Oscars 2012 - Tragic Comedy at Funeratic

Oscars 2012

Our annual contest has begun. Good luck!

Overall, these nominees represent another risk-averse year for Hollywood, where the gap between giant mediocre blockbusters and respectable but barely-seen art pictures grows ever wider. Albert Nobbs? A Separation? A Better Life? These titles are so far off the radar, they make The Iron Lady and My Week with Marilyn look mainstream.

Isn't it also time to retire some of these categories? If Rio and Kung Fu Panda 2 are among the front-runners for an Academy Award, it might be time to say that Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature don't actually have to be given out every single year.

Biggest surprise: Seeing that Sarah Palin movie up for an Oscar... then realizing it's a different Undefeated. :-)

–Scott Hardie • January 24 2012, 8:54pm EST

Absolutely weak year for movies. Normally, I see what's nominated, and I make an effort to see a few of them so I can see what the hype is all about.

This year, I see what's nominated and I've decided I'll just wait until I see who wins, then wait for the backlash of "I can't believe it wasnt X!" and then I'll watch X.

–Erik Bates • January 24 2012, 9:04pm EST

The intriguing thing about this year is that it's like trifurcated. There are the critical favorites (which seem entirely separate from the Oscar ones), the Oscar favorites, and the public favorites. Most critics I like have entirely different movies in the top 10 than the ones the Academy picked. In the case of some (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, e.g.) the movies were PANNED by critics.

I don't think this is a trend. It's just an aberrant year. Part of it is that some of our stalwart directors picked genre projects which were interesting but not appealing to the public. (Case in point: Hugo. Apparently great yet I can't get ANYONE to watch it with me. Even though I have lots of Scorsese fans in my friend groups. Also see Warhorse and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.)

I think there was a strange lack of momentum to almost anything. A movie like Young Adult (which I LOVE, by the way) was totally ignored for, I believe, marketing reasons. (I mean it had a respected director and award winning writer and lead actress going!)

But somehow I'm more excited for this year than any before. There's almost no inevitability to the process. We could see CRAZY results. Terrence Malick might win Best Director for a deeply polarizing film! I'm excited.

–Samir Mehta • January 25 2012, 12:20am EST

Erik watches X!? That hasn't been nominated for an Oscar since Midnight Cowboy. I keep getting burned that the Best Director/Best Film seem to go hand in hand. There's a certain logic to it but still...

–Steve West • January 25 2012, 12:21am EST

I don't just watch X. I have the original series on DVD. British import, not available in the US.

–Erik Bates • January 30 2012, 1:22pm EST

Coooooollll.

–Steve West • January 30 2012, 1:32pm EST

I have X on DVD too, a real classic of the genre. Don Rickles is great in it.

–Scott Hardie • January 30 2012, 2:09pm EST

Any thoughts on snubs? I'm pretty disappointed that Fassbender and Theron weren't nominated.

–Samir Mehta • January 30 2012, 2:19pm EST

The snub that surprised me was Pixar in the animation category. I guess it had to happen sooner or later. It's easy to say that Pixar is not entitled to a nomination, and they should have to earn it like everybody else, but come on. Kung Fu Panda 2? Seriously? I know I said it above, but that animation category is really becoming an embarrassment.

This downward trend for Pixar may continue to a while. The trailer for Brave looks dangerously close to DreamWorks levels of dim-witted mediocrity. Their next title after that is the cringe-worthy (for me anyway) Monsters Inc 2. I hope they have something more ambitious in the works for 2014.

–Scott Hardie • January 31 2012, 9:26pm EST

I've heard that, despite the trailer, Brave is really great on a script level. We'll see, I guess. I'm not surprised about Cars, though. It might be the NASCAR vibe, but I don't even know any adults without children who saw Cars or Cars 2. Fair or not, I think it lacked the crossover appeal of most Pixar flicks.

–Samir Mehta • January 31 2012, 9:54pm EST

I tried to watch Cars, but I couldn't sit through the whole thing, and fast-forwarded a lot of it. It was not even remotely interesting. I still reviewed what I had seen. At the time, it was a big disappointment, the first Pixar movie I had skipped since they started, but it just wasn't worth continuing. As Steve wrote of the sequel, I would have preferred sliding down a barbed-wire bannister into a pool of lemon juice. The two movies have their fans (my friend's kids can't get enough of it), but you're right; nobody who's not on its wavelength seems able to get into them.

I sat through all of Monsters Inc. once upon a time, but it was the first Pixar movie that I disliked, and I strongly disliked it. So cloying and melodramatic. It was pitched at the littler kids I guess, and maybe Cars was as well. I can't see little tykes enjoying Ratatouille or The Incredibles as much as older kids. At least Pixar has range.

–Scott Hardie • February 1 2012, 7:49am EST

I liked Monsters, Inc. a lot actually. I felt like it was pretty comparable in maturity and sophistication to Finding Nemo. It was cloying, yes, but deservedly so, I felt.

FWIW, my nephew LOVES Cars and Cars 2. Maybe it's just for little boys?

–Samir Mehta • February 1 2012, 12:17pm EST

The best thing to come out of Monsters Inc. was the Laugh Floor at Disney World, with improv comics voicing the CGI monsters who interact with you. The show is funny, which is kind of what I had hoped the movie would be.

If Pixar announces Cars 3, I will really have to wonder if John Lasseter has lost his mind.

–Scott Hardie • February 7 2012, 9:12pm EST

Random off-topic Q, Scott: Does proximity to Disney World make you go there more? Less?

–Samir Mehta • February 8 2012, 12:34am EST

More, I suppose. Four proper visits in the decade I've lived here, plus various brief stops at Downtown Disney (two of which were part of GooCon). But Disney World was an annual tradition when I was a kid, so it feels like less to me.

Being broke has kept us away recently, but that's really a convenient excuse. The "real" reason is my weight: I had to squeeze into rides a few years ago, and I'm even bigger now. It's become the Shame-Inducingest Place on Earth. I'm trying to turn it into a positive: This is probably a big enough topic to blog about it sometime, but if one of the reasons why I stay fat is that delicious food provides an intrinsic reward (happiness) while diet and exercise are only motivated by extrinsic rewards (shame, convenience) and intrinsic will always overpower extrinsic in the long run, then I need to find happiness-causing reasons to lose weight. Thus, thinking a lot about a trip to Disney World next winter (because winter is the time to go) could keep me motivated.

I wish I had kids to take to Disney World. It's fine going as a party of adults, but you miss out on a big part of the experience. I don't see nieces or nephews in my future, and I barely know my cousins' kids. Maybe I should become a Big Brother.

Have you (all of you) been? Do you go often?

–Scott Hardie • February 8 2012, 8:38pm EST

That GooCon trip was the closest I have ever been to any Disney related parks, and it will probably remain that way forever. Disney is not really my thing. Now Legoland Florida I hope to get to soon!!!!

–Aaron Shurtleff • February 9 2012, 1:12am EST

I'd love to take GooCon into Disney World for a day if it were reasonable. The connection to Pirates of the Caribbean is obvious. Same goes for the entirety of the Hollywood Studios park. If I could get over the pronounced doubts that it would just be too nerdy, even for me, we could play "Goo World Tour" while actually walking around Epcot's international pavilions.

But the idea of doing this at all kind of blows up to big proportions the eternal logistical conflicts of GooCon: Spending time and money vs. conserving it, being in "Funeratic mode" vs. just hanging out, getting out somewhere during the day vs. not. We seem to have struck a good compromise with the single-afternoon field trip to some inexpensive local attraction. As much as I want to shake up some of the plan this year before the weekend becomes too routine and predictable, I don't think it would be wise to do away with the "field trip" as it is now.

If we do have another GooCon in Orlando, I think having a pirate dinner adventure is a definite.

–Scott Hardie • February 13 2012, 8:31pm EST

I used to go often as a kid, but I haven't been to Disney World in around 20 years. I did briefly go to the adult section on a work trip... which was an odd place. I'm not sure if it's open anymore.

I thought I'd no longer find the place appealing but then I had a chance to go to Disney Land with my niece and nephew and it was a truly awesome experience. So, I'm excited to go again. Actually the best part about going with my niece and nephew was when my mom and I went on rides on our own in the evening.

–Samir Mehta • February 14 2012, 9:15am EST

Yes, it's plenty fun for adults, too. I remember my first time re-entering as an adult, after a few years away. I didn't anticipate it, but the feeling of "magic" as you walk through the entry tunnel and into the park is palpable. It's like there's a different energy in the air, even though you only walked fifty feet.

–Scott Hardie • February 15 2012, 9:24pm EST

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