Who would you vote for? (Oscars)

12 Years
McQueen
McConaghey
?
Leto
Nyong'o

WTF is Nebraska?

I haven't seen a single one of those movies.

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Best Picture
The Wolf of Wall Street

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Best Director
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

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Almost by default. Stepped out of his comfort zone for this, but the real genius behind this movie was the writer (Winter) and the actors. Speaking of which...

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Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street

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And this really shouldn't be a debate. Year in and year out, Leo turns in an amazing performance no matter what. I know people say Daniel-Day Lewis is the best actor going, but really? The guy does a movie every 3-5 years. Leo does 2-3 a year and he nails every single role.

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Best Actress
Amy Adams, American Hustle

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Jesus women can't act. I know that sounds sexist, but frick me, this is a bad list. I'll give it to Amy moreso for her work the entire year, but frick this is a weak category.

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Best Supporting Actor
Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street

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Really impressed by his work here. Another strong category. But The Wolf was the best film from 2013 and it was due to writing and acting and Jonah was a big part of that.

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Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle

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Did I already mention women can't act? frick it, just give it to J-Law.

Can't say, as I haven't seen any of these.

Very few posters on here have probably seen all of those movies, so most of us can't give a truly educated answer.

However, I will predict even though you said no predictions.

Best Picture
12 Years A Slave

Best Director
Steeve McQueen

Best Actor
Matthew McConaghey (This one shouldn't even be a debate. He nailed this role and blew anything Leo has ever done out of the water)

Best Actress
Amy Adams

Best Supporting Actor
Jared Leto (Once again, I think he wins this easily)

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Lawrence

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Not really. It was a decently pretty movie, but had half a plot and nothing resembling character development. Not to mention that it insults a viewer's intelligence with all of its inconsistencies and lies.

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Going to have to disagree.

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Pretty movie, but outside of being pretty it was crap. Avatar was much better film and I haven't met anyone who thinks that Avatar should have been anywhere near Best Picture.

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There's a difference in intention, which is a big part of how good a film really is.

For all of its simplicities and cliches, Avatar followed the very basic rules of storytelling: It had three defined acts and its character's motivations were clear.

Gravity didn't have a first act and barely had a second act. None of the motivations made any sense. Sandra's character never would have made it to space with all of her psychological issues. NASA isn't going to spend billions on a mission to send a woman with depression issues up into space. Why is she up there anyways? Why her? Why doesn't Clooney's character know much of anything about her? It's like they just met at a diner 10 minutes before the movie started. There is no development on either of them.

At least Avatar told us why Jake was going to Pandora. It told us why humanity went there. It told us why there was a military presence was there. Outside of Michelle Rodriguez's character, everyone's motivations made sense. The story within itself made sense. We had every bit of information we needed as an audience to process what we were seeing and experiencing on screen.

Gravity didn't give that to us... at least not to me. The biggest mistake Gravity made was assuming I would care about Sandra after shite hit the fan when they gave me no reason to care about her until after shite hit the fan. You build up your audience surrogates/protagonists BEFORE they engage in conflict, not after. At least try to make me give a shite about her ultimate fate. When she was barreling towards Earth (after apparently having everything she needed in space within 10 square miles), I really didn't care if she survived or not. At that point, the best and only redeeming part of the movie (the gorgeous visual shots of space and Earth from space) were behind us.

And before someone comes in here with that whole "rebirth" nonsense, please, cut the shite.

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For all of its simplicities and cliches, Avatar followed the very basic rules of storytelling: It had three defined acts and its character's motivations were clear.

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Again, completely disagree. It had elements of storytelling, but it's bloated so much that storytelling was undersold and unobtanium was oversold.

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Gravity didn't have a first act and barely had a second act.

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The acts were quite clear. The first time the screen goes dark while she's spinning after the destruction. There's your first-second act cut. The Dream Sequence after giving up for death is the second-third act cut. It's quite clear what's going on. That's where the narrative shifts each time.

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None of the motivations made any sense. Sandra's character never would have made it to space with all of her psychological issues. NASA isn't going to spend billions on a mission to send a woman with depression issues up into space.

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This isn't a motivation, a suspension of disbelief if you believe that people can't hide some of their inconsistencies, maybe.

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Why is she up there anyways? Why her? Why doesn't Clooney's character know much of anything about her? It's like they just met at a diner 10 minutes before the movie started. There is no development on either of them.

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You're asking far too many questions about a movie that is tell you exactly what it is about. The answers are right in front of you. Maybe you just like bloat?

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At least Avatar told us why Jake was going to Pandora.

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Because he is drift compatible? If it was "dumb" in Pacific Rim, it was dumb here too. And you have a problem with them sending depressed Sandra Bullock, but you don't with them sending depressed Jake? That makes no sense.

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The story within itself made sense. We had every bit of information we needed as an audience to process what we were seeing and experiencing on screen.

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Yeah no. But this is not a discussion about Avatar. Where Avatar is bloated story telling Gravity is all about efficiency. You really can't compare the two, honestly.

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Gravity didn't give that to us... at least not to me.

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Because you're focused on the wrong things. You're focused on the things the movie isn't telling you to focus on.

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The biggest mistake Gravity made was assuming I would care about Sandra after shite hit the fan when they gave me no reason to care about her until after shite hit the fan.

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Again, this is being unfair to Gravity. This can be said for ANY movie if you really want to know their life story before the movie starts. This is never going to be true. You're going to know:

1) Some of their CURRENT motivations, NOT their life goals
2) Who they are
3) Where they come from
4) What's going on

Gravity did just that.

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You build up your audience surrogates/protagonists BEFORE they engage in conflict, not after.

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No. You do these things simultaneously. Your investment increases as you learn more about that character. Now whether or not Sandra did this, is debatable, and probably personal.

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When she was barreling towards Earth (after apparently having everything she needed in space within 10 square miles), I really didn't care if she survived or not. At that point, the best and only redeeming part of the movie (the gorgeous visual shots of space and Earth from space) were behind us.

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Let's go back to this:

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Gravity didn't give that to us... at least not to me.

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You may not have connected with the film. Or Sandra Bullock, or her motivations. Or her goals.

But "to me," is important. You can dislike a film's emotions, but if you separate your personal outlook and connection from an evaluation of a film based on its own merits, maybe you can better understand why that happens. And maybe you can appreciate film whether or not you "connect" with it.

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And before someone comes in here with that whole "rebirth" nonsense, please, cut the shite.

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Well, that's just being close-minded.