The Kurt Russel Elvis biopic was the best one about his life already. I think John Carpenter did it-yep he did. I personally like Elvis, i love Johnny Cash, but i like and respect Elvis. I went into it thinking it was going to be like Walk The Line not really being familiar with the directors name. After seeing the movies he's credited as directing, i now understand why i didn't care for Elvis. The Great Gatsby is the only one i like from Baz Luhrmann. EEAO, Coda, Nomadland. 2019 was stacked, and it's been downhill since. So many years where great films lost to the oscar bait films about a gay this or slave that. Chicago beat The Pianist, Gangs of New York and LOTR TT. From top to bottom the 70s to 80s was super solid with real cinema, but other than Shakespeare In Love beating Saving Private Ryan/TRL in 98 and maybe Dances beating Goodfellas, the 90s was stacked and mostly the right winner got it- once again proving the 90s was the GOAT decade. 2k's started off with some bangers, and then Chicago ruined everything and they knew that so they rewarded Return of The king the next year which was a massive win for a lot of us. Followed it with some damn good years and not allowing Brokeback Mountain to win by default...The Departed never beats Little Miss Sunshine today. No Country For Old men vs There will Be Blood EPIC face off with Atonement underrated..none stand a chance against Juno today. The 2ks were about to rival or surpass the 90s and then...Slumdog Millionaire. Sure. They didn't give it to punk ass Sean Penn's desperate oscar bait with Milk, and Slumdog was good, but The Curious Case of Benjamin Button should have won and it's clearly stood the test of time over Slumdog-see it once and forget it Millionaire. But the real crime was TDK not even getting a nomination as it should have been TDK vs TCCOBB. Closed it out giving it to Hurt Locker b/c woman director. See it once and forget it. 90s reign supreme. 2010's was all downhill. Maybe that's directly due to the quality of Hollywood fading away and Superhero's dominating the movie theater experience. 2020's is off to a terrible start. Doubt it recovers.
Wow, the backlash is real. It doesn't surprise me, really. A movie like EEAAO is so bizarre there is bound to be a contingent of people that just don't connect. And that swath of the public will think it is absolutely terrible and overhyped. Movies are subjective. But I think there is enough of the population that are lauding it for genuine reasons that those in this thread who have decided it needs to be taken down should maybe consider that it just wasn't for them. I personally feel like it deserves all the accolades and more. It was as good a time as I've had at a movie in a long, long while (maybe since Endgame). I get it if people feel like Marvel movies or Avatar movies or even Top Gun type movies aren't genuinely considered for major awards. There is a very real argument to be made there. However, I will never complain when movies that are as unique as Everything Everywhere have success, either in box office or at the Oscars, because we need more of this kind of original movie making. We don't need more comic book movies or billion dollar whiz-pop visual spectacles. Those are great and have their place but the theaters have been saturated with that for a decade+ now. I want to see more of what the EEAAO team comes up with next.
/thread with Chicago. You nailed it. How can a musical win an academy award, which is supposed to be about the art of acting?
You make some good points (Chicago beating The Pianist AND Gangs of NY AND LotR??), although we completely disagree on EEAAO - I've rewatched it like 4 times already!
The movie certainly isn’t for everyone or everywhere all at once.. pun intended. As I said if you took out the crazy stuff it would still be Oscar bait. An immigrant family dealing with generational clash, divorce in bankruptcy. What makes it great is that it doesn’t just settle for being that kind of movie but add on the martial arts and multiverse it’s something much crazier. As such it’s not just a movie to tug on your heartstrings, be self satisfied about how woke Hollywood is but is also about appealing to the fast paced short attention span entertainment of the 21st Century. It’s the fusion Parasite with The Multiverse of Madness.
I had the opposite problem with Elvis. Baz Luhrmann's style of filmmaking is unique, but exhausting for me. I'm able to watch Moulin Rouge and mostly enjoy it, but when dealing with a biopic, I felt like he needed to slow down and let the audience take a breath. I couldn't get through the first half of the movie. But I get that there are lots of people who really dig that style.
It was absolutely rushed. At the same time Babylon felt like 100mph but i got the sense that was the lifestyle being portrayed at that speed and it keeps going, but slows down toward the end and i thought was beautifully done and very sad and real representation of the Hollywood dream machine. I really liked Babylon and i think the immigrant's pov/character story held everything together. Without him, it's just chaos with a hilarious Tobey McGuire appearance. I'm fully aware that Asians might connect better with EEAAO for specific reasons, the same as i was able to connect with Babylon's Manny from Mexico. Everyone want's to see someone they can relate to in cinema be they gay, race, culture or same religion. I'll give EEAAO another chance one day when i can look at it with different perspective. There have been films i watched that i originally hated and came to love, but that was usually going from a child's perspective or teen's perspective to adult. Likewise, the opposite from teen to adult turning to boredom or disinterest. Nostalgia is powerful, but i can still evaluate with my current perspective and life experience. That's why i laugh at those who call my Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon GOAT's a product of nostalgia and marketing. I have my own 2 eyes and i can still re-watch them today and see they're still better than everyone else old or new. I watch MJ damn near every day as a youtube pick me up/motivator and it wows me every single time still to this day. Still some never before seen highlights i'll come across and some i've seen a million times. Never gets old. Never fails to impress. Cinema can be re-evaluated in the same way.
I watch waaaay more 90s highlights than current basketball. Call it nostalgia, I just prefer the way the game was played.
