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Monday, October 2, 2017

There Will Be Blood... and CinSpecs

Oscar winner for a reason.

Hey guys! I've been meaning to stop by for a while and mention a few things, so here it goes. After a drought of almost a decade, I rewatched There Will Be Blood on a whim recently, and it blew me away. Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece, really, and I never thought I'd say that. I'll admit my reaction to Daniel Day-Lewis' performance was far more enthusiastic as well. He's amazing. I suspect my previous stance of great-but-not-GREAT was somewhat influenced by his dominance that awards season, but his success was totally deserved. In short, Anderson and Day-Lewis are geniuses, and I now consider the film an all-time favorite. So, the 2007 CinSpecs are due for an update. Several, actually.

That brings me to a little announcement. Not only will I be updating the CinSpecs, but I've decided to tighten up the rules for my awards, since eligibility has always been a predicament. I'm now going to place films according to their original theatrical release dates, EXCLUDING festival premieres. (IMDb still makes this a little annoying, but it'll be easier on the whole.) For instance, films like Mud and The Place Beyond the Pines will stay in 2013, as they only played in festivals in 2012. However, The Hurt Locker and Two Lovers will move from 2009 to 2008, since they actually premiered theatrically outside of the US a year earlier. Some of my ballots will really be shaken up - new nominees AND winners. I'll start posting updated ballots soon.

In the meantime, I've updated 2016's ballot. I finally saw Certain Women, so that's on there. I've also seen The Unknown Girl, Personal Shopper, and It's Only the End of the World, which are all eligible for that ballot. None made the cut, though. In addition, I've moved The Lobster and April and the Extraordinary World to 2015 and Beauty and the Beast to 2014.

I've posted the five new lineups that changed on my 2016 ballot below, or you can always just look at my ballot again. I'll answer your comments over there soon as well. Thanks! :)





8 comments:

  1. Great stuff, I look forward to the new CinSpecs! I agree, release dates always make awards confusing. I've always gone by the Oscar rule of thumb: the release date is the year the film publicly debuted in an American theater. So that means The Hurt Locker would stay in 2009 for me, but I totally get where you're coming from.

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    1. Thanks man. First release will be a cut-and-dry method for me, so it's a little easier. But having The Hurt Locker in 2008 or The Immigrant in 2013 is still kind of weird.

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  2. Glad to see you posting again! I've missed you.

    There Will Be Blood is awesome. I should've hated that movie and I loved every moment of it.

    Still bitter about the lack of Oscar nom for Paul Dano though.

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    1. Thanks, Brittani!

      Paul Dano - spoiler, he's getting a CinSpec nom now. :)

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  3. Great update. I really wish Williams won for Manchester. Her work was so quietly devastating. Silence is a film I need to watch again. I’m glad Scorsese got it make it, but it was a challenging film.

    And I STILL haven’t see Toni Erdmann. I have to ASAP!

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    1. Williams was amazing. Silence, frankly, devastated me. Faith-based auteur works are right up my alley, and this was no different. If I didn't want to give Moonlight the win so badly, I could've given Silence Best Picture. That's partly why it wins Best Adapted Screenplay - so Marty could get an award for it.

      See Toni Erdmann, if you haven't yet! ;)

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