nameless1
Registered User
- Apr 29, 2009
- 18,202
- 1,019
It really wasn't.
I agree. Hollywood movies largely disappoint, but there were a lot of good international films last year.
It really wasn't.
So, is Black Panther now officially the most overrated film in history?
It's a very, very tall order to tell somebody to go out and try to be Freddie Mercury. But to not only be able to do it, but do it well? That's worthy of an award.
I agree. Hollywood movies largely disappoint, but there were a lot of good international films last year.
Is it great acting, or a great impression? I haven't seen it, which is why I ask, but I have big, big time fatigue for the obvious bias the Academy has towards performances where actors portray larger-than-life real people as opposed to fictional (or real, but without any defining external attributes) characters. In my very limited time on stage, I've always found it more challenging to concoct a character only using the words on the page (or the suggestions in the air), than when everything is already road-mapped out ahead of me.
Is it great acting, or a great impression? I haven't seen it, which is why I ask, but I have big, big time fatigue for the obvious bias the Academy has towards performances where actors portray larger-than-life real people as opposed to fictional (or real, but without any defining external attributes) characters. In my very limited time on stage, I've always found it more challenging to concoct a character only using the words on the page (or the suggestions in the air), than when everything is already road-mapped out ahead of me.
Four of five best actor nominees this year are playing real people and three of them are pretty well known individuals. This surely will be the ninth time in the last 15 years the best actor went to a **cough cough** "transformative" performance and either Dick Cheney or Freddie Mercury can join Ray Charles, Truman Capote, Idi Amin, Harvey Milk, King George VI, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Hawking and Winston Churchill. (DiCaprio and McConaghey also won for playing real people, though neither were famous).
Also nominated in that time: Howard Hughes, Johnny Cash, JM Barrie, Edward R. Murrow, Richard Nixon, Nelson Mandela, Mark Zuckerberg, Billy Beane, John du Pont, Dalton Trumbo, Alan Turing and Steve Jobs.
To say nothing of the other real people portrayed who were not well known like Ron Woodruff, Jordan Belfort, Aron Ralston, Solomon Northrup, etc.
Bios/true stories are just so lazy to me. It happens in other acting categories as well, but it's really a problem in the lead actor.
God forbid someone is recognized for a real, ground-up creation and not an impersonation.
Annual rant over.
He did magnificent impression of Mercury on stage. Off the stage is hard to tell because there's not much to compare it to due Mercury keeping that aspect secret
Annual rant over
Penn over Rourke and (especially) Redmayne over Keaton were the breaking points for me.
Don't forget female impersonators (heh, heh). This century alone in the best actress category:
Julia Roberts--Erin Brockovich (won)
Judy Dench--Iris Murdoch
Nicole Kidman--Virginia Woolf (won)
Charlize Theron--Aileen Wuornos (won)
Imanda Staunton--Vera Drake
Reese Witherspoon--June Carter Cash (won)
Helen Mirren--Queen Elizabeth II (won)
Marion Cotillard--Edith Piaf
Cate Blanchett--Queen Elizabeth I
Sandra Bullock--Leigh Anne Tuohy (won)
Meryl Streep--Julia Child
Meryl Streep--Margaret Thatcher (won)
Michelle Williams--Marilyn Monroe
Judy Dench--Philomena Lee
Felicity Jones--Jane Hawking
Ruth Negga--Mildred Loving
Natalie Portman--Jackie Kennedy
Meryl Streep--Florence Foster Jenkins
Margot Robbie--Tonya Harding
Meryl Streep--Katherine Graham
Olivia Colman--Queen Anne
Melissa McCarthy--Lee Israel
The female performances haven't won a lot in recent years, especially when compared to the males. I think that's why I overlook that list, even thought it's quite extensive.
That. That right there. Therein lies the issue. Acting should be purely evaluative in nature in terms of what we see on screen (or stage or wherever). When we shift away from that and use outside entities to measure against and compare, we're kind of missing the point of the performance (in my opinion, at least).
Maybe it's not a bias so much as an unconscious laziness. Doing what we'll call here a "comparative evaluation" of a performance takes on a very black-and-white, almost quantifiable aspect that I think is appealing to a lot of people. e.g. "Person X was like this, and Actor X seems just like Person X. Therefore, not only is Actor X doing good acting, but it is undeniable they are doing so." 10 people might all have varying opinions on a performance by a different actor depicting a fictional character, because again, there is nothing to "compare" it to, but the same 10 could all agree that Actor X sure talks and looks just like this Person X that existed. Acting. Brilliant!
Also, this might seem like I myself have a bias the other way around. Not so -- my beef is more with how said performances are received/evaluated. I'd love to see things balance themselves out a bit more, but the trends don't look promising at all.
Most overrated is actually The Shawshank Redemption.
I’m far more impressed with performances like Keaton’s in Birdman or Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name or pretty much anything Joaquin Phoenix does (though guess which of his roles I like the least ) or Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread (I DO have as soft spot for his Lincoln, though). Finnes in Grand Budapest. Gyllenhall in Nightcrawler. These feel like creations. I could go on, but I’ll stop with this one — I was a big defender of Matt Damon’s nomination for The Martian a few years back, which caught guff from some around these parts because he “played himself” and/or the role “seemed easy.” I’d argue it seemed easy because the man’s a damn good actor. I’ll take his work there over Gary Oldman in the Darkest Hour any day. MORE work doesn’t mean harder work and it certainly doesn’t always equate to better work.
So do you agree with the IMDB Top 250 that says it is the best movie of all time?LOL. No. Just no.
Most overrated is actually The Shawshank Redemption.
All 3 came out the same year and Pulp Fiction didn't win Best Picture.What a POS film. Next to Forrest Gump, it must have the biggest discrepancy to how good it is and how acclaimed it is.
I’m far more impressed with performances like...
I think the fact that you can't listen to tapes or watch recordings of Lincoln helps make Daniel Day-Lewis's performance more interesting than what you get from most biopics. He couldn't copy Lincoln's voice and study his mannerisms, he had to craft his own character based on accounts from Lincoln's contemporaries.