Academy Awards (Oscars 2023)

pixelburp · 13-03-2023 9:14am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120351955#Comment_120351955

Orrrr. It was a good movie that got exposure through audience buzz alone; not for everyone, but that's OK. Opinions are gonna differ and that's the fun of cinema.

I'm not sure a film that was about a Chinese immigrant struggling to connect with her LGBTQ daughter, through martial arts powered by papercuts and butt plugs, is the kind of film Communist China would love. Especially as it never even got a release in China.

johnny_ultimate · 13-03-2023 9:47am

Pandering to China, LOL.

As I said last night, I’m not the biggest fan of EEAAO (liked it but fell short of falling head over heels), but it’s a rare beast: a critically acclaimed, audience favourite, commercially successful genre film that managed to work its way towards Oscar success… based in no small part on simple, old-fashioned word of mouth. Would I have personally have picked some other films for some of those awards? Absolutely. But a rare case where the Academy seems at least somewhat in tune with the zeitgeist and energy around a film. A refreshingly different type of film to achieve an Oscars rout - a world away from your Green Books or Codas tonally and stylistically.

mykrodot · 13-03-2023 9:56am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120351991#Comment_120351991

he was being honest, and himself. Hilarious clip!

SuperBowserWorld · 13-03-2023 10:22am

Fair play to Richard Baneham.

What an incredible story.

From Tallaght to two Oscars, pretty much pushing the state of the art in computer animation. And what an incredibly beautiful thing Avatar 2 is visually.

People take this stuff for granted but it's incredibly hard and innovative work artistically and technically.

Ficheall · 13-03-2023 10:38am

Absolutely flummoxed by the love for EEAAO. It felt like something created by a bunch of pre-teens for their peers. Would make a good "Big Big Movie" if they still have those alongside Winning Streak of a Saturday, but an absolute waste of two hours of my life.

FrancieBrady · 13-03-2023 10:45am

Once I saw EEAAO it was obvious it was gonna sweep the Oscars.

A bog standard simple story wrapped up in arbitary script jumps that you either love or hate. For me it was a forgetable, if attractive package, I stopped thinking about it as soon as my seat popped back up. Not so with the other films in the running.

There'll be 100 imitators next year.

tobefrank321 · 13-03-2023 10:46am

Banshees is an ok film, but over-hyped and bar Condon it probably didn't deserve many nominations. Original screenplay is questionable as it was originally written as a play and borrows from previous Irish films and drama and mostly outdated Irish tropes in general. And the characters are paper thin, with vague motivations such as the reason for cutting off fingers. The allegory to the civil war doesn't work or only works if everyone is too stupid to understand what the civil war is about which was clearly not the case at the time. Hearing shots from the mainland, come on, that's national school play level.

Imo Banshees is a bit of a satire of Irish society but for satire to work it needs some accuracy including historical accuracy and even most Banshees lovers have given up defending its historical accuracy by now.

The scenery in the film may be epic, but the story is not.

pixelburp · 13-03-2023 11:05am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120350766#Comment_120350766

And don't forget the inevitable "How did that win? That was rubbish! It must be because <reasons>" backlash when the winners do come through.

Which again, is fine. It'd be a boring áss forum if everyone rowed in with the same opinion, and I can totally see why EEaaO would alienate viewers as quickly as it attracted love ... but it's funny how the Oscars Cycle also includes that particular reaction year-on-year 😂

Except for those years when truly the Academy suffered collective brain trauma and gives gongs to stuff like Driving Ms. Daisy et al.

tobefrank321 · 13-03-2023 11:17am

I'm glad people like Spielberg, McDonagh etc didn't win big. In recent years some very average films have been winning big just because the name Spielberg etc is slapped on the label.

Feels like this year, films and performances were taken on their merits rather than who made them or who is in them. That's progress.

Also good to see an action film like Top Gun nominated. There's been some really good action films with good screenplays and acting and they get ignored year in year out by the Oscars often in favour of some pretentious independent movie with a rubbish screenplay and over-hyped reviews.

Furze99 · 13-03-2023 11:28am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120352265#Comment_120352265

Agree, it was overhyped. No real plot other than two fellas 'having a row' with one of them inexplicably cutting his own fingers off. The civil war analogy was just naff, maybe they were trying to tie it into the decade of commemorations and milk a few extra € in grants?

I notice RTE started dropping their hype about Cailín Ciuin after the BAFTAs. Nice imagery in it but it was a short film of what was basically a short story. No real plot to talk of. If it had been produced in English rather than Gaeilge, very little notice would have been made of it.

Sudden Valley · 13-03-2023 11:33am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120352415#Comment_120352415

I don't think any of the Irish movies nominated were that great, they were pretty average. Did you like any of the movies nominated for best picture?

johnny_ultimate · 13-03-2023 11:36am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120352415#Comment_120352415

There's plenty of 'plot' in An Cailín Ciúin. It's a low-key story, but it has abundantly clear character arcs and events that unfold over the course of the running time.

And yes, if it was produced in English, it wouldn't have been eligible for the Oscar it got nominated for precisely because it was in Irish. It was also funded under a scheme specifically designed to generate high-quality Irish language film, which had barely existed before a few years ago. But it wasn't in English, so that doesn't matter :) A truly wonderful film whose nomination remains one of the triumphs of Irish filmmaking of the last decade or two.

gmisk · 13-03-2023 11:39am

That Hugh Grant interview....yikes talk about cringe...if he doesn't want to be there...he clearly doesn't...why does he go?!?

Big shock for me was Jamie Lee Curtis winning, Angela Bassett really couldn't hide her feelings on it. Condon would have been my winner.

I must say I am shocked EEAAO did so well, I saw it on its original release and thoroughly enjoyed it, wonderfully incentive in places, but didnt exactly scream oscars.

Furze99 · 13-03-2023 11:44am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120352449#Comment_120352449

What is the plot? Girl from slightly dysfunctional family goes to childless relatives for summer holidays, she helps them overcome a sense of previous tragedy but is returned home to said slightly dysfunctional family when school term returns. That's about it, a short story. Maybe I missed something?

pixelburp · 13-03-2023 11:49am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120352482#Comment_120352482

If you play that game, 99% of movies could be reduced to fairly flippant one paragraph summaries that make 'em sound empty and trivial.

Sometimes a story doesn't need to have a lot of plot to be an effective, emotional journey.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 13-03-2023 11:49am

I'm genuinely shocked that people watched EEAAO and voted JLC over Stephanie Hsu. There had to have been some level of rewarding a career there.

What's most interesting about EEAAO's wins is that it had its premiere a full year ago at SXSW, and then had a mid summer release. It maintained its buzz for a full year. Practically unheard of these days.

johnny_ultimate · 13-03-2023 11:50am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120352482#Comment_120352482

You can simplify any movie plot down to a simple two or three-line synopsis. An Cailín Ciúin has a clear story that unfolds patiently over 95 minutes or so. Is it bombastic or full of shocks? No. But it is a clear emotional journey for its three central characters, that requires its running time and specific events it chooses to depict to work as well as it does. It may be a film where a key character development revolves around a shot of a biscuit, but that doesn't work if the groundwork wasn't laid out for that simple gesture to be meaningful and significant.

Is it a small, quiet movie? Absolutely. But I do have to resist any suggestion that it has 'no real plot' or that it's any lesser for choosing to tell a lower-key story.

The White Wolf · 13-03-2023 1:16pm

After that I'm going to have to watch EEAAO (it wasn't that I was avoiding it, more on paper it didn't really appeal). Really enjoyed Quan, Yeoh and the producer guy's speeches. Rare, genuine moments on Oscar night.

JP Liz V1 · 13-03-2023 1:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120351874#Comment_120351874

Marvel or DC movie perhaps 😄

JP Liz V1 · 13-03-2023 1:58pm

Kimmel was an awful host and his "feud" with Matt Damon is old

That poor donkey

Electric Nitwit · 13-03-2023 2:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120352510#Comment_120352510

100%, Stephanie Hsu was brilliant

sporina · 13-03-2023 2:14pm

Pity Colin didn't win but glad it was Brendan who go the gong as oppose to Austin

Not seen EEAAO , AQOTWF or An Irish Goodbye.. will have to check em out

Oscar or not - An Cailin Ciuin is a masterpiece imo.. they should all be soo soo proud

santana75 · 13-03-2023 2:15pm

I'm pretty shocked EEAAO won best picture. It really was very ordinary, I just dont get it. Its similar maybe to the year Shakespeare in love won over Saving private ryan or my own personal gripe, Titanic winning over LA Confidential!!

pixelburp · 13-03-2023 2:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120353095#Comment_120353095

Just getting to be an Oscar nominee is as astonishing, celebratory achievement.

sporina · 13-03-2023 2:40pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120353161#Comment_120353161

yeah - and the 1st ever Irish language movie - take a bow all

Archduke Franz Ferdinand · 13-03-2023 2:44pm

Rte had it all planned that they’d be scuttering on about our multiple Oscar winners for this whole week… at least. Now they’ll have to research stories, present programmes and generally do some work, unfortunately for them it’s all gone tits up

johnny_ultimate · 13-03-2023 2:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120353243#Comment_120353243

Is this post giving out about RTÉ for a hypothetical thing that didn't actually happen? 😅

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 13-03-2023 3:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120353243#Comment_120353243

This kind of attitude is insane. Anyone following the precursors knew there wasn't likely to be any Irish winners last night, bar the short film. RTÉ celebrated the nominations when they happened because it was something worth celebrating. The weird gloating aimed at RTÉ because we didn't win anything is nonsense of the highest order.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 13-03-2023 4:11pm

Just throwing it out one more time as awards season comes to a close, I thought GDT's Pinocchio was a horrible film, and aside from the craft involved, was not worthy of half the acclaim or awards it got. I'll forever be salty about My Father's Dragon being snubbed, but even ignoring that, Pinocchio was some rubbish.

JP Liz V1 · 13-03-2023 4:57pm

An Irish language film getting nominated and glowing reviews and acclaim in America is a great achievement

Academy Awards (Oscars 2023)

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