Printable version of thread

Posted by: jsilv 1st April 2016, 06:13 PM

Hi there and welcome to the final round of Buzzjack's Oscars of the Decade! Please thoroughly inspect the list of finalists in each of the six categories below and send me a PM with your ordered top three from each shortlist by April 10th 2016.

Something along the lines of this please:
+3
+2
+1

BEST PICTURE
Little Miss Sunshine
Juno
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Up
Toy Story 3
The Help
Les Misérables
Her
Boyhood
Room

BEST DIRECTOR
Martin Scorsese – The Departed
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – No Country for Old Men
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
James Cameron – Avatar
Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
Martin Scorsese – Hugo
Ang Lee – Life of Pi
Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Lenny Abrahamson – Room

BEST LEADINING ACTOR
Leonardo DiCaprio – Blood Diamond
Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood
Sean Penn – Milk
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker
Colin Firth – The King's Speech
Brad Pitt – Moneyball
Hugh Jackman – Les Misérables
Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant

BEST LEADING ACTRESS
Judi Dench – Notes on a Scandal
Marion Cotillard – La Vie en rose
Kate Winslet – The Reader
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady
Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
Judi Dench – Philomena
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Brie Larson – Room

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alan Arkin – Little Miss Sunshine
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Charlie Wilson's War
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds
Geoffrey Rush – The King's Speech
Jonah Hill – Moneyball
Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained
Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave
J. K. Simmons – Whiplash
Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett – Notes on a Scandal
Saoirse Ronan – Atonement
Amy Adams – Doubt
Mo'Nique – Precious
Helena Bonham Carter – The King's Speech
Jessica Chastain – The Help
Anne Hathaway – Les Misérables
Lupita Nyong'o – 12 Years a Slave
Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl

Thank you

Posted by: Ultraviolence1989 1st April 2016, 06:15 PM

Will do this later!

Posted by: jsilv 7th April 2016, 05:41 PM

I'd love at least one other vote in this other than my own May have to extend the deadline on this then...

Posted by: Regina 7th April 2016, 05:57 PM

Done!

Posted by: Jonjo 7th April 2016, 07:34 PM

Oops. I shall do this some point tonight.

Posted by: Jonjo 7th April 2016, 09:39 PM

Done

Supporting Actor was insanely difficult! I wish I coulda voted Christoph Waltz for both those films, but Michael & Heath were just FAR too good to ignore!

Posted by: jsilv 9th April 2016, 01:09 PM

Thanks to all the new voters, four votes is better than one but more please

Posted by: Ultraviolence1989 9th April 2016, 01:11 PM

I'll definitely vote later today!

Posted by: Ultraviolence1989 9th April 2016, 05:03 PM

Voted

Some of those were so tough!

Posted by: jsilv 12th April 2016, 07:13 AM

Results might start tonight with the two supporting categories so get any last minute votes in if you like. Got six so far.

Posted by: Josh. 12th April 2016, 06:25 PM

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS


4. Jessica Chastain – The Help (4)
=. Lupita Nyong'o - 12 Years a Slave (4)
6. Cate Blanchett - Notes On a Scandal (3)
7. Mo'Nique – Precious (2)
=. Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl (2)
9. Patricia Arquette - Boyhood (0)
=. Helena Bonham Carter - The King's Speech (0)

So our first non-medal winners of the night come in the form of these seven supporting actresses. I'm sure they won't be too sad though as they all have Buzzjack Oscars in their awards cabinets now and most of them real Oscars as well
Two ladies ended up finishing with no votes at all unfortunately. Patricia Arquette actually won the Oscar, a very touching performance playing a mother across 12 years of time. I remember being flawed by her monologue on how quick life goes by which was definitely the hardest hitting moment of that film although I can see why she failed to pick up votes here as her role is not the most showy. Queen HBC also failed to get any love in the final here either, a well-performed role but she didn't have much to work with other than being royal and posh (although she did do it well). I'm much more a fan of her kooky roles.
The next two actresses also tied for seventh place. Mo'Nique was my top choice for a while but I changed it at the last minute, she's petrifying throughout the majority of the film but then she knocks it out of the park with her monologue towards the end as to why she treated Precious like that all along. A suprisingly touching moment despite you despising her still, it's not hard to see why she won the real Oscar with such an emotional scene. Talking of emotion, Alicia Vikander brought that in spades to her performance in The Danish Girl. The story really focuses on her life just as much and you feel completely conflicted as you want Einar to be in the body he belongs in but at the same time, you feel terrible for Gerda's life being altered so dramatically too. She had some great emotional crying scenes but was also a lot of fun in the role and had some funny moments too.
Cate Blanchett is one of my favourite actresses still working as she never fails to put in a good performance. I thought she was fantastic at playing a rather shy school teacher for most of this film but the moment she realises she's been betrayed, she completely flips and that's when she really gets her moment to shine.
Just missing out on a medal are two other very touching performances. Jessica Chastain received more love here than Octavia Spencer (the eventual real-life winner) and I certainly agree with that decision. I've always really liked her as an actress and she blew me away in this when she has a miscarriage in The Help, I really started to tear up and a lot of that was down to her performance. I think Lupita probably has one of the more universally critically acclaimed performances of the decade, she plays an abused slave and the only bad thing I can say is that it's a shame she's not in more of the movie. I think her soap monologue is the moment she clinched the Oscar, an incredibly powerful moment. I've been sad that she's only really done voice roles since her win but I hope we get to see her return to the Oscars as a nominee soon.

We have Anne Hathaway, Saoirse Ronan and Amy Adams battling it out in the final three so make sure to check in later and see who steals the Buzzjack Oscar of the Decade!

Posted by: Josh. 12th April 2016, 07:19 PM

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR


04. Mark Rylance - Bridge of Spies (4)
05. Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds (2)
=. Geoffrey Rush - The King's Speech (2)
07. Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained (1)
08. Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine (0)
=. Philip Seymour Hoffman - Charlie Wilson's War (0)
=. Jonah Hill - Moneyball (0)

Quite a lot of these I haven't seen so my commentary here may be a bit scarce, sorry!
Our first drop-out comes from Jonah Hill who managed to discard his usual funny man character and get in a few serious films, so far earning him two Oscar nominations. I haven't seen Moneyball but my Dad owns it on DVD so I'll get around to it one day. The late Philip Seymour Hoffman also receives no votes, I've not seen this film either but I do think he's incredibly talented and I would like to see it one day soon. Alan Arkin also finishes joint last, I wasn't really impressed with his performance in Little Miss Sunshine. I know this is the supporting category but he hardly had any lines and didn't do anything special with the ones he did have so eh, not shocked to see you all leave him out of your top three.
The two Oscar-winning Christoph Waltz performances drop out in the next three, I've not seen either of them in full but I do quite like him in some films so I'm sure he's very deserving of winning two.
Although outshined by Colin Firth in the majority of his scenes, Geoffrey Rush manages to inject a lot of heart into The King's Speech. Not the most special performance ever but I voted for him as I've not seen that many from this list.
Rounding up this part is recent winner Mark Rylance, a good performance but probably my least favourite of the recent year apart from Tom Hardy. He was impressive but I don't know if his character was the most interesting ever and I usually tend to gravitate towards the more showy or emotional roles. He also does the voice for a character on Bing which my two year-old sister is addicted to so I'm a bit annoyed by his voice now He seems like a very nice guy in interviews and awards ceremonies though so I'm glad he won.

Fighting it out for first place are Michael Fassbender, J.K. Simmons and Heath Ledger!

Posted by: Josh. 12th April 2016, 08:27 PM

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS


01. Anne Hathaway – Les Misérables (10)
02. Amy Adams – Doubt (5)
=. Saoirse Ronan - Atonement (5)

So our winner is Anne Hathaway, I'd sort of forgotten how great she was in this as I haven't seen it in a while but I recently watched I Dreamed a Dream on YouTube and realised how fantastic she is. It's not easy to cry and sing at the same time anyway but she manages to bring so much emotion to the role. A very stunning performance and definitely one of the highlights of the film in mine and Buzzjack's opinion.
Joint silver goes to both Amy Adams and Saoirse Ronan, evidently Regina's campaigning has worked to get Amy Adams some recognition. I've seen four of her Oscar nominations (not seen The Master) and I must admit that Doubt is my least favourite performance of hers. She's still very good but certainly she gets a bit whiny in my opinion, she has a good distraught face though which she utilises well in this, I just feel like Meryl Streep did the better job throughout this film. Junebug is definitely my favourite of her performances, so heart-breaking :'(
New favourite Saoirse Ronan also manages to do well here, she does a solid job for a child actress and you do come away properly hating her character for being a silly child so props to her for that. Not her best performance though imo as she's way better in Brooklyn for me.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR


01. Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight (12)
02. J. K. Simmons – Whiplash (7)
03. Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave (5)

I bet it comes as a shock to nobody but Heath Ledger wins by quite a way here, I've never seen The Dark Knight but the whole Nolan trilogy is high on my watchlist (I've seen TDKR but obvs I didn't rly get it). I've seen a few clips of Heath's performance though and it does look very interesting, he seems to play the crazy baddie fantastically and I love the scene of him walking away from the exploding hospital in his nurse's outfit a lot.
My first choice, J.K. Simmons places in second here. An utterly petrifying music teacher, he really puts you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Full of quick and witty insults and plenty of rage, this was definitely one of the highlight supporting performances of the decade.
Finally, coming in third is the equally scary Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave, playing an abusive slave owner, he is scary due to the way he treats them with such little guilt. Perhaps sometimes forgotten due to the powerhouse performances from Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong'o, I'm sure he'll be grateful that Buzzjack has placed his performance this high.

Posted by: Jonjo 12th April 2016, 09:06 PM

Heath fully deserving! However, Lupita was royally robbed of that (As good as Anne was <3)

Posted by: Regina 12th April 2016, 09:40 PM

Amy >>> irrelevant others.

Posted by: Josh. 13th April 2016, 10:04 AM

I do think Anne was my favourite on the list but Lupita really should have done better than fourth. Way more powerful / moving / real than Amy and Saoirse imo.
In fact I think they were my two least favourites on the shortlist despite both being very good still!

Posted by: Ultraviolence1989 13th April 2016, 02:38 PM

Perfect winner in each section, especially Anne

Posted by: Josh. 17th April 2016, 08:18 PM

BEST LEADING ACTOR


03. Hugh Jackman – Les Misérables (3)
=. Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave (3)
=. Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker (3)
06. Colin Firth - The King's Speech (2)
07. Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant (1)
=. Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond (1)
09. Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood (0)
=. Brad Pitt - Moneyball (0)

We have a few actors coming in joint third, Hugh Jackman for his excellent emotion and singing, Chiwetel Ejiofor for his very powerful performance and Jeremy Renner thanks to Regina too (not seen this).
Colin Firth's portrayal of a real character earned him the Oscar in real life but only sixth place here. He was very impressive at changing himself into a royal and pulled off the stutter very well too.
Leo has a lot of fans but neither gained much love here. I've seen Blood Diamond before but don't remember much about it. The Revenant earned him his first ever Oscar but apart from a lot of physical acting, I can understand why it's not as loved as the others here.
I've not seen either of the nul-pointers here but Moneyball is sitting on my DVD shelf waiting to be watched so...

Sean Penn vs. Eddie Redmayne: Dawn of the Buzzjack Oscar (COMING SOON!)

Posted by: Josh. 17th April 2016, 08:25 PM

BEST LEADING ACTRESS


04. Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side (4)
05. Brie Larson - Room (3)
=. Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook (3)
07. Judi Dench - Philomena (2)
08. Judi Dench – Notes on a Scandal (1)
09. Kate Winslet - The Reader (0)
=. Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady (0)

Sandra Bullock tends to get bad reviews nowadays for her performance in The Blind Side but you guys seem to like it, she was very likeable and had a good accent but I understand why people have turned against it in comparison to other recent winners.
Brie Larson, the most recent winner manages fifth place here. She gave a very touching performance in Room showing all the emotional range of a kidnapped mother struggling with her own problems whilst looking after her soon too. Jennifer Lawrence also comes in fifth, her performance in SLP made her one of the youngest ever winners, she is pretty great in this and a very funny character so I'm glad she won although I prefer her in American Hustle.
Two Judi Dench performances drop out next, Philomena is the more moving of the two making me tear up a few times but Notes on a Scandal is my personal favourite where she plays a very scheming old lady excellently (you never really know whether to hate her or feel bad because she just doesn't want to be lonely).
Finally, in joint last is Kate Winslet (just ordered this online today so will have to watch it soon) and Meryl Streep. Much like Colin Firth, her performance as a historical figure gained a lot of praise for their transformations.

Julianne Moore, Marion Cotillard and Natalie Portman left to battle it out now!

Posted by: Josh. 17th April 2016, 08:48 PM

BEST LEADING ACTOR



01. Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything (8)
02. Sean Penn – Milk (6)

So Eddie Redmayne is the winner of your Oscar of the decade. He was definitely my first choice because you can really tell he thinks of each little movement he makes. He managed to make the disability scenes seem so real with the right balance of charm and humour too. Definitely one of my favourite performances in a long time.
I haven't seen Milk yet although I bought it the other day and it's top of my watchlist. I'll get around to it but it is apparently another big transformation. I remember people being upset that he won though, apparently it should have been Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler that year or something?

BEST LEADING ACTRESS


01. Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose (9)
02. Natalie Portman – Black Swan (7)
03. Julianne Moore – Still Alice (6)


I wasn't expecting enough people to have seen La Vie En Rose for Marion to win here despite it being regarded as one of the best performances of all time but luckily for her, I watched it last week and ended up falling in love with her performance and tipping it to #1. If I'd delayed watching it then Natalie Portman would have actually won. Marion perfectly captured Edith at all stages of our life, especially impressive during the scenes of her in her later years (also because she was so funny as she got older). Definitely one of the best actresses around at the moment, I watched Two Days, One Night last week too and she was so impressive in that as well.
Poor Natalie Portman losing out due to my last minute voting changes but she's still really fantastic in Black Swan. Another universally acclaimed performance due to her unnerving portrayal of Nina's slowly crumbling due to the immense pressure of her ballet role. The film is so suspenseful and the erratic behaviour of Nina is only made more compelling by Natalie.
Julianne Moore slots into the bronze medal position. She seems to get lots of 'she only won because she's not won before' comments but she would have been my pick that year too and I actually put her in my top three of the decade too. It was just one of those performances that moves you so much because you see how much she loses from being a gifted linguistics professor to struggling to remember things which is so frustrating for her. This also had one of the most emotional scenes in a movie ever for me (the filming of the video of where all of her tablets are hidden in case she can't recall the information :'( ) and Julianne delivered it all in such a heart-breaking way.

Posted by: Ultraviolence1989 17th April 2016, 09:30 PM

Think everyone I voted for in both those categories went out in the first batch!

Posted by: Jonjo 17th April 2016, 09:40 PM

Julianne's performance is so under appreciated. Bored of the generic "they only won coz they hadn't before" comments. If they actually SAW 'Still Alice', they would not be saying that. One of the best performances I've seen by anyone in a long, LONG time.

Posted by: Josh. 24th April 2016, 07:56 PM

Lol, these results are coming. On either Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of this coming week. Promise !

Posted by: Josh. 25th April 2016, 07:05 PM

BEST PICTURE


01. Toy Story 3 (9)
02. Her (8)
03. Juno (4)
=. Up (4)
05. The Help (3)
=. Little Miss Sunshine (3)
=. Les Misérables (3)
08. Room (2)
09. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (0)
=. Boyhood (0)

Toy Story 3 sadly wins Best Picture of the decade, I've said my piece on Toy Story before and although this is my favourite of the trilogy (it is legitimately petrifying at times), I still wouldn't put it above most of this list. Her is my favourite for being so unique and hard-hitting at the same time, props to the film for making such a crazy concept feel so real too. Juno and Up come joint third, Juno is pretty funny and a lot of fun to watch so I can see why it's so popular. I've also said I'm not a big fan of Up but I can see why the opening montage touches so many people. Three films come in joint fifth, I appreciated The Help a lot due to its powerhouse performances and how it focused on the less extreme end of racism too (in comparison to stuff like 12 Years a Slave) whilst still being so completely apalling, it's so great when Octavia gets her own back. Little Miss Sunshine is cute and has a fair few laughs too but ultimately I don't think it sticks with you as much as some of these other films. Les Mis is a fantastic adaptation of the classic musical, utterly heart-breaking at times and never boring despite its length. I was the only one who voted for Room but it's already one of my all-time favourites, very powerful and so thrilling throughout. Not seen Curious Case but looks very interesting. However, so did Boyhood but I ended up being bored for the majority of it so not sad to see it come joint last here.

BEST DIRECTOR


01. Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan (10)
02. Richard Linklater – Boyhood (8)
03. Lenny Abrahamson – Room (5)
04. Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave (3)
=. Martin Scorcese - Hugo (3)
=. James Cameron - Avatar (3)
07. Ang Lee – Life of Pi (1)
08. Martin Scorcese - The Departed (0)
=. Joel and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men (0)
=. Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire (0)

Thankfully Darren Aronofsky wins here, no other director has made me feel so uneasy and tense the whole way through a film in a long time. Richard Linklater definitely had an interesting and unique filming his film over 12 years but ultimately I did find it a bit dull, props to him for doing something different though so I did chuck a few points his way. Lenny Abrahamson managed to get a fantastic performance from a very young child actor as well as overcome the problems of filming in such a confined space so he deserved all his praise for sure. Steve McQueen managed to make 12 Years a Slave stick in the minds of everyone for years afterwards. And finally, James Cameron took visual effects to the next level with Avatar, still impressive visually but not really the most interesting direction aside from that so it doesn't seem to have held up as well. The other five I haven't seen unfortunately

Posted by: Ultraviolence1989 25th April 2016, 07:07 PM

YASSSSSSS TOY STORY 3 Favourite film of all time so delighted at that winning

Also glad Aronofsky won, would have probably been my top choice had I seen Black Swan in time for this!

Thanks for this Josh, has been really interesting