I saw Barbenheimer the weekend it came out. Oppie is overrated as shit. I liked it but Barbie was 3x better. It’s apparent in the way women are written and the fact that Greta, Margot and Barbie are being snubbed for Nolan is a disgrace.
Oppie isn’t even his best work and it sure as shit doesn’t deserve a dozen fucking Oscar noms.
Whatever criticisms you have of Barbie being white/pop feminism are absolutely tossed aside when fucking OPPENHEIMER is the one winning shit. Cmon.
They’re giving noms to Poor Things instead of it as the “feminist” film cuz they’re cowards scared of women succeeding behind the camera in addition to in front of it and in the box office, and they’re horny teens horned up by Emma Stone and enraged Margot didn’t do that.
Edit- And before you come at me, I saw Oppie on proper film. Don’t tell me I didn’t get it or didn’t have a good experience or whatever. I liked it. But Barbie was better.
Almost no media produced under capitalism prescribes a solution to real problems and Barbie is no different. I think the movie did a good job articulating the problems some women face in the west but the end of the movie they did a heckin status quo and shrugged their shoulders. If I were a literal person looking to Hollywood to solve my political contradictions, the message I’d take away is that women should do “separate but equal” shit to solve the inequalities and exploitation they face in a capitalist society.
So ya not great but that’s what you get when any real message would threaten the system that produced it.
I thought it very odd it ended by denying men full political rights and the matriarchy was so quickly overtaken by Ken and his misogynists. Given that they reversed the power relations it seemed odd to justify their disenfranchisement. I know they nearly did a coup, but the movie set up that plot point.
yeah it fucking sucks. They built this whole fictitious post scarcity world where the entire population of said world has achieved a semblance of consciousness and the best they can come up with is "lets do the same but opposite
" like come on.and you see it all the time in capitalist media. Here’s the problem, there’s a solution that has been rediscovered countless times throughout history but we’re just going to pretend we don’t know what it is, gosh what a problem you the viewer decide what is to be done roll credits. It is the political/mental equivalent of edging you just want to yell at the screen el problema es capitalismo but w/e. That’s what we get can’t have any flavor or spice.
I do like to imagine the ending being they abolish their constitution, establish housing for all (are the kens homeless??), give equal voting rights and at least banish the execs back to shitworld. Think of all the awkward car rides home from the theaters by all the lib het couples. But it breaks a cardinal rule in capitalism to put anything on display that shows a hopeful or positive alternative to what we have. You can only display problems and inspire hopelessness and nihilism in the masses - even with hollywoods greatest imagination all they can do is
And before you come at me, I saw Oppie on proper film. Don’t tell me I didn’t get it or didn’t have a good experience or whatever. I liked it.
I am coming at you for liking it.
The movie was one hour of magical realism physics and wishy-washy centrist political bullshit, one hour of “Y’all know about how my boy Julie Bob O. got mad pussy?”, and one hour of the worst West Wing episode you’ve ever seen. They could have cut that turd in half and it would have still been too long.
The acting was mid. The history was fictional. The cinematography was amateurish. The sound design just made my ears bleed.
Not only was Barbie better, but Barbie was actually a good fucking movie. Had I known what I was getting in for I’d have just gone back and watched the highlight reels from “A Beautiful Mind” and taken a refund on the balance of my time.
Nolan should be arrested unironically
His job in the gulag should be sound editing. He stays there until he gets it right.
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Yeah that’s fair lol. I haven’t seen it since Barbenheimer and my opinion might be similar to yours if I rewatch it. It didn’t need to be 3hrs long and I felt like a fool falling for the “gotta see it in 70mm imax” bs. Half of it is in a small white room for fucks sake.
Barbie was genuinely a good time and then people i was with and i talked for hours after it ended. And the atmosphere at the cinema that entire weekend was magical. Everyone wearing pink, saying “hi Barbie”…that’s real movie magic.
I felt like a fool falling for the “gotta see it in 70mm imax” bs.
In so far as they were going for this very immersive experience, I don’t think it was BS on its face. Yes, sitting in that chair I practically vibrated with that opening scene. When they were launching the Trinity tests and he was hallucinating Hiroshima and they were doing the weird “Lets have Cillian Murphy nut in the middle of a board room” scene, it was much more pervasive an experience than if I was watching it on a 7" airplane screen with earbuds.
But the content of the movie itself was dogshit. They just kinda slapped me around with the aesthetics when there was nothing underneath.
I actually had the misfortune of doing the 5D movie experience to watch the Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie and I had the opposite experience. Amazing film, great acting, excellent screenplay, totally underrated action/comedy film. But the movie theater was ruining the experience because I felt like it was constantly trying to give me a concussion. Would have loved to see that in 70mm IMAX, on the condition that the seats stayed still and a nozzle wasn’t randomly spraying shit at me during action sequences.
Barbie was genuinely a good time and then people i was with and i talked for hours after it ended. And the atmosphere at the cinema that entire weekend was magical. Everyone wearing pink, saying “hi Barbie”…that’s real movie magic.
They walked the tightrope between Oscar Bait historical setpiece and genuinely compelling dramady. Lots of good musical numbers, everyone left in a good mood, shameless excuse to cosplay. Literally everything a good movie should be.
I’m not even mad if the lesson the studios take from this is to do a dozen 80s-era action figure throw back films, so long as they get folks as talented as Gerwig, Robbie, and Gosling in it.
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It did not. Complete waste of $20.
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D&D was so good! I didn’t see it in theatres because WoTC, the company behind D&D, made some terrible decisions in the months leading up to the movie and I didn’t want to support them. But I did see it later on and I absolutely loved it.
The sound design just made my ears bleed.
I liked the sound design specifically for this - the soundscape really supported oppenheimer’s moral conflict about his work by sounding conflicted and anxiety inducing.
Give me one hour of magic realism physics and one hour of “Y’all know about how my boy Julie Bob O. got mad pussy” anytime. Best 2 hours of movies last year.
The final hour didnt really do it for me to be fair.
Recently saw Poor Things, and I agree with your analysis mostly. Barbie is clearly taking risks, and the nomination makers probably despise that about it. It’s an example of financially successful ‘Trojan cinema’ in the context of US studio system.
I liked Poor Things too! It was really funny, beautifully shot, well acted… but it’s clearly an awards/indie film and it getting noms over Barbie which did it all in addition to to having a box office hit is what’s really frustrating.
Ya, it was good too. I think Barbie just did it better while being connected to the real world. ‘the point is to change it’ and all that.
PT with the fantasy vibes seemed like it wanted to keep the real world at arms length, which kinda dilutes the potent elements of it a bit too much imo. It really is the Oscar bait version of Barbie in many ways.
I found Barbie pretty underwhelming and did not understand the hype at all. I haven’t seen Oppenheimer but I don’t see the point in comparing them, the whole point of that meme was that the movies are opposites.
anyway the Oscars are dumb and you should not pay attention to them
I saw Ghostbusters. I am thinking Barbie was probbaly the same. It was just refreshing to see a movie where women are treated as humans. It is so rare that it is wild and refreshing to see. Especially with an audience of women who are enjoying that for the first time in living memory.
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I liked Barbie for the fact that it didn’t do naturalism/realism, but instead did something more akin to theatre.
well yeah, I don’t know why you’re looking for Barbie to get accolades from the academy rather than adweek.
I found them both to not be good.
whatever criticisms ……
no, they arent really. people can not like something because they dont like it or because it is white pop feminism. It isnt a binary thing.
I don’t understand your point. My position was those criticisms of Barbie are valid but they clearly apply way more to something like Oppie, so it getting awarded while Barbie gets snubbed is ultra shitty.
Both movies were shit
poor things too??
I liked Barbie fine, but I think Oppenheimer is a much better movie.
Edit: The real snub is Asteroid City not even getting a nomination for production design or Best Original Song. What the fuck does Wes Anderson have to do?
I thought Asteroid City was going to sweep the awards. It’s exactly the kind of safe bland toothless navel-gazing “let’s watch fictional actors put on a show!” oscarbait that usually does.
safe bland toothless navel-gazing
Not a perfect movie by any means but its definitely not that
of course it is, it’s directed by Wes Anderson
We love our Wes Anderson don’t we folks.
Films don’t need to have a certain political valence or whatever to be good, but I have a hard to imaging what kind of leftist is enjoying Barbie, a film of shrill liberal Détournement. And, boring didacticism aside, it was very ugly and outside of Ryan Gosling (who carried) I didn’t find it very fun or funny. (I loved Greta’s Little Women adaptation and enjoyed Lady Bird, so def disappointed.)
But I agree, Oppenheimer was bad, and the amount of people holding it out as “serious, thematic filmmaking” is disappointing (but maybe not surprising).
But I agree, Oppenheimer was bad, and the amount of people holding it out as “serious, thematic filmmaking” is disappointing (but maybe not surprising).
Couldn’t agree more. Not really sure what people saying its a “masterpiece” are on about
That first paragraph should be a new site tagline
Ok
It’s 2024 and a supposedly radical left wing website near you is discussing worthy/unworthy oscars
it’s fun to talk about bullshit hollywood popularity contests
Leftism means no fun allowed
fun is when mad about movies
Get out of my overturned tank.
Oh I’m sorry I didn’t realize people were trying to form the n+1th international here
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He literally nuts and says “i am become death, destroyer of worlds” bravo Nolan
award shows are industry masturbation
Talk to Me wasn’t nominated for Original Screenplay… Bottoms wasn’t nominated for Original Score…
wild
THEY WRE BOTH SO GOOOOOOOOD. I hate the academy.
Oppenheimer the middest movie I saw all year
Absolutely. To me its worse than mid because every moment is so self important. I felt like it was screaming “this is le serious movie! for le serious adult gentlesirs!”
I don’t care about some idiot savants and even less about an asshole vindictive senator. Give me more communist spies!
Give me more communist spies!
Totally! That moment when they reveal that one of the scientists had been a spy for the USSR, i was like “damn, can we see more of that guy!” I couldn’t remember which of the 80 physists they introduced us to for like 2 seconds a piece he was, but
