Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Man on Wire (James Marsh, 2008) 7/10 Nice artfulness to it; compelling; middle third sagged a bit. The Reader (Stephen Daldry, 2008) 6/10 Winslet (lead!) and Kross were great; no directorial vision or flare; rather abrupt transitions; presumed psychological complexity of the book not adequately con...

Bog wrote:Did you see them at Pitchfork's Music Festival in the Windy City by chance?

No, both times in San Francisco. My friend went to that festival in Chicago; he said that people there didn't seem to know who they were. They seem to have a solid following in SF; their shows sell out right away.

I'm gonna say I thought it was quite a good year for music, but I suppose one could argue the In Rainbows and Neon Bibles were better than anything this year...even M.I.A. maybe... not sure how'd I'd order these off the top of my head TV on the Radio- Dear Science Blitzen Trapper- Furr Fleet Foxes-...

I mentioned this in another thread; but, I think there will be enough Oscar momentum for Slumdog Millionaire that Patel will be nominated in the lead category. I even think that he has a chance to pull off one of Oscar's biggest upsets and win over Sean Penn. If this happens, then nobody has a righ...

Rachel Getting Married (2008, Jonathan Demme) 8/10 Finally caught up with this. This had potential to be a truly great movie but for a few script missteps. Demme's direction is outstanding, and this is one of the best examples of ensemble acting I've seen in some time. I hope SAG takes notice for i...

The Pride of the Yankees (1942) 6/10 A little flat overall and Gary Cooper doesn't do it for me. Loved the footage filmed in the old ballyards and of course I cried just anticipating the farewell scene. Art School Confidential (2006) 4/10 Such a disappointment from Zwigoff. Silly. Dumb. Max Minghel...

I also thought Dev Patel's was a very wooden performance. The kid who played the littlest Salam (I think that was his name), however, was just a delight. I'm generally not much for cute screen kids but I have to say I kinda fell in love with this kid. The movie, though, not so much. Did anybody els...

Does anyone know for sure; but, I think the Emile Hirsch character is the only one of the principals that is still alive? Cleve Jones (the Emile Hirsch character) is very much alive, as is Anne Kronenberg (played by Alison Pill), who works for the Department of Public Health in San Francisco. The o...

Although I agree with Mr. Tee that the immigration issue in the Visitor is not portrayed with any complexity, I think that this is not what this movie is really about. I think, like The Station Agent, this movie is about the power of friendship; about lonely, disconnected people finding some connec...

I agree that the will of the people can be misguided, but I will repeat myself here: If people want to fight this in court, fine. If they want to have a vote, fine. But you can't have it both ways. Don't spend millions of dollars fighting the proposal before the vote, and then threaten litigation w...

New AP poll debunked by Americablog: New flawed AP poll claims McCain and Obama are tied. Will AP's pollster take Nate Silver's challenge? Joe Sudbay (DC) · 10/22/2008 04:59:00 PM ET The Associated Press has released a poll that shows a much closer race than any other poll out ther. Now, Liz "...

From Salon: Gotham noms kick off award season (ack!) Monday's announcement of the Gotham Award nominees, the semiofficial starter's pistol for awards season -- I know, that's frightening news -- confirms my sense that it has been a strong year for American independent film but not such a strong one...