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Best Film: WALL•E
THE NOMINEES
The Dark Knight
Milk
Synecdoche, New York
Wall•E
The Wrestler
YES
That's my vote.
I'm noticing a lot of variety in all the selections (even a Zodiac upset over There Will be Blood in the DVD section), but I voted for this film, too, and happy it won.
Wow. Go us!
Wall-E beat Charlie Kaufman, Aronofsky and Gus Van Sant at Xixax. Where are the fanboys ?
Pixar will release a bunch of other movies and Wall-E will just be another Pixar classic. I think The Wrestler is a better film and is more relevant.
As long as Milk didn't win though I'm fine.
i voted Dark Knight of course, but i really can't hate •n that little guy.
Makes sense that an animated film was the best movie of it's respective shitty year.
I didn't vote for it, but I'm okay that it won. It really does deserve it. I don't know how Pixar does it.
Nice surprise, i thought TDK had it locked, like mod I voted for TDK but this was pretty great, man we should send them a link so they see this....looked up at their site and there's a mail but it's for investors..
Quote from: Stefen on April 07, 2009, 09:11:30 AM
Makes sense that an animated film was the best movie of it's respective shitty year.
Really? I thought this year was great.
^I'm probably just jaded.
we might be making an academy kind of historic mistake here. i like walle as much as anyone else around here, but we had the chance to award synecdoche...
Quote from: Alexandro on April 07, 2009, 01:37:58 PM
we might be making an academy kind of historic mistake here. i like walle as much as anyone else around here, but we had the chance to award synecdoche...
Well, when historians are studying the Xixax archives and see how we screwed up and nominated a film that people will love forever instead of one that people sit through because they're "supposed to" we'll really kick ourselves, won't we?
(just kidding, historians won't exist in the future)
2009 was the year the fanboys died.
As much as I love Wall●E, TDK should have ruled.
Quote from: RegularKarate on April 07, 2009, 02:40:59 PM
Quote from: Alexandro on April 07, 2009, 01:37:58 PM
we might be making an academy kind of historic mistake here. i like walle as much as anyone else around here, but we had the chance to award synecdoche...
Well, when historians are studying the Xixax archives and see how we screwed up and nominated a film that people will love forever instead of one that people sit through because they're "supposed to" we'll really kick ourselves, won't we?
(just kidding, historians won't exist in the future)
i, for one, was completely captivated by synecdoche from beginning to end. i really loved it. on the other hand, Wall-e was also stunning, and the fact that synecdoche is a harder film to understand than wall e doesn't make it any more or less significant (to history. it actually does make it "signify" more things... but you know what i meant). compared to most mainstream cinema, both are really amazing pieces that would each deserve the "best" ranking here, but wall-e's win takes nothing way from synecdoche. consider also that wall e reached many more people, was a responsibly paced children's movie with a genuinely good message and incredible visuals, and probably got a lot of kids excited about going to the movies.
i'll never forget watching this with my little brother and seeing him as a seven year old pick out the themes of the film and really invest in Wall E and Eve... it's a very important film in its own right because it's perfectly communicative to its target audiences: people untrained in film analysis, and thoughtful people. if your argument against Wall-E is that it's too similar to other films, give me a recent example of a mainstream film that can fairly be said to have that kind of success. show me anything, especially in synecdoche, that can inspire a kid to have both a sense of responsibility and hope.
For the record, I liked Synecdoche a good deal. I was mostly laughing at the "historic mistake" bit.
yeah well, it's a matter of speaking but it is kind of like rocky vs. taxi driver or something along those lines. maybe that's unfair cause walle it's actually good while rocky is crap but I hope the point gets across that walle it's a pretty safe, predictable choice for a best film award, even if this doesn't amount to much else than a game.
WALLE SPOILERS
I said this when I saw Walle last year, and I have tried to see the whole film again but I just can't get past the beginning of the second half when they leave earth and go to space. What was a completely flawless silent science fiction comedy turns very rapidly into a contrived "message" film with predictable outcomes all around and boring sanitized human characters for whom we are supposed to feel some sort of sympathy because otherwise the happy ending wouldn't make any sense. really...the fat humans recover their will to work hard and earn shit in like two seconds, represented by the captain of the ship who is one of the worst and less engaging characters in pixar's history. really, the guy is a blank space, a nothing, hardly watchable as a character compared to walle and eva. and they all go back to earth and are on their way to recover the whole thing and it just feels like that's there because they wanted to give us some closure on everything. but we don't give a fuck about humans in this film. they're all idiots and who cares about them? the real story is about walle, a robot in love, and the second half of the film tries too hard to tie everything together and although it may leave everyone happy, it just throws away the ambition of the first half. and it's frustrating because pixar can pull off anything (as seen in ratatouille and the incredibles) and here it feels like they just chickened out on it. not that the film ends up being bad, but it's in no way a masterpiece that breaks new ground or anything. please.
on the other hand synecdoche it's a hard pill to swallow all around, and i've only seen it twice, but my feeling is that this is one of those special films that will grow and grow in time, as we all are able to digest everything in it. not to mention the ambition of it which is inmense.
in any case it's a matter of taste and I haven't been able to watch walle again in it's full lenght while right after I saw synecdoche for the first time I went and watched it again. and I'm planning to see it again as soon as I can. It's just a richer picture for me. that's all.
Quote from: reinhold on April 08, 2009, 08:12:59 AM
i, for one, was completely captivated by synecdoche from beginning to end. i really loved it. on the other hand, Wall-e was also stunning, and the fact that synecdoche is a harder film to understand than wall e doesn't make it any more or less significant (to history. it actually does make it "signify" more things... but you know what i meant). compared to most mainstream cinema, both are really amazing pieces that would each deserve the "best" ranking here, but wall-e's win takes nothing way from synecdoche. consider also that wall e reached many more people, was a responsibly paced children's movie with a genuinely good message and incredible visuals, and probably got a lot of kids excited about going to the movies.
i'll never forget watching this with my little brother and seeing him as a seven year old pick out the themes of the film and really invest in Wall E and Eve... it's a very important film in its own right because it's perfectly communicative to its target audiences: people untrained in film analysis, and thoughtful people. if your argument against Wall-E is that it's too similar to other films, give me a recent example of a mainstream film that can fairly be said to have that kind of success. show me anything, especially in synecdoche, that can inspire a kid to have both a sense of responsibility and hope.
Agreed. I thought Wall-e and Synedoche NY were the two best films of '08 but ultimately ended up voting for Wall-e in the Xixaxies for some of the same reasons as you. I also maintain that the first 30-40 minutes were pure cinematic perfection and comparable to some of age-defying pieces of
City Lights or
Modern Times. The sequences of Wall-e on earth were so strong that the fact that the second half of the film was unable to maintain the same impeccable standard is irrelevant to it's consideration for best film. The radical shift in scope between the two halves is something to be respected in itself and a very daring way to give younger audiences some earnt perspective on the overall themes of responsibility for your environment apathy inducing virtual-reality.
Quote from: Pas RapPixar will release a bunch of other movies and Wall-E will just be another Pixar classic. I think The Wrestler is a better film and is more relevant.
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the greater relevance of The Wrestler over Wall-e. Or Synedoche NY for that matter. I thought The Wrestler was excellent but excluding TDK I found it to be the least personally relevant film of the bunch. There's something voyeuristic about the film that works conceptually but a bit too distancing.
Quote from: Redlum on April 08, 2009, 02:14:25 PM
Quote from: Pas RapPixar will release a bunch of other movies and Wall-E will just be another Pixar classic. I think The Wrestler is a better film and is more relevant.
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the greater relevance of The Wrestler over Wall-e. Or Synedoche NY for that matter. I thought The Wrestler was excellent but excluding TDK I found it to be the least personally relevant film of the bunch. There's something voyeuristic about the film that works conceptually but a bit too distancing.
I suck at film theory and such but all I can say is that for me The Wrestler dealt with more personally relevant themes like redemption, growing old, pride etc. Also it's the first (I think) film that shows pro wrestling as it is, and it is a world that I've always been fond of.
The Wrestler also is pretty special in the way that redemption for the character is ruined not because of some outside circumstance or the intervention of someone. No, it's ruined because the character himself is a loser. Yet it's hard to blame him because he's so loveable.
Wall-e deals with ecology and pollution, which are important current themes I guess. But they don't appeal to me emotionally. And the robot love is good and everything but it's hard for me to relate to animated robots (not because it's ridiculous to relate to that but because I personally can't)