The Oscars...

[ChuckWolf]

That man has done a lot for us teratophilics

Also, I knew a guy who voted in the Oscars (he won one), and he told me about the amount of schmoozing the studios do to all the voters, and it's truly sickening. Tens of millions of dollars (probably more now) trying to buy votes. So I take it all with a very cynical view that while the movies nominated are usually better than average, the ones that win probably happened to have the best influence campaign.

I also didn't watch or have any idea who won

In prior interviews, it's been revealed that a lot of academy voters don't even watch the screeners and will just vote for their friends or let their kids & grandkids vote for their favorites.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Looking at the list of nominees for Best Picture nominees this year, apparently I've seen five of them!

One Battle After Another
Tense, expertly filmed and edited, surprisingly hilarious at times, the car chase near the end was a genuine surprise and something I don't think I've ever seen before, there were several moments that made me cry joyful tears. I think about this movie a lot

Sinners
Visually beautiful, excellent music, one of the musical bits was probably the single best scene of a movie I've seen this year. I thought it was a little over-stuffed at times, and the pacing could have been better, but it took big swings and big risks and I loved it!

Train Dreams
Really pretty, reflective, patient, meditative, sad... It gave me Terrence Malick vibes, it didn't resonate emotionally with me very personally, but I appreciated it for what it was and I can imagine that some people would find it powerfully affecting!

Frankenstein
The filmography, costuming/makeup, and sets were all gorgeous and delightfully horrible, the acting was over the top in the best ways and Guillermo Del Toro is the king of Monsterfuckers and for that I will always love him

F1
Nah, sorry, for me this one sucked and had no business even being in contention It was a fairly rote "sports underdog" kind of plot, the acting was bland, the action was bland... maybe if you're an F1 fan this worked, but I think a good sports movie makes you care about it even when you don't care about the sport being portrayed, and for me it failed at that.

Looking at the list of nominees for Best Picture nominees this year, apparently I've seen five of them!

One Battle After Another
Tense, expertly filmed and edited, surprisingly hilarious at times, the car chase near the end was a genuine surprise and something I don't think I've ever seen before, there were several moments that made me cry joyful tears. I think about this movie a lot

Sinners
Visually beautiful, excellent music, one of the musical bits was probably the single best scene of a movie I've seen this year. I thought it was a little over-stuffed at times, and the pacing could have been better, but it took big swings and big risks and I loved it!

Train Dreams
Really pretty, reflective, patient, meditative, sad... It gave me Terrence Malick vibes, it didn't resonate emotionally with me very personally, but I appreciated it for what it was and I can imagine that some people would find it powerfully affecting!

Frankenstein
The filmography, costuming/makeup, and sets were all gorgeous and delightfully horrible, the acting was over the top in the best ways and Guillermo Del Toro is the king of Monsterfuckers and for that I will always love him

F1
Nah, sorry, for me this one sucked and had no business even being in contention It was a fairly rote "sports underdog" kind of plot, the acting was bland, the action was bland... maybe if you're an F1 fan this worked, but I think a good sports movie makes you care about it even when you don't care about the sport being portrayed, and for me it failed at that.

My opinion is that Sinners should have won. Your take on Battles and mine are very different. I thought both Leo and Del Toro were waisted on very shallow characters, most of the sarcasm missed. But that’s just me.

 

[crookedletter]

Y'all can just choose to not comment on topics you don't care about, you know

But then how do you make sure everyone knows how sophisticated you are in being above things?

 

[PennyThompson]

My opinion is that Sinners should have won. Your take on Battles and mine are very different. I thought both Leo and Del Toro were waisted on very shallow characters, most of the sarcasm missed. But that’s just me.

I thought Sinners was excellent and I wouldn't have disagreed if it won best picture! I think we were lucky to get both movies in the year 2025, and I'm glad that both of them earned multiple well-deserved awards.

I think they were talking about many of the same things from different perspectives. I think both were a little messy in their own ways, but I love a messy ambitious film with a voice and an ethos

 

[other11]

Jessie Buckley certainly deserved best actress for "Hamnet", but you should see her in her new movie "The Bride". Phenomenal!
Also the writing in "The Bride is atypically good. To wit: there is a scene where someone says "He wanted to poke his eyes out." And someone replies, "That's an oxymoron." . It is a very clever one. Also an oft spoken line in the movie is "I would prefer not to." I immediately recognized it as the main quote from "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" by American author Herman Melville
And for @EmilyMiller there is a scene where a bad cop attempts to rape the Bride whilst reciting dirty limericks.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

No, you are supposed to display your insecurity by ostentatiously declaring your ignorance and lack of interest.

But we don't want to.

 

[SkyBubble]

No, you are supposed to display your insecurity by ostentatiously declaring your ignorance and lack of interest.

What "ignorance"?

 

[Belegon]

I look at the Oscars as a way to seperate out the falk on Netflix nowadays... Honestly, if it's nominated for writing or best picture or Best Director... I may not have my world rocked, but I'm probably at least gonna enjoy it. And there have been Oscar moments I found generally heart-warming. jamie Lee Curtis winning a couple years ago... when Robin Williams won. The show has its moments.

 

[GuiltyCowboy]

I think they were talking about many of the same things from different perspectives.

It's remarkable how many of the more notable films this year deal with the poison of authoritarianism. Or maybe it's not so remarkable. One Battle After Another from the USA of course but also It Was Just An Accident from Iran and The Secret Agent from Brazil.

What drives that authoritarianism is different in each story though - white supremacy, religious fanaticism, corruption. All the good stuff.

As far as I can tell, Sinners is the only film that actually offers some kind of optimistic, constructive antidote: ownership of one's own work and space. (Ryan Coogler, the filmmaker, actually backed this up by insisting that the rights in the film would revert back to him after a certain period, which is extremely unusual for a studio to accept).

The others offer more vague bromides like the importance of remembering, or the importance of not falling into the trap of copying the authoritarians's violence, or the importance of protest. Mere survival is portrayed as a kind of victory. And they all make a point of celebrating communities of diverse, intelligent, caring people.

Anyway, one of the scariest moments in OBAA is when it skips forward 16 years and we're informed that 'nothing much has changed'. That was a real 'oof' moment. Like the America of the late 60s and the early 2010s and present moment and near-ish future are all the same. Nothing changes. Hence, I guess, the whole gag about him being asked 'what time is it?' and he doesn't have the answer.

 

[PennyThompson]

one of the scariest moments in OBAA is when it skips forward 16 years and we're informed that 'nothing much has changed'. That was a real 'oof' moment. Like the America of the late 60s and the early 2010s and present moment and near-ish future are all the same. Nothing changes. Hence, I guess, the whole gag about him being asked 'what time is it?' and he doesn't have the answer.

Part of what made me cry during the end credits was [SPOILER]that sense of history repeating itself. Willa running off to fight the next battle, optimistic and determined and still naive, American Girl blasting through the dark theater [/SPOILER]

 

[GuiltyCowboy]

Part of what made me cry during the end credits was [SPOILER]that sense of history repeating itself. Willa running off to fight the next battle, optimistic and determined and still naive, American Girl blasting through the dark theater [/SPOILER]

Yeah, that's definitely worth a tear or two. There's a reason the film has the title that it does...

 

[anthrodisiac]

Y'all can just choose to not comment on topics you don't care about, you know

No, I don't know