The closing of the New York Film Festival rang the battle against the Olympics： Snowden documentary was amazing
Special feature of 1905 film network The 52nd New York International Film Festival closed on October 12th, Beijing time. During the 16-day exhibition, although only a few films were world premieres, paul thomas anderson’s and david fincher’s high-expectation films undoubtedly set off a new wave of Oscar foresight. Documentary, edward snowden’s documentary that exposed the secret of American surveillance is also amazing. In the two days since the film was shown, it has caused heated discussion in all walks of life in the United States, and several major Hollywood film media have officially classified it as a potential player for the best documentary at this year’s Oscar.
Inherent vice commented on the double harvest of word-of-mouth box office of Gone Girl.
At the Venice Film Festival in August this year, Barbara, the chairman of the festival, was obsessed with inherent vice and Gone Girl, which were "robbed" by the New York Film Festival. After the Toronto Film Festival ended earlier, many media were vague about this year’s Oscar situation, and many of them also considered that these two "highlights" had not been shown, which showed that these two films had high expectations in the industry. At the end of the New York Film Festival, "Gone Girl" ushered in a double harvest of word-of-mouth box office, while "inherent vice" was polarized because it was too surreal.
Inherent vice is paul thomas anderson’s latest stoner film noir, adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s novel of the same name in 2009. Because Pynchon’s novels have always been obscure and complicated, and they are typical absurd literary features, adapting them into films is a great test of the director’s skill. Therefore, it is not surprising that the film "inherent vice" won the polarized evaluation of film critics after its world premiere at the New York Film Festival. The reporter of Cinemablend, a well-known American film website, thinks that although the film is a typical stoner film, it tries its best to present strange and stupid interesting elements, but the plot is not attractive enough for people to see in the clouds and make the audience unknown so.[Click to view detailed film reviews]. However, "Variety" magazine believes that the film has cut down a lot of off-topic space and useless dialogue in the novel, while perfectly retaining the theme of the story, which is already very good. Photographer robert elswit’s skillful photography and magnificent color scenery also have extra points. Compared with Anderson’s previous works, the overall style of inherent vice is more biased, which is quite different from harmony.
In contrast, Gone Girl, directed by david fincher and starring Ben Affleck, is less controversial. Ten days after the official opening of the painting on October 3, it has won 78.3 million US dollars (about 480 million RMB) at the box office in the United States. As the opening film of the New York Film Festival, the film made its world premiere on September 26th, and immediately received rave reviews, and it was officially classified as a strong contender for this year’s Oscar.[Click to view detailed film reviews]However, in fact, this kind of love thriller film has not been shortlisted for the Oscar category, with the exception of 1987, which was shortlisted because of its great achievements at the box office. Now it seems that Gone Girl is likely to follow suit. According to foreign media reviews, Ben Affleck in Gone Girl continues his excellent acting skills, and several supporting actors, kim dickens, Carrie Coon and neil patrick harris, are also brilliant. The script adapted by the original author Gillian Flynn is impeccable. Deadline film critic Peter Hammond thinks that this film is to David Finch, just as it is to billy wilder and Hitchcock. If the later publicity is in place, there is no problem to be nominated for the best picture Oscar.
Snowden’s documentary "citizenfour" is a stunning addition to the Oscar battle.
This year, Steve James, Alan Hicks, and Gabe Polsky have already produced several powerful players in the Oscar documentary. However, the appearance of citizenfour by female directors Laura Poitras at the New York Film Festival still set off a strong public opinion upsurge, mainly because citizenfour is a film about edward snowden. The former CIA employee is world-famous for exposing the US Prism Gate project and exposing the US surveillance secrets. In addition to recording his life in Hongkong, Macau and Russia, the documentary also appeared in the former Guardian reporter Glenn greenwald, who helped him report the important secrets of the US National Security Agency. Their names are enough to attract the attention of citizenfour.
Citizenfour, which was shown at the New York Film Festival on the evening of October 11th, North America time, is the final part of the documentary trilogy directed by Laura Poitras. The first is "Iraq, My Motherland" in 2006, which recorded the life of the Iraqi people under American occupation and was nominated for the Oscar that year. The second documentary, in 2010, is related to bin Laden’s Al Qaeda and the military court at Guantanamo Bay. This time, "citizenfour" was directed by Petas by Snowden himself. Judging from the premiere reaction, it was considered to be the most exquisite of the three documentaries, and it was also the "most personal" documentary made by Petas.
Looking back on the history of Oscar for so many years, documentaries like citizenfour that question the American government are very suitable for the judges of the Academy. For example, The Panamanian Trick in 1991, The Waco Massacre in 1997, Fog of War in 2003, gasland in 2007, in 2010 and 2012, all of which were nominated for the best documentary. In addition, the popularity of this film by foreign media in the past few days after the premiere has greatly improved the chances of citizenfour’s impact on the Oscar.
The potential films are generally too serious. This year’s Oscar may be an "unexpected" dark horse.
The closing film of this New York Film Festival is from Alexsandro, which was shown at the Venice Film Festival before and will be released in North America this Friday. Birdman is not a good film in the normal sense, but it belongs to a more fun film, which is really rare in this year’s gloomy films.
Throughout this year’s Oscar-winning players, we will find that many of them should belong to the "melancholy" faction, such as the current powerful generals,, and, although they are admirable films, they are hard to bring people a good mood. Including several "good pictures" movies to be released soon. Tim burton’s, J·C· Chandor’s and Angelina Jolie’s are all excellent works, but none of them look pleasant. Even musicals, for example, are dark and melancholy.
Some critics believe that the news we saw in 2014 is probably Ebola virus, Gaza war, Syria and so on. It is no wonder that movies are so sad this year. But perhaps such a dense and serious theme will prompt the college to choose some "unexpected" films, such as Gone Girl mentioned above, and Nolan’s new film which will be released at the end of the year. After all, there have indeed been movies in the Oscar nominations for best picture, such as "Harmony" and "Harmony", which are more than 108,000 miles away from the taste of the academy.
Everyone likes to watch movies that please the audience, and the Oscar judges are no exception. There are no standards that stipulate what kind of films college voters need to nominate. In fact, the more diverse the film types, the better the whole competition process will look.
The nomination list for the 87th Oscar will be announced on January 15th, 2015, and the award ceremony will be held on February 22nd, 2015. Whether there will be a "dark horse" nomination that does not take the usual path this year, let us wait and see.