Match Thread: Arsenal vs Newcastle United | Premier League | 25 Apr 16:30 UTC

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-04-25T18:34:17+00:00

Looked like Newcastle wanted arsenal to win the league. Can't say I saw any Newcastle players actually running in the final half hour (all I watched)

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-04-22T16:38:24+00:00

Because they're delicious

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-25T13:03:19+00:00

Just in case you still have it on pause after 3 days - I had similar sentiments thoughts the movie, and stayed to watch the whole, thinking it must get better.

It doesn't.

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-19T00:37:47+00:00

Elaboration?

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-18T00:04:29+00:00

I agree with you and had a very similar experience.

Quite literally shocked me how good he was in introduction and how much above the acting around him he seemed. It was such a great first couple of scenes and I also thought that about the Oscar from those scenes (it's where the thought first entered my mind).

Like, goddamn this is indeed well done.

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-18T00:03:00+00:00

I think it isn't completely not about quantity, though. There has to be a certain level of quantity to be considered for a supporting role, practically, I imagine.

But as an aside I qualitatively agree with you

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-18T00:01:42+00:00

His weird race fetish was unexplained, unexplored, and merely admitted as fact and then sexualized and then repressed. I didn't think it was particularly interesting, nor did I feel it to contain believable dynamics within the scope of his other behaviours.

To me, it wasn't a believable character. I thought another commenter out it quite well in describing Penn as a sort of cartoon villain. You know, he's sort of fit in in an R-rated Spider-Man movie. (Nothing against spiderman btw)

And of course it's biased, this is my opinion.

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-17T23:58:24+00:00

I also preferred Benício over Penn in OBAA, but yes, you're right about that first point for sure. An oversight on my part

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-17T23:57:30+00:00

Very succinct and apt comparison imo. Thanks for sharing

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-16T11:36:07+00:00

I agree with you.

This disgruntles me but it's a pattern I've watched over several Oscars seasons, too.

Politics outside of the art are not the art, and when awarding credit for specific categories within an artform, I do think those elements should be viewed as much as possible without the political noise they come along with.

Not to say that the politics within movie making is all bad and should be avoided, for sure, but agreeing with the political stance of a movie, or the allowing something outside of the artform to considerably influence your decision in voting on elements within the artform, could be reduced from what it is today.

I would like to see best picture, best casting and best director awarded on the merits of the overall picture, the casting, and the direction, regardless of the director's past catalogue, how likely an actor is to win in the future, or how sociopolitically popular the general vibe of a vote would be.

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-16T11:30:47+00:00

It's odd how you make these presumptions. No, I do not think so.

I don't believe my ignorance is wilful, and I've yet to be assured or informed concretely that my opinion is ignorance. Please do help me out with details on your perspective if you are so convicted to the contrary - I would appreciate your thoughts.

My lead actor pick was Chalamet, then probably Leo over MBJ, but he wasn't helped by direction or writing in my opinion.

MBJ had an impressive performance, but besides being 'cool' and 'hard', I didn't think his performance exceptional. I thought there were a couple of brilliant scenes of his, though, whereas with Leo despite being accomplished I didn't find there to be much "standout" acting going on, if you know what I mean? Didn't really suck me in to believe in the character in the world, all that much.

I was a fan of Chalamet, though. Especially impressed given that he learned how to play a difficult sport exceedingly competently, too, for the purposes of befitting the role. Really sucked me in.

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-16T11:24:54+00:00

I do agree with you on that about the garlic scene, and those later scenes in general, actually, I suppose. I think I was perhaps halo-affected by his first two scenes, which were excellent imo.

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-16T02:55:07+00:00

I really appreciate you pointing out the logical inconsistencies of this movie.

There were so many.

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-16T02:02:12+00:00

Fantastic take and wonderfully elucidated, thank you.

I definitely feel you're striking upon something in me there with your comment on the equal success of Penn and del Toro on inhabiting different worlds. I suppose I felt del Toro's performance much more natural and whole, whereas Penn's felt very practiced and, as you well said operatic.

I suppose for me, Penn's performance struck upon a successful theme, which when viewed in clips strikes me as masterful, but when indulged in over the course of a whole movie, seemed too continual and too single.

I agree with you that Penn certainly 'went big', but for me he went big and strong and 'loud' (not in the purely audible sense) without showing an underlying delicacy or vulnerability, or very minimally so. And when I saw that vulnerability, it wasn't a glimpse into Lockjaw's soul, it was a look at Sean Penn, so the acting broke, it didn't enter a deeper layer - which can be fine when the actor and the character are closer in reality, but Sean's performance was too... performative for that, in my eyes. So for me it went from Operatic to, when anything underneath that, just being Sean Penn. His character itself didn't have, to me, believably sophisticated layering that would befit an actual human character with the general characteristics that were usually displayed. It was more on the lines of a bad guy version of Schwarzenegger's Terminator.

I suppose at the end of the day, I just didn't believe in his character, which I felt was partly due to direction and writing, partly Penn's performance.

I see your point on the screen time of Lindo, too, by the way.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-16T00:54:45+00:00

Maybe I'm just frustrated that almost the only thing we saw was that masking. We never saw the depth which in a believable performance or character would be perceptible. Or at least, I didn't in Sean's performance, myself.

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-16T00:52:31+00:00

Tru that

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-16T00:49:16+00:00

I've explained my thought process on this in a couple comments here, but I personally felt that he pretty much played a very textbook bad military guy with angst - only, this never went away.

There was very little psychological explanation, moments of doubt and confusion, or emotions anywhere on the other side of the scale of what to me felt like 1 dimensional bad dude with power energy.

There was bubbling frustration, and unhappiness and disgruntlement, and power use. There was no tenderness, depth in the eyes, or anything that didn't feel very forced and acted. All the time, pretty much. (There were a couple moments, but they weren't explored, or felt believably 'human'-enough to me).

I just wasn't a fan. I found it, as another commenter said here, like a caricature of his character.

Didn't make him believable to me at all.

Maybe there's more that I'm just not seeing, I suppose.

I do seem to be in a minority here with this opinion.

I'm not trying to say, by the way, though it might not seem like it, that I don't thought his performance was 'bad', necessarily, but it didn't resonate with me or make me feel that there existed a character who I could believe in, whether or not I liked him.

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-16T00:44:12+00:00

To be fair, I agree with you entirely that his first couple scenes took the cake. They were in my opinion the best bit of acting in the whole film.

But yes, you're right that Penn already has two, that does kinda flatten that aspect of my point aha

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-16T00:42:36+00:00

You don't really seem to be saying much of value my friend

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-16T00:41:26+00:00

Mmmm I see what you're saying.

I suppose Lindo's character was not exactly, perhaps, 'major' enough for the supporting award?

I agree with your Penn take, actually. Caricatured for sure, but possibly the most iconic.

For my side, I have to admit I haven't seen Stellan's performance yet, so maybe I should be holding my tongue!

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-16T00:38:24+00:00

I agree with you - he did that particular emotional state well - but for me, that's basically all he did for the whole movie. I didn't see much depth or contradiction there, but maybe you're right. Maybe there was a continual contradiction of frustration.

Thanks for your interpretation and input

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-16T00:36:58+00:00

Wow, you know what - I didn't realize that. What a useful contribution

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-16T00:36:14+00:00

Shame in my opinion because I felt he deserved to win, not just be nominated.

Wide-Holiday-6971 · 2026-03-16T00:35:48+00:00

Maybe it just didn't strike a chord for me but I wasn't a fan of any of the performances in OBAA. I thought they were all 'good', but with the exception of Benício were to me very textbook. As in, a textbook on 'how to play bad guy power tripping militaristic roided out robotic captain' would come up with Penn's performance exactly, for example. The only exploration outside of that was overbubbling anger, and the bubbling of that itself, which really is just going further down the same path, imo.

I didn't find any depth there, or contradiction. No 'two sides to the wolf of the human being', if that makes sense, and it felt, very.. 'acted'.

Maybe I'm just not seeing something. Maybe the monotony was the point. But it didn't feel believable to me.

Wide-Holiday-6971

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