Rest

Interesting thing with Margaret: after its general 'meh' reception in the US, it got released in the UK about 3 months later into a sum total of one screen in the entire country. However, around the same time, its US critical reception was starting to turn a corner upon re-appraisal and the UK film critics ended up falling head over heels for it, with most of the papers giving it five stars and everything. I was always going to see it because I loved You Can Count On Me and was, at the very least, curious about the long delay. What I hadn't anticipated was having to queue (for all the hype that had been created about it!) outside this shitty cinema that it had been dumped in, and being part of the first public screening - a sold out showing - for this 2.5 hour domestic drama that, ordinarily, I would have been the only one seeing. It was certainly an experience, I can give it that! I think the tremendous UK response ended up reaching back to the US and further around the world and letting more and more people seeing it.

I like your list a lot, 'predictable' as it may be. (I certainly don't think The Immigrant or Norte or even The Tree of Life would be in too many lists such as this.) And yeah, the holy trinity of A Separation, Margaret, and Holy Motors (although I'd add ISABD on a similar level to those three) are all complete masterpieces. So glad you agree!

For me, the only festival is the London one in October. While I'd love to go to Cannes or Berlin or Venice, I don't think they're going to be on my radar any time soon. The good thing with London is that it acts as a sort of 'best of' for most of the other festivals in the year, including the three above and Toronto/Telluride and all that. So I have no complaints if I only have to go to one a year!

I think Norte is on DVD now, so I have no excuse, I guess. Maybe. 4 hours is a fucking long time. I'll think about it.

The 'film blog' consisted of a review of Haywire, and a prediction for the 2012 Oscars before I gave up and decided professional film blogging was definitely not in my future! And given how much procrastination I've done this week in putting this alternative Oscars thing up, I can understand my younger self! But I will do it, even if it appears on the night of the ceremony itself.

In the mean time, I've seen outlets do 'best of the half-decade' lists (because slow news January I guess...) so I thought about my own and tada: http://letterboxd.com/culturemeh/list/fewfewfewfw/. I'll probably delete it after you've looked at it and told me what films I've forgotten, hence the slapdash title of me hitting my palm against the keyboard and clicking SAVE! Let me know thoughts on it, k?

What's hilarious is that the President (!) of AMPAS managed to pronounce the Ida cinematographers' names perfectly in great, albeit slow, Polish but then some sort of Freudian slip occurred when it came to a two-syllable English language set of words! The announcers practice these a few hours beforehand, as well, so she had no excuse! At least John Travolta had dyslexia (I think???)/lack of preparation when it came to his faux pas, however hilarious it was.

You should definitely do a list of your own! I, for one, would love to read it! I'm just anal about release dates and whatnot, but you should totally do a list of your very own for the films that you saw last year. I'd read it and like it and whatnot. The only one of those three that was on my radar at all was Norte, and I categorically avoided seeing it every time I had the opportunity to do so - despite raves from people I admire - because of its length. Cinematically shallow, I know. Diaz's next one was playing at the London Film Festival, but that one went straight out of the window when I heard it was 5 hours+!!! I know, I know: bad cinephile. I did watch Shoah and Satantango in one sitting each, which I'm proud of, if you'll judge me less!

I'll be very interested to hear your perspectives on Inherent Vice and American Sniper, which I had completely different reactions to than I expected to when I entered the cinema in each case.I imagine you'll like Selma and Under the Skin, knowing your tastes, so they aren't as controversial! And yeah, Grand Budapest is great. It's a toss-up between that one and Royal Tenenbaums for favourite Wes Anderson, as I normally run verrrrrrry hot-and-cold on him.

I'm putting together a little 'alternative Oscars' chart on a blog that I forgot I had for almost two years. I've narrowed everything down to nominees and honourable mentions, but now I'm working on explaining my choices for whatever reason. Once that's finished, I'll forward it to you accordingly. But until then, my favourite performances will be a surprise! :D

And yeah, Big Hero 6 was great! I loved the look of San Fransokyo, the characters were all really appealing, the action was well choreographed, I was just so happy watching it! I want my very own Baymax, also!

Wow, I thought I responded to this but obviously not!

Part of me wants Cinematography to go to Dick Poop Pope, as Mr. Turner is fucking gorgeous. But then I think about Birdman and what Lubezki did and I'm conflicted all over again. Ask me on Oscar night and I'll probably have reversed my stance. And yes to the Amy Ryan love! I've seen more of her TV work - The Wire, The Office and In Treatment (RIP!) - but she's always great in that.

I listened to the Björk a few days ago and... it was OK. I'm in no real rush to buy it any time soon, if I'm honest. Although, it must be said, that my favourite album of hers by far is the soundtrack to Dancer in the Dark so I'm probably a bit irregular in my admiration for her.

And if Tune-Yards make it to Malaysia, you need to get your ass to there as soon as possible. Beg, borrow, steal, do whatever you have to do!

Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary!

Ooh, lots of stuff to get into!

American Sniper is, by quite some margin, my favourite of the BP nominees, which I would not have predicted going in. Despite its tremendous box office so far, I don't think it's much of a threat, especially given that it's been heralded as a 'conservative' film (which I don't really agree with; it's much more subtle and balanced than its detractors are giving it credit for) and the Oscar voting body tends to be left-leaning in its politics. I imagine it'll win its sound categories and maybe Editing, but the others will probably be consolation prizes (although I would love it if Cooper won). I saw Selma straight after Sniper and liked it a lot also. David Oyelowo was robbed, but I'm not as aghast at its respective lack of nominations haul as other people are.

You described my main criticism of Birdman wonderfully. When I was watching it, I was a bit overwhelmed by the technical virtuosity of it all and the acting that I sort of didn't really care about the speechifying portents and the whole 'not really saying all that much'; I completely agree with your assessment in that regard. I just loved the performances (although, outside of Keaton, not the ones that got nominated, with Naomi Watts and Zach Galifinakis being my runaway favourites) and the general feeling that I had while watching it. That it has stayed with me when I thought it would fizzle out quickly is a testament to its appeal. It will definitely win Cinematography, unless voters decide to finally honour Roger Deakins for generic blandness in Unbroken. It doesn't really deserve Screenplay, although it might win that too. I don't see it winning Picture, although I don't have a firm idea of what will. Maybe Boyhood, maybe Imitation Game (in a King's Speech style situation), maybe Selma if the backlash becomes so severe. It's quite fun not knowing where the season is going to go for once!

How are you listening to the new Bjork? I run very hot-and-cold on her - loved Post/Homogenic but kinda despised Vespertine/Biophilia - so don't want to buy it straight from iTunes and it's not on Spotify yet.

And on to more music! I'm so happy you liked my list. TDB was one of the ones that I only discovered a few weeks ago in the year-end list devouring that I do, but I bought Nikki Nack on the day it came out AND went to see Tune-Yards in concert when she was promoting it and it was by far the best concert I've ever been to. So energetic, so fun, so brilliant! I even took a friend who had only listened to her stuff a few hours before for the first time and he was bopping along and getting really into it, I was so proud!

Re: favourite tracks, I don't understand how 'Numbers' isn't everyone's favourite FKA Twigs song. It's just so good! The whole album is good, obviously, but that's the one that I keep coming back to. It's a shame I couldn't get a better YouTube clip of it; everything else except that one seemed to have much higher quality pages!

Also, I love Holy Vacants even more on a second listen. It's sort of like a Metallican Viennese Waltz, with bits of Jack White thrown in for good measure.

I wish I had your zen mindset at your age! I'm getting it now, slowly but surely. 4 years ago, I was hella pissed off at The King's Speech steamroller but now I wouldn't really be all that bothered if The Imitation Game goes for the British-biopic repeat this year.

One of the nominees I'm most eager to see is Princess Kaguya (the other being Best Original Song nominee Beyond the Lights). Ghibli films always open really late in the UK so I'm probably going to have to wait until April/May to see it. Although the Animated Feature category is wide open thanks to the absence of The Lego Movie. That one could go in so many different directions; it's wide open races like these that restore my faith in 'awards season'!

Now we're all cross-purposes! Yay!

As I've gotten older, I've sorta managed not to care as much about the actual nominations themselves but just get wrapped up in the spectacle of the whole thing, if that makes sense. At the end of the day, the films you like aren't 'improved' by getting Oscar nominations, much like the ones that are 'snubbed' aren't castigated. When I started off being all obsessive about this, many years ago, I'd get really annoyed if something I liked didn't get a nomination, but now I've got to a stage where I can be happy with things I like (Grand Budapest, Birdman) getting them, and also not feel like crap when things I don't like (Imitation Game/Theory of Everything) get them also. Which is sort of why I often try and look for unexpected treasures, like the Inherent Vice costumes or Marion Cotillard or the like.

I realise that's a very convoluted answer, but I guess they were OK. Tl;dr and all that!

YES FUCKING YES are the exact three words I screamed at my laptop while my brother looked on very confused. Would rather it have been for The Immigrant but I'm happy either way.

People seem dismayed by the lack of Selma noms (which I'm seeing on Monday so can't comment) and Nightcrawler ones (which I've seen and, for the most part, agree with). My favourite nominee is probably the Costume Design for Inherent Vice. I found the film a bit of a mess, but those costumes were absolutely gorgeous and perfectly in sync with the film's weird vibe. How about you.

(Also, Pazz and Jop is introducing me to lots and lots of good music this year!)

Also, I think The Hum by Hookworms could be up your street, given what I've listened to so far.

I knew you'd be an Obvious Child/Edge of Tomorrow fan! I can count on you for that! Is it because of proximity that you managed to see BCTI? It's only played at festivals in the UK so far, so I count myself very lucky to see it.

As for your recommendations, I saw The Immigrant this year but, because I'm pretentious, put it on my 2013 list. As you can see, I'm also an immense fan. I caught We Own The Night on TV late one night last month and loved it, so you can bet your ass I want to see Two Lovers and The Yards and anything that James Gray does in the future. I kinda wanted to see The Babadook but horror doesn't normally do a lot for me and this one sounded super scary and even the possibility of Essie Davis being brilliant wasn't enough unfortunately. Don't judge me too much! And I like Boyhood a fair bit; it's creeping in to that 2014 list, but more as a film that I have measured appreciation for rather than head-over-heels love that so many others do.

I've also listened to a fair few albums on your list! Some of them (RTJ2, LP1, Black Messiah and St. Vincent) I'm already in love with, but my favourite new discovery so far is Holy Vacants. I listened to it yesterday evening and, although it's very shouty (which I'm normally not a fan of), it has stayed with me for most of today! I'm making my way through the rest of the list as I type this, Spotify permitting! Have you checked out It's Album Time by Todd Terje? For me, that one and the D'Angelo are duking it out for my AO2014 award!

Unless there are real surprises, probably Grand Budapest Hotel or Birdman. Both are some of my favourites of the year, although I imagine the eventual Oscar shortlist will have little overlap with my own!

I'm around, but it's pretty much going to be lurking from here on out. I was more surprised that you were still here! Things are OK with me. Excited for Thursday's big announcement: part of me is expecting a much bigger Grand Budapest haul than others are predicting.

Ugh, love this list. You've just given me at least 20 new things to listen to!

I'm not much into them, but the main gripe is because respective hits Hey Ya! and Crazy have been overplayed to death and a result I tend to often shut them off when they come on. Overplay factor can be what can destroy a song for me.

Miss you around here. :(

lol yeah i heard, kind of insane how they're just like "here's an album"

not really into DG but I'm considering getting it, might be a good time to get into them

Yeah, I'd say it's pretty good. G.O.O.D Music really knows how to put out a solid album, there's some great beats in addition to Pusha T's flow which I'm really a fan of. Haven't gotten into King Krule but I've heard a bit of his stuff and it seems pretty good. I have quite a bit of other music I'm still listening too though atm.