New Oscar nominees I saw 1917, Parasite, Little Women plus Judy (and JoJo Rabbit)

I watched "1917" "Parasite" and "Little Woman" and felt they were excellent choices for the Oscar. Although it's not in the video, "JoJo Rabbit" also blew me away.

With "Little Woman", I admit I had a bit of bias against both period pieces of this era and
films that seemed to be targeted to females. I had to push through those biases in the first half hour to keep my mind on the movie but once the love triangles and tuberculosis and family problems mounted, I am glad I stuck it through. The film is emotionally there but has its own sense of joy about those lucky
enough to be born to a family of sisters. The film celebrates an earlier era of courtship where people didn’t meet grinding on the dance floor or on dating apps while also commenting on the distances it might create. On the whole, it's a very emotionally satisfying movie.


"1917", "Parasite", and "Jojo Rabbit" all blew me away.


"1917" is a technical marvel that makes you aware of the additive value of good cinematography in the best possible way. Roger Deakins is perhaps the only household name among cinematographers and he will be even more famed after this. Like "Little Woman" the film starts off slow and it builds and someone on home viewing might give up on it but that would be a massive shame because the film is an emotional ride. It's almost existential as a man has to find his purpose and then his purpose overtakes him to the point of exhaustion and everything else.


"JoJo Rabbit" I was concerned about because I'd just seen "Death of Stalin" and "Life is Beautiful" so I thought this has been done before but I don't know why I made this foolish mistake in retrospect: How many films have there really been in this genre?  The film makes the right movie at every juncture of the story and is supremely clever in its view of the war from a child's point of view. Sam Rockwell, once again, is great (he's on quite a roll), and Scarlet Johansson steals the show. She handles the arduous task of raising a difficult child as a single mother with such joy and resolve that I have no problem with her winning an Oscar this year. It handles World War II with a mix British absurdist humor (not unlike Monty Python which tackled the same subject matter), poetry and sentiment.


"Parasite" is the kind of deep dive into class that you don't see too often. It's extraordinarily layered in symbolism and visually dense. The film's biggest trick is introducing us to a tragedy (the class divide), but showing a larger tragedy lurking underneath the surface and building up the tension until these two tragedies collide. It plays with time and dramatic irony (what some characters know while others don't) perfectly well.

"Judy" is basically a TV movie with a good performance but what's the point of a movie if only to show off a good performance?





And here's my JoJo Rabbit review (with two strangers)

Just saw three new Oscar BP nominees: 1917, Parasite, Little Women plus Judy

The Oscars really hit it out of the park with their best picture selections. Even if I wasn't as moved by Marriage Story than others, I think it's an excellent choice (for contrast purposes on what's usually done in that genre) for a curated list of nine great films to represent this year.

"1917" and "Parasite" blew me away and "Little Women" is an excellent film as well. Greta Gerwig's film required me to overcame my genre bias but once I did that, I thought it was a wonderful film.

Top 25 Actresses of the (Last) Decade: Rehash Article from 2009

This article was originally published in 2009 on another website. It’s now being reprinted here and polished up a little bit:

With the decade nearly over, and the fact that we can get a sense of who is committed to which projects through the end of 2009, we can safely evaluate the actresses of the 2000s. The reason I'm picking actresses instead of actors, is partially because actresses are easier to compare to each other since they get the same roles (romantic interests, daughters, sisters, mothers, feminist activists, monarchs named Elizabeth, etc.), and because actresses tend to be at the peak of their careers for shorter time periods (for example, the actresses of the 90's, Meg Ryan, Demi Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer are not really stars at all today).

The criteria:

-Being prolific, as in doing a lot of movies. If you have a number of hits and some misses along the way, you still get more exposure than someone who's been in very few movies and has won Academy Awards for two of them like Hillary Swank

-Being in good movies. The actress might not be the one to get the major awards bling from the movie but they might be part of great works

-Having Oscar nominations, nominations by other major awards bodies, or generally highly praised performances

-Being a bankable movie star with blockbuster potential, bonus points for helming a major franchise

-Being present the whole decade. If you've only been hot since 2005 or 2006 like Amy Adams or Ellen Page, that's not really dominating the decade but rather 3 or 4 years.

The list

1. Nicole Kidman

Kidman is one of the most prolific and visible actresses in Hollywood and if she has had any misfires, one has to credit her for taking so many chances and diving into them headfirst: She tackled romantic comedy with one of the most innovative writers in the genre with Nora Ephron, she immersed herself into the glitz and glamour of Baz Luhrmann, she teamed up with Sean Penn and Sidney Pollack to make a classic thriller, and took a chance with a controversial innovator in Lars von Trier even if she didn’t like it enough to stick around for the sequel. Some of Kidman's less-remembered roles this decade, such as that a trouble janitor who enters into May-December romance with a professor in The Human Stain or a UN translator in Sidney Pollack's thriller The Interpreter, are roles that might have been career highlights for other stars on this list.

Dossier

Nationality: Australian

Best Role: Ada Monroe, Cold Mountain (highly subjective personal opinion on the part of the author)

Other Highlights: The Others, The Hours, The Cold Mountain, Dogville, Interpreter, Birth, Margot at the Wedding

2000s Hardware: 1 win, 2 Oscar noms, 4 Golden Globe Noms

Blockbuster/Tent pole Credentials: Golden Compass if it spawns a sequel [Ed note: It didn't], voice work in Happy Feet

Directorial Portfolio: Anthony Minghella, Baz Luhrmann, Stephen Daldry, Nora Ephron, Sidney Pollack, Lars von Trier

Credit: Rebloggy

2. Cate Blanchett

Known primarily for playing Queen Elizabeth in the last decade, Blanchett never has exhibited much of a star persona but, like Kidman, she has been highly prolific and immersed herself in a tremendous variety of work. In the last three years alone, she appeared in seven wide release pictures, she has earned Oscar nominations for three of them. In addition, she has propelled two others to Oscar nominations for Best Picture. She also has a penchant for the quirky and experimental as shown through her willingness to embrace projects like Wes Anderson's Life Aquatic and Steve Soderbergh's The Good German.

Dossier

Nationality: Australia

Best Role: Bob Dylan, I'm Not There

Other highlights: Veronica Guerin, Aviator, Life Aquatic with Steve Zassou, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (she’s arguably the only person acting in the film), Notes on a Scandal, Babel, Good German

The decade in hardware: 1 Oscar win, 4 Oscar noms, 6 Golden Globes Nods

Blockbuster/Tentpole Credentials: Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones

Directorial Portfolio: Steve Soderbergh, Steve Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Ron Howard, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Peter Jackson, Todd Haynes, Shekhar Kapur, David Fincher, Barry Levinson

3. Meryl Streep- The preeminent actress of our era. Twelve nominations into her career, Streep is still capable of surprising audiences with new facets of herself, which is simply amazing. This decade, she's transformed into a stoic uberboss, a quaint country singer, and a sexually adventurous middle-aged writer.

Dossier

Nationality-American

Best Role: Susan Orlean, Adaptation

Other Highlights: Devil Wears Prada, Prairie Home Companion, Prime, It’s Complicated, Doubt, Manchurian Candidate

The decade in hardware: 4 Oscar noms, 7 Golden Globe noms

Blockbuster Credentials: Adventures of Lemony Snicket

Directorial Portfolio: Johnathan Demme, Rob Altman, Tom Daldry, Spike Jonze, Robert Redford

4. Kate Winslet

Winslet was in the biggest blockbuster of all time, and has done an excellent job in the 2000s of making audiences forget the name Rose Bukater and remember the name Kate Winslet instead. Her effusive personality and her able handling of Saturday Night Live the week after Ashlee Simpson was busted for lip-synching has done wonders for her public persona but it’s largely been about the acting talent with Winslet and the breadth of films. She became the youngest actress to earn 5 nominations by 2007, and finally goaded the Academy into giving her an Oscar through sheer perseverance with her role of Hannah Schmidt in “The Reader.” Interestingly enough, she predicted on a 2005 episode of “Extras” that it would take a Holocaust movie for her to win.

Dossier

Nationality: British

Best Role: April Wheeler, Revolutionary Road

Other Highlights: Secret Life of David Gale, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,  The Reader

The Decade in Hardware:  Oscar Wins: 1, Oscar Noms: 4, Golden Globe Noms:  5

Blockbuster/Tentpole Credentials: Winslet isn't exclusively high-brow, but she doesn't have any big blockbusters to her name this decade.

Notable Directors: Michel Gondry, Sam Mendes (her then-husband), Todd Field, Marc Forster

5. Rene Zellweger

Ideal in romantic comedies or as a dramatic love interest, Zellweger has also expanded to roles of independent women with roles in Miss Potter, Cold Mountain and Bridget Jones. She scored three successive Oscar nominations with Bridget Jones, Chicago, and Cold Mountain, and with her performances in Cinderella Man and Miss Potter, was a a threat to be present in the Oscar race pretty much every year she had a major film.

Dossier

Nationality: American

Best Role: Roxie Hart, Chicago

Other highlights: Nurse Betty, Cold Mountain, Miss Potter

The Decade in Hardware: Oscars: 1, Oscar Noms 3, Golden Globe Noms: 6

Blockbuster/Tentpole Credentials: Bee Movie, Bridget Jones spurned a sequel

Directorial Portfolio: Rob Marshall, Anthony Minghella, Ron Howard, Neil LaBute, George Clooney

Source: DRWL Wordpress

6. Reese Witherspoon

Her output is more limited than some of the ladies on the list but she has been America's sweetheart since breaking out in Legally Blonde and following up with favorable romantic comedy Sweet Home in Alabama. She also is in high demand judging by the 15 million dollar paycheck she's been commanding. Most importantly, she took her sweetheart charm and turned it into a nuanced performance in one of the best performances of the decade in Walk the Line.

Dossier

Nationality: American

Best Role: June Carter Cash, Walk the Line

Other highlights: Legally Blonde, Just Like Heaven

The Decade in Hardware: Walk the Line earned her a win at the Oscars and was her sole nomination at Globes or Oscars

Blockbuster/Tentpole Credentials: Legally Blonde spawned a sequel

Directorial Portfolio: James Mangold, Mira Nair

Source: IMDB

7. Judi Dench

Proving that old age and the bob weave are not barriers, Dench continues to corner the market on juicy veteran roles and has managed to score four Oscar nominations this decade. While none of her Oscar-nominated roles were popular films at the box office, she gets exposure through playing M in the James Bond series. She also appeared in the critically acclaimed Pride and Prejudice.

Dossier

Nationality: British

Best Role: Barbara Covet, Notes on a Scandal

Other Notable Roles: Iris, The Shipping News, Mrs Henderson Presents, Casino Royale, Pride and Prejudice

The Decade in Hardware: 4 Oscar noms, 3 Golden Globe noms

Blockbuster/Tentpole Credentials: James Bond, the less successful Chronicles of Riddick

Directorial Portfolio: Stephen Frears, Martin Campbell, Lasse Hollstrom, Joe Wright, Rob Marshall

8. Scarlett Johansson

It is hard to even fathom how only five years after breaking out in Lost in Translation, Scarlett Johannson has amassed a lifetime of great performances to date. She's been in The Prestige, The Other Boleyn Girls, Match Point, Girl with a Pearl Earring, a Love Song for Bobby Long, and has even had time left over for a hearty romantic comedy like In Good Company or a sci-fi thriller like The Island. Even before breaking out in Lost in Translation, she managed to steal scenes in films like Man who Wasn't There and Ghost World. Due to category confusion (was she supporting or lead for Lost in Translation?), that career-affirming Oscar nomination eludes her but she's got plenty of time to accumulate more accolades. She also has a BAFTA (British version of the Oscars) to her name for Lost in Translation.

Dossier

Nationality: USA

Best Role: Charlotte, Lost in Translation

Other notable roles: Ghost World, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Love Song for Bobby Long, Match Point

Notable Hardware: Some Golden Globe nominations but no Oscar nods in a cruel twist of fate

Blockbuster/Tentpole Credentials: She was in Home Alone 3, Prestige made quite a bit of money and she will be added to the Iron Man sequel next summer

Directorial Portfolio: Paul & Chris Weicz, Woody Allen, Sofia Coppola, Christopher Nolan, Brian de Palma, Joel & Ethan Coen, Frank Miller, Phillip Noyce

Source: Product Placement Blog dot com 

9. Julia Roberts

The biggest starlet in Hollywood last decade has slowed down a little bit this decade but still isn’t enough to stop and say. She's considered herself semi-retired and usually enters into projects because of her friendships with Brad Pitt, Steve Soderbergh, Mike Nichols or George Clooney, which doesn't make her particularly bankable as a star any more. At the same time, she's still Julia Roberts and generates a lot of buzz whenever she does decide to do a film, such as Charlie Wilson's War a couple years ago

Dossier

Best Role: Erin Brockovich, Erin Brockovich                  

Other notable roles: Closer, Ocean’s 12, Charlie Wilson’s War, Duplicity

Nationality: American

The decade in hardware: One Oscar, one Oscar nom and 3 Golden Globe noms

Blockbuster/Tentpole Credentials: Ocean's 11 series (though she was weaned out by part 3)

Directors: Stephen Soderbergh, George Clooney, Mike Nicholls, Gore Verbinski,

10. Julianne Moore

Moore is usually attracted to only the classiest material, and sometimes these films, like Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio and Freedomland, are films that the general movie going public is rarely even aware of. In some case, however, like Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men and the Oscar-nominated The Hours, magic has struck and her profile has been upped significantly as a result. Breaks into more lightweight material such as Laws of Attraction or Next have also helped as well.

Dossier

Nationality: American

Best Role: Cathy Whitaker, Far From Heaven

Other Notable Roles: Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio, Laws of Attraction, Children of Men, The Hours, A Single Man, Shipping News

The Decade in Hardware: Two Oscar noms, two Golden Globe Nods

Blockbuster/Tentpole Credentials: Hannibal, Next

Directors: Todd Haynes, Ridley Scott, Stephen Daldry, Alfonso Cuaron

11. Naomi Watts

With her ability to slip into and out of accents and an on/off switch with which she can bring out intensity, Watts is simply too talented to be anything but an A-list actor for long. Her performance in Mullholland Drive was one of the most notorious Oscar snubs of the decade. Two years later, she earned a well-deserved nomination in 21 Grams and a couple years later, she turned a role that nearly derailed Jessica Lange's career in a third-time remake into Oscar bait, with the role of Ane Darrow in King Kong. She often adds a lot to films in supporting roles like Eastern Promises or I Heart Huckabees and more often than not, her work goes unnoticed.

Dossier

Nationality: Australian

Best Role: Betty, Mullholland Drive,

Other Notable Roles: 21 Grams, The Ring, King Kong, Eastern Promises

Oscar Hardware: 1 Oscar Nom, surprisingly zero Golden Globe nods

Blockbuster/Tentpole Credentials: King Kong, The Ring

Directorial Portfolio: Ron Howard, David Lynch, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, David Cronenberg, Peter Jackson, Gore Verbinski, Woody Allen, James Ivory

Source: North Country Charlize Theron-The Wrap

12. Charlize Theron

The Charlize Theron story is a dream come true for every B and C-lister out there with hopes of turning into an A-lister overnight. With Monster (2003), she landed that one juicy role and turned it into the performance of a lifetime. The Academy treats the best actress race like a coronation of Tinseltown's homecoming queen and more than in any other race, there is a hesitancy to give it to someone who hasn't paid her dues, but Theron was too good to deny. She later proved that she wasn't a one-hit wonder by scoring another Oscar nod in North Country and has picked up parts in Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah and attempted action roles in Aeon Flux and Hancock (the 10^th highest grossing film of 2008). Neither showed sequel potential but a kick-ass heroine is always marketable.

Dossier

Best Film Role: Aileen, Monster

Other Notable Roles: Aeon Flux, North Country, Curse of the Jaded Scorpion

Nationality: South Africa

The Decade in Hardware: 1 Oscar win, 2 Oscar nominations, 1 Golden Globe Nomination

Tentpole/Blockbuster Credentials: An unsuccessful attempt with Aeon Flux, Hancock had a decent opening weekend but fell off

Directors: Robert Redford, Nikki Cairo, Woody Allen, Paul Haggis, John Frankenheimmer

13. Helen Mirren- The first woman over the age of 40 to win a best actress Oscar since Susan Sarandon, Helen Mirren had a big career hit with her role in The Queen and won a second Golden Globe for playing Queen Elizabeth I in the same year. In addition, she had Oscar nods for Godsford Park, The Last Station, and made respectable Oscar bait in Calendar Girls. Well into her 60s, she continues to exude an odd sex appeal and youthfulness. With the exception of her Oscar-nominated role for The Madness of King George, the actress was more visible onstage and in the British miniseries Prime Suspect. 

Best Role: Queen Elizabeth II, The Queen

Other Notable Roles: Gosford Park, Calendar Girls, The Last Station

Nationality: British through and through

The Decade in Hardware: 1 Oscar win, 3 Oscar noms, 4 Golden Globe noms

Tentpole/Blockbuster Credentials: National Treasure 2

Directorial Portfolio: Stephen Frears, Rob Altman, Taylor Hackford, Sean Penn

14. Keira Knightley

When she was cast in Pirates of the Carribean, little-known Keira Knightley might have been destined to be the female love interest in a swashbuckling epic, but as she held her own against Orlando Bloom and Jonny Depp, she gradually became the center of the story herself (and for that matter, the only remotely interesting character onscreen in the disastrous third installment of the trilogy). Rather than ride the kind of fame that one gets from being in a billion dollar trilogy into a string of roles in romantic comedies, Knightly went for more high-brow material, scoring a nod for Pride and Prejudice and starring in an Oscar-nominated film with Atonement.

Dossier

Best Role: Jules, Bend it Like Beckham

Other Notable Roles: Pride and Prejudice, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Atonement, Domino, The Edge of Love

Nationality: English

The Decade in Hardware: 1 Oscar nom, 2 Golden Globe noms

Tentpole/Blockbuster Credentials: Pirates of the Caribbean

Directorial Portfolio: Joe Wright, Gore Verbinski, Tony Scott

15. Jennifer Connelly- Like Watts, Connelly is so talented that it was only a matter of time before she became an A-list actress, won an Oscar or both. Her Oscar for A Beautiful Mind could have just as well been for House of Sand and Fog, and she regularly appears in highly respected films such as Requiem for a Dream, Little Children, and Blood Diamond and even her unremarkable genre films like Open Water and Ang Lee's Hulk are capable of drawing attention solely because her name is on the marquee.

Best Role: Kathy, House of Sand and Fog

Nationality: American

Other Notable Roles: Beautiful Mind, Blood Diamond, Little Children, Requiem for a Dream, Open Water

The Decade in Hardware: One Oscar win, one Oscar nom, one Golden Globe nom

Blockbuster/Tentpole Credentials: A failed attempt at The Hulk, a commercially successful but critically panned Day the Earth Stood Still

Directors: Ron Howard, Ed Zwick, Todd Fields, Ang Lee, Darren Aronofsky, Terry George

And the rest of the top 25 (All deleted from the internet forever, except 25):
16. Natalie Portman 17. Laura Linney 18. Maggie Smith 19. Catherine Zeta-Jones 20. Kirsten Dunst 21. Joan Allen 22. Halle Berry 23. Maggie Gyllenhaal 24. Cameron Diaz 25. Angelina Jolie

Best Supporting Actress Grades of All Time (Pt II)

Part I is here

I've also written historical highlights over on helium:
http://bit.ly/hHFGG2

Best Best Supporting Actresses of All Time (Part II):

1991 Mercedes Ruehl, Fisher King C+
Character: Anne, girlfriend of an out-of-work radio DJ (Jeff Bridges) who's (and I'm referring to the DJ, here) guilt-stricken over inadvertently causing a shooting spree




Analysis: I like this film very much and was originally going to give Ruehl a decent grade because she create a unique character and commands attention when she's on screen. Then again, the shrill domineering wife stereotype (never mind that she's not yet a wife, she still fits that stereotype) has been around since the days of W.C. Fields and beyond. My other problem is that Amanda Plummer, a shy bookworm who's sworn off men through adulthood, gave a more memorable performance. Ironically, neither Plummer nor Ruehl had very prominent careers after winning the Oscar.

1992 Marisa Tomei, My Cousin Vinny D-
Character: Mona Lisa Vito, Loudmouth car mechanic and girlfriend to "Cousin Vinny" (Joe Pesci)

Analysis: I'm pretty sure that no other award in the history of the Oscars generated speculation in the Hollywood Reporter that Tomei was only rewarded the Oscar because the presenter (Jack Palance) that night read the wrong name off the teleprompter. That's literally how far below the standard she was. How awkward it must have been to be Marisa Tomei that night: Going to all the post-show galas with many of the people who are congratulating her don't actually believe she legitimately won! Nonetheless, Tomei made up for her "fluke" win by legitimately earning two more nominations.

As for my judgement? I'm in the camp that it was a pretty unremarkable performance. If I'm marking Ruehl several points down for playing to a stereotype, than I can't ignore Tomei whom I would mathematically express as something like Ruehl's stereotypical shrill squared. Not completely flunking her because it was an honest effort and I'm not questioning the legitimacy of the award.

1994 Dianne Wiest, Bullets over Broadway B+
Character: Helen Sinclair, an aging Broadway diva who commands a lot of attention for cast and crew around her

Analysis: Anyone else see the irony that Woody Allen-- largely incapable of writing outside his own personal experiences and still hated by all of womanhood for dumping Mia Farrow-- has been able to write and direct the women in his films to five Oscars?
Oddly enough, I'm not the only one who picked up on the notion that the quality of Woody Allen's characters declines the further they stray away from the mold of nebbish Jewish men living in New York. While the sheer volume of quality movies proves this is an oversimplification, I can't help but notice how well this film plays into that theory. The main character, played by John Cusack, is a neurotic New York playwright with a confusing love life. Wiest's character isn't a fully fleshed-out person but rather a distraction for Cusack's journey to artistic self-confidence.

At the same time, that doesn't really take anything away from Wiest's performance which is an entertaining part of an otherwise unremarkable film. Wiest's role is fairly stereotypical but she really owns it and has fun with it.



1995 Mira Sorvino, Mighty Aphrodite A

Character: Linda Ash, a prostitute who begins a platonic friendship with the protagonist (Woody Allen) after he discovers she's the birth mother of his adopted daughter

Analysis: I really liked this character. She's just a giddy ball of energy and I was completely disarmed by her. There was just the right amount of room in the script for Sorvino to launch off from and do something with it.

Although I was not following the Oscars at this age, I do know that not everyone has felt like Sorvino winning was a good thing. She hasn't had much of a career after this film and she is the daughter of a famous enough Hollywood actor, so those are a couple reasons to resent her right there. Additionally, I do think Kathleen Quinlam could have also done Oscar justice by taking home the trophy, but I don't bear a grudge towards Sorvino because, as I said, she was terrific.

1997 Kim Bassinger, LA Confidential B-
Character: Lynn Bracken, a prostitute who becomes romantically entangled with a pair of cops in a noirish expose of police corruption

Analysis: This is an odd one because I could put forth an argument that this was a moving performance and a deserving win, but I can just as easily argue the opposite. I can see her as being a prostitute with a heart of Gold (sort of like Donna Reed and others) who infuses the very bloody story with some brighter moments. On the flip side, if you take the performance away from the context of the story, it's not particularly memorable. Similarly, if you're watching the film expecting a juicy crime thriller, she's kind of chewing up scenery and getting in the way from the good stuff. So let's call it a split decision with a B-

1998: Judi Dench, Shakespeare in Love F
Character: Queen Elizabeth I 

Analysis: Epic fail! Dench did very little except dress up and wear a stern facial expression for 12 minutes of screen time. I am aware that Straight won an Oscar on half that screen time, but she was actually doing stuff. Dench largely sat on a throne and looked regal. This was clearly a make-up for Dench not winning the year before for "Mrs. Brown." It also highlights the Academy's compulsion to award an Oscar to anyone or anything that has to do with British royalty. Dench went on to score four more Oscar nomintions but a lot of them are for movies that seem designed just to get best actress nominations.


2000: Marcia Gay Harden, Pollock B
Character: Lee Krasner, wife of the brilliant but perpetually drunk and child-like artist Jackson Pollock (Ed Harris)

Analysis: Major bonus points for that distinctive New York accent.It is true that Marisa Tomei and Mercedes Ruehl donned a New York accent (or perhaps a New Jersey accent for Tomei? She sounds like the women of Jersey Shore) but I felt like if Rex Harrison's character from My Fair Lady were on a street corner with Lee Krasner. Anne and Mona Lisa Vito, he would be able to pinpoint Krasner to within a 3-block radius in Queens, he would call out Mona Lisa for being a fake, and plead for Anne to stop talking because her shrill voice was annoying the hell out of him.



In other words, Harden did her homework. It's easiest to measure the effectiveness of Harden (and Harris, for that matter) on the basis of how into the film you are, since it's really a relationship film that rests on their shoulders. I was pretty engaged for the first half, got a little tired two-thirds of the way in, and nearly tuned out with 30 minutes to go but held on. So that would be somewhere in the range of a grade of C. On the other hand, it's a testament to Pollock and Harris that the relationship between the brilliant crazy artist and the long-suffering wife has its own uniqueness here in that it's nothing I've quite seen before.

Jennifer Connelly, A Beautiful Mind A
Character: Alicia Nash, wife of brilliant mathematician John, who gets more than she bargained for in her husband when it turns out he's a schizophrenic (in addition to being socially awkward).

Analysis: I've always felt that Connelly won this one from the trailer alone. Specifically, that one tear-inducing line which is cemented in my brain from all the TV spots I must have seen too many of in 2001: "I need to believe anything extraordinary is possible." (In the extended cut of the trailer, she actually follows that line with "Boo yah! How do you like them apples, Maggie Smith?") In all honesty, I liked the movie a fair amount and find the performance very deserving. I just specifically don't remember that line ever popping up in the film or even working in the context of the film.



Anyways, this is a undoubtedly great performance when you consider the fact that Alicia Nash is a terrible character on paper and, therefore, if you feel any sparks flying between Connelly and Crowe, you have to credit that entirely to Connelly. For example, has anyone noticed how awkwardly scripted the John-Alicia romance was in the film? In an earlier scene, John tried to pick up a girl using the ill-advised method of treating her as if she were a biological specimen.



Later, Alicia shows up and asks him to dinner for a reason that isn't really given and he tries to consummate their relationship by saying he dislikes social protocol and would prefer to skip to the intercourse. Is the film suggesting growth on John's part? He hasn't really picked up social nuance since the earlier scene. Perhaps, we're meant to believe that John has just found the right woman for him (and by that I mean one who will tolerate idiocy)? If this seems too good to be true, that's because it isn't. The real Alicia Nash divorced John after just six years of marriage and the two were remarried nearly 40 years later in the year of the film's release, 2001 (publicity stunt?).

Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago D+
Character: Velma Kelly, an inmate on Chicago's death row who passes the time singing and dancing with her new gal pal Roxy Hart (Rene Zellweger)

Analysis: This analysis gets interesting when you consider that Chicago has become one of the most popular plays in the last 20 or so years and there have probably been many famous stars who played the role of Velma. I know that everyone from Wayne Brady (Who's Line is it Anyway?) to Usher to Jerry Springer has played Billy Flynn.

Whoever played Velma before Zeta-Jones (internet broadway database lists the originator as Bebe Neuwirth) must have been an improvement, because Zeta-Jones' performance rung hollow for me. It never resonated past the singing and dancing. For that reason, it wasn't the least bit memorable. Zellweger, on the other hand, infused her part with pathos underneath all the glitz and glamor.

2003 Rene Zellweger, Cold Mountain B+
Character: Ruby Thewes, a tomboy hillbilly helping the more lady-like Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman) defend their plantation against evil homesteaders

Analysis: Zellweger's win had been a pretty easy target for haters and I'm not surprised that she was voted the Worst Supporting Actress Winner of All Time. This was the first Oscar season I closely followed so I have some sense of context for this one. For one, this was a year in which Miramax (controversial movie studio known for actively campaigning for their films) hate was pretty high and "Cold Mountain", a late December release got the bulk of the hype that year. I don't know what the Oscar voters were thinking, but the purveyors of the internet at the time were reacting to Cold Mountain's snub as if the Wicked Witch of the West had finally been melted. From that point of view, Zellweger's anti-conformist tomboy can be seen as carefully crafted Oscar bait.



Personally, I have seen A LOT of films from 2003 and, while it's a close call, I unabashedly maintain that Cold Mountain is the best of all of them (See my article celebrating the talents of Anthony Minghellia for more). Likewise, I understand how you can make a joke that Zellweger comes off as she's auditioning to replace Ellie May Clampett on "'The Beverly Hillbillies" but that's only because we're likely to make fun of anyone who wins an Oscar for playing a Hillbilly. The fact of the matter, however, is that Cold Mountain boasts several great acting performances and Zellweger sticks out in the cast. She brings an energy and provides a sort of Han-Solo-like comic relief to the epic. I think it's based on whether you buy the film as a whole.


2004 Cate Blanchett, Aviator C
Character: Katharine Hepburn, the 4-time Oscar winning actress

Analysis: I wasn't really impressed with this. I think the Academy just loves Katharine Hepburn and four Oscars wasn't enough. It also makes more sense when you consider that it was a great way to honor her because she literally died the previous year. Personally, I don't even think this performance channeled Katherine Hepburn as much as it did a slightly raunchier version of Hepburn's character in "Bringing Up Baby" or "Philadelphia Story." I never felt like watching her performance got me any closer to realizing Hepburn as an actual person.

Between the ladies of The Aviator, I preferred Kate Beckinsdale's saucy take on Ava Gardner which went virtually unnoticed throughout the entirety of awards season.



2005 Rachel Weisz, Constant Gardener A-
Character: Tess Quayle, activist traveling to Africa accompanying her Diplomat husband and sticking her nose in the business of evil pharmaceutical companies




Analysis: Oscars in the supporting categories ideally should go to scene stealers and Weisz's character really lit up the room in the film's initial scene. While her husband-to-be is conducting a question and answer session at an official state function, Weisz stands up and makes a lot of noise about how the British are really just imperialist pigs disrupting the whole stuffy Victorian affair. From that point on, she has your attention and while it's the way the scene was written that first hooked you onto her character, she sustains it.

The character drifts from present to past (by which I mean she lives on in the memory of her husband) and so Weisz is playing the image of a woman from the point-of-view of a man who's in love with her. If she appears overly idealized in some cases, that's why. It's a very clever role and Weisz is a very good actress. I'm happy to see her enjoying a respectable career since her Oscar.


2006 Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls A-
Character: Effie White, a singer being given the chance of a lifetime by a Motown-like recording artist

Analysis: It's a pretty big coincidence that this was the only season of American Idol I watched start to finish, so I was familiar with Hudson beforehand. Her singing and dancing are, of course, up to the standard of what you would expect in a musical like this and the singing is what you remember more than anything else. That's how all musicals are.



In my book, however, Hudson won this on the acting. Lots of people can sing and you can't sing anyone with pipes into a film and have an Oscar. There have been a lot of musical stars like Rex Harrison, Yul Brenner, and Liza Minelli who have won Oscars but I believe they all cemented their wins through acting. Hudson herself was only the 7th best singer in her season of American Idol. The character had an arc that went upward and downward and I think Hudson got on both slopes of it.



2007: Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton A
Character: Karen Crowder, A corporate attorney and spokeswoman for the morally dubious multi-billion dollar conglomerate of "U North."

Analysis: "Michael Clayton" was a movie of fascinating characters and Swinton's Karen Crowder was no exception. In an early scene the camera lingers on her looking at herself in the mirror without a shirt and adjusting her bra. She's a woman who's heavily invested in image from a professional sense and who also knows of the challenges she has as a woman in a man's world. Perhaps, she also knows the advantages of being a woman as well as no one would think of her as malicious if she were to do something deadly. The reveal that she is the antagonist is a twist but Swinton has a darkness underneath her all along and it's a potent performance because you can see it lurking underneath the surface.

2011: Octavia Spencer, The Help B-

Chracter: Minny Jackson, a sassy maid in 1960's Mississippi who displays impressive resilience after being fired and blacklisted by one of the the town's most prominent society debutantes

Analysis: I enjoyed Octavia's character for what she was meant to be: A satisfying  B-story and comic relief. I would even go so far as to say that I don't think Octavia had a false note in her performance. At the same time, the sassy black maid is a little bit too stock of a character for me to be pleased to see earn it someone an Oscar.

Mind you, there was a sizable backlash to this film when it came out that there are better role models to glorify than African-American maids in the 1960's, but I'm not in that camp. I agree with the counterargument voiced by Viola Davis in interviews that it does a greater disservice to limit true and courageous stories about the African-American experience because they aren't exclusively of positive
role models.

My problem is that it made the most sense for the Academy to give Octavia an Oscar for mostly strategic purposes. Viola was Oscar-worthy but Meryl Streep was immsensely due after 12 successive losses and they decided to award Octavia instead. In addition, Jessica Chastain gave a better performance (at least, in my opinion) but after getting negative press for failing to nominate a black actor the previous year (which statistically was not really that big of a deal), the Academy didn't want to hear grumbling over racial diversity again. In short, Chastain didn't stand a chance.






 

Reviews of bad films

One perk of being a film critic is that every movie you see is a good experience. Either you like the movie which is good, or if you don't like the movie you get to write a review tearing the movie into pieces which is particularly fun. Here are some movies, I didn't like much:

A View from the Top: (2003)
Gwenyth Paltrow plays a girl determined to rise above her small-town roots and, with the inspiration of a TV infomercial, become a stewardess. The story about this girl's search for happiness is moderately inspiring and when she finds it in the end, I'm touched. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble being forgiving for everything in the middle. I'm not sure whether it's a comedy or a drama but it doesn't really succeed at either. The movie has a grand total of maybe three minutes of humor in it. I'm not saying the movie tried to be funny and only succeeded a little. It clearly chose to infuse only a small scattering of jokes and to rely more on the touching story instead. Sadly, the casting director and the score writer were not informed of the game plan as comic genius Mike Meyers was cast and, unfortunately, underused and the score sounds like an episode of Malcolm in the Middle. As for the drama, it's really not compelling at all, possibly due to the lack of chemistry between pretty much anyone.

Down with Love: (2002)
I don't know whether Director David Reed was a fan of those Doris Day/Rock Hudson romantic comedies that this is supposedly a tribute to, because he seems to be simultaneously trying to glorify and mock them. We are treated to a background of those neat bright colors from the 60s and the leads, Rene Zellweger and Ewan MaGregor, embrace their parts to the point where it's easy to join in on the fun. On the other hand, everyone here feels more like a caricature of the era than a real person. The sexual undertones are grossly exxagerated and the characters possess seemingly infinite smartness (when Zellweger's character makes a confession at the movie's climax, you'll know what I'm talking about). The point, however, is that Down with Love acts is of something was wrong with the 60s, and contrary to what history tells us, people back then were not thinking, 'this aversion to sex is ridiculous, if only this film had more direct references to sex, I really would enjoy this film.'

Hot Shots Part Duex (1992)
Due to an evident lack of standards in what he'll accept a paycheck for, Charlie Sheen returns in a sequel to the Top Gun as his character goes on a top secret mission to rescue hostages of Iraq, in what is possibly supposed to be a political send-up of the Iran Hostage Scandal and the Gulf War. The movie doesn't really ever decide what it's spoofing and doesn't think it needs to, although a central theme is the testosterone-heavy hero movies of the 80s as it takes cues from Rambo, the films of Jean Claude Van Damme, and violent comedy video games. The film also plays on everything from Goldfinger, to American Gladiator, to President Bush's famous vomiting episode.The tempo of the comedy is very rapid and very random with jokes being thrown from all directions. At best, this film can pass as a guilty pleasure, as you could take in the jokes that hit and discard the ones that miss.

Jonny English (2003):
I hate to say it but this movie would have been easier to enjoy if we hadn't been recently flooded with James Bond spoofs in the form of the Austin Powers trilogy. Still, Jonny English becomes pretty unique within the bumbling spy genre when it doesn't try to mock everything in sight and insert as much bathroom humor as they can fit into every minute. Rowan Atkinson plays the title character, a third-rate spy who comes to power when everyone else is killed in an explosion he accidentally caused, Ben Miller plays cinematic history's most overqualified sidekick, Natalie Imburgia exhibits a playful sense of humor as the steaming love interest, and John Malkovitch's performance as the villain is choked up in an annoyingly thick French accent. The humor, revolving around English's stupidity, gets to be repetitive and the film makes the mistake of caring too much about a plot not worth caring about.

A review of every movie BEFORE it comes out

I usually can forecast pictures pretty well and how they'll turn out:
Apocolypto-Following in the footsteps of The Passion of the Christ will be hard, and critics will probably compare this to Passion's standards. It might suffer from some animosity by people disturbed by Mel Gibson's comments and it might not, but it will definitely not make as much as Pasison of the Christ which made like $380 million and is in the all-time top 10 highest grossing films, so therefore the press will label it a failure and history will say that at was because of Mel Gibson's remarks and then even less people will see it, but that's silly. It's probably a good movie


Good German-Sounds like a winner. A good cast, not too recent in history, not too far back. Will probably just miss out on the oscars but hopefully not. Will probably be a big Matt Damon make-or-break it kind of role.

Good Shephard-The Steve Sodebergh/George Clooney black-and-white neo-noir thing will be hard to pull of. Sodebergh's movies lately have been more of a show of "ooooh, look at what new innovation i just came up with," and not be story heavy and without a soul, this will be more like Sin City than L.A. Confidential

For Your Consideration-It will probably be well-liked by Christopher Guest fans because Christopher Guest doesn't really dissapoint and no one else will really know about it

Deck the Halls-Probably be relentlessly bashed by critics because it's not really a quality movie and a step down for Matthew Broderick, but kids will like it and parents would probably rather take their kids to that than "Happy Feet" or another animated movie because it has a few likeable actors in it and they're sick of animated movies and by comparison they'll probably think this is good so it'll get a long shelf life on video and be replayed by a lot of TV stations during holiday time, like Elf is now (i'm hoping things go with the audience)

Nativity Story-Like Chronicles of Narnia last year, The Christian Right will love it. It'll have a small following and a few small oscar nominations, maybe.

10 Items of Less-Never heard of it

Dhoom 2: Back in Action-There was a Dhoom 1?

Deja Vu-This is Denzel Washington's 3rd or 4th or 5th role in a row as a tough jaded cop with some girl he's going to have to protect (hmmm, there was Out of Time, Man on Fire, etc.) so low on originality points. Denzel has a fan contingent though so i'll say it does decently and people like it

Turistas-Josh Duhamel and Melissa George. Well, Josh Duhamel might get some people but an episode of Las Vegas will probably score a little higher

Blood Diamond-This will probably be awesome. Like Last Samurai, Ed Zwick makes great period pieces that are solid in every way AND he will infuse it with a lot of action scenes. It will probably fall just short of getting an oscar nomination because it'll be seen as more of an action movie than a serious piece but isn't that what the audience wants? what's wrong with action?

Breaking and Entering-It will probably be good, i think it got good reviews when it was screened way back in the day. Low box office gross though

The Holiday-Has the potential to be as popular as Love Actually and be a 21st century romantic comedy for the ages, but who knows

Unaccompanied Minors-I have no reason to root for its failure but sadly it probably will

Days of Glory-Sounds like a good name for a movie, at least. Know nothing else about it. Wait, Wasn't there a racecar movie with Tom Cruise in like the early 90s/late 80s with that name?

Dreamgirls-It's got the 2004 7th place contestant from American Idol, Jennifer Hudson, Eddie Murphy, Beyonce, and Jamie Foxx. What a wierd agglomeration of a cast. Still it'll be loved and do well.

Eragon-I don't get fantasy. I'll personally stay away from it but since Lord of the Rings was a big hit, there's probably an audience that'll see this too if it's marketed well. Since no one read the book (is there a book?) , probably do really poorly

Pursuit of Happiness-Will not gross as high as Will Smith usually does, but will probably get some good reviews, maybe some awards, little to no audience because Smith is not beating up anything or blowing anything up

Venus-It'll win an oscar for best actor, i hear, but still no audience, until at least after it wins the oscar, then people might see it on DVD to see what was so great about the performacne

Night at the Museum-Will range from mildly dissapointing to mildly funny. Won't be artsy enough for the critics

Rocky Balboa-They actually went ahead and made this movie? Sylvester Stallone is so old he [insert old joke of your choice here]. It clearly won't be as good but with the way sequels go, people might just be duped enough to go see it and make it a commercial success

Children of Men-It's another classy movie but crowded among too many other good movies, it might get shut out. Michael Caine is in this movie too? He's kind of a workahaulic, isn't he?

We Are Marshall-I don't care how good this is, one football movie per year is enough and I already saw Invincible. Can we just have a Hollywood quota on number of inspirational sports movies focused on coaches? We already had Glory Road this year with Josh Lucas who looks a lot like Matthew McConnegheay anyway and Josh Lucas loks like Matthew McConnegheay if you squint your eyes, so even less reason to make this movie.

Curse of the Golden Flower-Nope

Notes on a Scandal-A movie designed for the sole purpose of giving Judi "Dame" Dench another oscar nomination giving her 1st place in all of history for number of oscar nominated roles in movies that no one has seen (Has anyone seen or heard of Mrs Henderson Presents, Mrs Brown, Iris?)

Factory Girl-The magazine that i'm reading has a lengthy feature article featured on this film, but other than that i've never heard anything. It stars the woman who Jude Law dumped for the housekeeper or something, but I just don't think that's enough to sell a movie these days.

Miss Potter-I hope it fails, because I don't want Rene Zellweger to get an oscar nomination. She'll give a really annoying speech thanking everyone she's ever worked and find ways to compliment them all that'll make me want to throw up. (e.g. "I'd like to thank my publicist, he was such a beautiful soul and inspirational being and source of love")

And finally....
Pan's Labrynth-It sounds like a cool name for a movie but do you see how many movies come out in December, already?