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The Secret Agent was not an easy movie for the average movie watcher. It had an unorthodox ending, graphic violence, and it's in a different language. With that
by anderber 8mo ago
The Secret Agent was not an easy movie for the average movie watcher. It had an unorthodox ending, graphic violence, and it's in a different language. With that said, it's too bad it wasn't able to come out with any Oscars. I can see why OBAA won quite a few awards.
- dinkblam 8mo ago[flagged]
- fleahunter 8mo ago[dead]
- eszed 8mo agoOBAA wouldn't have been my choice for best picture, either, but it had some beautiful pieces of film-making. The long shot while running through the Sensei's safe house was great, and the car chase at the end was a) gorgeous, and b) visually not quite like anything I'd ever seen before. I can see what Academy voters liked about it, in addition to the "this director has been nominated so many times without winning, so maybe he finally deserves one" angle, which I think maybe had as much to do with it as anything.
- anderber 8mo agoAcademy members aren't always good at picking "good" movies. I'd argue they're actually pretty bad at it. Every once in a while they guess correctly. At least my 2 cents.
- padjo 8mo agoWhat on earth is a AAA film?
- FuriouslyAdrift 8mo agoThe whole single A, triple A thing comes from league baseball. Single A was the lower leagues and AAA is the top of the heap pro ball. AAA denotes big budget tent pole productions. So big a studio could go bankrupt if it doesn't do well.
- padjo 8mo agoAh so the OP thinks OBAA was designed as a big budget popcorn flick? No wonder they didn't like it.
- FuriouslyAdrift 8mo agoPaul Thomas Anderson will tell anyone who will listen that he doesn't make commercially sound films. It's kind of his thing... They did throw some serious money at this film, though, so I can see where people would have strange expectations.
- kolmogorov 8mo agoit's actually from credit ratings which predate baseball leagues
- kylebebak 8mo agoThere's no such thing (parent likely borrowed this term from the video game industry)
- boogieknite 8mo agowhen they said AAA i assumed it was satire
- FuriouslyAdrift 8mo agoIt's very pretty, but the book is much better https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vineland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vineland
- holmesworcester 8mo agoBravo, palmas! etc.
- pixelatedindex 8mo agoI had no idea about this! Thank you, I quite enjoy Pynchon’s novels.
- holmesworcester 8mo agoThe visuals weren't terrible, I thought, but the writing, dialog, acting (except for Moura), and narrative arc were terrible. It's one of those movies where almost everyone looks like they just really love being on stage ("isn't cinema lovely?") and where the writers have an idea of what cliches they're trying to work with but can't land them into an actual story, even a story made out of cliches.
- kenjackson 8mo agoWell I think there are some people that disagree.
- ubermonkey 8mo agoOBAA was technically well executed but, to me, pretty fucking soulless. I haven't seen all the nominees, but the ones I did see -- Train Dreams and Sinners -- were, to our eyes, profoundly better films than OBAA. I'm in particular interested in seeing Hamnet soon; everything I read about it puts it in the same category as TD and S. OBAA was the safe Academy pick, and so that's what they picked.
- arbitrary_name 8mo agoi thought Sinners was so overhyped. mediocre performances (great music!) and a terrible plot (why were the vampires forced to ask for permission to enter, and then able to storm the building a few scenes later? was there no better way to resolve that then just forget about it) loved OBAA (incredible pacing!) but had its flaws too
- estebank 8mo ago> why were the vampires forced to ask for permission to enter Part of well established lore. > and then able to storm the building a few scenes later? Because the wife who just saw her husband killed invited them in because she wanted revenge.
- shrikant 8mo ago> Doesn't pay attention to plot > Claims plot is terrible People who complain about aspects about movies they didn't like should all be as forthright as GP in explaining why exactly they didn't like that aspect, so I can decide whether to entirely disregard the opinion.
- ubermonkey 8mo ago>terrible plot (why were the vampires forced to ask for permission to enter, and then able to storm the building a few scenes later? Imagine dinging an Oscar-winning film's plot this loudly, and being absolutely wrong about something easily verifiable. The shopkeeper's wife (Grace, played by Li Jun Li) freaks out and explicitly invites them all in. If I was this offbase with a comment, I'd delete my whole account. IOW, I quote your own comment history: "how does it feel to be misinformed yet opinionated?"
- cammikebrown 8mo ago[flagged]
- subpixel 8mo agoQuality is not really near the top of Oscar eligibility criteria now, is it?
- tosapple 8mo ago[dead]