92nd Annual Academy Awards

[Schlosser85]

I've written a fair number of my movie reviews at home, with two tabs open playing the movie and pausing it here and there to write some note/comment that'll later go into my full review. Sometimes I can be more thorough with my thoughts that way. Especially when I don't have to worry about some woman yakking to her husband the whole time, or a couple that feels the need to comment on every single thing that happens, or one member of an old couple basically narrating the movie to the other because they can't hear anything, or giggling teenagers playing on their phones.

 

[Marvolo]

the question with netflix is this. they give directors a lot of freedom. this works with 1 or 2 movies when the directors are experienced and got their experience by working in the studio system and know their limitations and what works. what happens when bad directors get freedom? i think Bright, Bird Box and Mute had the potential to be very good movies.

This is literally an issue that arises with every studio and has been a problem for as long as film has existed. Every studio gives freedom to some directors and restricts others. Every studio makes bad films. Every studio hires unproven directors. Every studio seems to care about some films and treat others like after thoughts. Every studio loves making a profit. Every studio loves increasing their profit.

Netflix isnt some radically new system. The only things it really does different is it isnt bound by the MPAA, and it recognizes the advantages of streaming all of its content. Pretty much every thing else it does is the same **** Hollywood has been doing for a century.

 

[samsnee]

I get Spielberg’s point but that’s like saying if you serve a 5 Star meal in McDonald’s, it’s not a 5 star meal. The Oscars are honoring best movie not best movie experience. And to me, as long as there’s no commercial interruptions, then it’s not a TV movie.

I mean, people who are voting are sent screeners so they can watch at home. How is that different?

 

[Mandon Knight]

As someone who doesn't use or access Netflix, (I don't use any streaming channels), if a film isn't released 'at the cinema' and just home use then doesn't SS have a point ? I'm old fashioned I know but isn't the whole point, the awards are for cinematic releases ?

 

[terry78]

I think part of it subconsciously is that when you see a movie in a theatre you're actually making an effort to get off your ass and go to a theatre and see it. Granted the moviegoing experience is not always as cultured as it could be unless you're in a premium theatre, but yeah.

 

[samsnee]

But the awards aren’t about awarding the audience or where you see it, it’s awarding the movie.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Spielberg has been out of touch for years now. Old man hasn't made a great film to me since Catch Me If You Can. He is the nostalgia poster boy for all you bald bastahs. Ya'll are afraid to criticize your first film father, I get it, but ti's the damn truth. If Villeneuve and Yorgos drop a film on his same release date, I sure as hell know which films i'm checking out first. West Side Story remake? ZZzzzzzzzzzz. Tell Ja Rule to give me a shot of nyquil.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Remember the “to me” part.

Anyway, what he’s saying is once you specifically make a film for a smaller screen, there’s a mindset there. Most, not all, of these filmmakers getting Netflix or wherever finding will not be thinking BIG when they’re shooting, and that’s a problem.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Remember the “to me” part.

Anyway, what he’s saying is once you specifically make a film for a smaller screen, there’s a mindset there. Most, not all, of these filmmakers getting Netflix or wherever finding will not be thinking BIG when they’re shooting, and that’s a problem.

I don't have to remember it, it is the reason why I placed it there in the damn first place. Still, one can't take the mule to water as they say. Eh.



It depends on the filmmaker as well tho. Guys like Cuaron and Scorsese will always think big, regardless of format. Spielberg and others are making this a bigger deal than it actually is. Also, I and others here would be more willing to see it on the big screen if they played closer and not hours away. I have still not seen COLD WAR because it only played in one damn theater in a 60 mile distance from me, it aint right. The biggest issue for me and others is availability and distance.

 

[jmc]

True but Netflix has just had that infamous rep about greenlighting pretty much everything that gets thrown on their table.

With good reason. They need content. Netflix is essentially the modern version of the old Blockbuster video store. How many times growing up did people just grab something off the self at their local Blockbuster store? Before Rotten Tomatoes, before the internet, all you had to go on was the cover image and the plot summary on the back of the case. Sometimes you got a good movie, sometimes you didn't, but you rarely left fuming because you were paying 1 or 2 dollars at most, maybe $3-5 for a new release movie. Netflix is basically creating the exact same mindset for modern audiences. You pay $10 a month for a massive library of films, you've got a short summary and cover image, and not much else to go off. Why films like Bright and Cloverfield didn't get much criticism from audiences, unlike the critics who savaged them, is because they don't have much value in terms of audience investment, so, even though they are not great movies people kinda just move on with their day after it's done. You're not going to lose sleep over something you essentially paid pennies for. And that's why content on Netflix is more important than quality.

 

[Black Narcissus]

 

[terry78]

This thing is really heating up. The Beard is gonna lose his street cred if he keeps this going.

 

[moviedoors]

I strongly value the theatrical experience. Easily my preferred method for seeing basically any movie. No home theater compares to an IMAX screen or Dolby Digital. A couple hundred strangers all getting chills or spontaneously cheering or getting choked up as one communal group is irreplaceable. At home, the movie is on your terms. You can pause it, you can ignore it cause who cares you can just stream it again later, you can do dishes, or live tweet, or "chill"; in a theater you're on it's terms.

And I still think Spielberg is being elitist and out-of-touch. Most Academy members end up watching most of the nominees (if they watch them at all) on obtrusively water-marked screeners at home anyway.

 

[terry78]

I do get his point in that some films need to be an experience, not something you watch in between playing fortnite or some ****. And it's kinda snobbish but whatever.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Theatrical experience is still superior to me as well, but Spielberg is just being a snob about the other stuff.

 

[sueb1863]

I can understand Spielberg's concern but it's too late. The time to object was back when the Academy was pondering the question. They aren't going to change the rules now.

 

[jmc]

The cat's out of the bag. Netflix is the one company openly searching for and creating a widest range of stories from around the world. No company is investing in film the way Netflix currently is.

 

[samsnee]

Again, it’s best movie. Not best movie going experience.

If you want to be strict, then force all voters to watch in a theater and stop sending out screeners.

 

[moviedoors]

Again, it’s best movie. Not best movie going experience.

If you want to be strict, then force all voters to watch in a theater and stop sending out screeners.

Exactly. If the theatrical experience is so damn important to them, make it mandatory that these elite defenders of culture walk the walk too.

 

[Marvolo]

I've heard that the voters dont even watch all of the nominated films. And since they watch them at home on screeners there's no way to even guarantee that the voters do watch all the nominated films.

 

[metaphysician]

people will understand Spielberg in 10 years when its to late.

Netflix doesnt care about movies. i bet the only reason they payed for Roma was because they hoped they would get into the oscars. The same reason with Irishman. Next year i expect record breaking oscar campaign budget.

In what way is that different from how the studios "care about movies"? They "care about movies" to make money and win prestige, which is exactly what Netflix cares about.

 

[samsnee]

Right? Movie studios are these benevolent entities that don’t care if their movies make money. They only make movies for the “art”.

 

[metaphysician]

I've heard that the voters dont even watch all of the nominated films. And since they watch them at home on screeners there's no way to even guarantee that the voters do watch all the nominated films.

Hey, now that would be a good rules change: to be eligible to vote in a given category, you must have *verifiably* watched all the movies up for consideration in that category. Enforced either via in-person screenings or perhaps traceable streamed videos. If you haven't actually seen the contenders, what business do you have voting on them?

 

[dark_b]

In what way is that different from how the studios "care about movies"? They "care about movies" to make money and win prestige, which is exactly what Netflix cares about.

netflix is like instagram,facebook,google... its a data company. they have data what people watch and based on that they pick creators,artists,directors and writters . art is supposed to give people something new. netflix doesnt have any data that people would like a Mad Max Fury Road and they never had any data that people would like a movie like Inception. Today netflix is not a problem. but i am telling you in 10 years it will be. like 10 years ago noone thought that Disney is a problem. today we read how they f.. you over in theaters and how they demand more % . Remember the Tarantino story in 2015? Quentin Tarantino Vows to Never Work With Disney Again After Star Wars-Hateful Eight Theater Dispute - IGN

i dont care about movie studios.

 

[Marvolo]

netflix is like instagram,facebook,google... its a data company. they have data what people watch and based on that they pick creators,artists,directors and writters . art is supposed to give people something new. netflix doesnt have any data that people would like a Mad Max Fury Road and they never had any data that people would like a movie like Inception. Today netflix is not a problem. but i am telling you in 10 years it will be. like 10 years ago noone thought that Disney is a problem. today we read how they f.. you over in theaters and how they demand more % . Remember the Tarantino story in 2015? Quentin Tarantino Vows to Never Work With Disney Again After Star Wars-Hateful Eight Theater Dispute - IGN

i dont care about movie studios.

No. Netflix is a content producer just like every major studio. Every major movie studio collects, uses, and cares about data. FFS, the industry revolves around the box office and its statistics. Netflix doesnt need to make an inception or mad max fury road to have data on those film's popularity. The data is already public and accessible. You think Netflix cant find out the box offices, ticket sales, and demographics for those films? And the fact they are hiring directors such as Cuaron and Scorsese and making shows like Umbrella Academy and Lost in Space and routinely pay money to distribute films such as the MCU, Star Wars, LOTR, Nolan's films etc. blows your "Netflix doesnt care about art or genre material." out of the water.

And Tarantino doesnt need Disney and they dont need him. Unless Tarantino turns out to be a rapist or some other type of POS he will always be able to find a distributor and theaters to show his films. Maybe we'll even get a Netflix distributed Tarantino film someday. They already stream some of his other films.