The craze when Mad Max came out in summer was "Heck-yeah, now this is what movies USED to be!", because Rip Van Miller could still direct in his original 80's style, without pandering, overseas-sales, and by using real Australia instead of CGI.Dacey wrote:You know, I loved Mad Max just like everyone else. But I can't say it's "more worthy" of a Best Picture nod than Inside Out is.
That doesn't make it an Oscar contender in the sense of Spotlight or Trumbo, just that critics could pile praise on it during an otherwise disastrous summer/year.
(It wasn't even a good Max film, since Max is gagged for the first third of the movie, and the Imperatrix is the main protagonist of the whole darn thing...Bring back Tina Turner! )
It could be that Critics' Circle awards have the same restriction on "Animated films are for Best Animated!" that kept them from boosting Toy Story 3 when that came out, or it could be that they only had room for one windmill-tilting stunt and Max had dibs on that one.
I suspect the results will be the same with the other regional-city NY, LA, Toronto and Chicago Critics' awards, with each critic wanting to be the "one" who put Max at the top of their list.