We are back at it again with Thursday Movie Picks. This is my fifth full year participating this wonderful series created by Wandering Through the Shelves and I don’t plan to stop yet. If you also want to participate you can find the 2021 list of themes here! As you can see from the title there’s an added theme going on in 2021, Oscar Winners. It will be definitely a difficult theme for me to navigate but let’s give it a go, shall we!? First up we have Best Picture winners.
Using my last years banner atm because I didn’t have time to finish the new one.
3. SPOTLIGHT (2015)
Maybe it’s just me but I think Spotlight was so underrated during that year’s award season. But of course it was a hell of a year. We had Fury Road and Brooklyn, we also had that infamous bear scene which finally gave Leo his Oscar. Yet Spotlight took the Best Picture here and honestly, I was not mad. The movie is very lowkey powerful and has good performances. Mark Ruffalo is great, Michael Keaton is memorable and Rachel McAdams as well. Most powerful though? The end credit scene with all those names…
2. BIRDMAN or (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE) (2014)
Yes, you guessed it, I’m sort of going for Michael Keaton here. While I didn’t like this as much as Spotlight it still had an interesting story to tell. The one shot element worked here but years later 1917 will go on and make it work better in my opinion. Edward Norton here for some reason was the most memorable for me. I’m not sure why but I don’t see myself rewatching this any time soon either. The ending and the themes are just too depressing for right now.
1. THE SHAPE OF WATER (2017)
I ran out of Michael Keaton picks so I went with Michael Shannon instead. The Shape of Water seems like the strangest choice here and it is. It’s also the laziest win of that year with so many other movies standing out more. Dunkirk should have won and Nolan should have gotten his Oscar. Oh well, it’s not like Oscars have gotten it wrong before, right? Anyway, Shannon, god, he is such a great actor. I should have added him to the Hidden Gems challenge.. or I should just watch more of his movies for fun.
THIS SERIES IS CREATED BY WANDERING THROUGH THE SHELVES
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Spotlight is a terrific film even if I saw the heavy influence and shadow of All the President’s Men hanging over it. But since that is a perfect movie I can’t say that’s a bad thing.
Birdman was okay but no more and I really wasn’t a fan of Shape of Water.
I decided to go with the route of picking the three films I consider the worst to get the big prize.
The Broadway Melody (1929)-It only took two years for the Academy to award the wrong film. Glue-footed musical that came out shortly after sound changed the industry won more out of the novelty of songs being able to be heard on screen than any kind of worth the picture possesses….which ain’t much!
Cimarron (1931)-Stiff as a board adaptation of Edna Ferber’s classic novel of the settling of the Oklahoma Territory. Leaden direction, dull performances (incredibly Richard Dix won Best Actor) and a sluggish pace aren’t compensated by one great land rush sequence. The first Western to win Best Picture (in a year where The Public Enemy, Little Caesar and City Lights weren’t even nominated!) soured the pot and it took another 60 years until Dances with Wolves captured another.
Around the World in 80 Days (1956)-The title says just about all about this insufferable, tedious, tiresome and endlessly bloated adaptation of a Jules Verne adventure dealing with a balloon trip circumnavigating the globe. Stuffed with cameos of stars of the day in either passing bits or meaningless parts it made a mint on release but this is the worst film to ever win Best Picture.
I think influences are sometimes lost for the newer audiences and it is okay if the movie is good imo. Glad you liked Spotlight. And I’m glad I haven’t seen the three picks as they are the worst. 😀
I haven’t seen any of your picks yet. I am soooo curious about The Shape of Water, though!
Ah really? I think I was really good with Best Movie nominations for a few years, saw most of them.
Ah, Spotlight and Birdman have been chosen by someone else! As I wrote on their blog, I can take or leave them. I found Birdman overly hyped. I might rewatch Spotlight in the future, but I don’t see myself rewatching Birdman anytime soon either.
Good choice with The Shape of Water. I’m not sure it should have won that year either, but it’s beautiful and bizarre and I love it.
Really? That’s surprising as it could have been any other year but I can see the appeal of both. I like Spotlight better than The Shape of Water though but I tend to like slow burn journalism related movies Zodiac is similar. 😀
Nice picks! I didn’t expect Birdman to win over Whiplash, but it was a nice surprise. I loved seeing Guillermo Del Toro win for Best Director but The Shape of Water wasn’t very memorable for me compared to Get Out, Phantom Thread, etc. I’ll have to disagree about Spotlight. I was not crazy about it at all despite the good performance. The Martian, Brooklyn, or Mad Max Fury Road should’ve snagged it.
I feel like Whiplash was amazing but it was one of those prolly going to lose feel about it.. lol. I love those The Martian, Brooklyn and Fury Road and have rewatched all three but Spotlight is a solid one and I’m still glad it win, it would’ve disappeared into abyss otherwise. 😀
Nice picks! I liked The Shape of Water. It’s such a unique film and the production design is fantastic. Also, yes to watching more Michael Shannon films for fun!
I liked a lot of aspects about it but like movie wise I wasn’t a huge huge fan. 😛
Oh, I was mad about Spotlight getting Best Picture. I didn’t hate it but it was far from being The Revenant or Fury Road good for me. I do love your other two picks and I was very happy when they won.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the Revenant and I didn’t expect Mad Max to win so I was rooting for Spotlight. 😀
I really like Spotlight and the most horrifying part was the rolling credits at the end. It made me sad, shocked and angry. Birdman was quirky and I enjoyed it and felt Michael Keaton gave a great performance. Shape of Water…it’s just ok for me because I felt something was missing. I hate Dunkirk especially when he was too lazy to get rid of the glass buildings of today that I could see in the shots in the air. It didn’t thrill me. Three Billboards was excellent as well as The Darkest Hour.
Wow! I just went to check out Brittani’s list earlier today. You both have two of the same movies! In any case, I LOVE all three of your picks. In fact, I was rooting for each of these the year they were nominated, and so glad they won!
I know.. we have the same mind apparently lol
That’s a good description of Spotlight – lowkey powerful.
Shape of Water is still one I haven’t watch…Netflix put it on please.