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.

100 Greatest Actors Not Nominted for Oscar (Part I A-G)

I wrote this last December. At the time, Brendan Gleeson and Andrea Riseborough were not yet nominated for an Oscar. I'm considering extending it to a series. 
Here’s a list of my favorite working actors. My cut-off point is that none of these people have ever been nominated for an Oscar and I tried to veer away from stars. A couple of them like Christina Ricci are well-known and a few star on the occasional show but I don't believe any of them would be considered A-listers or have their name on the marquis for a film.

Another criterion is I have to have seen them in three things. In some cases, I've seen them in quite a few more and I'm highlighting my three favorite roles.

Allison Brie (Community, Glow, Horse Girl)-Community was originally meant to be a Joel McHale vehicle with Danny Pudi as the Urkel-like scene stealer. My attention was often focused on the perky Pollyanna, Annie Adderall. Glow and some of her later roles have shown different sides of her but she often brings a great deal of bundled-up energy.

Allison Pill (Newsroom, Hello Tomorrow, Star Trek: Picard)-What sticks out about the Allison Pill persona is that she’s not the coolest person in the room. On her turn as Dr. Agnes Jurati on Star Trek, she was the most socially insecure Star Trek character I’ve ever seen. Every other Star Trek character I’ve ever seen has carried a monotome-like supreme confidence but Jurati reacts like a regular person would that “Damn, space is scary.”

Amy Landecker (Serious Man, LA to Vegas, Ramy)- I first discovered her on Serious Man as the shiksa temptress living next door to our hero.  Since then she’s carved a niche as an older character actress with sex appeal.

Annaleigh Ashford (Masters of Sex, Bad Education, B Positive)- Considering the casting process is tougher on young attractive women than their male counterparts, I tend to imagine it produces a lot of pluck in these actresses. That's a good descriptor for Ashford's persona.   

Andrea Riseborough (Death of Stalin, Birdman,  Battle of the Sexes) - Riseborough could easily be a leading lady in the mold of Cate Blanchett or Vera Farminga, but is generally in second-billed roles where she often elevates the movie.

Andrea Savage (Dog Bites Man, Step Brothers, The House)-I’ve never seen Savage do stand-up comedy, but I have no doubt she’d kill at it. Her stage presence just gives off that indication, even when she’s playing a straight man.

Ben Foster (Leave no Trace, 3:10 to Yuma, The Hustle)-Acting since a teenager, Foster has carved a niche for himself as a 2nd-billed actor on several quality movies. If I picked the Oscars, I’d have given a nod to Foster in 3:10 to Yuma. His role recalled Jack Palanace in Shane: A henchman in the old West whose stoic demeanor provokes a palpable fear to the audience. He was evidently Oscar-worthy in the Messenger but I didnt’ see it.

Ben Whishaw (Brideshead Revisited, The Lobster, Women Talking)-Whishaw will probably get an Oscar (or at the very least a nomination) for a reserved role this year. Whishaw came out as gay in the middle of his career. He has done some excellent work in subtly queer movies like Brideshead Revisited or the movie of queer abuse, A Very British Scandal, while also playing straight characters as well.

Bobby Cannavale (Boardwalk Empire, I Tonya, Motherless Brooklyn)-Cannavale has won Emmy twice in Will and Grace and Boardwalk Empire. If I’m not mistaken, he got his start on NBC’s Third Watch which was a procedural involving cops, paramedics, and fireman because NBC decided to triple their chances that their latest procedural would attract an audience. His persona is that of a heavy or cop, but he has a lot of range and has been championed by the likes of Sidney Lumet and Al Pacino in the theater.

Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges, Calvary, Mr. Mercedes)-I was surprised by how well this Irish actor with a thick brogue hosted Saturday Night Live. He’s generally not known for the and has been a number of very, very dark films. Even his procedural, Mr. Mercedes, is dark. He has a great directorial resume: Martin McDonaugh, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Rob Zemeckis and more. Gleeson isn’t Jackie-Gleeson-fat but he is a bit heavy which matches the emotional state of some of his world-weary characters.

Brit Lower (Man Seeking Woman, Future Man, Severance)-The older sister of free-wheeling romantic Jay Baruchel on Man Seeking Woman, Lower provided a lot of contrast as the level-headed sister on that show. She works well portraying disillusion like in Severance.

Bruce Greenwood (Double Jeopardy, Capote, Star Trek)-My peers have long championed guys like Stanley Tucci or JK Simmons for Oscars. For my money, Bruce Greenwood has got to be one of the most consistent actors out there. His roles are often not showy enough for Oscar but he’s had a long career in supporting roles and deservedly so.

Burn Gorman (Pacific Rim, Dark Knight Rises, Man in High Castle)-The stoic British actor an make a terrifying heavy as in Dark Knight Rises or Man in High Castle. Something like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia can show off his lighter side but it’s rare.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mortal Kombat, Heroes, Man in High Castle)-The meditative Japanese actor hasn’t had a great many opportunities to show off his stuff, but he’s been able to work well with the cards he has been dealt.

Christine Rose (Heroes, Trial and Error, )-Rose has a certain aristocratic aura to her, but more importantly she has a swagger that I often attach to certain 60-80 year-old socialites who sit on a lot of local boards and HOAs and likely have a great reserve of evil they can use if need be.  I’m getting oddly specific here but moving on…

Christina Ricci (Black Snake Moan, Pan Am, Yellowjackets)-if the definition of “working actor” is actors whose face people recognize but not their name, Ricci wouldn’t qualify. She’s been pretty prevalent in the public consciousness since the early 90s with the live remake of the Addams Family. The film called for actors with dark features and Ricci’s asymmetrical face made her fit in perfectly with the gothic look the film aimed for. It was almost as if she was molded from Tim Burton’s Claymation studio. Since then, Ricci has shown a tremendous amount of range and escaped a break-out role that could have very easily pigeon-holed her.

Corey Stoll (House of Cards, Ant Man, West Side Story)-I can’t imagine House of Cards being half as interesting in its first season without Corey Stoll. He played a congressman navigating his personal integrity in a prostitute scandal. The twisted irony of his situation was that his relatively ordinary moral missteps were manufactured by a mad man whose scandal was the stuff of legend.  As the lead on The Strain, he has played the protagonist with as much moral complexity and elevated what could have been a lesser drama.

Daniel Bruehl (Ladies in Lavender, Inglorious Basterds, Woman in Gold)-What’s the market for Germanic actors. I’m pretty sure every open casting call for a German or Austrian character goes out only after Christophe Waltz, Michael Stuhlbarg, and this guy have turned down the road. He got Oscar buzz for Rush but the delicate and sweet side that we got to see in Ladies in Lavender is my favorite part of his filmography.

Debra Monk (Bridges of Madison County, In and Out, Mozart in the Jungle)-I don’t really have a good sense of Monk yet, but I’m highly curious to see what she could do.

Dianne Kruger (Inglorious Basterds, The Bridge, Welcome to Marwen)-Kruger is not well-known to the general public, but she’s definitely a name among cinephiles at this point. Her break-out rule was as Helen of Troy in Troy, but she hasn’t really veered towards commercial by any means. National Treasure and its sequel might be the exception but they are definitely more intellectual than any other franchise I know of and her character isn’t exactly thankless arm candy. The Bridge and In the Fade are award-worthy performances. Even something like Welcome to Marwen is an ambitious failure.

Diego Luna (The Terminal, Milk, If Beale Street Could Talk)-Luna has always had an intensity that he brings to all sorts of roles. His break-out role was Y Tu Mama Tambien and there’s been an indie feel

Domhnall Gleeson (American Made, Frank, An Extremely Stupid and Futile Gesture)-Among the up-and-coming class of actors in the past few years, this fair-looking red head is one of my favorites.  He’s probably really good at auditioning based on how prolific his resume has been in the past few years and his roles in films like Star Wars has probably been great for his profile.

Ed Begley Jr (Star Trek: Voyager, Arrested Development, A Mighty Wind)-One of the members of Christopher Guest’s troupe, Begley has a knack for creating great characters from the ground up. Even in something as pedestrian as the 2016 Ghostbusters remake, he stole his scene. He’s probably best known as alopecia-stricken real estate mogul, Stan Sitwell in Arrested Development. Fun fact: He is the son of an Oscar winner.

Elizabeth Banks (Seabiscuit, 30 Rock, Love and Mercy)-I don’t believe Banks has established herself with the American public. In the occasional film like Pitch Perfect (which she executive produced), 40 Year Old Virgin or Hunger Games, people remember her contribution I’m not convinced that the public still knows her name. In the occasional art-house film, she’s proven herself capable of an Oscar-worthy performance (at least, in my opinion).

Elizabeth Debicki (Man from Uncle, Widows, Tenet)-I first saw her as a femme fatale in Man from Uncle. She has a certain aura of sophistication that has served her well in films like The Great Gatsby, Tenet and the AMC miniseries The Night Manager. Like Julie Garner (who played both ends of the class spectrum with Ozark and Inventing Anna), I’d love to see her play a less sophisticated character at some point.

Elizabeth Marvel (Burn After Reading, News of the World, Hyde Park on Hudson)-One of many talented Elizabeth’s out there, Marve

Emily Mortimer (Lars and the Real Girl, Hugo, Doll and Em)-At worst, Mortimer is the unassuming girl next door that the sitcom hero falls in love with (Friends, 30 Rock). In certain roles she’s been granted like Lars and the Real Girl, she’s been more than a thankless love interest and she’s been terrific at it.

Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace, Murder Mystery, Gemma Bovery)-A Bond girl from Quantum of Solace, Arterton has been sexualized quite a bit in her filmography but she’s also been more than an attractive body in most of the roles I’ve seen her in.

Geraldine Viswanathan (Miracle Workers, Bad Education, Blockers)-The whipsmart South Asian actor has shown great skills as the comic straight man in Miracle Workers.

Are You There God, It's Me Margaret Review

 

Perhaps the greatest thing about Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is that it’s a film about a 6th grader, that ends in 6th grade.

Who knows what Margaret will grow up to believe or become. Who knows if she’ll have that date (or it’s 7th grade equivalent) with Moose? Instead, the film captures a snapshot of childhood in the way a handful of great novels have done throughout history.

There’s no doubt that this book reached a large swath of a certain generation of pre-pubescent girls facing the terror of puberty, and I imagine (as someone who hasn’t read the book), that that is due to its universality. However, the Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles (and I’m paraphrasing here) once said that if you really focus on the specificity of your setting, it becomes universal.

That’s where this movie meets its strength. Margaret isn’t just a stand-in for every girl going through puberty. She’s doing it in the disconnected suburbs of New York in milieu of 1970 when a mother like Barbara (Rachel McAdams) was catching distant whiffs of feminist liberation and a young couple was breaking free of their past generations’ view on religion.

More than that, it’s a story about the fleeting and wondrous nature of youth. In one scene, Margaret professes she’s miserable. In another letter, she tells her teacher that she’s lost her belief in God and it goes unresolved. The only resolution we see is her taking the time to compliment him on being a great teacher on the last day of school. She has a massive realization that her friend is evil and decides to switch her friend circle. But still hangs out with their mutual friends and it’s hard to tell if there’s ever a big “The Reason You Suck” speech.

But that’s how life goes when you’re a sixth grader. Without a doubt, the most eventful years of your life are when you’re young. At that age, you have 800 times more good and bad things simultaneously happening to you all at once. It’s all a vast contradiction that even if you’re processing so many negative things, you are still experiencing and growing at a rate most of us adults can only dream of. It’s the reason that most of our dreams (at least mine) or my favorite memories are from our youth.

I’d probably classify my freshman and senior years of high school and my sophomore and senior years of college as the best years of my life. But there was plenty of stress and misery in those times too. During when unplanned gap semester in college, I voiced how miserable I was to my uncle and he bemusedly smiled and said “it sounds like you’re really growing and doing well.” I didn’t understand it, and I doubt that some adolescents will understand it either.

It’s the reason I told my niece, who was similarly hating 9th grade, not to be in such a hurry to grow up.

Reviews of Super Mario Brothers, Beau is Afraid, Tetris, Air

Super Mario Brothers-Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Seth Rogen, Jack Black

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.

Air-Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Viola Davis, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, Chris Messina, dir. Ben Affleck

In the mold of films like Syriana, Moneyball, and Ben Affleck’s own Argo, this latest edition of Ben Affleck is simply about a man (or group of men) and his goals. It’s in the tradition of 70s anti-hero films like French Connection, Marathon Man, China Syndrome, and especially All the President’s Men where character development is secondary to action. And Air is definitely worthy of all its predecessors: It’s paced very well and the stakes are high. Sonny Vaccaro is a fascinating rogue of a character who plays a hell of a game of speed chess against bigger companies to land the greatest player of all time. Ironically, for a film that lionizes athleticism vis-a-vis Michael Jordan -- Vaccaro’s big speech is about how no one really matters in that room but Michael Jordan, how much of that entitlement has produced college athletes who skip classes and add to rape culture?—Jordan himself wasn’t evolved. I couldn’t help but feel the film was too afraid to touch a societal golden cow.

Beau is Afraid-Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPonte, Amy Ryan, Nathan Lane, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zoe Lister, Parker Posey-Jones, dir. Ari Aster

Not a fan but it wasn’t that far away from working. 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 and Murphy’s Law appears to be in hyper-drive around him.  It isn’t all miserable; he’s saved from near-death on a couple occasions and finds the occasional moment of love from a stranger.   The best I can say about It, is that at three hours, it doesn’t feel that long. I was genuinely on the edge of my seat trying to work out where things would go. But at the end of a day, I’m usually not satisfied with the genre of reality-bending films. Perhaps, it was one twist too many.

Tetris-Taron Egerton, Anthony Boyle, Neketa Efremov, Oleg Stefan, Sofya Lebedeva, Tobey Jones –

Without overthinking it, I’d say this is the best film of the year so far. 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. Throughout the film, Hank is in a bidding war with two other parties and the film makes great use of dramatic irony: The narration is omniscient enough to let us know what’s happening with all three parties, but the POV is tilted towards the hero and away from the villain (Anthony Boyle) as he generally knows the least of the three.  My only problem was why that I spent much of the film wondering why cast Taron Egerton when Shia LaBeouf is still alive? Egerton’s makeover here feels like he’s entering a Shia LaBeouf look-alike contest, and who needs him when this is the kind of part LaBeouf would kill?

Who Should Have Been Invited to the Academy's Acting Branch (a Year-by-Year Simulation)

One of the less publicized elements of the Academy Awards is who gets invited to join the Academy every year. Every year, a press release gets sent out and it usually gets pushed down to the proverbial page six of Hollywood trade magazines. It doesn’t really get much more than an obligatory post on corresponding entertainment websites.

From digging up press releases, it appears that about 20-25 are from the actors branch. This often includes people who have just been nominated for the first time (provided they didn’t get an at-large invite).

This is the 2014 list which includes 5 first-time nominees from the year before, a nominee from 2005 (David Straithairn) who’s paperwork must have gotten lost in the shuffle, a variety of people who were hot at the moment (Josh Hutcherson coming off the Hunger Games; Julia Louis-Dreyfuss having the hit movie Enough Said) with people who had been amassing notable roles for a while (Ben Foster, Beth Grant)

Barkhad Abdi – “Captain Phillips”, Clancy Brown – “The Hurricane,” “The Shawshank Redeption”
Paul Dano – “12 Years a Slave,” “Prisoners”, *Michael Fassbender – “12 Years a Slave,” “Shame”,
Ben Foster – “Lone Survivor,” “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”, Beth Grant – “The Artist,” “No Country for Old Men”, Clark Gregg – “Much Ado about Nothing,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”, *Sally Hawkins – “Blue Jasmine,” “Happy-Go-Lucky”, Josh Hutcherson – “The Hunger Games,” “The Kids Are All Right”. Julia Louis-Dreyfus – “Enough Said,” “Planes”, Kelly Macdonald – “Brave,” “No Country for Old Men”, Mads Mikkelsen – “The Hunt,” “Casino Royale”, Joel McKinnon Miller – “Super 8,” “The Truman Show”, Cillian Murphy – “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Inception”, *Lupita Nyong'o – “Non-Stop,” “12 Years a Slave”, Rob Riggle – “21 Jump Street,” “The Hangover”, Chris Rock – “Grown Ups 2,” “Madagascar” *June Squibb – “Nebraska,” “About Schmidt”, Jason Statham – “Parker,” “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”. David Strathairn – “Lincoln,” “Good Night, and Good Luck.

But what if we made parlor games out of who would get invited each year to the extent that we obsess around predicting the Oscars? Wouldn’t that be fun for us? Well, I can certainly say it was fun for me when I tried this exercise out for myself for the last 15 years.

I’m going to also operate under a few assumptions:

-An actor has to have at least appeared in a film in the past year before the Oscars.

-To squeeze the pressure on the process, 12 per year

-Breakout performances by people who were unknown before will have a harder time getting in because the Academy would want to award people who’ve been at it at least for a little while. At the same time, people who are hot right now, either commercially, or just earned Oscar buzz but didn’t make the cut, would also get strong consideration so there will be a balance between these forces.

-Comedy doesn’t get rewarded at the Oscars so this will be a way that the Academy would be to even the playing field.

-Actors who are successful in another medium like TV or Broadway will get in a bit more immediately once they make a good film

-As with the Oscar nominations, your chances of getting in will go up if you’re attached to a film that gets a lot of awards

-Child actors Hailie Steinfeld and Quevenzhane Wallis were not invited to join the Academy after being nominated. This is probably because they would need parental approval to even watch the other nominated movies and attend Academy-sanctioned events, so I’m assuming the Academy would have a preference for adults

-The Academy would have a need for international diversity to an extent. It would be hard enough for a critical mass to gather around an obscure film from, say, Bangladesh, but the kinds of international films that make dents at the Oscars would gain advantage. After #oscarssowhite, I’m assuming that there was a shift from international diversity to racial diversity

I’ll show you one example of my picks:

2008:

Aaron Eckhart-Eckhart broke out in the 1997 indie film In the Company of Men and had been more of a B-list leading man (someone who might carry an off-beat film) than someone at the top of the casting charts. This pick would be a response to Dark Knight being the biggest hit of the year and spillover from a number of leading roles in less successful films like Thank You for Smoking and No Reservations.

Ann Savage-An 87-year-old actress who dazzled in the 1945 film Detour before languishing in obscurity and being rediscovered at a screening of her film (literally: People didn’t know she was in attendance). She was cast in the indie My Winnipeg.

Brendan Gleeson-Today, Brendan Gleeson is a lot more visible considering his starring role in Mr. Mercedes, his guest role in his kids’ series Frank of Ireland, his lead in the dark morality tale Calvary, and his Oscar-nominated role in Banshees of Inisherin. He had a string of memorable supporting roles but it’s arguable if Cold Mountain or Gangs of New York would have caught the attention enough to meet the threshold.

Dev Patel and Frida Pinto-I’m assuming that the Academy’s love for Slumdog Millionaire also includes a wake-up call that they have few South Asians among their ranks.  

Hiam Abbass-Abbass got some Oscar buzz for the Oscar underdog  The Visitor which managed to land Richard Jenkins one of the unlikeliest lead actor nominations I’ve ever witnessed. She went on to play the mom in Ramy.

James Franco-It’s highly possible James Franco could have gotten earlier considering Spiderman was such a big sensation when it broke the $100 million mark in 2002 and he had a big presence in all three films. He also did headline his first film Annapolis in 2006, but 2008 is when he starred in Milk (garnering significant  Oscar buzz) which was a BP nominee and showed off his comic (pot-smoking) side in Pineapple Express.

Mathieu Alarmic-Rose to prominence the year before with The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (hello, indie cred) and then was a Bond villain (ironically, in one of the franchise’s more arty attempts with its en media res beginning and brooding pathos) so the commercial box is checked as well.  

Oliver Platt-Frost/Nixon was a BP nominee that featured four character actors who had not been nominated. Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, and Sam Rockwell. I’m assuming Bacon (who has been acting since the 80s) would have made the cut by now. Although a lot of people like to reverse engineer Sam Rockwell’s career since his Oscar win to suggest he was always hot shit, he was more of a cult figure who was consistently reliable but rarely on the top of the marquee. Sheen’s biggest roles required him to be overshadowed by a bigger personality (Queen, Frost/Nixon). Platt has been one of the Three Musketeers and headlined his own TV show but has he ever had his day in the sun?

Karen Allen-Without checking IMDB, can you name the highlights of Karen Allen’s career outside Indiana Jones? It’s actually not a bad list: Starman, In the Bedroom, Malcolm X, National Lampoon’s Animal House, The Perfect Storm and the Sandlot, although these roles are all pretty small. Still, being a solid working actress for the preceeding 25 years combined with one certifiable pop culture icon as Marion Ravenwood is enough to get her in.

Shia LaBeouf-The only disadvantage would have been youth in 2008. As the heir apparent to Indiana Jones and the leading man of Transformers, LaBeouf was killing it commercially and still made room for a number of smaller films like Eagle Eye, Disturbia, Bobby, and a Guide to Recognizing Your Saints over the past three years.

Thandiwe Newton-Playing Condolezza Rice in W. was a pretty high task even if it didn’t garner Oscar nomination (that director Oliver Stone peaked between 1986 and 1991 all but ensured that none of the actors from W. would never be considered). There wasn’t as much of a push for racial diversity, but there was still some and she was the female lead in Run Fatboy Run the year before and had appeared in the best picture winner Crash. She'd go on to win an Emmy for Westworld.

Runners-Up: Scott Glenn, Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Sam Rockwell, Michael Sheen, Omar Benson Miller

 

2009:
Danny McBride, Emily Blunt, James Gandolfini, James McAvoy, Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, Maya Rudolph, Melanie Laurent, Michael Stuhlbarg, Melanie Lynskey, Ryan Reynolds, Sam Rockwell, Zoe Saldana

Runners Up: Paula Patton, Rachel Harris, Daniel Bruehl, Dianne Kruger, Rachel McAdams, Bradley Cooper, Rosamund Pike

2010:

Andrew Garfield, Daniel Radcliffe, Dwayne the Rock Johnson, Emma Watson, Emily Mortimer, Jason Schwartzman, Jon Hamm, Mila Kunis, Paul Rudd, Rachel McAdams, Vincent Cassell, Zach Galifianakis

Runners-Up: Olivia Williams, Michael Cera, Patrick Wilson, Steve Carell

2011

Anthony Mackie, Armie Hammer, Beth Grant, Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Jay Zhao, Justin Timberlake, Ian McShane, Kristen Wiig, Michael Fassbender, Steve Carrell, Tom Hardy

Runners-Up: Olivia Wilde, Wendy McLoven-Coverly, Matt Lillard, Judy Greer, Ed Helms, Missi Pyle, Rose Byrne, Chris Dowd

2012:

Anne Dowd, Amanda Seyfreid, Aubrey Plaza, Ben Whishaw, Eddie Redmayne, Jason Schwartzman, John Ortiz, Kerry Washington, Martin Freeman, Matthew McConaughey, Rashida Jones, Suraja Sharma

Runners-Up: Billy Connolly, Andrew Sachs, Kyle Chandler, Carmen Ejogo

2013:

Benedict Cumberbatch, Channing Tatum, Daniel Bruehl, David Oyelowo, David Warhofsky, Dwight Henry, Jennifer Garner, Lake Bell, Margo Martindale, Michael B Jordan, Michael Kelly, Simon Pegg, Steve Coogan

Runners-Up: Idris Elba, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Sarah Paulson, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte, Kathryn Hahn, Greta Gerwig, Sharlito Copely

2014:

Chris Rock, Chris Pratt, Gugu Mbuthu-Raw, Kim Dickens, Lindsey Duncan, Neil Patrick Harris, Oscar Isaac, Peter Dinklage, Riz Ahmed, Rene Russo, Scoot McNairy, Timothy Spall

Runners-Up: Kristen Stewart, Charles Dance, Matthew Goode, Paddy Considine, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Strong, Merritt Weaver

2015-2022

I'm going to keep this part of the list under wraps for now because I want to either invite guests or submit this elsewhere

New YouTube Video: An Imperfect Guide to Every Best Supporting Actress Ever

A massive project of mine. I learned to edit on YouTube recently and have now taken my YouTube videos to the next level. Because I didn't initially think I would know how to edit, I just downloaded tons of still pictures from Google's Image Search (around 70 and all) and fed them to a friend who knew how to edit for $70. I recorded all the way to Jo Van Fleet's win for East of Eden in 1955 but I assumed people's viewing appetite was 20 minutes or so, and I was extremely careful about not going over.

If you're interested in classic film you might find it interesting but I hope that it awakens people to the fact that there are interesting films and interesting stuff about the films before they were born.

I could have undertaken a project to watch every film that won an Oscar in this category but I thought it was more entertaining to just go in the other direction and just riff on what I didn't know. After all, there are enough know-it-alls out there about film. My goal was to be educational but also entertaining and find my own sweet spot somewhere in there.

RIP to Mozart in the Jungle's Blair Tindall, an Interview Subject of Mine

In 2016, I was a struggling freelance journalist that wrote an article about the TV show Mozart in the Jungle that got Blair Tindall’s attention. She took the time to message me on Twitter and tell me my piece was great. When I expressed doubt that my editors liked me much and that I was doing ok in journalism, she encouraged me further in private messages to have a “screw the editors, you’re good” mindset,

Tindall lived an adventurous and financially rocky life like mine (the kind worth living) and she really meant a lot to me. Her book is an inspiration to all artists who find a balance between passion and stability. I eventually found her Her show was an exciting entrance into the world of classical music.

She also agreed to do a public interview with me a few years later, and her generosity won’t be forgotten. I’m really glad to have briefly known her, she was a generous and classy person, and I mourn her loss with the rest of the Mozart in the Jungle fan community.

I whole-heartedly recommend Mozart in the Jungle as both a read and as a TV show.

 

 

What I’m Watching March Edition: Not Dead Yet, Night Court, Poker Face, Hello Tomorrow, Animal Control, Night Court

Not Dead Yet (ABC):
Capitalizing on Ghosts, Gina Rodriguez plays obituary writer Nell. During the period of her obituary assignment, she can see dead people.

It’s one of many female-centered shows about a woman who doesn’t have her life together in the vein of Dollface, Maggie, Girls, Single Drunk Female, and can trace its lineage to Mary Tyler Moore.

However, Mary Tyler Moore never looked that far down on its protagonist. One problem of this subgenre is that it casts broad labels over women based on whether they’re in a relationship or have achieved a certain career goal.

There’s also one of the autistic leads from As We See It here as the autistic apartment owner and roommate for Nell, which is an interesting wrench to throw in the works of typical sitcom character conflict.

The show is watchable but hasn’t really hit its stride yet. No relationship is really the stuff that would make lists of TV’s “Most ruthless boss” or “Most heart-warming besties” and I get the feeling the show is going for those kinds of archetypes.

It is getting closest in building a must-see relationship in the friendship-triangle between the protagonist and her frenemy boss (Lauren Ash) and the coworker (Hannah Simone) who’s allegiances are caught in the middle.

Watching the Not Dead Yet half-handle its world-building is just a reminder of how remarkable Ghosts has been at ironing the concepts of how the interaction between dead and living works.

Still watchable.

Animal Control (Fox)- McHale’s roguish devil-may-care charm that carried Community for umpteenth seasons is ready made for single camera comedy. He borrows many of the same features as Jeff Winger: In particular, he’s a slacker with a capital S. It does help to differentiate tham a little that this guy doesn’t get laid as often as Winger does.

The problem is it’s hard not to simply see this as a Joel McHale vehicle. The cast isn’t completely flat but there are no stand outs. Gerry Dee comes closest as Templeton Scruggs who appears on the right side of a couple of the best plots. He’s a Michael-Scott-type blow hard but he’s a little more substantial.

There’s also a guy with an Andy Samberg haircut who won a snowboarding bronze medal which I personally love as a character trait because I’m a connoisseur of winter sports; still, this is pretty much an informed ability. What I’m saying is I want to see discount Andy Samberg hang a flying squirrel before I invest in this guy.

There’s also a woman who looks exactly like Chelsea Peretti but has an Australian accent which is kind of jarring.

But, I’m just riffing here. It’s not the most original set of comic characters, but the chemistry between the characters and the quality of the over-arching plots makes this a far better attempt at all-out silliness than, say, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I dig it.

Mayfair Witches (AMC)-This witch drama really aims for sex appeal. If you want to see Alexandra Daddario (the otherworldly-looking brunette with smoldering good looks from The White Lotus) get involuntarily aroused on an airplane or see an early 20th century tryst between a white-eyed woman and a ghost, this show’s got it all.

Daddario’s character, Rowan Fielding, is the typical no-nonsense heroine that populates many a procedural: She’s got brains (she’s a neurosurgeon); her vulnerability on her sleeve is visible from miles away; she’s unapolagetically sex positive (hence, more sex scenes, yay!), she’s independent, and she’s properly defiant against any and all mansplainers. What’s more, Daddario elevates the material so that the character works even better in practice.

The series takes place in New Orleans and plays well off the city’s lore surrounding the occult. That it’s based on an Anne Rice novel also adds pedigree. The show isn’t a slow burn as Rowan and a couple of the side characters (the uber-prolific character actor Beth Grant plays Rowan’s great-aunt) are interesting enough to watch.

As for the larger mythology, it’s solid but how much that hooks you will likely depend on how into witches and warlocks you are.

Night Court (NBC)-This one is reviewed over at TV Fanatic. Basically, the dialogue and the jokes are often very lazy but, hey, I’m still watching it 11 episodes in, so something about it is working.

https://www.tvfanatic.com/2023/03/night-court-flawed-as-great-tv-effective-as-comfort-food/

Poker Face (Peacock)-The short review here is that the show has serial elements which don’t work and procedural elements which are generally a delight. Riann Johnson has proven himself one of his generation’s top film makers, and especially a master of mystery in the Knives Out series, so he adds a lot of pedigree here. Natasha Lyonne’s character is 95% Colunbo impression and 5% her own thing. This slightly disappointing, but hey who doesn’t like modern-day reimaginings of Columbo in the body of a fiery redhead. The guest star roster (especially Judith Light and S. Epatha Merkerson) is epic. Some of the episodes are unbelievably cinematic. A couple are duds but that’s part for the course. The overarching serialization (she’s on the run from a Vegas mobster) is thin

Hello Tomorrow! (Apple)-Mad Men meets 50s era sci-fi. I’m unclear exactly what year the show takes place, but it hardly matters as the show is decidedly ahistoric. This is a parallel version of the 50s where we didn’t just land on the moon but were able to quickly subdue it for human colonization to the point that we were selling real estate on it.

This show reflects a 1950s era sensibility in which men are bread winners, and there’s no better way to win that bread than don a suit and sell something.

But wait! Were real estate prices as suffocating in big cities in that era as they are today? Didn’t we not go to the moon until 1970 when society was more populated with hippies with long-hair? Again, best not to think too much about historic details.

The series anachronisms’ are tied together quite well anyway under the umbrella of 50s-era sci-fi where writers were coming from uncertainty about what the space age would bring.

It’s not until the show’s 5th episode that anything crucial really happens to the plot but what drives the series is that it has a strong sense of place and time and the heavy hitters — Billy Crudup, Alison Pill, Hank Azaria, and Susan Heyward (not the Oscar-winning actress from the 40s and 50s) — infuse the drama so well.

Poker Face (Peacock)-The short review here is that the show has serial elements which don’t work and procedural elements which are generally a delight. Riann Johnson has proven himself one of his generation’s top film makers, and especially a master of mystery in the Knives Out series, so he adds a lot of pedigree here. Natasha Lyonne’s character is 95% Colunbo impression and 5% her own thing. This slightly disappointing, but hey who doesn’t like modern-day reimaginings of Columbo in the body of a fiery redhead. The guest star roster (especially Judith Light and S. Epatha Merkerson) is epic. Some of the episodes are unbelievably cinematic. A couple are duds but that’s part for the course. The overarching serialization (she’s on the run from a Vegas mobster) is thin