#Oscar project

[astonishinglysane]

Movies I’ve Watched - 2024

328/?: Manchester by the Sea (2016) - watched 11/17/24

What a devastating movie. It is a portrait of the permanent changes grief can make in someone’s life. The script is smart in how it slowly reveals Lee’s backstory, and it also has the confidence not to overexplain anything. It’s all there, and it all hurts.

Manchester by the Sea (2016)

[astonishinglysane]

Oscar Rankings - 1948

The wrong movie won this year — despite being adapted (and perhaps too freely abridged) from Shakespeare, Hamlet just can’t hold a candle to the first three movies on this list. I was really expecting to love The Red Shoes, but I mostly just found it boring. My ranking:

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Johnny Belinda

The Snake Pit

Hamlet

The Red Shoes

[astonishinglysane]

Movies I’ve Watched - 2024

87/?: One Night of Love (1934) - watched 3/25/34

This is a thoroughly mediocre movie which unfortunately dispenses with the most likable characters after the first fifteen minutes. There is a lot of opera, which Grace Moore sings well (for the most part). It is interesting how often, in old movies with love triangles, the woman ends up with the wrong guy and it’s supposed to be a happy ending. Obviously they were not considered the wrong guy back then, so there is something about the assumptions about what love is and what makes a good partner that does not translate to the modern day.

[astonishinglysane]

Oscar Rankings - 1930/1931

This is a pretty weak Oscar year. Cimarron and The Front Page are the best movies, but neither are amazing. Skippy is pretty good but tonally odd, and Trader Horn and East Lynne have their interest but are both pretty dull. My ranking:

Cimarron

The Front Page

Skippy

Trader Horn

East Lynne

[astonishinglysane]

Movies I’ve Watched - 2024

280/?: The Lion in Winter (1968) - watched 9/30/24

The movie is full of great actors devouring the scenery, including a young Anthony Hopkins and a baby Timothy Dalton. The script gives everyone a lot of opportunities to deliver memorable dialogue, but there are some editing and directing oddities that keep this from being a truly great film. Still, worth it for the performances.

THE LION IN WINTER (1968) dir. Anthony Harvey

[astonishinglysane]

Oscar Rankings - 1990

This was a decent Oscar year. Dances with Wolves is a respectable winner, but Awakenings, although smaller in scope, moved me more. My ranking:

Awakenings

Dances with Wolves

Goodfellas

The Godfather Part III

Ghost

[astonishinglysane]

Oscar Rankings - 1971

This was a really strong Oscar year. With the exception of Nicholas and Alexandra, which is too restrained for its own good, any of these films would have made worthy winners. All of the remaining films show something that had never been seen before. It all comes down to a matter of taste. My ranking:

A Clockwork Orange

The Last Picture Show

The French Connection

Fiddler on the Roof

Nicholas and Alexandra

[astonishinglysane]

Oscar Rankings - 1961

It is very hard to choose between West Side Story and Judgment at Nuremberg for Best Picture this year. They are very different, but equally great movies. I went with West Side Story because, despite Nuremberg’s historical importance, West Side Story is just more rewatchable. None of the movies this year are bad, although the others have problems: Guns of Navarone and The Hustler are too long, while Fanny is too tonally weird. My ranking:

West Side Story

Judgment at Nuremberg

The Guns of Navarone

The Hustler

Fanny

[astonishinglysane]

Movies I’ve Watched - 2024

235/?: The Silence of the Lambs (1991) - watched 8/16/24

I’ve seen this before, and I’m having a hard time thinking of what to say about it. It’s just a great, expertly-made movie, with some unsettling cinematography and smart editing. The performances are all compelling, but Anthony Hopkins absolutely dominates.

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS jonathan demme, 1991

[astonishinglysane]

Oscar Rankings - 1946

The right movie won this year — The Best Years of Our Lives is a masterpiece. It’s a Wonderful Life does give it a run for its money, though. The rest of the movies are flawed but, to a decreasing extent, enjoyable. I had massive problems with Henry V but the only one of these I cannot see myself ever watching again is The Yearling. My ranking:

The Best Years of Our Lives

It’s a Wonderful Life

The Razor’s Edge

Henry V

The Yearling

[astonishinglysane]

Oscar Rankings - 2000

This was an Oscar year full of good-but-not-greats. Gladiator wouldn’t have been my choice for the winner — I think Traffic comes closest to achieving greatness — but I’m not mad at it. My ranking:

Traffic

Gladiator

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Erin Brockovich

Chocolat

[astonishinglysane]

Oscar Rankings - 2003

Return of the King was the obvious winner this year. I remember at the time the feeling was that it was really an award for the achievement of the whole trilogy. Still, this is a fairly weak year other than the winner. It is full of movies I think are just okay (and Seabiscuit, which is bad). That doesn’t take away from Return of the King’s win though. It is an amazing movie that would have held up against much stronger competition. My ranking:

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Lost in Translation

Mystic River

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Seabiscuit

[astonishinglysane]

Movies I’ve Watched - 2024

195/?: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) - watched 7/9/24

I’ve seen this once before, and it’s actually better than I remember, although still very much a product of its time. The main problem here is that the interracial couple absolutely should not get married — not because of their races, but because they haven’t known each other long enough and don’t seem that compatible. Like, Joanna needs to go to a doctor because she is having a manic episode. Sidney Poitier is muzzled through a lot of this since he has to be polite in front of his fiancée’s parents, but he gets to blow the doors off during a fight with his father and he is amazing there. Best scene in the movie.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Stanley Kramer, 1967)

[astonishinglysane]

Movies I’ve Watched - 2024

285/?: The Right Stuff (1983) - watched 10/5/24

This was a good and surprisingly funny movie that probably did not need to be three hours long. All the Yeager stuff, although interesting, could have been massively abridged, because the meat of the story is the astronauts. The movie manages to make the four main astronauts vivid characters, and all the supporting characters have good moments. This may not be completely historically accurate, but it tells a fascinating story.

[sennamaticart]

Artfight attack for @possessedpasm of August and Oscar doing the twist!

[astonishinglysane]

Movies I’ve Watched - 2024

274/?: The Pied Piper (1942) - watched 9/24/24

This movie has a deceptively light tone for a heavy subject, while also not making light of the situation. There is a little too much American propaganda here — appropriate for the war years, but that we now know was false even during those years. Still, this is an enjoyable watch.