Sunday night the Golden Globes were presented, with The Artist taking home Best Picture in the Musical or Comedy category, while The Descendants grabbed that trophy in the Drama catagory. The Oscar nominations are due to come out next week, all of which me to ask...
Does any of this mean anything to you?
How much effect do the various award nominations and wins affect your viewing habits? For me, it has some impact, but not a great deal. Most years I end up seeing 3 or 4 of the Best Picture nominees prior to the Oscars. I'll confess that there are years where I've sometimes sought out films out of obligation to remain "in the loop" more than out of genuine, passionate interest. But then, in many ways, it's my job to stay abreast of current films as much as possible.
I assume there are a fair number of you who aren't currently working in the industry. Will an Oscar nomination for a particular film make you more likely to see it? Or are your viewing habits consistently dictated by your own tastes?
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
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Usually for me, half of the stuff that is nominated is not of interest to me. I'll probably NEVER watch THE ARTIST. It just looks artsy fartsy boring! In the television category, I like to see what is out there by seeing what's nominated, because sometimes I miss a show - even after a few years. I just started watching DEXTER and really like it. A couple years ago I missed RESCUE ME and loved it.
ReplyDeleteMy viewing habits are very consistently dictated by my own tastes. What matters most in terms of influencing me to see a movie I probably wouldn't otherwise see is the opinion of people such as yourself or critics I trust. Awards and nominations have minimal to no effect.
ReplyDeleteFor something that was borderline, such as The Descendants, I kind of wonder if I'm missing something. But I would probably only see it if someone I trusted (which means I share their tastes) says I missing something.
Another thing that would get me to see something out my comfort zone is the director. I was skeptical of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and was leaning towards passing. But I respect David Fincher so much that I gave it a shot. That's also why I watched something like The Prestige, which I wouldn't have if it weren't for Christopher Nolan.
Dave, you and I are very much of the same minds. The Prestige was one I would have probably not seen, but for Nolan, and I imagine The Descendants would have at least been a "wait for DVD" choice had there not been so much praise.
DeleteBut even Fincher AND an Oscar nomination couldn't get me to see Benjamin Button a few years back, so clearly even I have my limits.
Wow. I didn't know Benjamin Button was a Fincher movie. I'm surprised. I guess I have my limits as well because I had almost zero interest in that movie.
DeleteBut... awards are shiny!
ReplyDeleteLast year I made an effort to read or see the ten best picture Oscar nominees. It was more out of an effort to grok the idea of a 'good' movie than an 'award-winning' movie. ALSO my final project for data management analyzed the correspondence between award nominations and box-office. Big shock: there wasn't any.
However this analysis made me realize something else. If I'm going to see a movie, I have to have heard about it first. All the super-low-grossing films were completely unknown to me. While I don't seek out award-winning movies on principle, the process does illuminate a few I wouldn't have otherwise considered.
Do awards matter?
ReplyDeleteAwards SHOWS matter, partially because of water coler factor. I often watch/read on stuff that coworkers talk about - so whiter it is The Reader, Jersey Shore or Emma Stone's dress I better check it out.
To your earlier point re: Amazon Studios, let's say someone gets a Golden Globe now and their earlier work is dug out and slapped with a label '...From the Golden Globes winner...', I would give it a second look.
Whiter= whether
ReplyDeleteMy mom belongs to SAG and we get free movies each year so we watch them. I wouldn't have seen The Artist or The Descendants otherwise. I would probably wait until they came to a movie channel.
ReplyDeleteand this is why some people (akhm..me) won't see The Descendants (click on the link)
ReplyDeleteOne of the problems is that so many come in at the end of the year when time is limited. Some I want to see, some I watch to stay in the loop and also to have a more educated guess when it comes to picking winners at a party every year. I really don't know if I can sit through a silent movie though.
ReplyDeleteWithin the last couple years, I have made an effort to see most of the movies nominated. I think last year I saw 8 of the 10 movies nominated at the Oscars for best picture. I love to watch the Oscars, and I feel better about watching it having seen the movies being praised.
ReplyDeleteAs they almost never nominate anything I like, I don't give a flying squirrel's butt about awards. I don't even watch things like the Oscars or what have you. Too boring.
ReplyDelete@ Maddison Morris - that's a pretty poor reading of a reasonably good film. TLP seems to have never watched a Payne film and had some very odd expectations about what it would be about. And liking it makes you an awful person? Really? The film has emotional integrity. Clooney was very good. It was pretty funny in it's dry, low-key way. And trying to say it's a sexist film is like saying the same thing about The Iron Lady not focusing enough on the men around Thatcher.
ReplyDeleteIf Blogger had a Like button, I'd press it for this comment.
DeleteJeremy,
ReplyDeleteI don't have a dog in a fight here...it just an illustration that some might take their cues about what movies to see from unlike sources...
this particular blogger is playing a somewhat entertaining devil's advocate in re: pop culture in majority of his posts - sometimes it is not the content of a review but the specific tone of it...
Now off to a next topic: Do movie reviews matter?
@MM - Like with awards, to me reviews do not matter either. Most of the reviewers are horribly biased to the point they seem to be jealous of certain people. For instance - I forget his name but he's that blond movie reviewer with the 70s pornstache who did a HORRIBLE review of Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl based mostly on the diapering scene. Had he bothered to pay attention he would've known Ben Affleck's character up to that point had NEVER diapered his daughter, he didn't know how. He completely ignored her existence until that moment. So of COURSE he was going to make a mess of it. Duh!
ReplyDeleteBut this reviewer gives all of Kevin Smith's movies horrible reviews. Kevin could do a movie about what a wonderful, uplifting person this reviewer is, making him look like some combination of Jesus Christ, Gandhi, and Mother Teresa and the dude would STILL rant about what a horrible movie it is.
While others give the most boring, pretentious piles of puke raving reviews simply because they're "deep." Often I find these same movies nothing but the writer and director preaching their beliefs to me and I go to the movies to be entertained, not preached to or converted.
So I never base if I'm going to see something on reviews or awards. I base it on is it about something I'd find entertaining and does it have people in it I like. Yes, there are certain actors and actresses as well as directors who's movies I refuse to watch. George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Hallie Berry, Leo DiCaprio, Jessica Alba, Lindsey Lohan, and Britney Spears are all on my "Won't watch them even if you paid me a billion dollars PER MOVIE to watch" list for actors/actresses. Roman Polanski and Victor Salva are the directors I refuse to watch. Sorry, but your private life does matter to me and I won't watch stuff put out by a couple of perverts who rape children.
I am more flexible in re: to actors and things in general ( that's why I read this blog and that's why I might, following Jeremy's comment, not change the channel when The Descendants will be on...esp. if faced with an 'indecent proposal' of being paid a million/billion dollars to watch a movie...
ReplyDeleteJust like Ricki Gervais told Golden Globes producers last year: Never Say Never...