I'd like to hope it would allow them to extend it a bit more than just movies that were nominated for some other award.
Instead of constructing my own argument, I'll defer to our mutual friend, Mike, as quoted in Stuff Magazine (http://stuffboston.com/get/archive/2009/02/09/
oscar-wild.asp):
"Why does the Best Picture have to be some weepy drama released in the last few months of the year? Horror can be just as hard to do well, and Cloverfield was one of the most exciting, engaging, and suspenseful movies of 2008. And it was released in January! Take that, Academy."
That is interesting. In 2007, I would totally vote for Lars & the Real Girl. Did you see that? One of my favorite movies I've seen in the last few years.
HANK -- Well, okay, but can you really name many other movies from 2007 or 2008 that didn't get noms but should have? Knocked Up comes to mind, 'cause I really think that was a near-perfect comedy. Iron Man was a darned solid action picture. Otherwise nothing comes to mind beyond the list I compiled. But please remind me if you can think of anything. I can't quite agree with Mike on Cloverfield, which I found kinda dull (though I watched it on bootleg video, in bits and pieces on a cruise ship, so what do I know?). Very cool that he was quote in Stuff, though! The problem with genre pictures, of course, is we all have our favorite genres and we all have ones we avoid like the plague, y'know. Saw might be brilliant, but there's no way I would see it.
ALISON: I saw Lars and the Real Girl and I certainly liked it, but I can't say I loved it as much as you and some other people I know. It's so interesting how some films just make you glom on to them. When Amanda and I saw a preview of Juno we loved it, but thought it would be a small cult movie. While we were glad it did well, we kinda liked it when it was just OURS, y'know?
Yeah, that's definitely true that certain movies just strike a chord with certain people. For me, with Lars (SPOILER ALERT!), I really was surprised and touched by how the town ended up "playing along" with his delusion, because that was what he needed in order to heal. I thought that was very beautiful and unexpected.
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