Dreamgirls IS "Brokeback Mountain 2006"- Page 2

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 7:35pm

Babel will not win but it very well may be nominated and right now I'd put my Best Picture noms as

Dreamgirls
The Departed
The Queen
Little Miss Sunshine

and the fifth slot will either go to Babel, United 93 or Letters from Iwo Jima but like I said Little Miss Sunshine is on very shaky ground.

And frankly, Dreamgirls is losing steam and the result is that there never really was an steam. There was an enormous buzz for the film that raised the expectations so high that very few films could fulfill them and when the critical reaction did not match what the expectations were, that's when the buzz dulled. It is doing well at the box office and that is a major factor also for the awards.

Let me be on the record saying I would love for Dreamgirls to win and found it to be an excellent film overall.

Posted: 1/14/07 at 10:21pm

You know, it really is an interesting phenomenon. I hav enot talked to a single "real person" (i.e. someone who attends films occasionally, is not film obessed, doesn't read the trades) who hasn't just loved Dreamgirls. There was an unnatural buzz around the film that would be impossible to live up to.

I do think it has a good shot at best picture. It will be the candidate of the older audience (and God knows there are a LOT of old academy members).

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 11:57pm

Agreed. Dreamgirls has a definite shot and I would even say is still the favorite but the margin has slimmed considerably. The Departed is gaining some ground but it is also a thriller which is one of the less favored genres.

[broadway86]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 12:25am

The other common factor is that they are both overrated films.

Whatev.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 1:57am

I do find THE DEPARTED to be overrated.

Yes, it's fantastic. It's compelling, it's exciting.

But so was DIE HARD.

[robbiej]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 12:21pm

I saw THE DEPARTED yesterday. My friends and I all enjoyed it, be we all felt we've seen that movie before, and done better. The one movie I kept thinking of while watching it was L.A. CONFIDENTIAL. I know that, stylistically, they are nowhere close to each other. But as for a smart, fast-paced, dirty cop/clean cop thriller, CONFIDENTIAL had an inevitability about it that made it a spectacular ride. Even at the end of THE DEPARTED, I still felt unsure of who everyone really was and what the point was. And not in a good way. Not in the way that makes me think about broader ideas and concepts in a different way. To be sure, it was a fun, exciting film. But on the level of Academy Award Winning pictures? Not for me. I'd still tick off DREAMGIRLS (of the films that I've seen, that is).

[bschneid76]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 1:57pm

If Dreamgirls is losing "steam" as it were, they why is it still on the top 5 Box Office Champs??? It might be losing steam for the voters, but I don't think the buzz is being lost with the Cinema going public. Plus any movie (and this was a first for me) that has the audience applauding at the end credits and when Ms. Hudson's name appears IS a Best Picture. Though I have yet to see Babel appear at our cinema's I am sure it is also a top notch film as I have no doubt The Departed, and I say give Scorsese the award!

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:07pm

Martin Scorcese better not win the Oscar. I hate "lifetime achievement" Oscars.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:10pm

I see him winning it this time around, munk. Prepare yourself.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:11pm

I know he will. It's just so dumb.

I hope BABEL wins instead. The direction was impeccable.

[Craig]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:15pm

Dreamgirls will never be Brokeback Mountain until Nathan Lane does the talk show circuit recreating scenes and repeating the a catch phrase such as "I wish I knew how to quit you"

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:18pm

Well at least we know which potential BP nominee Jake Gyllenhaal will be voting for.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:18pm

if marty don't win dis award, expect a coked up marty, bobby, leo, marky, jack and matty to rip dat freakin' place apaht.

[robbiej]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:23pm

'expect a coked up marty, bobby, leo, marky, jack and matty to rip dat freakin' place apaht.'

I love when actors act all big-c*cked badass. I'm like, "Please, Marys, you play dress up for a living!"

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:23pm

Scorsese's next project is a film about Theodore Roosevelt starring DiCaprio as Teddy.

THAT sounds more memorable and Oscar worthy than this smart crime flick.

[robbiej]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:33pm

This next sentence may send poor Cruel_Sandwich into a tailspin, but those are the risks one has to take:

I simply do not like Scorcese films.

TAXI DRIVER, GOODFELLAS, THE DEPARTED. I felt they were so emotionally antiseptic. I've never once felt anything for any of the characters in his films...not even feelings of disgust. His films just make me shrug my shoulders.

I respond worse to his period pictures ie. AGE OF INNOCENCE or THE AVIATOR. They seem to be straining to reach greatness. That kind of aesthetic doesn't come easy to him and, for me, it shows.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:36pm

Oh, Robbie, where have you been all my life?

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:43pm

I agree about Scorsese. I respect him for his technical acumen and his tireless efforts to preserve film, but I can't say I have ever been moved by one of his films with the possible exception of Goodfellas and Taxi Driver.

Getting back on topic though, another difference between Dreamgirls and Brokeback is that black audiences are actually going to see Dreamgirls.

[robbiej]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:45pm

Collecting unemployment.

And feeding my babies.

Really...NEVER liked him. That hyper-macho style really sets my teeth on edge because it seems a reaction to...something. Something internal in the filmmaker, or maybe it's a reaction, conscious or un-, to that particularly American obsession with violence and power. It glorifies and undercuts it at the same time, which makes any exploration of it toothless...not matter how many bullets through the head and broken arms they show.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:47pm

Sueleen and robbie, I could not agree more.

I think he's very talented - but I just don't enjoy or get anything out of his films.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:53pm

Boy, I'm glad Robbie said it, because I've long felt that way. Whatever his gifts and body of work, to award him for this routine remake is a mistake. Not an original one -- many people hold Oscars, undeservedly -- but another one.

Totally subjective, but I think DREAMGIRLS isn't BROKEBACK, in that the gay "Q" rating isn't literal, not as visceral and personally emotional. It's the difference between watching Garland sing "The Man Who Got Away" in STAR IS BORN and identifying with the song's inherent angst ... and looking back at your life and remembering, well, a man who actually got away. Effie may be a gay man to some, but she's also a black woman to many.

[robbiej]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:55pm

It's fascinating for me to thing about it. Those 'maverick' 70's film directors who were so cutting edge back in the 70's never held anything for me. It could certainly be my queer sensibility that keeps me from appreciating their work. And, to be fair, I did really enjoy JFK. But the best part of that particular movie was the terrific centerpiece featuring Donald Sutherland explaining the coverup. It was exciting, brilliantly edited and, in the end, inspired a real sense of dread in me. All without overly stylized violence or shocking words. It was film storytelling at its best. The Scorcese films and some of the later Coppola, for me, never achieve that insinuating, infiltrating sense of danger that that 30 minute sequence instilled in me.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:58pm

Ah, Coppola, Finnian's Rainbow...one of the best.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:58pm

I guess that's why I always liked the Coen brothers. Things like "Miller's Crossing" struck me as a better use of this masculine violence you're talking about. And nothing was as simultaneously odd, freakishly spooky and funny as watching an old man gun people down while Danny Boy plays loudly.

[robbiej]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 3:05pm

I find it difficult to compare DREAMGIRLS to BROKEBACK as a gay experience. BROKEBACK held very little for me to hold onto. I felt so removed from that particular story. And it was treated so reverentially (by the people who made the film and the public who embraced it) that I just didn't get it. I felt emotionally ripped off.

DREAMGIRLS plays into my life as a gay man and as a performer. It has every conceivable in for me which allows me to forgive the film any faults.

The queering of straight cinema is something near and dear to me. I believe I'm of the last generation that grew up having to see ourselves in the nominally straight stories told. It was comforting to see someone who didn't look like me seemingly speak directly to my most hidden wants and needs. It made me feel much less alone. It's an art that should fall by the wayside...but I'll miss it.