Celebrated the Chinese New Year (Year of the Dog) with Craig, Zoe, Seth, Helen and one of Seth's friends yesterday. We went over to the Gold Museum in Ballarat to see an exhibition entitled Awaken The Dragon, which boasted the oldest Chinese Dragon and Chinese Lion in the world amongst its displays, and since it is only in town until April, Chinese New Year seemed like the most appropriate and auspicious time to go and see the display. We then went out for a huge Chinese feast at a local Chinese restaurant, followed by Chinese movies and fortune cookies at Enfield. We watched The Mermaid and Big Trouble in Little China, which has become something of a cult classic in our home and is always watched with much cheering, hilarity and carry on every time we see it. I think I fell into bed around 1 am feeling very tired and satisfied with the day's celebrations, which was a welcomed distraction from going to the cinema for me at the moment.
With less than a month until the 90th Academy Awards Ceremony, the cinemas in Ballarat are currently flooded with excellent, high quality movies. The downside of this is that we always get most of the Oscar nominated movies later than everyone else and pretty much all of them at the same time. This means that if you are serious about seeing the nominated films before the envelopes are opened on the night (like I am), then you have to be willing to go to the movies at least once a week beforehand. There are nine movies in the running for Best Motion Picture this year, and I have only made it to see five of them so far and I'm fairly certain that I won't make it to see all of them beforehand now.
For those of you that are not familiar with the line up yet, these are the nominations for Best Motion Picture at this years Academy Awards:
The Shape of Water
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Phantom Thread
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Get Out
The Post
Call Me By Your Name
Lady Bird
Having not seen all of them, it is difficult to discern who will win, but I think either Three Billboards or Call Me By Your Name, but it is impossible to say for sure and I often disagree with the Academy's decision anyway. Regardless of the win, the nominated movies are always excellent and worthy watches and I will get around to seeing them all eventually, as I do with every other years nominated films as well.
It is great to see that some fantasy, science fiction and horror/ thriller movies are getting nominated, however it is pretty safe to say that the Academy will always give the Best Picture award to a drama movie. People still don't really take fantasy, science fiction and horror/thriller genres that seriously, and I can understand why, a lot of it is total shit; but some of it is absolute gold as well and it often sadly gets overlooked.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was the first fantasy movie to ever win the Best Motion Picture Oscar and no Science fiction movie has ever won it yet. The Silence of the Lambs was the first and only horror/thriller to win it in 1992, but since then, no horror movie has made it past a nomination. Pretty biased I think, but drama is more accessible for most people I suppose. Still though, I would die if they ever stopped making science fiction, fantasy or horror movies because they are three of my favourite genres to watch.
Every year there is at least one movie that I find completely overrated that gets nominated for the Best Motion Picture Oscar that I think just isn't as good as the other nominations. So far this year, shockingly because I really wanted to love this movie, it is Lady Bird. Again, not a bad movie, but I do question its Oscar nomination when it was only a 3 Chilli Pepper movie for me. This is where the great injustices really come to the forefront for fantasy, horror and science fiction, because IT, A Ghost Story, Mother! and Blade Runner 2049 were all far better films than Lady Bird and yet they didn't even didn't get a look in. I really do think that the Academy needs an overhaul, but I know that millions of people have been saying this same thing for years now and nothing has ever changed, unfortunately, the dramas always get all of the attention.
With less than a month until the 90th Academy Awards Ceremony, the cinemas in Ballarat are currently flooded with excellent, high quality movies. The downside of this is that we always get most of the Oscar nominated movies later than everyone else and pretty much all of them at the same time. This means that if you are serious about seeing the nominated films before the envelopes are opened on the night (like I am), then you have to be willing to go to the movies at least once a week beforehand. There are nine movies in the running for Best Motion Picture this year, and I have only made it to see five of them so far and I'm fairly certain that I won't make it to see all of them beforehand now.
For those of you that are not familiar with the line up yet, these are the nominations for Best Motion Picture at this years Academy Awards:
The Shape of Water
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Phantom Thread
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Get Out
The Post
Call Me By Your Name
Lady Bird
Having not seen all of them, it is difficult to discern who will win, but I think either Three Billboards or Call Me By Your Name, but it is impossible to say for sure and I often disagree with the Academy's decision anyway. Regardless of the win, the nominated movies are always excellent and worthy watches and I will get around to seeing them all eventually, as I do with every other years nominated films as well.
It is great to see that some fantasy, science fiction and horror/ thriller movies are getting nominated, however it is pretty safe to say that the Academy will always give the Best Picture award to a drama movie. People still don't really take fantasy, science fiction and horror/thriller genres that seriously, and I can understand why, a lot of it is total shit; but some of it is absolute gold as well and it often sadly gets overlooked.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was the first fantasy movie to ever win the Best Motion Picture Oscar and no Science fiction movie has ever won it yet. The Silence of the Lambs was the first and only horror/thriller to win it in 1992, but since then, no horror movie has made it past a nomination. Pretty biased I think, but drama is more accessible for most people I suppose. Still though, I would die if they ever stopped making science fiction, fantasy or horror movies because they are three of my favourite genres to watch.
Every year there is at least one movie that I find completely overrated that gets nominated for the Best Motion Picture Oscar that I think just isn't as good as the other nominations. So far this year, shockingly because I really wanted to love this movie, it is Lady Bird. Again, not a bad movie, but I do question its Oscar nomination when it was only a 3 Chilli Pepper movie for me. This is where the great injustices really come to the forefront for fantasy, horror and science fiction, because IT, A Ghost Story, Mother! and Blade Runner 2049 were all far better films than Lady Bird and yet they didn't even didn't get a look in. I really do think that the Academy needs an overhaul, but I know that millions of people have been saying this same thing for years now and nothing has ever changed, unfortunately, the dramas always get all of the attention.
LADYBIRD
Release Date: 2017
Rating: MA 15+
Running Time: 95 mins
A coming of age, indy drama, written and directed by Greta Gerwig, the only female director to have her film in the running for an Oscar in 2017. With a believable, original and witty dialogue, Lady Bird swings between amusing and awkward, revealing a strong and strange relationship between a strict mother and her flamboyant daughter.
Self named Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) is navigating her way through her final year at high school, but trying to work out boys, friendships and which college to apply for is continually made all the more difficult under the watchful and scrutinizing eyes of her head strong mother (Laurie Metcalf).
I really wanted to love this movie, and perhaps I would have if all of the humour wasn't revealed in the preview and everyone hadn't hyped it up so much. It is a good film, but it didn't feel all that original to me. I have seen a lot of coming of age movies now, and Lady Bird did not bring anything new to the table for me.
Ronan and Metcalf are terrific together and the acting is definitely a strength here, as is the witty realistic dialogue, but for an Oscar nominated movie, this fell short for me. Most of the writing is on the wall with this film, the character of Lady Bird is at times annoyingly pretentious and there are no real surprises. The overall outcomes were very predictable.
FINAL SAY: I gave it to myself. It is given to me by me.
3 Chilli Peppers
Release Date: 2017
Rating: MA 15+
Running Time: 95 mins
A coming of age, indy drama, written and directed by Greta Gerwig, the only female director to have her film in the running for an Oscar in 2017. With a believable, original and witty dialogue, Lady Bird swings between amusing and awkward, revealing a strong and strange relationship between a strict mother and her flamboyant daughter.
Self named Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) is navigating her way through her final year at high school, but trying to work out boys, friendships and which college to apply for is continually made all the more difficult under the watchful and scrutinizing eyes of her head strong mother (Laurie Metcalf).
I really wanted to love this movie, and perhaps I would have if all of the humour wasn't revealed in the preview and everyone hadn't hyped it up so much. It is a good film, but it didn't feel all that original to me. I have seen a lot of coming of age movies now, and Lady Bird did not bring anything new to the table for me.
Ronan and Metcalf are terrific together and the acting is definitely a strength here, as is the witty realistic dialogue, but for an Oscar nominated movie, this fell short for me. Most of the writing is on the wall with this film, the character of Lady Bird is at times annoyingly pretentious and there are no real surprises. The overall outcomes were very predictable.
FINAL SAY: I gave it to myself. It is given to me by me.
3 Chilli Peppers
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