exceptional, but all were at least decent. Here's how I would rank them based on personal preference. Rankings 1. The Elephant Whisperers 2. The Martha Mitchell Effect 3. How Do You Measure a Year? 4. St...

Mister Tee wrote:It's going to take someone pointing me to the Ostrich movie -- for which there are no online links I can find -- before I can join full-heartedly into this discussion.

PM sent.

I think that this is a pretty weak lineup this year. There weren't any that I really liked a lot, though the only one I really disliked was The Flying Sailor. I expected to like The Boy The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, but I found it to be pretty slow and not all that interesting. My preferences 01....

Summer Time Machine Blues (2005) - 7.5/10 - The members of a scifi club are unhappy when the remote for their air conditioner stops working and they may be forced to spend the sweltering summer without the benefit of cooler air. Then a time machine appears and they concoct a plan to use it to retri...

Zazie dans le Métro (1960) - 8.5/10 - Zazie is a wild, foul mouthed 10 year old who spends a couple of days with her uncle in Paris when her mom visits her boyfriend. Zazie wants to spend her time on the metro, but it is closed due to a strike so she and her uncle travel around Paris in other ways....

I've only seen 8 of the 54 nominees so far, but I plan to rectify that in February by seeing most or all of the rest.

I've found 12 of the 15 shorts with only Ivalu, The Red Suitcase, and An Irish Goodbye still to locate.

your name. (2016) - 8/10 - Taki is a high school boy in Tokyo whose mind starts randomly switching places with a high school girl named Mitsuha who lives in a rural part of Japan. They initially think that they are dreaming, but eventually realize there is much more going on than a dream and they h...

Death of a Cyclist (1955) - 8/10 - Two members of Spain's upper class are having an affair. On the way home from a tryst, they hit a bicyclist and instead of helping him, flee the scene fearing discovery of their affair. Juan is deeply affected by this and gives the matter a lot of thought. Maria J...

Bus 174 (2002) - 8/10 - In June 2000, a young man with a gun took a number of people on a bus hostage and threatened to kill them. This led to a standoff with police that lasted for many hours. The police appeared somewhat incompetent and didn't control the crowds so the news media was very close t...

Hausu (House) (1977) - 8/10 - This Japanese comedy horror film is pretty crazy and fun. Seven high school girls (Gorgeous, Fantasy, Melody, Kung Fu, Mac, Sweet, and Prof) go to visit Gorgeous's aunt. It's been 10 years since Gorgeous last saw her and she lives in a large, but strange house. It isn'...

The Atomic Cafe (1982) - 8/10 - A collection of government propaganda and newsreels from the 1940s and 1950s related to atomic weapons, including their use in Japan, testing, the Cold War, and so on. It definitely paints a picture of a different time. Koyaanisqatsi (1982) - 9/10 - Great footage fro...

I chose Coraline, but Coraline and Up were pretty much tied for me. After that, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Princess and the Frog were each excellent. I liked Secret of the Kells, but I thought it was definitely below the other four nominees.

The films that I enjoyed the most over the last couple of weeks: A Letter to Momo (2011) - 8.5/10 - An 11 year old girl moves to a small island with her mother after the death of her father. She's rather reserved, but starts to come out of her shell when she befriends three goblins who are also inha...

I was a bit underhwelmed with Wall*E when I saw it. It wasn't bad, but perhaps my expectations going in were too high. Bolt and Kung Fu Panda were each a lot of fun and it was basically a coin flip for me between the two films. I went with Kung Fu Panda, but Bolt is also deserving.

The Plague Dogs (1982) - 8/10 - Two dogs escape from a research facility and struggle to survive in the countryside while also eluding the search teams that are after them. The film is pretty serious and bleak, but is also very good. When the Wind Blows (1986) - 8/10 - An elderly British couple fol...