With the Oscars so close, the Buffer editors love nothing more than to debate the outcomes of each category. Here are our predictions for the winners of some of the top categories for this year’s Academy Awards.
All posts by Zinan Zhang
Anchorman 2: Staying Classy
With unforgettable quotes like: “I love lamp,” “60% of the time, it works every time,” and “I’m in a glass case of emotion,” Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) set the bar ridiculously high for the recent sequel Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. When I first saw the teaser trailer last year, I was filled with mixed emotions. I wanted to see Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and the old Channel 4 News Team back together, but I was so certain that they would ruin a classic. The gimmicky early marketing campaigns for Anchorman 2 (Ben & Jerry’s “Scotchy Scotch Scotch” flavor, Ron co-anchoring a local CBS newscast, Ron’s ESPN interview with Peyton Manning) were entertaining but did not alleviate my concerns that Will Ferrell would be saying, “I immediately regret this decision” after opening weekend. How “by the beard of Zeus” could director Adam McKay and Ferrell come up with anything more absurd and hilarious than Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy?
The Neverending Apocalypse
Kristi Yeung and Zinan Zhang examine the surge in apocalyptic films: What is it that makes the global disaster genre so resilient and captivating?
Zero Gravity, Too Many Blunders
“Life in space is impossible.” There is no gravity, no sound, no air pressure, and no oxygen. Director Alfonso Cuarón opens the film, Gravity, with these facts about space on a black backdrop, accompanied by unnerving silence. When astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson’s tweets dissected several inaccuracies in the film, many reviewers lashed back, arguing that the film is a science-fiction film and not a documentary: it makes no pretenses to scientific accuracy. But it does. I am neither an astrophysicist nor an astronaut—merely a chemistry major—but even I noticed a few key blunders in a film that painstakingly tries to be as scientifically accurate as possible. Little wonder science-minded viewers interpret every fact to be a taunt. Gravity throws down the gauntlet and dares us to find something wrong with it. Challenge accepted.
More Questions than Answers
“It’s simple now. Just like we used to read about. You’re the bad guy. And I’m the hero,” yells Michael Peterson (J. August Richards)—the latest “superhero” that S.H.I.E.L.D identifies—before he bashes in his innocent foreman’s head with a gas tank. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, which debuted on ABC on Tuesday, September 24th, 2013 to over twelve million viewers, is not as clear-cut as good and evil.