AFI & AARP - which films are showing up on every top ten list?
Saturday, December 10, 2016 at 5:40PM 
Another couple of days, another couple of lists. After the jump the AFI and the AARP lists and a couple notes about which films are coasting through precursor season without a care in the world. Consensus: a powerful tool if you can grab it...
AFI (American Film Institute) Top Ten Films
- Arrival
- Fences
- Hacksaw Ridge
- Hell or High Water
- La La Land
- Manchester by the Sea
- Moonlight
- Silence
- Sully
- Zootopia
...and Top Ten TV Programs
- The Americans
- Atlanta
- Better Call Saul
- The Crown
- Game of Thrones
- The Night Of
- The People Vs OJ Simpson
- Stranger Things
- This Is Us
- Veep
...and a special award to OJ: Made in America, the 8 hour ESPN miniseries that everyone feels the need to honor, even movie award bodies!
AARP "MOVIES FOR GROWNUPS"
Which is an interesting list to consider each year given the age demographics of the Academy
Can Hello My Name is Doris manage Globe Comedy nominations?
- Arrival
- Fences
- Hello My Name is Doris
- Jackie
- La La Land
- Lion
- Loving
- Manchester by the Sea
- Silence
- Sully
A few thoughts
Sully was a pleasant swift sit and all but we continue to be alarmed that it's making "best of year" lists. It's so lightweight! On the other hand it's a relief that there is at least ONE movie released before October that is making some lists. Movie awards will never be worth much as they could or be non-consensus driven until we can convince voting bodies to remember that each year is twelve months long. A lot of fine movies were released from January through September! You only think that's not true if you dutifully trudge to whatever blockbuster Hollywood is pushing on you with the biggest P&A budget each weekend, and are routinely disappointed in their quality.
To recap -- Arrival, La La Land, Manchester by the Sea and Sully are the only movies to make ALL four of these lists: AFI, AARP, NBR, and Critics Choice. Silence missed Critics Choice only so it's probably worth noting that they hadn't seen it before voting. I was otherwise occupied on Thursday night when it was widely screened here in NYC but when I see it this week I'll know if the "recency effect" is helping since it's the last film every group is screening. I suspect it is which is, alas, why distributors backload so much. I am surely not the only mouthy movie-lover in the world whose favored movies tend to be films that have been sitting in my heart for at least a few months (so recency does not help with me). But we who love gifts we've played with for a while most are outnumbered by those who love their shiny new toys best!
Reader Comments (21)
Moonlight not making the AARP list makes me chuckle...until I think of the average age of traditional Academy membership...
HELL YEAH ARRIVAL!
Ah, the safety of Sully. At least my students saw through it to realize it was a lightweight cash grab based on recent events. Which means their film as lit teachers are doing their jobs. I wish the school made it a mandatory course because it routinely churns out intelligent media viewers who easily read between the lines and actively engage with what they watch.
As for the adults in the building, those closer to the average Oscar voter demographic LOVED it. Best Picture nominee Sully might actually happen.
Can there be a special award for the moustaches in Sully?
Paul Outlaw:
Right now, here's how I see it.
1. La La Land
2. Manchester by the Sea
3. Arrival (AFI, NBR, Critics Choice, AND AARP without pandering to "da old"? These three are the locks.)
4. Moonlight
5. Hell or High Water
6. Hacksaw Ridge (The AFI, NBR, Critics Choice bracket.)
7. Sully (Made all four, but I don't see it having as much young/old crossover, especially due to how lightweight it was.)
8. Fences (Critics Choice, AFI and AARP)
9. Silence (AFI, NBR and AARP)
10. Zootopia (Just AFI, but could upsurge due to general lack of passion on a film or two.)
(11-15: Lion (Critics Choice, AARP), Loving (Critics Choice, AARP), Jackie (Nothing, but caked with prestige), Hidden Figures (Just NBR), 20th Century Women (Just NBR Indie).)
Paul: Well, made a mistake, Jackie is JUST AARP Top 10. Which is still CLOSE to nothing, because it indicates there's very little to no general love among those not "da old." That'll highly discourage it being #1 on a ballot.
Despite the glaring omission of Moonlight, I much prefer AARP's Top 10, strangely enough.
When I read this headline I thought the AARP mention was a joke about the average age and tastes of certain awards groups. Oops.
Not mad to see "Hello my Name is Doris" getting some recognition, though if we're thinking along those lines I thought "The Meddler" was more praiseworthy.
@ Volvagia
I just can't (i.e., don't want to) see Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Sully and Silence ALL being nominated.
AFI is consistently the worst of the year-end awards bodies. For goodness sake, they bypassed The Grand Budapest Hotel a couple of years ago so they could put Into the Woods and Unbroken on their top 10. That's a decision that wore well with time.
Paul Outlaw: Agreed. Two of that set would be decent, if slightly groan-worthy, but all four would just be excessive in the level of straight white male garbage that signifies.
Robert G: Film/TV as lit should absolutely either A: Be a mandatory full course (1 classic film or 2 -6 classic TV episodes or segments (can't completely ignore the 11 minute format as a possibility) every week, 10 each of three different (10 plot oriented, 10 character oriented, 10 aesthetic oriented) general disciplines) or B: Be a mandatory part (same basic concept, but 3 of each discipline instead of 10) of every year in English classes. Games as lit, if the school feels that's also worth it, should probably be a summer suggestion instead of a part of the formal year.
I'd start predicting Aaron Eckhart in that strange supporting actor category this year. People clearly love the film, he's popular and never been nominated, plus we all know people want a RABBIT HOLE reunion on the red carpet, right? Don't they?
Suzanne: Consistently the worst? Let's sift through their off Oscar Best Picture consensus choices. 2001: The Man Who Wasn't There. 2002: About a Boy. 2003: American Splendor and Finding Nemo. 2004: Kinsey and Spider-Man 2. 2006: Happy Feet. 2007: The Savages and Knocked Up. 2008: Wendy and Lucy & Iron Man. 2009: Coraline. 2010: On Consensus. 2011: Bridesmaids. 2012: Moonrise Kingdom. 2013: Inside Llewyn Davis. 2014: Nightcrawler. 2015: On Consensus. 2016: Zootopia. Nobody's perfect (in addition to Unbroken, J. Edgar was also a bad off consensus call), and no group is going to be even close to perfect, but if someone were to ask me who makes the best off consensus choices, I'd easily say AFI is FAR better than NBR, based on that sample.
Glenn Dunks: Eckhart was popular AND genuinely respected 6-8 years ago (Battle: Los Angeles, the Has Fallen series, I, Frankenstein and Incarnate will do that to a career's respect levels), he'll still be able to show up (fulfilling that Rabbit Hole reunion possibility for anyone who wants it) if the movie is nominated for Picture, and he's pretty much an extreme non-prescence in the movie, even Linney making more of an impact as the stock worried wife. (Basically, in practice, Sully is effectively a Tom Hanks one man show.) This role in 2011/2012? Maybe, as a fifth slot. (See also: DeNiro in Silver Linings.) Now? Nope. Surprise Rickman seems more plausible, and more heartwarming if it happens, than Eckhart.
Saw SULLY in the cinema today. A miracle of efficiency in economical «mise en scene» and personal expression in terms of cinematic prose. Nothing fancy, nothing modern (and correspondingly in a few years NOT obsolete).
I went down with this plane three times in its emergency water landing. Eastwood each time proving himself to be a master of emotionally charged impressions via visual shorthand, in media perspectives and polymorphism, leaving me breathless and touched on different levels, always feeling and thinking along the protanonists' and ensemble's deeds and thoughts.
Hurrah for such glorious routine!
Filmarbeiter: You do know that the ideal is to mix the classical and the daring, right? All daring with no direction or greater craft gives us a world of Sucker Punches and A Serbian Film(s) with nothing else. Those films DO become obsolete. All classical with no daring gives us a world of Diana(s) and Victor Frankenstein(s). Those films ALSO become obsolete, however. Neither are a world I want to be in. Give us Green Room. Give us The Witch. Give us 20th Century Women. Give us Moonlight. Give us Zootopia. Give us Captain America: Civil War. Give us Deadpool. Give us The Handmaiden. Give us Arrival. Give us daring, but also classical, and screw the rest.
I personally thought Eckhart really blew his chance in Sully,Hnaks is such a generous Actor but Eckhart never seemed to take the chances for playing off him very well,I found underwhelming,and THAT ending.
@Filmarbeiter
I'm with you 100%!! The critical "shepherdizing" of films can be annoying. SULLY deserves to be on the list, people! It's a noble enterprise made with incredible craft and good taste. Hacksaw Ridge is the ONE I'm most trouble with here. The "resurrection" of Mel Gibson is baffling. Hope this horrse stays at the gates from now on. You know I have issue with Fences (the film). But I have more issues with Mel Gibson's film for entirely different reasons. I don't get the lack of citations for Silence. I think AMPAS will correct this. And I hope they will make it at the expense of Hacksaw Ridge!! (crossing fingers)
chofer -- i'm not sure what you mean by critical shepherdizing. care to elaborate?
filmarbeiter & chofer -- someday i would like to see what other people in see in Eastwood's work but where other people see "economic mise en scene" i see flat and minimal to the point of dull point and shoot. His films are always so empty looking (like he didn't hire a crew but just brought a camera and say "hmmm, okay this. take one. Print!"
Sully, though it has its moments, has a really repetitive near-hokey script.
Nathaniel
I meant the punditry towards the same films, over and over. You know that happens. I think I've actually heard you complaining about this before . Not able to look "outside of the box".Alas, you know AMPAS loves Eastwood more than, say, Gibson,. And Scorsese, too.
So I'll reverse the question: What really makes the pundits right now go after Hacksaw Ridge as a kind of "lock" for drama in both the Globes and a slot for Best Film for the Oscars. I don't men YOU, but looking at Goldderby's expertas (pundits) it is startin to appear on their predictions. Do they have conversations with Academy members? Attend its screenings for members and see their love for it? Is it a "gut" feeling? The actual critics (the ones who are mentioned at Metacritic, at least) don't appear to be much impressed. The pundits do. Why's that so?
I hope someday you come to Argentina and see why Eastwood is revered here as the few ones of the last in a line of the classical filmmakers left (late Spielberg is considered here as such, too). I understand this may render him obsolete to some people. Or "flat". I'm sorry to disagree, then. I think he knows what he's doing most of the times (which doesn't mean I like all of his films) and his humanism in Sully put him in class above the more "daring" directorial efforts of some pirotecnical darlings like Iñárritu, et al. In terms of "Academy tastes", I'll stick with Eastwood's dullism over Iñàrritu's long takes of vacuum violence and abjection every step of the way. In between, there are other bold, both new and old, directors we know don't stand a chance; neither with pundits, nor the Oscars (Verhoeven, Maren Ade, Mia Hansen Love, Kelly Reichardt, etc) The establishment of punditry matches very well with Oscars. That's inarguable. I hate that. So I rather see that "establishment slot" going to Eastwood's film (and himself) over Gibson's. That's all.
For your envy: I attend here the Masterclass of Isabelle Huppert at the Gaumont, a Theter belonging to the Film Institute here. It was during the "Cannes Week" when I catch up with Toni Erdmann, too. She was a sweet and a hoot. Incredible intelligent and intuitive actress. I saw ELLE afterwards for the second time with the Queen Huppert in there! Standings O's for her, of course. After that, she took some picture with fans and press at the Theater lobby and went to have meal with Viggo Mortensen. The most Argentine of foreign actors, here. We love him as much as you do.
So happy to see “La La Land” on the list!