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Werewolf by Night wrote:

Trees wrote:"Why don't they just shoot the tires?"

The tires are metal frames covered with rubber, some filled with straw or rags. They are not inflated. Next question.

Haha. Nice find. Still, I can think of a hundred different attacks that could be used to disable those wheels. You are telling me there is no way to stop a huge, relatively slow-moving truck from driving during a 20-minute protracted battle that involves firearms and high explosives? It makes zero sense. Not to mention that you could just attack the fuel tanks.

More discussion on this topic can be found here

Trees wrote:Not to mention that you could just attack the fuel tanks.

Not if you want to keep the Immortan Joe's "wives" alive for him, which is the whole point of the plot. Destroying the tires and rolling/flipping the truck could kill them as well, which is probably why (it's been six months now, but I'm pretty sure this is the case) the entire chase sequence is built around either taking control of the rig or plucking the women off of it.

I usually try not to get involved in nerdfights over these kind of things, but the above is pretty much the whole plot of the film, so...

Also, it's not a documentary.

DarkImbecile wrote:

Trees wrote:Not to mention that you could just attack the fuel tanks.

Not if you want to keep the Immortan Joe's "wives" alive for him, which is the whole point of the plot. Destroying the tires and rolling/flipping the truck could kill them as well, which is probably why (it's been six months now, but I'm pretty sure this is the case) the entire chase sequence is built around either taking control of the rig or plucking the women off of it.

I usually try not to get involved in nerdfights over these kind of things, but the above is pretty much the whole plot of the film, so...

You don't have to flip or explode the thing. You can just disable the truck, slow it down then stop it. To me, a silly action picture based on such a ridiculous premise as having 20-minute car-to-car battles where a 5-year-old could easily figure out how to disable the vehicle, hardly seems like a Best Picture candidate. Not to mention that the plot was as simple as an episode of Barney the dinosaur and the characters were not very well explored or fleshed out either.

Trees wrote:Why don't they just shoot the tires?

Trees wrote:You don't have to flip or explode the thing. You can just disable the truck, slow it down then stop it.

I thought they actually did all of that, but just edited those frames out.

I think you're missing the forest for the you.

The WGA has ruled a remarkably long list of likely Oscar nominees ineligible this year. I know this is their usual bag, but I'm surprised at just how many films ended up not making the cut this year

Trees wrote:You don't have to flip or explode the thing. You can just disable the truck, slow it down then stop it. To me, a silly action picture based on such a ridiculous premise as having 20-minute car-to-car battles where a 5-year-old could easily figure out how to disable the vehicle, hardly seems like a Best Picture candidate. Not to mention that the plot was as simple as an episode of Barney the dinosaur and the characters were not very well explored or fleshed out either.

So a poorly-written film might be nominated for an Oscah? Oh lawdy me!

Mad Max is not a film where that kind of logic is paramount. I know that will not allow it to appeal to certain people in the same way, but it's way down the list of things they were concerned with, things such as story (more on this below), aesthetic, rhythm of the visual film language, and so on. Those are where the film is truly great, even masterful, and deserving of recognition, possibly inclusive of Best Picture (for the whole) and Director (for the vision of the whole).

Director is an even longer shot because of the more limited nomination slots. But I know it's certainly a film other directors were impressed with, so DGA should reveal if it has a chance with the Academy.

For Picture, it's competition for the mainstream film slot is primarily The Martian. Fury Road's best chance is that there is 5%+ of the voting body that put it #1, which I don't think is that big of a long shot in a rather weak year for traditionally nominated film types. Right now the only absolute 100% locks are Carol and Spotlight.

In regards to Fury Road's story - it is actually very strong on story (characters, motivations, environment, internal history, etc.). What it is threadbare on is plot. Which again will not appeal to everyone, but I'm definitely a person that feels too many tentpole films are too centered on plot these days.

Boston film critics even more favorable towards Fury Road, give it honors for Picture, Director, Cinematography, Editing, Score.

They also gave Creed awards for Actor and Supporting Actor (Stallone may easily make it to the Oscars if this keeps building), and Spotlight for Screenplay and Ensemble Cast.

Stallone surely will be nominated, and quite unexpectedly Supporting Actor is turning into the most compelling race of the year. I think Mad Max is increasingly likely to be nominated for Best Pic and Best Director, especially now that responses to Joy are below what was expected, clearing out Russell's spot

Boston Society of Film Critics.
Best Picture - Spotlight
Best Actor - (tie) Paul Dano for Love & Mercy and Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant
Best Actress - Charlotte Rampling for 45 Years
Best Supporting Actor - Mark Rykance for Bridge of Spies
Best Supporting Actress - Kristen Stewart for Clouds of Sils Maria
Best Director - Todd Haynes for Carol
Best Screenplay - Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer for Spotlight
Best Cinematography - Edward Lachman for Carol
Best Documentary - Amy
Best Foreign-Language Film (awarded in memory of Jay Carr) - The Look of Silence
Best Animated Film - (tie) Anomalisa and Inside Out
Best Film Editing (awarded in memory of Karen Schmeer) - Margaret Sixel for Mad Max: Fury Road
Best New Filmmaker (awarded in memory of David Brudnoy) - Marielle Heller for The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Best Ensemble Cast - Spotlight
Best Use of Music in a Film - Love & Mercy

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
Best Picture: Spotlight
Best Director: George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Actor: Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Best Actress: Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Best Supporting Actor: Michael Shannon, 99 Homes
Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
Best Screenplay: Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
Best Cinematography: John Seale, Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Production Design: Colin Gibson, Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Editing: Hank Corwin, The Big Short
Best Music Score: Carter Burwell, Anomalisa and Carol
Best Foreign-language film: Son of Saul
Best Documentary/nonfiction film: Amy
Best Animation: Anomalisa

I see that LA film critics are considering THE TRIBE to be a 2015 film. Yet, I also read that it was under consideration as a Foreign Film Oscar nomination in 2014. Seems like this films is sort of in the grey zone, in terms of its release year, as it relates to awards? IMDB lists the film as 2014 but RT lists it as 2015, probably due to RT being a US-centered site?

Trees wrote:I see that LA film critics are considering THE TRIBE to be a 2015 film. Yet, I also read that it was under consideration as a Foreign Film Oscar nomination in 2014. Seems like this films is sort of in the grey zone, in terms of its release year, as it relates to awards? IMDB lists the film as 2014 but RT lists it as 2015, probably due to RT being a US-centered site?

Since it was released commercially in the U.S. for the first time in 2015, it will be considered a 2015 film by most American critics and awards groups. That's true of the Academy Awards too. It's actually eligible in every applicable category this year except Best Foreign Language Film. The rules for that category are different. Each country gets to select one film to submit to the Academy for consideration, and it must have had its commercial release in the submitting country before the end of September.

The Tribe was released in Ukraine on September 11, 2014, so it would have been eligible for Best Foreign Language Film at last year's awards had Ukraine decided to submit it, which they did not. If they had submitted it and it was one of the five nominees, it wouldn't be eligible in any other categories this year. This has come in to play a few times. In 2002, Brazil submitted City of God for Best Foreign Language Film, but it wasn't chosen as one of the five nominees. That meant that when it got a commercial release in the U.S. in 2003 it was eligible for other categories and wound up being nominated for Director, Cinematography, Editing, and Screenplay.

Thanks, Jeff. In that case, I will add it now to my dynamic 2015 list.

David Ehrlich's top 25 of 2015

David Ehrlich's top 25 of the year

Screen Actors Guild Awards
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Beasts of No Nation
The Big Short
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton
Trumbo
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Johnny Depp, Black Mass
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Helen Mirren, Woman in Gold
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Sarah Silverman, I Smile Back
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Michael Shannon, 99 Homes
Jacob Tremblay, Room
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Rooney Mara, Carol
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Helen Mirren, Trumbo
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

What the fuck?

Quite - especially the Supporting Actor category. No Keaton, Ruffalo or Stallone? Whom I would have thought were all pretty much certain nominees (and I'm predicting a Stallone win at this stage)...

Yeah, that's really weird and I suspect it has more to do with certain movies (e.g. Creed) not being seen or hyped yet then anything else. I highly doubt Silverman, for instance is going to get many other notable nominations.

Considering this was supposed to be the year with too many award-worthy female performances, SAG could again remind us that they have some very shortsighted tastes.

No Joy or Hateful Eight either. (BTW, Lincoln Center just announced a preview screening of the former.)

Very little of this list will carry-over to the Oscars. And they saw Creed, they just snubbed it. SAG usually throws out a few insane choices each year, this year it just threw out more than anyone could have reasonably anticipated. All it shows is that the field is pretty wide open-- and let's hope we don't get a repeat of the worst reminder of what can happen in such a situation, the 1995 Oscars