The debate, not the winners

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Two days ago Red Carpet District's Kris Tapley said I was "back on the 'Oscar prognostication should be about spotlighting quality' thing again." No -- last Thursday's post was about how the Oscar race is about the debate -- pushing and ragging on this and that contender and what the various views and convictions that emerge say about who and what we are -- and not the winners, which nobody except Oscar queens ever remembers.

comment #1

Gaydos says ...

Just chatted tonight with an Academy voter who saw "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" for the first time and couldn't wait to talk about it as they were completely blown away. They ranked it just above "Blood" as the one and two best of the year.

It reminded me that this probably is the most underrated film of the year, even though a dozen major critics hailed it as a major return to form for Lumet, it's got a small company backing it, it's finished out of the money with many Guilds and Critics groups and I think many pundits have given up on it as a serious contender for Oscar glory. Which may be right, but it's still a damn shame.

Thankfully, AFI did include it in the ten best of the year list (And thanks to Senor Wells for putting it in his top five).

And the LA Critics are honoring Lumet for his career.

But screw that, let's give Sidney some love for making one of the best American film noirs ever made, WITHOUT copying film noirs of the past. And the Kelly Masterson script is just a brilliant, dark jewel, welding an O'Neill family tragedy with a classic heist tale. And Hoffman has never been better. Which is saying A LOT.

Anyway, hearing this voter go crazy for it the way I did months ago when I saw it at the New Orleans Film Festival gave me a glimmer of hope.

There's one best pic vote; 999 to go.

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