La La Land (Damien Chazelle, December 2nd 2016) Movie • Page 10

Saw for a second time earlier this afternoon and I'm still head over heels for it. When the credits started rolling, all I could think is that I could sit down again, right there, and watch it again.

 

I love Moonlight. I don't mean this as a slight by any means. But I feel like movies that are fractured into distinct chapters always kind of pit the movie against itself, i.e. "which chapter was my favorite," "I wish this one was longer than this one," "the acting was better with these cast members during this time period." I would like to see it win, but it seems like a ... difficult choice because of these reasons, and I wouldn't be mad about La La Land, Manchester, or Hell or High Water winning.

Hell, throw Fences into that list too, it's incredible.

 

Fences is very, very good.

 

I guess I'll have to check out the movie.

 

I can see why award shows would love or prefer La La Land, in addition to the whole love letter to Hollywood/nostalgia aspect I think it's more of a universal crowd pleaser to, even if Moonlight is the " better movie" it might be too subtle

But who cares right, awards are kinda meaningless for the most part

 

It's kinda wild to me that people around here put stock in movie awards but we all laugh at the Grammys. What's the difference?

 

What is so confusing is how every year people talk about how bad the Golden Globes is as compared to the rest of them. They are all equally terrible.

 

For a signifier of the Best of the Year, awards are meaningless. But they do create a conversation about movies every year, and lots of people will see movies that are nominated and win awards over movies that don't, and since less and less people are seeing movies (at least, indie or mid-level movies in theaters, partially because studios are making less and less mid-level non-blockbusters), that's at least notable. I like when the cultural discussion turns to movies because then more people are willing to talk about movies and get engaged with movies. In discussions about La La Land I've gotten to rec Jacques Demy several times, and a couple people have told me they'll actually watch Umbrellas of Cherbourg, so I'm very happy about that. Outside of film circles, Moonlight didn't make much noise upon release, but with an Oscar campaign behind it, more people will see it. Then you can rec stuff like Barry Jenkins' first film, Medicine for Melancholy, which is great, or the other A24 releases this year, which were some of the best and/or most interesting works of the year. So no, the Oscars aren't much, if any better at naming the best movies of the year than the Grammys are at naming the best music of the year, but for most of the year I have like, the same three or four people in my life who I talk about movies year-round with. When the Oscars and awards season come around, a lot more people are talking about movies. I like those conversations and I like seeing people interested in movies.

 

This 100%. I said something similar in another thread recently, but the general public conversation around awards season allows me to push hard for people I talk to/work with/are friends with to see important and genuinely powerful films like Moonlight and Manchester By The Sea. If being nominated for Oscars gets more people to see those two films, let alone several of the other films that have a shot and deserve more notice (like Fences), then it's worth it.

 

For every good movie that the Oscars brings attention to, there are three that bad ones people see that are nominated and three more that were made solely for the Oscars but missed the mark. If you look at last year, the extra spotlight for Mad Max (which people already knew about) and Bridge of Spies means they had to sit through Room, The Big Short, Spotlight, and The Revenant to get there. Meanwhile, great films that do not get Oscar recognition are cast aside by people who think that the Oscars equal quality.

 

Yeah for sure it's nice if awards buzz or a good Times review will get people watching good movies, as long as they don't complain because it's too slow which is distracting

 

Awards Season 2015 was good because so many people were blessed by Carol.

 

Of course the Oscars nominate a lot of bad movies. But it's an entry point for a lot of people. Carol getting nominations last year could lead people to more Todd Haynes, which might lead them to Certain Women this year, where Haynes was an EP. Then maybe they get interested in Kelly Reichardt. Not that that's going to happen on a wide scale, but I've seen similar paths created by the Oscar/awards conversation. Sure, people end up seeing and praising bad movies, and that can be irksome. But I'll take the light it shines on Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea.

 

With room for 10 best picture nominees, the Oscars nominated 8 movies with Carol was left off despite nominations for best actress, supporting actress, and screenplay. The Oscars are nonsense. But more people saw Carol because of it. And that's a good thing. Not that there aren't negatives to awards season and the way it frames conversations, like Jason said, it pits movies against each other and that's like, the least productive conversation one can have about art. But if people can work to get past that, they can see and talk about incredible, beautiful works like Carol and Moonlight. I'll take that.

 

Yeah but how many people saw Two Days One Night when Marion got nominated for best actress?

That nomination is the best call the academy has ever made.

 

Two Days One Night and Carol are the two best films of the decade!!

 

We don't know how these movies would be received if it was not for the way the Academy Awards forces every Very Important Movie into a six-week release window. If Carol came out in May as a relief to people who are tired of AVENGERS 5: AVENGE HARDER and FAST AND THE FURIOUS 11 it could very well reach as many or more people. How many people dismiss Carol as a boring Oscar movie and thus never see it?

 

This is something I've never really thought of. Same situation applies for Bride of Spies and Inside Llewyn Davis.

 

Of course I'd change the way studios and the Oscars operate if I could. I'm not saying it's a blanket good thing the way things are. But it's how things are and unlikely to change (at least at a studio level for the foreseeable future, indie filmmaking and distribution through the Internet will be interesting to watch over the next few years). And hey, A Bigger Splash came out the same weekend as Captain America this year. It's great. Forgotten by awards, dwarfed by the superhero movie, but it was there. Smaller movies get released throughout the year, if someone is willing to search them out. If there are people willing to write off a movie for looking like an Oscar movie or being nominated for Oscars while looking serious and dramatic, I'm not sure how many of them would then see the same movie if it were released at a different time and not nominated for Oscars. Greater than the number of people who would see it because it was nominated for an Oscar? I don't know, but I doubt it.

I used to rail harder against the Oscars, but it just made this time of year kind of miserable. There's good happening. And bad.

 

There are definitely bad elements of awards season, Harvey Weinstein comes to mind, but I think it's also coupled with a lot of things

 

Carol was so goddamn gorgeous and perfect that it getting the attention it received was worth anything else that may have gotten recognized undeservedly.

 

https://theringer.com/la-la-land-won-all-the-globes-9dd15fb589dc#.hz9fguqbk


Bit awkwardly written

 

deserved every award imo

 

Saw this again over the weekend, and loved it all lover again. The Griffith Observatory sequence might be a personal favorite.

The biggest sin The Oscars committed was not nominating and awarding The Lego Movie with Best Animated Film.