Tag Archives: March Madness of Movies

March Madness of Movies: Best A24 Films — Round 1

These matchups were vote on by the MovieMinis Staff.

“Best A24 Films” went mostly as expected. The only higher seed to lose out was Locke, but that seems understandable as #6 seed The Spectacular Now is a more popular film and Locke earned its #3 seed based on a few very strong individual votes.

What’s interesting about this round is the matchups it results in. #1 seed Moonlight may be safe, but it would be wrong to deem #4 seed American Honey as easy competition. #2 seed Swiss Army Man is adored by our staff, but as seen by #6 seed The Spectacular Now’s upset, it shouldn’t be underestimated. #1 seed A Ghost Story and #4 seed A Most Violent Year could not be more different, so voting is unpredictable; the same can be said about #2 seed 20th Century Women and #3 seed The Witch.

On the other side of the bracket, #1 seed Lady Bird will take on #4 seed Obvious Child, which worked passed a tie-breaking vote against #5 seed The End of the Tour in the previous round. #2 seed The Lobster, an unorthodox but beloved film, will go head to head with #3 seed Room, a Best Picture Oscar nominee. #1 seed The Florida Project will compete with #4 seed It Comes At Night in a battle of rather different genres. Finally, #2 seed Ex Machina will match up against #3 seed Good Time, two films that range from liked to loved by our staff.

How incredibly tight these matchups were and how unbearably difficult they will be in this coming round goes to show how fantastic A24 has been as a production/distribution studio. There are many different kinds of films on this list, but they all coalesce into a very cohesive sense of the A24 brand.

Stay tuned for the round 2 results, which will be posted next week on Friday, March 23!

 

Featured image via A24.

March Madness of Movies: Best Big Budget Directing of the 21st Century — Round 1

These matchups were vote on by the MovieMinis Staff.

For the most part, “Best Big Budget Directing of the 21st Century” went smoothly. 12 of the 16 matchups went to the higher seed.

In the superhero directing subcategory, two of the MCU’s arguably most controlled visions of both character and spectacle, in the Russo brothers’ Captain America: Civil War and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther, remain and are set to face off next. Then, the gritty, genre-transcending films The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan, and Logan, directed by James Mangold, will also go head to head.

In the franchise directing subcategory, #4 seed Alfonso Cuarón for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban fell in a very close race to #5 seed Denis Villeneuve for Blade Runner 2049. Villeneuve will face #1 titan Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Then, #3 seed Matt Reeves for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes fell to #6 seed Sam Mendes for Skyfall — likely due to Reeves holding a higher seed with War for the Planet of the Apes and advancing, taking on Mendes next.

In the animated directing subcategory, higher seeds swept the matchups and we now only have Pixar films left. The matchups will be #1 seeds Pete Docter and Bob Peterson for Up competing with #4 seed Andrew Stanton for WALL-E, and #2 seed Brad Bird for The Incredibles matching up against #3 seed Toy Story 3.

The prestige/original/non-franchise studio is where things were most shaken up. Not only did Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street, #7 seed) fall to the higher seeded George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road, #2 seed), but he also fell to the lower seeded Christopher Nolan in the matchup between the directing of The Aviator and that of Dunkirk. Miller and Nolan will go head to head in one of the toughest matchups of the bracket. Nolan also advanced past #5 seed Peter Jackson for King Kong with his #4 seed directing of Inception. Nolan’s opponent comes from easily the biggest surprise of the topic and what we are always excited to see in bracket — a #1 seed vs. #8 seed upset. It came down to a tie-breaking vote, but Alfonso Cuarón, knocked out across the bracket, stayed alive with his Children of Men directing, while David Fincher, for Zodiac, has been eliminated.

Stay tuned for the round 2 results, which will be posted next week on Friday, March 23!

 

Featured image via Warner Bros./Sony Pictures/Marvel.

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