Backstage Bickering
According to Patrick Goldstein's inside-the-LAFCA-awards-debate reporting, Slumdog Millionaire "sparked the most divisions of any film. Its partisans praised its filmmaking energy and social consciousness . But its scrum of detractors said they wouldn't vote for it under any circumstances, with some critics claiming it was too derivative, coming off like an amped-up Satyajit Ray film.
"The only slam dunks in the voting were Penelope Cruz, who won best supporting actress for Vicki Cristina Barcelona and Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight. The voting for best picture was extremely close, with the joke being that whether the vote went for WALL*E or The Dark Knight , that it was still a thumbs-up for an animated film, since Dark Knight is loaded with computer animation effects."
Between LAFCA's snub of Revolutionary Road Best Actress contender Kate Winslet (they went for Sally Hawkins first and Melissa Leo second) and Winslet being blown off yesterday morning by the Broadcast Film Critics' Association, there appears to be a block of serious (and perplexing) resistance to Sam Mendes' angst-ridden period drama. What is wrong with everyone? Why can't they see how sublimely made and full of feeling this film is?
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 10, 2008 at 6:29 AM
comment #1
byanyother
says ...
Wall-E and The Dark Knight have been the two standouts of the year thus far - the other movies needed more time on the streets to feel their impact - this is what I don't get about this year, why the studios waited so long.
Anyway, it's worth noting that "everyone" isn't this handful of critics. The Critics Choice, according to Kris Tapley, didn't get the screeners of Revolutionary Road until late Friday and by then most of them had voted.
Posted by byanyother
at December 10, 2008 7:03 AM
comment #2
CitizenKanedforChewingGum
says ...
Uhhh....so how 'bout them movies you saw yesterday? Did I miss something?
Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum
at December 10, 2008 7:06 AM
comment #3
Chris Willman
says ...
" The voting for best picture was extremely close, with the joke being that whether the vote went for WALL*E or The Dark Knight , that it was still a thumbs-up for an animated film, since Dark Knight is loaded with computer animation effects.""
That's a pretty bad "joke," since "Dark Knight" has far fewer of those effects than they apparently think it does. Has there been any film done on this scale recently that relies on computer animation less than "Dark Knight"?
That said, hooray for "Wall-E."
Posted by Chris Willman
at December 10, 2008 7:09 AM
comment #4
erniesouchak
says ...
True, "Dark Knight" accomplished a lot of stuff in-camera. Is it surprising most critics don't know the difference?
Posted by erniesouchak
at December 10, 2008 8:36 AM
comment #5
DavidF
says ...
Even people who bitch about "Too much CGI" tend not to understand how things are done. A lot of stuff in the Star Wars prequels etc still involved building actual miniatures and compositing digitally.
Anyway, hooray for Wall*E. Now we can look forward to 2 months of bitching that animated films should get nominated for Best Picture even though it won't.
I still cannot remotely imagined Dark Knight winning but even scoring a nomination would be a huge breakthrough for "genre" films.
Posted by DavidF
at December 10, 2008 9:04 AM
comment #6
K. Bowen
says ...
Here's the thing ....
Why are people voting for the fake human spirit story (Slumdog Millionaire) and not voting for the genuine human spirit story (Man on Wire)?
Posted by K. Bowen
at December 10, 2008 9:10 AM
comment #7
Phatang!
says ...
Why is it a "snub" for critics to not think Winslett gave one of the two best performances of the year? I haven't seen the movie yet, but having read the book I can imagine that she isn't SURPRISING in it, and I think that's a major consideration in giving out these awards. Everyone knows she's a great actress. So she'll probably need to wear a fake nose or get juiced on steroids to win that Oscar.
Posted by Phatang!
at December 10, 2008 10:16 AM
comment #8
janee
says ...
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Posted by janee
at May 19, 2011 3:47 AM