Even if La La Land wasn't the best film of all the noms, it was the most necessary. We needed a film like this
The final sequences in Moonlight and the scene where Affleck plays sort of catch with his nephew are two of the most empathetic and beautiful emotional releases I've seen in movies ever.
The last 10 minutes (really the entire 3rd act) of Moonlight are so beautiful. It is still far and away my favorite of 2016.
I saw the Salesman, which was good. Nowhere near the Handmaiden or Elle, neither of which garnered best foreign language film nominations. Better than A Man Called Ove, though. Toni Edrmann comes near me this weekend, finally, and I can't wait.
It's been near me for two weekends now and I haven't been able to get to it. I'm going to try and see it this weekend hopefully. If not I'll have to wait for VOD.
I wasn't a fan of Toni Erdmann, but there were some memorable moments. My favorite foreign film was probably Divines. The Red Turtle (does that count?), The Wailing, and The Handmaiden were my other favorites.
What will win, and what should win, at the 2017 Oscars (The AV Club) Final Oscar Predictions as the Season Hits the Home Stretch (Variety) Oscar Predictions 2017: Which Nominees Will Win Big? (Vanity Fair) Who’s On Track To Win The 2017 Oscars (FiveThirtyEight) 2017 Oscars Predictions: Who Should Win, Who Will Win (Peter Travers - Rolling Stone) Oscars 2017: Our Final Predictions in the Major Categories (Entertainment Weekly) My 2017 Oscar Predictions (The New Yorker)
Did you not read the one from the New Yorker? Honestly I could barely get through it but it's worth it. It's like the guy has never watched the Oscars and doesn't know the Academy at all.
That was my favorite part about it. Gravity is probably my favorite 3D experience, but Avatar and Hugo made good use of it. Billy Lynn's was an interesting experiment.
Avatar, Life of Pi, and Hugo are the only three films I can honestly say were enhanced by 3D for me. Gravity was such a meh film for me that it didn't really matter that it was in 3D.
To be fair, and I'm not saying anything negative about the quality of his writing, but the guy makes some predictions in there based on reasoning that just doesn't apply to the Academy. I mean he really thinks Moonlight has a shot at Best Picture? Or that Isabelle Huppert will actually beat Emma Stone? I don't know, those are some tough calls to get behind.
That's my least favorite aspect of the Oscar season: when people are like "there's no shot" or talking about the stats or history tied to which award shows signify which films will win Oscars. That doesn't talk about the actual movies. Brody talks about the art in what he's talking about, even if he'll be wrong. He talks about why Mahershala Ali and Octavia Spencer were so good, he has critiques of Farhadi, he's actually talking about the movies. Granted he's not the only one to do so, but I don't care at all if he makes accurate predictions, I care more for what he thinks about the movies.
I pray Huppert wins. Lifetime achievement award or no, her performance is singularly unique and levels above all the other nominees. I accept she likely won't.