Intermarkets' Privacy Policy Support
Donate to Ace of Spades HQ! Contact
Ace:aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com Recent Entries
Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - January 8, 2025 [TRex]
Diary of a Working Dog Cafe Whither Fascism? $1 Billion Defamation Trial Against CNN and Noted Twitter Addict Jake Tapper Begins Comedians Begin to Admit They Were Pressured Into Pushing the Leftwing Propaganda Line Kamala Harris Is Taking a Taxpayer Funded Trip Around the World... to Inform Foreign Governments of the Biden Administration's Accomplishments CNN's Abby Phillips Defends Democrats and Media Lying About Joe Biden's Senility: Accurately Reporting on His Senility Would be "You Know, Kicking a Guy When He's Down" Denied by NY Appellate Court, Trump Files Emergency Appeal to SCOTUS to Stop Merchan's Political Rush to Judgment Wildfires Devastate Huge Swaths of Los Angeles While Mayor Karen Bass Parties in Africa Wednesday Morning Rant Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024 Captain Hate 2023 moon_over_vermont 2023 westminsterdogshow 2023 Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022 Dave In Texas 2022 Jesse in D.C. 2022 OregonMuse 2022 redc1c4 2021 Tami 2021 Chavez the Hugo 2020 Ibguy 2020 Rickl 2019 Joffen 2014 AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups
|
� Saturday Afternoon Chess/Open Thread 04-15-2017 |
Main
| Saturday Overnight Open Thread (4/15/17) Mixed Bag Edition �
April 15, 2017
Saturday Evening Movie Thread 04-08-2017 [Hosted By: TheJamesMadison]: Meaningless MetricsFinding Neverland This is not a review of Finding Neverland. I present this movie as a case study in quite literally everything that is wrong with the Oscars. The movie itself is fine. It's a nice little movie about a group of people connecting through literature. It's inoffensive, slight, and mostly forgettable. You know what else it was? Nominated for 7 Oscars. 7 7! Including Best Picture! Again, the movie's not bad, but it's slight and ultimately not all that memorable. Why did it get more nominations than some movies like The Departed (5)? Because the Oscars are a niche market, and the producers of Finding Neverland knew their audience, and they knew it very well. Take period piece, add two respected and former nominee actors in the lead roles, add biopic, with a death and the actors playing real people, throw it all together and you've got something that's going to appeal to the largely older voters who love to star fuck and want to feel something at the movies. Was Finding Neverland one of the five best movies of 2004? Dear Lord, no. This was the year with The Incredibles, The Passion of the Christ, The Bourne Supremacy, Shaun of the Dead, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kill Bill Volume 2, Downfall, and The Aviator. In that list are examples of the height of animation, religious movies, thrillers, comedy, fantasy, and war movies. Any of those five, randomly thrown together, would have represented a better cross section of the best movies of 2004 than any list containing Finding Neverland. Hell, I'd award The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Terminal, or even Team America before Finding Neverland. The Oscars are as Meaningless as Box Office Numbers Citizen Kane, widely regarded as one of the best movies ever made, lost Best Picture to How Green Was My Valley, a John Ford movie that even John Ford fans largely forget. I think we all know the answer by this point, but yeah, that doesn't mean the How Green Was My Valley is in anyway better than Citizen Kane. The Oscars are an industry show. It's the equivalent of a bunch of statisticians getting together to honor the statistician who most advanced the science that year. The difference is that the general public couldn't care less about which statisticians did great things but do care about movies, so an industry awards ceremony became a cultural touchstone. For years, everyone watched. Everyone knew the movies being nominated (remember when The Godfather was one of the biggest movies of 1972?), and the stars were being largely controlled in public by the studios (Henry Fonda never tweeted while taking a shit). It was a way to see movies celebrated and watch famous people wear pretty things. It was largely inoffensive and innocuous entertainment that celebrated a very large slice of popular culture. Something changed, though. It might be with the rise of the Weinsteins and Miramax, but suddenly the idea of nominating big budget and big box office winning movies gained an element of distaste in the Academy's mouth. Those early movies did fairly well at the box office (movies like Pulp Fiction for instance), but as time went on the landscape became increasingly monochromatic. A handful of larger movies made it through. Gladiator, representing the storied sword and sandals genre, The Lord of the Rings, Avatar were exceptions, but the presence of these types of movies became more and more seen like an anomaly. When The Dark Knight didn't make the top 5, the Academy realized that it had a problem. Their solution? Expand the selection of movies from top 5 to top 10. Maybe that would get some big budget movies into the running and help counteract the downward decline of ratings.
Instead of expanding the selection to include more popular fare, the Academy just doubled down and nominated more small movies that no one had seen. They're a provincial bunch, the Academy, and increasingly it looks like they are proud of the fact that they like things that are not the same as what the rest of the country likes. They style themselves as taste makers and trend setters, except that very few people outside their "provinces" care what they have to say. And the Academy seems to be proud of that. My take? Good for them. I used to think that the Oscars were a celebration of movies through the vehicle of Hollywood to get there. I don't remember which ceremony I was watching, but I suddenly realized that it was a celebration of Hollywood through movies. I very quickly lost what remaining interest I had left in the whole affair and just turned off the show. Haven't turned one on since. Now I see that the Oscars are about Hollywood telling the rest of the country that they are better than middle America. That their tastes are more refined, elevated, and just all around worthwhile than yours. That while you may prop up their industry with going to Transformers and Marvel movies, that the Academy will never reward them with anything more than a few technical achievements here are there because even they haven't descended to the point of giving Best Visual Effects to an independent movie that uses no special effects. And just like Finding Neverland fit into the niche in 2004, it's now even more esoteric and focused on the plight of oppressed people movies that gain all of the attention from the Academy.
I…don't think so. The Oscars are largely a curio to me now. I look back the day after the awards ceremony, say, "Huh," quietly to myself, and move on. It's a barometer for what the movie industry considers good and important cinema, but that's kind of it. I don't think they're worth any level of emotional involvement. The last time I was emotionally involved with the Oscars was the ceremony that awarded the movies of 2003 when The Return of the King won. I was giddy because this movie that I loved so completely was being honored by rich people who I'll never meet. When it was over, I sat back in my chair feeling a wave of odd euphoria sweep over me, and I haven't been able to get excited about the Oscars since. I suppose that I should consider myself lucky that I got to experience that from the Oscars before I shut down. Movies of Today Opening in Theaters:
Movies I Saw This Week: The Gospel According to Saint Matthew (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 4/4) Poster Blurb: "Makes me rethink my top 10 of All Time. A beautiful, spare, and challenging telling of the gospel." | Recent Comments
Hokey Pokey:
"Way too much TV ..."
Sponge - F*ck Cancer: "NURSE!!!! *hugs* *squeezes butt* ..." Sponge - F*ck Cancer: "NOODlum. ..." Scarymary: "Someone actually sued them because it's not made i ..." Sponge - F*ck Cancer: "FIRST!!!!! ..." Sponge - F*ck Cancer: "[i] You're welcome. Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc. ..." Mike Hammer, etc., etc.: " Texas Pete hot sauce is made in North Carolina. ..." Sponge - F*ck Cancer: "[i]Courtesy of Winston-Salem. It used to be hard t ..." nurse ratched : "Oh well. ..." nurse ratched : "First? ..." Sponge - F*ck Cancer: "[i]Tennesee Tuxedo.... ---- Tennesee Williams ..." Scarymary: "355 Texas Pete Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., et ..." Recent Entries
Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - January 8, 2025 [TRex]
Diary of a Working Dog Cafe Whither Fascism? $1 Billion Defamation Trial Against CNN and Noted Twitter Addict Jake Tapper Begins Comedians Begin to Admit They Were Pressured Into Pushing the Leftwing Propaganda Line Kamala Harris Is Taking a Taxpayer Funded Trip Around the World... to Inform Foreign Governments of the Biden Administration's Accomplishments CNN's Abby Phillips Defends Democrats and Media Lying About Joe Biden's Senility: Accurately Reporting on His Senility Would be "You Know, Kicking a Guy When He's Down" Denied by NY Appellate Court, Trump Files Emergency Appeal to SCOTUS to Stop Merchan's Political Rush to Judgment Wildfires Devastate Huge Swaths of Los Angeles While Mayor Karen Bass Parties in Africa Wednesday Morning Rant Search
Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Primary Document: The Audio
Paul Anka Haiku Contest Announcement Integrity SAT's: Entrance Exam for Paul Anka's Band AllahPundit's Paul Anka 45's Collection AnkaPundit: Paul Anka Takes Over the Site for a Weekend (Continues through to Monday's postings) George Bush Slices Don Rumsfeld Like an F*ckin' Hammer Top Top Tens
Democratic Forays into Erotica New Shows On Gore's DNC/MTV Network Nicknames for Potatoes, By People Who Really Hate Potatoes Star Wars Euphemisms for Self-Abuse Signs You're at an Iraqi "Wedding Party" Signs Your Clown Has Gone Bad Signs That You, Geroge Michael, Should Probably Just Give It Up Signs of Hip-Hop Influence on John Kerry NYT Headlines Spinning Bush's Jobs Boom Things People Are More Likely to Say Than "Did You Hear What Al Franken Said Yesterday?" Signs that Paul Krugman Has Lost His Frickin' Mind All-Time Best NBA Players, According to Senator Robert Byrd Other Bad Things About the Jews, According to the Koran Signs That David Letterman Just Doesn't Care Anymore Examples of Bob Kerrey's Insufferable Racial Jackassery Signs Andy Rooney Is Going Senile Other Judgments Dick Clarke Made About Condi Rice Based on Her Appearance Collective Names for Groups of People John Kerry's Other Vietnam Super-Pets Cool Things About the XM8 Assault Rifle Media-Approved Facts About the Democrat Spy Changes to Make Christianity More "Inclusive" Secret John Kerry Senatorial Accomplishments John Edwards Campaign Excuses John Kerry Pick-Up Lines Changes Liberal Senator George Michell Will Make at Disney Torments in Dog-Hell Greatest Hitjobs
The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny More Margaret Cho Abuse Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed" Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means Wonkette's Stand-Up Act Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report! Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet The House of Love: Paul Krugman A Michael Moore Mystery (TM) The Dowd-O-Matic! Liberal Consistency and Other Myths Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate "Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long) The Donkey ("The Raven" parody) |