Yeah, Star Wars eventually dives deeper to develop the characters, but their introductions are clear and easy to recognize.

The pathos at the heart of Star Wars is pretty strong.
Episode IV - Farm boy aspirations! "Learn about the Force, Luke."
Episode V - Your friends are being used as a way to get you. Also, the person who captured them and who you think of as the worst person in the galaxy is also your father. "Search your feelings…"
Episo…

Exactly. All of this.

Sam Jackson played an Uncle Tom caricature, though.

I like interesting settings that create new worlds. Scenes are monotonous to film, and really the moments are captured through editing, but I like the idea of seeing people come together on a set and pretend it's a real place.
-the lost boys camp and the pirate ship in Hook
-the Millennium Falcon, the first Death Star,…

heh, it's not really an indictment of Hollywood and superhero films, though. It's about a guy obsessing over his past because his present is mundane. And he can fly.

It was probably the villain.

I thought his wife carried a lot of the drama of the film.

A lot of the people who are sickened by American Sniper are getting swept up by a lot of nonsense political statements made by celebrities who stink as film critics. As a film, it presents an honest portrayal of a real soldier in a place (Iraq) where the U.S. still has soldiers. It resembles The Hurt Locker and Zero…

I liked Toy Story 3, but I have some serious issues with the middle of that movie that I didn't have with 1 or 2.

I have not seen it. Why?

That makes sense. We're making similar statements.
What I meant was that Boyhood deals with generally universal themes in its story, which are felt all the more so because of the time lapse. Birdman has that artistic (editing/cinematography) component to tell a story about acting and directing (that panders to the…

I wrote this in an earlier thread: "The King's Speech does more with 20 seconds of awkward speaking and pauses than The Social Network does with 1 minute of non-stop talking."

by the end, I certainly didn't… but I'm still not entirely certain what the story was…. besides "guy is high and meets weirdos in the 70s"

I'm actually interested in that. The superiority of the book is what I'm missing. As an adaptation, I felt it was missing something… because I haven't read the book.

"It was a bleary drug-induced haze of Big Sleep style PI work where you stumble from one plot thread to another, a paranoiac view of American power and capitalism shuffling into perspective as you do so."

I'm not sure which part of my post you're referring to, but… yes. :)

Thanks for the recommendation. I'd like to watch all of the nominees. One of these days I'm going watch both of the ….Dragon movies.

yeah, that was basically my take, too.

I'm not so sure. Birdman is excellent, but Boyhood was made over the course of twelve years and feels like a pretty real commentary on a real life. I'd say Birdman is the artistic choice and Boyhood is the story choice.