Saturday Night Live 91-92 Season Review

In preparation of my probably upcoming interview with Siobhan Fallon Hogan (please attend), I recently binged the 1991 to 1992 season: 

There's a telling scene in an episode with Susan Dey where Mike Meyers and Phil Hartman play two opposing lawyers trying to convince a jury about the feasibility of a man's penis size. Why they're doing this isn't as important as the fact that the jury isn't played by extras. Well, one is, but 11 of the 12 jurors are cast members. Not just any cast members but some of the biggest names in comedic history -- Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, David Spade, Tim Meadows-- all adding to the sketch in unique ways without saying a word. They're just all looking at a naked man and reacting to his anatomy in uniquely different comic ways.

That's the season in a nutshell.

This was a season loaded with stars and not a lot of screen time to go around. Although Rob Smigel (best known today for making lewd poop jokes at celebrities with a cartoon dog puppet on his hand) appeared in the opening credits for a handful of episodes, this was mostly a 16-member cast. That's slightly above average but the show has weathered casts that size before. Particularly since 2016.

However, the thing is that few of the current SNL crop are stars that command center stage. Beck Bennett is the current epitome for a cast member: He had a few character roles, but he also was great at playing a background part when needed. Even Pete Davidson, despite the insufferable publicity that engulfed the rest of the show during his tenure, was fully capable of supporting a sketch when he wasn't the lead. In this SNL sketch, for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcziw7helVg, Pete Davidson does excellent work with his "huzzahs" in a supporting role while Alex Moffatt (who suffered slightly from not having enough star power) took the lead. 

There have been a few examples of SNL characters who don't work so well in supporting roles like Leslie Jones or possibly Sarah Sherman, but for the most part, it's a far cry from this era where Chris Rock, David Spade, and Adam Sandler have such strong comic personas that it seems tragic to watch them on the sidelines of a sketch. The only people from this cast that I see on the true character actor end of the spectrum were Kevin Nealon and Julia Sweeney. 

SNL works on seniority as most people know so Nealon, the second-longest-tenured cast member at the time, gobbled up more screen time than what was ideal. The other three big stars here were Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, and Phil Hartman. Both Carvey and Hartman are on their last legs and you can tell they were running out of energy by this point. Thus, it's hard to argue that anyone other than Mike Meyers was the season's MVP.

And that's the second thing I learned here. In retrospect, it's incredibly easy to forget how talented some of these people are. Myers is best known for having a couple franchises that he stuck to, and then followed them up with some projects where he recycled his own shtick. But, my God, he was a versatile ball of energy who bought something new every week and performed the hell out of it. 

Similarly, I only remember Rob Schneider as the guy with overwrought parts in Adam Sandler's movies and a man with a thin ego who often takes out ads in trade magazines to attack his enemies. 

Imagine my surprise to see that Schneider might have arguably been the most capable of the young guns on the show. Many of his featured sketches showed a lot of originality (there's one where he's a naked guy with a highly positive body image even if it makes others extremely uncomfortable; in another, he plays a dignified street musician who's subconsciously communicating through his music that he's really desperate) and he threw himself into the background parts. 

I don't know if I saw this firsthand before, but I vaguely remember him through clip shows as the "Making Copies" guy, but that's the other way SNL history flattens our memory. Schneider was far more than the Making Copies guy. Similarly, Adam Sandler might best be known as opera man or canteen boy, but I really liked a bit he did called Cajun Man which benefitted from an iambic simplicity. 

 A lot of the literature I consulted about this period characterized the early 90s as an all-boys club and blamed Farley and Sandler for making this a bro-centric atmosphere. Some people like Year of Flops author Nathan Rabin (who I'm not a fan of for his faux woke grandstanding) even called Sandler and Farley's last season littered with misogyny, but in that article Rabin provided zero supporting evidence for his claim. We can debate the merits of certain sketches, but I think the idea that the writing room was flowing with misogyny as a direct result of Farley/Sandler/Spade/Wolf (one of their two writers) is pretty baseless. Fellow cast members, male and female, are full of kind words for those people. However, these criticisms surfaced mostly during the 94-95 season which was undoubtedly influenced by two unhappy campers (Janeane Garofalo and Chris Elliott) complaining to the press, and that's a whole other story. 

In this particular season, the female cast was trapped in a pretty horrific holding pattern. No strong females emerged in this era to make up for the obvious holes of Nora Dunn and Hooks. 

As far as I can gather, It had nothing to do with their talent, but by the logistics of what they chose to do with their female cast members. 

There were six women on cast. Ellen Cleghorne occupied her own space as a Black actor, so she was safe. She actually had a nice guerilla recurring sketch (a la Borat though likely more scripted) as a fake studio page (think Kenneth from 30 Rock) who bothered the hosts as they left the studio. When I say star who commands center stage, Cleghorne fit that category as far as I'm concerned. 

Julia Sweeney had exactly one star character, but was mostly relegated to the background where she found a semi-comfortable space. Victoria Jackson had worked fairly well with a ditzy persona. If that's a derogatory term, don't shoot the messenger: Victoria called herself that on air. 

Inexplicably, Melanie Hutsell mined the same territory as Victoria with imitations of Tori Spelling and Jan Brady. On top of that, Beth Cahill and Siobhan Fallon had a recurring sketch with Melanie as ditzy sorority girls. The better way to have distinguished all these actors would have been to give them different character types. 

In the same mold, that Rob Schneider will be remembered as the "Making Copies" guy, Siobhan and Beth will be grouped with Melanie as the sorority girls. Fortunately, they made a few other strong impressions in other sketches. 

 Because I'm (likely) interviewing Siobhan this week, I'm watching these episodes as a soccer mom who lights up when Siobhan does something well on screen, like she's my daughter. 

And she's been impressive, even though she's been underserved. And Beth? I never heard of before my binge, and I kind of thought I knew everyone from 1986 onwards. She might be the only one I've never heard of. And she was actually really solid for a noob. Like Siobhan she didn't get bought back and she was reported semi-retired from the industry in 2013. 

Again, what could have been?

What I'm Watching August Edition

 Mulligan (Netflix)-A post-apocalyptic comedy that stands out for its levity. A close comparison would be Will Forte’s  dark comedy “Last Man on Earth” in which a small band of characters survived a pandemic in a sea of nothingness; while the comedy centered around the pathos of sexual frustration. guilt, and the rotating door of ostracizing. In contrast, the post-apocalyptic landscape of Mulligan is a semi-populated city (Washington DC) that survived the attack of aliens, thanks to our titular hero. Mulligan is a dim-witted hunk in the style of Pete Davidson (though surprisingly played by Nat faxon) who compromised the aliens’ defenses threw his only skill: Throwing a baseball through a Death-Star like-design-flaw. The sole surviving senator decides that’s enough to qualify him as president and he’s joined by Mrs. Nevada (Chrissy Tiegen) who serves as his first lady (though their relation goes unconsummated so far); a senator that embodies Southern cliché to humorous rapture (Dana Carvey), a pair of star-crossed academics (Tina Fey and Sam Richardson) with a great Sam-and-Dianne vibe; and an alien leftover from the invasion (Phil LaMarr) who is often the sanest person in the room. There is also an ample amount of room for cameos (Questlove and Weird Al play themselves), world building (the previous president is confirmed to be alive at one point) and entertaining recurring guest stars that could build the world out. On the whole, this is a show has a few broad strokes (if the Korean billionaire isn’t supposed to be a proxy for Kim-Jung Un he’s awfully stereotypical; ditto the beauty queen) but it mines the character interactions well.

Good Omens (Amazon)-Neil Gaiman’s seminal novel of biblical humor pits the four Horsemen of the apocalypse, the antichrist, a rogue angel Azaraphel (Michael Sheen), his demon partner-in-crime Crowley (David Tenant) and a number of other colorful characters in a tale that’s as epic as it is whimsical. But that was the first season. This season centers around a mystery: The angel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) shows up at a Azaraphel’s book shop with an interesting case of amnesia. Considering Gabriel’s playing for Team Heaven and Crowley’s playing for the other side and it’s an eternal battle with high stakes, Crowley’s terrified at the site of his old nemesis. He wants to off him, but then we wouldn’t have a reason for Azaraphel and Crowley to go on adventures together and this uneasy alliance is the heart of the show, so Azaraphel convinces forked-tongue pal to perform a minor miracle and hide him from the powers that be. Trying to keep the secret from their overlords and the ensuing aftermath is the bulk of the plot. Through four of six episodes so far, the majority of the screen time has been spent on pseudo-origin stories on the Azaraphel/Crowley friendship and other wayward angles. I want to root for this show and the whimsy and world-building is always charming, but if they have to have this much filler, perhaps they should have started from the drawing board with this one. I’ll stick it out to the end.

Captain Fall (Netflix)-Although it’s flying under the radar, I’m not sure if any animated black comedy has come along that’s this black—or at least this murdery. Maybe Archer? Captain John Fall is the black sheep of his family and that’s an understatement. His parents don’t want him to appear at family parties because he’s such an embarrassment, and his brother is an inappropriate mooch of epic proportions. It doesn’t help that John is at the bottom of his class at the naval academy. However, failing upwards is as good of a way to succeed as any. An international cartel is seeking the dumbest possible captain to serve as a patsy for all the war crimes they wish to commit on international waters, so after the unfortunate murder of everyone at the employment referral agency, John lands himself a prestige position where the crew go to elaborate lengths to keep him and the passengers in the dark to all the atrocities they commit the following atrocities: Trafficking brides for an Arab billionaire, abducting humans for a human zoo, killing endangered animals for Viagara, facilitating arms deals, and sponsoring child soldiers. Pretty horrific, huh? What’s more, the crew alternatively seduces, befriends, and feeds the captain a continuous stream of false information to keep him under the illusion that he’s riding high. The ride is entertaining enough that we’re excited for the anticipation of what happens when this all comes crashing down.

Righteous Gemstones (HBO)-Having just watched and fallen in love with Danny McBride’s “Vice Principals”, there’s not as much of a tightness to the narrative here. One can miss almost any episode and not feel particularly lost. This is becoming a bit of a weakness in the third season. Even the religious satire – the key factor separating RG from McBride’s other two shows – isn’t particularly strong when the family’s descent from moral grace isn’t particularly defined. On the upside, Edi Patterson and Tim Baltz are given much more to do as a couple whose marriage is tested by an extra-marital affair. On the minus, there’s significantly less Baby Billy (Walton Goggins) and he has the most potential for an interesting storyline and the tongue-twister-based best running joke (Baby Billy's Bible Bonkers) I've enjoyed in a while. When you put each character’s arc on this show through a fine-toothed comb, there often isn’t anything that interesting going on with many of them. It’s not a knock on the character work of John Goodman, Adam Devine, or Danny McBride, but standing still will only get you so far.

What We Do in the Shadows (FX)-At times, “What We Do in the Shadows” is among the funniest things on TV, but oftentimes ambitious shows can go in directions that don’t take everyone along. One of the show’s serialized arcs over the third and fourth seasons saw Nandoor the Relentless get increasingly depressed and lonely. This infected the show with an unfortunate Debbie Downer vibe for me, but I get the sense that the feedback from many of the fans was successful. Besides, the last season offered the vampires engaging in a full-on commercial venture and the uncanny valley of Colin Robinson (an uncanny valley of a character) growing from toddler to unruly teenager before our very eyes. And Shawney! OK, I concede…there’s generally too much going on right with this show to tune out. But when the show starts off on the right foot, like Season 5, it’s a beautiful site to behold. By this, I mean forward movement: Guillermo is finally a vampire, Colin Robinson has discovered his own tribe, he and Evie are trying to bore the world (or rather, Staten Island, on an epic level).

Miracle Workers (HBO)-Simon Rich, the SNL writer, who penned “Man Seeking Woman”, has a way of writing absurdist historical fiction (and adjacent tropes) that has served him extremely well in this anthology series. In the original season (set in a Kafkaesque version of Heaven), The Middle Ages and Oregon Trail, Rich’s characters possessed a charming sense of anachronism as they went about their limited existences: Characters were either too loaded with blind optimism or too self-aware about bleak circumstances.  While this is an anthology series with the same actors switching off roles each season, the general configuration through the first three seasons has been: 1) Steve Buscemi as the dumb optimist (despite being God himself at one point) 2) Geraldine Viswanathan as the cautious pragmatism, 3) Daniel Radcliffe being the most dynamic character that drives the plot 4) Various other actors (Lolly Adefope, Quinta Brunson, John Bass, Karan Soni, Peter Serafinowicz) fill out the cast as needed. In this version, things are askew as Geraldine Viswanathan is a warlord in an apocalyptic landscape, and Buscemi mostly plays a filler role as Daniel Radcliffe’s employer. The formula is off.

Mrs Davis (Peacock)-A nun goes to war against a practically omnipotent AI system with the help of an ex-boyfriend and Jesus in human form (a dude named Jay). This is an interesting world to kick around in. It’s also a plus if you’re a luddite myself and wish to vicariously live through a heroine kicking ass against thoughtless technological advancement. But it’s extremely dense and confusing. I’m sticking with it but, fair warning, this requires a lot of checking on the wikis for clarification.

Bottom Ten Films of 2023 To Date

 10. Book Club Chapter 2-It’s another edition of “hey, Old people are exciting too!” I wonder if someone like Jane Fonda who has 2 Oscars and 5 additional nominations looks down on co-stars like Lily Tomlin or Don Johnson who have zero. Anywho, there’s not much to cover here: A bunch of old people having fun and negotiation late-stage romance and friendship. And a decent amount of scenery porn. Also, Mary Steenburgen playing the accordion (again).

9. White Men Can’t Jump-Jack Harlow didn’t convince me that he could jump. I’m not sure if he was slacking off with the training for the role, or I don’t know my basketball, but I wasn’t particularly convinced with the action here. Or maybe white men can’t jump. I was kind of expecting a more racially woke take on the original, but planned on watching anyway for nostalgic purposes. I was pleasantly surprised that the film doesn’t avoid edgy dialogue and doesn’t subdue one story in service to lionization of the Black character. Still, it wasn’t as exciting as it appeared to have been on paper.

8. Super Mario Brothers- This animated movie isn’t just a filmic homage to the Super Mario Brothers game you grew up with as a kid; it’s hodgepodge of every video game with the Super Mario label. Kind of like Ready Player One except there’s thematic consistency. And that nostalgia factor lights a bulb in your brain. And talk about that score! It’s almost worth the price of admission to see the most memorable tunes of the early 90s outside of the Billboard top 40, to be put to orchestration. As for the story, it’s pretty typical but not lazy enough (from an adult perspective) to have made a negative viewing experience for me.

7. Missing-A moderately clever thriller for the zoom age. Wish I had more to say.

6. No Hard Feelings-Basically, Lauren Benanti and Matthew Broderick hire a cash-strapped Jennifer Lawrence as a prostitute for their son, but Jennifer Lawrence doesn't consider herself a whore so it's not so bad. The kid is supposedly really awkward and insular (it turns out he has trauama), but then again he has at least two friends and he's going to Princeton where being a socially awkward genius is probably seen as a plus. Jennifer tries to sex him up as fast as possible so she can cash in, but hilarious misunderstandings (like an old friend wanting to have sex with him, which would solve his parents' problem) get in the way. Along the way, they become friends (aww, how cute) even though she's charging at him like a bull in heat. Then he finds out she was paid off, and has sex with her anyway (clumsily, is that supposed to be funny) while also destroying her car (taking away any semblance of him as a noble character), but then they heal each other's wounds (I think?).

Almost nothing in the plot holds up, but you get the idea that it's not supposed to: It's about the R-rated raunch but all that means is that Jennifer Lawrence is naked a little (I guess Seth MacFarlane can claim victory in the 2012 Oscars) but it doesn't leave that level of no-holds-barred usurping of appropriateness like Bridesmaids or The Hangover. If you're not going to do that, try building a better plot next time.

5. Elemental-Three main thoughts: 1) The level of world-building and visual imagination deserves great credit. 2) The love story is really sappy and overwrought 3) Is Pixar under so much pressure to be diverse that they’re afraid to cast a white person in what is clearly a metaphor for interracial romance?

4. True Spirit-It’s an inspiring adventure/sports story of someone who did something that people said she couldn’t. And it’s a teenager. And it stares an Oscar winner in Anna Paquin. But extremely snooze-worthy.

3. Beau is Afraid-The film’s marketing describes the movie as about a lonely man’s odyssey home, and the director described it as a “nightmare comedy” on press tours. I would classify it as the kind of ride that amusement park’s convert into a haunt-fest for Halloween. Only it lasts three hours, and it was seemingly co-written by Carl Jung and Franz Kafka for maximum symbolism. Joaquin Phoenix plays a lonely man who’s ill-at-ease with the world. It’s kind of justified, however, because, he seems to live among the worst possible humans alive. It’s disturbing but not tremendously far away from working.

2. Ghosted-It might have been less this film, than where I was this genre in general—action hero casually murders tons of people while being immune from even a single bullet—that colored my opinion. It’s a good turn for Ana de Armas.

1. Asterisk and Obelisk-Sure, there are works that are kid-oriented but there should be some appeal to an adult audience in terms of presenting a good story. I can appreciate that it was adapted from a comic book, but the film had a weird and off-putting ascetic. The fight scenes were just plain lazy.

9 Best Films I've Seen This Year to Date

1.     Fool’s Paradise-The serendipity of good and bad fortune alike is evoked with the whimsy and physical comedy of Charlie Chaplin. It’s a rare ode to male friendship and features the gone-too-soon Ray Liotta’s best performance. Starring and directed by everyone’s favorite illiterate savant: Charlie (Day) from It’s Always Sunny

2.     Asteroid City-Following the bloated misstep of French Dispatch, this charming movie rivals the best directors at creating a strong sense of place: A charming Route 66 Southwest pit stop at the dawn of the nuclear era. Jason Schwartzman and Scarlett Johansson have one of those stoic romances reminiscent of the French new wave; Maya Hawke charms as a teacher with existential insecurities; there are five gangly genius clones of Jason Schwartzman in Rushmore, and many more interesting characters. Unlike French Dispatch, there’s a better sense of scale with the characters.

3.     Tetris- It’s hard to understate how impressive it is to take a subject that bores me to tears and make it a gripping thriller. Of course, it helps that the real-life story is equally mind-boggling: In order to acquire the rights for Tetris, Henk Williams mortgaged his house, risked trouble with the KGB, and was initially dependent on a company that was actively trying to screw him. When he finally broke free and secured the rights with the Nintendo company, he realized he didn’t have the rights because he was lied to. Although it’s easy to root for him in retrospect, movies like these often overlook that these bold risk takers simply can’t be classified as responsible adults. I’d love to see a deleted scene between Henk and his financial advisor.

4.     Air-Like Tetris, this is a film that does an amazing job of creating tension and stakes out of a topic that some might snooze-worthy. It’s a close call between Air and Tetris, but Tetris is insanely exciting, and Air deals with slightly more familiar beats. Still, this is a credit to director Ben Affleck for further developing the winning style of Argo.

5.     Are You There God. It’s Me Margaret-If it wasn’t an IP, it might have gotten the same kind of praise as Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade. It perfectly captures the melodrama of early adolescence and how a million great and catastrophic things are happening to you at the exact same times. Rachel McAdams is tear-inducing. 

6.     Joy Ride-It’s a women’s buddy comedy in the mold of Bridesmaids or Girls Trip in over-the-top raunchiness.  In this case, it’s more specific to the East Asian experience: The divides within the community as well as the stereotypes from outside, that second generation Americans from that part of the world have to navigate to form their ethnic identity. Combined with all the near brushes with catastrophe and the wild card nature of two of the four main characters (but fortunately, not in an overly derivative way), an apt description would be Crazy Rich Asians meets the Hangover.  Also, one of the actresses is named Sherry Cola which just about the coolest name I’ve ever heard of.

7.     Ruby Gillman Teenage Kracken-Whatever my opinion of the three animated films I saw this year, I can’t deny credit for quality of the visuals. Any random animation cel from this film would have blown minds if used as a screensaver in the late 90s. When so much of the budget is used for animation, it’s tempting for animated films to let the story fall by the wayside (Super Mario Brothers was passable to me based solely on technical elements), but I found this pretty charming. The coming-of-age beats are familiar, but the inversion of Annie Murphy’s mermaid character was a nice trick: The trailer clues us in to her antagonist status but I didn’t expect it the reveal to extend to the 3^rd act.

 

8.     Polite Society-Considering I’m not a huge fan as an unmarried person of watching so many of my peers spilling all their matrimonial bliss over my Facebook feed. With that in mind, I enjoyed living vicariously through this teenage renegade who is willing to karate chop her way to break up the marriage of her older sister. The zooms and camera movement are reminiscent of the super zooms that came out of CSI and The Matrix at the turn of the century.

9.     Flaming Hot-If there weren’t Mexican actors, they’d certainly be accused of being ridiculously stereotypical, but I’ll allow it. I’m not a fan of the “alas, a struggling immigrant who has to provide for his family” sentiment because that’s pretty much every story in a capitalist society. What I did appreciate was the angle of a guy circumventing the regular channels to go straight to the boss with his game-changing idea. Essentially, this film would have been much better if it went the Argo/Air route (dating back to the era of All the President’s Men) and cut the fat: The story needed to focus exclusively on the protagonist’s risks and rewards of subverting the rules. That and more Tony Shalhoub. Poised CEO Tony Shalhoub is a charming guy.

Notes on my Latest Directors' Progress Report

Sidenote: I've been writing for High on Film lately:

In the manner of Dear Data, I keep track of how many films I’ve seen by each director of whom I’ve seen at least four of their films.

Here’s my first update since 2018 with new additions in Bold and my two favorites in italics.

Some notes:

1. Among the big names, that haven’t made my list: Francis Ford Coppola, David Fincher, Otto Preminger, Danny Boyle, Brian de Palma, Alfonso Cuaron, and Guillermo del Toro (though if I ever watch the second half of Hellboy, I’ll have that nailed down). It’s ok: I don’t mind my blind spots at all. Don’t try to shame me for not watching the first two Godfathers or On the Waterfront! I can do that to myself just fine, thank you. Besides in a case like Elia Kazan, even if I haven’t seen his two most famous films, I have watched quite a bit of the periphery of his filmography and I enjoy doing that.

2. This is not a measure of how much I enjoy a certain film director. Woody Allen is #3 but I’ve only seen one films of his in the past decade (even though I believe his #metoo case is demonstrably false) and I wouldn’t equate him with brilliance. His films are just easy to digest and there’s a comfort to knowing what to expect.

3. Additionally, there’s a lot of buyer’s remorse with someone like Stephen Soderbergh. I admire his fan base because it’s compromised of more well-rounded cinephiles than the casual fan bases (usually, a calling card of masculinity) that emanate around, say, Tarantino or Scorsese. But he’s hit or miss. Full Frontal is overly indulgent in terms of the narrative; Laundromaut is visually indulgent enough that he puts Wes Anderson to shame; Ocean’s 12 was shameful in its attempts at meta; Erin Brockovich isn’t that far removed from the average star vehicle designed to win someone an Oscar; Side Effects is basically a genre film.

4. I would have seen everything Sam Mendes has ever made if I didn’t quit the James Bond franchise here. With the extraordinary 1917 and the delightful Empire of Light, Sam Mendes does a deep dive into a variety of genres.

5. We can divide this list into people I do and don’t consciously watch. I have never consciously watched anything by Chris Columbus (not the guy who discovered America), Peter Segal, Dennis Dungan, Frank Oz, or Sam Weisman. In the same manner in that I am attracted to a Sam Mendes film, I would run the opposite direction of one of these films if I knew in advance who was directing every film I had ever watched.

6. I was not raised as a film buff. I was raised in a few specific genres and one of those was Hitchcock. I don’t believe I’ve watched a Hitchcock film since graduating college so I had a humongous head start.

7. I would guess that my peers (same age, similar broad interest) probably have seen far more of the following: Francis Ford Coppola (five of his films in the 70s are simply essential, and he has a bunch of disposable films like Rainmaker and Jack that everyone at least watched once because it replays on TV a lot), Brian de Palma (a prolific guy dating back five decades with a few essentials), Tim Burton (he has a pretty large catalogue and is up for awards buzz every few years), and Ridley Scott (even though it seems like eight films is a lot, I haven’t watched Alien, Thelma and Louise and he’s released a lot of star-laden films in the middle like Body of Lies)

8. Lasse Holstrom is a curious case in that he’s a good litmus test for whether people choose their films based on what’s Oscar bait (films marketed, though not necessarily made, to win Oscars). Two of his films have been nominated for Oscar — Chocolat and Cider House Rules — that were helped greatly by Oscar magnate Harvey Weinstein in aggressive campaigning. Of course, we’d later learn that Weinstein was aggressive about less appropriate things, but that’s neither here nor there. Either way, Holstrom’s films that border on overly sentimental to a degree that can come off as calculated. In spite of this, Holstrom can often be pretty good at managing to tell an old-fashioned story that tugs at the heart strings without ever being revolutionary. Since his films have gotten the traditional Oscar hype, my theory is that a lot of Oscar buffs will have flocked to his films regardless of Rotten Tomatoes scores.

9. Peter Farrelly and Adam McKay are also interesting case studies in that their films have gone from frivolous to prestige throughout their careers. Farrelly’s comedies were an essential part of the 1990s whereas Adam McKay dominated the 2000s. Both would eventually win improbably Oscars elevating their subsequent material to must-see on the Oscar calendar. McKay’s last three films were all nominated for Oscar and whatever he makes is something a lot of people will want to see.

10. Similarly, Tim Burton has a surprisingly large output that formed most of my generation’s childhood milestones: Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, the first two Batmans, and Ed Wood have likely been covered by every one my age. Throw in some combination of Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (which grossed $200+ million), Sweeney Todd, Big Eyes, Big Fish, Dumbo, Sleepy Hollow or any of the other films that he has made at the pace of roughly once every other year. It’s likely that most people my age have watched at least ten Tim Burton films even if they don’t consciously seek the guy.

18 Alfred Hitchcock-Family Plot, Torn Curtain, Rebecca, 39 Steps, North by Northwest, Saboteur, The Wrong Man, Strangers on a Train, Shadow of a Doubt, Topaz, The Birds, Psycho, Lifeboat, Spellbound, Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much (both versions), Rear Window

17 Stephen Spielberg-Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Temple of Doom, Color Purple, Last Crusade, Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park, Bridge of Spies, Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, Terminal, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Ready Player One, West Side Story, Fabelmans

15 Woody Allen-Hollywood Ending, Curse of the Jaded Scorpion, Manhattan, Annie Hall, Small Time Crooks, Sweet and Lowdown, Mighty Aphrodite, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Melinda and Melinda, Midnight in Paris, Sleeper,Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, Bullets Over Broadway, Wonder Wheel

11 Joel and Ethan Coen- Joel and Ethan Coen-Oh Brother Where Art Thou, Ladykillers, Man Who Knew Too Much, Intolerable Cruelty, Big Lebowski, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading, Serious Man, True Grit, Ballad of Buster Scruggs

11 Steve Soderbergh-Erin Brockovitch, Ocean’s 11, Ocean’s 12, Full Frontal, Good German, Ocean’s 13, Informant, Side Effects, Logan Lucky, Laundromaut, Hustle

10 Billy Wilder-Spirit of St. Louis, Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, Irma la Douce, Double Indemnity, Sabrina, Ace in the Hole, Major and the Minor, 1,2,3, The Front Page
10 Clint Eastwood-Mystic River, Unforgiven, Bronco Billy, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Invictus, Gran Torino, White Heart Lonely Hunter, Play Misty for Me, Bridges of Madison County, Richard Jewel
10 Rob Zemeckis-Forrest Gump, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Back to the Future I-III, Contact, Romancing the Stone, Flight, The Walk, Welcome to Marwen
10 Tim Burton-Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Ed Wood, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factor, Alice in Wonderland, Corpse Bride, Big Eyes, Dumbo

10 Martin Scorsese-Color of Money, Age of Innocence, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Aviator, The Departed, Gangs of New York, Shutter Island, Hugo, Wolf of Wall Street

9 Mike Nicholls-Primary Colors, The Birdcage, The Graduate, Working Girl, Charlie Wilson’s War, What Planet Are You From?, Postcards from the Edge, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff, Regarding Henry
9 Jay Roach-Austin Powers I-III, Meet the Parents, Mystery Alaska, Dinner for Schmucks, The Campaign, Game Change, Trumbo
9 Bryan Singer-Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil, X-Men, X-Men 2, Superman Returns, Valkyrie, X-Men Days of Future Past, X-Men Apocalypse, Bohemian Rhapsody

8 Ron Howard-Apollo 13, Beautiful Mind, Da Vinci Code, Frost/Nixon, Angels and Demons, The Paper, Cocoon, Solo, Hillbilly Elegy

8 Christopher Nolan-Batman Begins, Prestige, Dark Knight, Dark Knight Rises, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet
8 Howard Hawks-Sgt. York, Bringing Up Baby, Big Sleep, Ball of Fire, Rio Bravo, His Girl Friday, Gentlemen Perfer Blondes, Monkey Business
8 Sidney Lumet- 12 Angry Men, Murder on the Orient Express, Network, Prince of the City, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Dog Day Afternoon, The Verdict, Pawnbroker

8 Ridley Scott-Blade Runner, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Prometheus, Martian, All the Money in the World, Last Duel, House of Gucci
8 Adam McKay: Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, The Other Guys, Anchorman 2, The Big Short, Vice, Don’t Look Up

7 Wes Anderson-Rushmore, Royal Tannenbaums, The Life Aquatic, Darjeerling Limited, Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, French Dispatch

7 Lasse Holstrom-What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Cider House Rules, Chocolat, Shipping News, The Hoax, Salmon Fishing in Yemen, Nutcracker and the Four Realms
7 Vincente Minelli-Meet me in St Louis, American in Paris, The Pirate, Brigadoon, The Band Wagon, Kismet, The Sandpiper
7 Rob Altman-Mash, McCabe and Mrs Miller, California Split, Buffalo Bill and the Indian, The Player, Dr. T and the Women, Prairie Home Companion
7 Ivan Reitman- Ghostbusters, 6 Days 7 Nights, Old School, Space Jam, Fathers Day, Beethoven, Beethoven’s 2nd, Ghostbusters II
7 Chris Columbus-Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone, Home Alone 2, Stepmom, I Love You Beth Cooper, Rent, Pixels
7 Terry Gilliam-Time Bandits, Brazil, Fisher King, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Brothers Grimm, Baron Munchhausen, 12 Monkeys

7 Rob Reiner-Stand and Deliver, Princess Bride, Rumor Has It, American President, Ghosts of Mississippi, Misery, Shock and Awe

7 Peter Farrelly-Kingpin, Dumb and Dumber, Fever Pitch, Shallow Hal, Osmosis Jones, Green Book, Greatest Beer Run Ever

6 Sam Mendes-American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Away We Go, 1917, Empire of Light
6 Johnothan Demme-Silence of the Lambs, Melvin and Howard, Manchurian Candidate, Married to the Mob, Rachel Getting Married, Rikki and the Flash,
6 Frank Capra-It Happened One Night, Arsenic and Old Lace, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Mr Deeds Goes to Town, Meet John Doe, It’s a Wonderful Life
6 Stanley Donen-Take Me Out to the Ballgame (most sources insist that he really was the director, not Bugsy Berkley), On the Town, Singing in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Charade, Bedazzled
6 Stanley Kramer-Defiant Ones, Inherit the Wind, Judgment at Nuremberg, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad Wold, Ship of Fools, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
6 Barry Levinson-Tin Men, Rain Man, Sleepers, Good Morning Vietnam, Man of the Year, Wag the Dog
6 Mel Brooks-Spaceballs, High Anxiety, Young Frankenstein, The Producers, Blazing Saddles, History of the World Part I
6 Roland Emmerich-ID4, Stargate, The Patriot, Day After Tomorrow, 2012, White House Down
6 Gore Verbinski-Pirates of the Caribbean 1–3, Weatherman, The Mexican, Rango
6 Brett Ratner-After the Sunset, Rush Hour 2, Family Man, X-Men 3, Red Dragon, Tower Heist
6 Frank Oz-Bowfinger, In and Out, Stepford Wives, The Score, What About Bob, Housesitter
6 Peter Segal-Naked Gun 33 1/3, Tommy Boy, My Fellow Americans, Anger Management, 50 First Dates, Get Smart
6 Stanley Kubrick-The Shining, Spartacus, Lolita, Eyes Wide Shut, Paths to Glory, Dr. Strangelove
6 David O Russell-Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, Joy, Amsterdam

6 Elia Kazan-A Face in the Crowd, Gentleman’s Agreement, Pinky, Lust for Life, Viva Zapata, East of Eden

6 John Ford-Stagecoach, The Searchers, The Hurricane, How Green was my Valley, The Whole Town’s Talking, My Darling Clementine

6 Shaun Levy-Cheaper by the Dozen, Big Fat Liar, Pink Panther, Night at the Museum 2, The Internship, Free Guy

5 Orson Welles-Citizen Kane, Lady of Shanghai, Othello, Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil
5 Tony Scott- Enemy of the State, Déjà Vu, Crimson Tide, Top Gun, Taking of Pelham 1,2,3
5 George Lucas-Star Wars I-IV, American Graffiti
5 Peter Weir-Witness, Dead Poet’s Society, The Truman Show, Master and Commander,Year of Living Dangerously
5 Blake Edwards-A Shot in the Dark, Pink Panther, Return of the Pink Panther, Great Race, What Did You Do in the War Daddy
5 Sydney Pollack-Sabrina, Out of Africa, Tootsie, The Interpreter, Slender Thread
5 Robert Rodriguez-El Mariachi Trilogy (Once Upon a Time in Mexico), Spy Kids and Lava Girl, Sin City
5 Curtis Hanson- LA Confidential, Wonderboys, In Her Shoes, Lucky You, 8 Mile
5 Barry Sonnenfeld-Men in Black I, MiB II, Wild Wild West, Big Trouble, MiB III
5 Cameron Crowe-Almost Famous, Jerry MaGuire, Vanilla Sky, Elizabethtown, We Bought a Zoo
5 Joel Schumacher-Time to Kill, 8 MM, Batman and Robin, Batman Forever, The Client
5 John Glenn-5 Bond films
5 Tom Shadyac-Liar Liar, Bruce Almighty, Patch Adams, Evan Almighty, Ace Ventura
5 John Lynn-Whole Nine Yards, Trial and Error, Sgt Bilko, Whole Ten Yards, My Cousin Vinny
5 Bobby Farrelly-Kingpin, Dumb and Dumber, Fever Pitch, Shallow Hal, Osmosis Jones
5 Jon Favreau-Elf, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Cowboys and Aliens, Chef
5 Christopher Guest-For Your Consideration, Mighty Wind, Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, Mascots
5 Ernst Lubitsch-Shop Around the Corner, Ninotchka, Merry Widow, Trouble in Paradise, To Be or Not to Be
5 Jake Kadsan-Orange County, Walk Hard, Bad Teacher, Jumaji, Jumanji 2
5 Spike Lee-Do the Right Thing, Bamboozled, 25th Hour, School Daze, Blackkklansman
5 Alexander Payne-Election, Sideways, Descendants, Nebraska, Downsizing

5 Sam Raimi-Spiderman 1–3, Oz: The Great and Powerful, Dr Strange and the Multiverse

5 Richard Linklater-School of Rock, Bernie, Fast Food Nation, Me and Orson Welles, Where’d You Go Bernadette

If I Was To Create a Soundtrack for Each Best Supporting Actress Oscar Winner (Part I)

Recently, I made a pair of videos tracing every Best Supporting Actress from 1936 onwards. 

Through the process of making my own YouTube videos, I've discovered that choosing your own music to provide background is one of the more creatively fulfilling parts of the project. I always thought it was obnoxious of documentarians to overly indulge in their own music as part of their narrative.

I'm pretty old school with my music collection. I don't use Spotify or Itunes plus. I just have my own cloud-backed collection of songs that numbers around 275 right now. With an exception or two, I thought it would be fun to just stick to what I had in my library. Here's how I settled on my choices for this video.

1936: Gale Sondegaard, Anthony Adverse

Testing 1, 2, 3, Barenaked Ladies

 

1.       I make a pun about how Anthony Adverse can be mistaken for school-house rock, and Barenaked Ladies has always struck me as a kindergarten-friendly band.

2.       Testing, 1, 2, 3 sounds like a good way to kick off the series

3.       I wanted to set the template right away as a series in which I would be anachronistic in my selections

4.       The line in the song “Can anybody hear me?” is the way I feel about the series, and it’s sung in a more shruggish way, which I hope to adopt.

1937: Alice Brady, In Old Chicago

How High the Moon, Hoagy Carmichael, performed by Todd Lines

 

1.       Simply an old-timey song for a movie set in the 1880s

2.       A need for balance from the Baranaked Ladies

 

1938: Faye Bainter, Jezebel

Ex’s and Oh's, Ellie King

1.       Jezebel is a film about a woman who’s shamed for being sexually loose.  The narrator of Ex’s and Oh’s  is clearly promiscuous and unapologetic

2.       The line in the chorus “the Ex’s and Ohs they haunt me” is symbolic of the shunning that happens in Jezebel

 

 

1939: Hattie McDaniel, Gone with the Wind

Set Fire to the Rain, Adele

1.       To honor the first Black Oscar winner, it seems fitting to have something that feels gospel-like and Adele’s voice feels like comparable to a Black diva like Whitney Houston or Aretha Franklin.

2.        Hattie McDaniel’s win also marks social change, and setting things on fire seems sweeping.

3.       The city of Atlanta literally burns down.

1940: Jane Darwell, Grapes of Wrath

Hoedown, Aaron Copeland

 

1.       Pretty simple here. It’s a film set alongside Westward expansion. Copeland was pure Americana and Hoedown (the “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner” commercial soundtrack) is synonymous audially with the West

1941: Mary Astor, The Great Lie

Hollywood, Marina and Her Diamonds

1.       In this installment, I discussed Astor’s past of scandal and how it almost ruined her.

2.       This song is sung by a European popstar who is obsessed with Hollywood. I suspect the narrator is speaking more of the tabloid culture of Hollywood

2.       The glamour of Hollywood might be better represented in the Maltese Falcon—the movie with the tagline “The Stuff Dreams are made of”—that came out in the same year

 

1942: Teresa Wright, Mrs. Miniver

Extraordinary, Liz Phair

1. Extraordinary is a descriptor of Wright’s talent. She was such a remarkable catch on Broadway that multiple studios bid over her

2. Teresa Wright was also determined to be taken seriously for her acting and not as a sex symbol. She went so far as to create a contract by which it would be virtually impossible to portray her in a sexy manner  

3.       3. I'm not that familiar with Liz Phair outside of some songs she heavily plugged on the talk show circuit in the 2003-2004 era when I was more glued into Live with Regis and Kelly and the late night talk shows. But this is very much a girl power ballad

1943: Katina Paxinou; For Whom the Bell Tolls;

Another Life, Soundtrack to Bridges of Madison County (performed by Whitney Bashor)

1.       I’m digging the idea of linking one soundtrack to cover.

2.       This is one of the films I didn’t’ see, but it’s about a romance during a war. Written by Hemmingway, it can’t be anything but nostalgic which is what the song is drenched with

3.        

 

1944:  Ethel Barrymore, None but the Lonely Heart

I’ve Got Rhythm, George Gerswhin, covered by jazz pianist Hiromi

 

1.       I love Japanese jazz pianist sensation Hironi. Like someone a little more obscure like Marina and her Diamonds, it’s fun to promote them

2.       The Barrrymore family clearly is a talented one

1945: Anne Revere, National Velvet

Sports Song, Weird Al Yankovic

This song is a parody of spectator sports, and what can I say, National Velvet is kind of a bland movie. Not every song in my library is one that I like. Sometimes you download something based on the artist's previous reputation and the title of the song. At least I have a use for it now.

1946: Anne Baxter, Razor’s Edge

Everything’s Just Wonderful, Lilly Allen

Baxter plays an alcoholic on the verge of losing it. Allen’s song -- with a whirling chord structure that intentionally deceives the listener about where the tonic is (Coldplay's "Clocks" is another example) -- has a sense of spinning out of control with the music while the lyrics falsely belie a sense of coming together.
 
1947: Celeste Holm, Gentlemen’s Agreement
Caution, The Killers

1.       This was not an easy one to pick because there weren’t that many songs in my library about infiltrating the Jewish community to fight anti-semitism. I thought the movie wasn’t particularly credible so I don’t think the hippie-ish songs in my library really captured how I felt about the film

2.       Again, I liked something anachronistic here.

3.       There is an unbridled optimism of the song which reflects both Celeste Holm’s character, Anne Dettrey, in the film along with the closing speech of the film by (a somewhat jarring) speech by  Gregory Peck’s mom that she  thinks the future is going to be a better place.

4.     Gregory Peck’s character is certainly a muckraker, which matches this sort of gleeful lyric:
“If I don’t get out of this town. I just might be the one who burns it down”

5.     Anne is a character who’s kind of glamorous and the film explores class in a lot of ways, which matches the lyrics:

“Never had a diamond on the sole of her shoes

Just black top, white trash

Straight out of the news”

1948: Claire Trevor, Key Largo
Kokomo, Beach Boys

This is the obvious choice because these are the two first words of the song and it does take place in a tropic climate. If I were to be really nitpicky, I would point out that this is more of a noir than a beach film like the Tom Cruise flick Cocktail. But I had to work with the confines of my library.

1949: Mercedes McCambridge, All the King’s Men
Saints Hallelujah (Traditional/G.F. Handel mash-up),arranged and performed by Canadian Brass

 

1.       All the King’s Men is about the governor’s race in Louisiana, so I knew I had to go with the wonderful array of New Orleans jazz

2.       This song mashes a traditional New Orleans tune with a classical element. Louisiana is a big melting pot anyway.

3.       This song also has a call and response element with jazz riffs (typical to New Orleans jazz) that echoes the energy between a politician and his supporters at a rally. Even the word Hallelujah can be used as an “amen” in response to a political point

 

1950: Josephine Hull, Harvey
Human, The Killers

The song is about a narrator re-examining his humanity. This is what Josephine Hull’s character is badly in need of in this film about a man whose positive contributions to the world are through an imaginary rabbit.

1951: Kim Hunter, Streetcar Named Desire

Summertime, George Gerswhin, covered by Scary Pockets featuring Olivia Kuper Harris

 

1.     The film is set in a poor multi-cultural neighborhood in New Orleans. It’s a Southern setting (again, New Orleans), so I wanted something jazzy again.

2.       Gerswhin was a precursor to big band jazz and the funk group  Scary Pockets gives this jazz tune a fine remix. I didn’t want something that was squarely in the jazz era

3.       You have to admit this gives the jazz tune a nice twist

4.       There’s a sense of the sweltering heat in this tune

1952: Gloria Graeme, Bad and the Beautiful
Entry March of the Boyars, Johan Halvorsen, performed by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

I haven’t seen Bad and the Beautiful, so I mostly riffed off the circus film “Greatest Show on Earth” which came out in the same year. I always associate circuses with Eastern European gypsy culture. This is a Russian march.

1953: Donna Reed, From Here to Eternity
Don’t Worry Baby, Beach Boys

This is the quintessential Hawaii film so the Beach Boys fits. Additionally, it’s a very fitting theme of quelling the calm before the storm.

1954: Eva Marie Saint, On the Waterfront

Diamonds are Forever, Shirley Bassey

This has more to do about the fact that Eva Marie Saint’s role in North by Northwest was a predecessor to the classic Bond girl than anything with the movie.

1955: Jo Van Fleet, East of Eden

Hazy Shade of Winter, Bangles

1. The song begins: “Time, time, time, see what’s become of me, as I look around to my possibilities” (matched by a very odd uncanny valley between major and minor resolution). This film is an allegory for the Garden of Eden where time didn’t really exist and then it did when they were banished

2. Additionally, a lot of the shots of Jo Van Fleet as brothel owner Kate look old and withered

3. The song is also very place-specific. There’s a verse of the salvation army band (religious allegory, again?)

4. James Dean, the star of the film, is also frozen in time

1956: Dorothy Malone, Written on the Wind

Havana, Camilla Cabello

Although it’s set in Texas, I tried to make the point that Douglas Sirk was the predecessor of R-rated envelope-pushing drama.  So I needed something very sensual and modern to push the envelope.

1957: Miyoshi Umeki, Sayonara

Chinatown, My Chinatown; Glenn Mills, arranged by Luther Henderson, performed by Canadian Brass

This jazz number--more tin pan alley than dixieland—is a lively tune that couldn’t sound more oriental when It first crosses your ears. This is to honor the first East Asian actress to win an Oscar. I’d almost be concerned it was just a flat racial stereotype, but Umeki also appeared in Flower Drum Song.

1958: Wendy Hiller, Separate Tables
Marriage of Figaro, Mozart

This is a stuffy British film (albeit a good one), so I needed something classical.

1959: Shelley Winters, Diary of Anne Frank

Inside My Mind This Time, Welcome to Florida

I figured there wasn’t anything I could use to capture the tragedy of the Holocaust. My only other option was Schindler’s List but I figured that would be too derivative. In place, I felt that this punk rock song about doing things by your own tune was the best.

1960: Shirley Jones, Elmer Gantry

Henney Buggy Band, Sufjan Stevens

This film is about a Midwestern preacher and huckster. It’s an inversion of Midwestern Americana. Shirley Jones most famous roles are in the most Middle American of musicals in The Music Man and Carousel. This is very much a Middle American song: A peppy folk number.