The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1996
1996 is one of the few dark spots of the 90s. After the terrible decision that was Dances With Wolves, we got a somewhat poor decision with Forrest Gump (based on the competition. I love the film, but, there were better choices), The English Patient here, and then the Shakespeare in Love choice (which is also kind of a competition choice). The two insanely glaring errors to me are Patient and Wolves, because, not only should they not have won, they aren’t even good films. Maybe it’s okay that Anthony Minghella won Best Director for The English Patient as well, but, it was still up against Fargo.
I guess what sort of saves 1996 from completely going under were the rest of the major categories. Or it might have made it worse, depending on where you fall. Frances McDormand as Best Actress is a good decision, since I’m glad they gave Fargo something, though there might have been (and probably were) better choices in the category. Juliette Binoche as Best Supporting Actress for The English Patient is a decision I haven’t fully made up my mind on, but I’m okay with it as far as, I like Juliette Binoche. Cuba Gooding Jr. as Best Supporting Actor for Jerry Maguire is a decision I like a lot, mostly because I liked the character, but William H. Macy was also nominated for Fargo, so, there is a bit of complication there.
Oh, and to get it out of the way, I consider this category one of the worst decisions the Academy has made in the Best Actor category, ever. The reason for this is not because of who won, it’s what he won for and whether or not that performance was worthy of winning. And just to tell you — dude’s only on screen for like, fifteen minutes, so, he totally didn’t deserve it. And what makes it worse is the caliber of performances he did beat. That’s why, no matter how much I like Geoffrey Rush, this was a terrible decision. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1956
I love 1956. This is a great year for Oscar films disguised under a bad cloud of what actually won. Around the World in 80 Days is considered (somewhat unfairly) as one of the worst Best Picture choices of all time. It’s a bad choice, but not that terrible. Yul Brynner as Best Actor for The King and I is a really bad choice, mostly because he’s nothing more than a supporting actor in the film. Ingrid Bergman as Best Actress for Anastasia (as I’ve talked about here) was a terrible decision. Anthony Quinn as Best Actor for Lust for Life was a mostly poor decision, but I haven’t yet fully decided my feelings on that one. And George Stevens as Best Director for Giant was the lone good decision this year. That’s about it. I love 1956. Back up in that other article, I listed all the great films that came out that year. That list about covers it.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1956
And the nominees were…
Mildred Dunnock, Baby Doll
Eileen Heckart, The Bad Seed
Dorothy Malone, Written on the Wind
Mercedes McCambridge, Giant
Patty McCormack, The Bad Seed (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1982
We’re back at 1982. A boring year, for my money. I mean, Gandhi is Gandhi, but, also nominated this year were The Verdict, Tootsie and E.T. (and Missing, which — whatever). Those would have been way more interesting choices. Ben Kingsley for Best Actor for Gandhi was also good, but — Paul Newman was up for The Verdict. He hadn’t won one yet. But, whatever. This isn’t Best Actor. Best Actress, however, was Meryl Streep for Sophie’s Choice, which is one of the best choices they’ve ever made. I mean, come on. (I talked about that one here.) And then Best Supporting Actor was Lou Gossett Jr., for An Officer and a Gentleman, a category I haven’t decided how I feel about yet, and Best Supporting Actress was Jessica Lange for Tootsie, which, I also haven’t full decided upon yet. But I’ll probably get to it soon.
And that’s 1982, really. Mostly good decisions punctuated by a boring choice for Best Picture. Which then makes me feel pretty “meh” about this year as a whole, since, a year is summed up by its Best Picture winner in Oscar Town.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1982
And the nominees were…
Richard Attenborough, Gandhi
Sidney Lumet, The Verdict
Wolfgang Petersen, Das Boot
Sydney Pollack, Tootsie
Steven Spielberg, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1999
1999. This is the last category from this year, right? I feel like I’ve done them all. Supporting Actress, yes — that was Angelina Jolie for Girl, Interrupted. Director, yes — that was Sam Mendes for American Beauty. American Beauty also won Best Picture. Actor is here. Which leaves, Best Actress. I haven’t covered that yet. That was Hilary Swank for Boys Don’t Cry. And then Best Supporting Actor, which, I haven’t covered either. Really? It feels like this year is always coming up. Well, Supporting Actor was Michael Caine for The Cider House Rules.
What else do we need to cover here? Can we just get into it? Actually, let’s break this category down. I like how it’s structured. First, we have the veteran nomination. That’s Richard Farnsworth. Never really was one for the Academy, but is old and gives a fairly poignant performance. That’s all they need to nominate you. Then we have “actor’s” performance. Which is Sean Penn. That’s one where, he’s a dude who they know is completely dedicated to his work, and they saw what he could do in Dead Man Walking, and now have him on the radar. I feel like it’s, they makes them bridesmaids a few times until it’s their turn to be a bride. I really think that’s what it is. The Academy Awards are like marriage. Then the second time they win is either a marriage after a nasty divorce (the comeback) or the renewal of the vows. Oh, plus the Sean Penn one was a Woody Allen film. They’re just looking to nominate an actor in a Woody Allen film. Anyway, so there’s the veteran and then the actor who they’re sort of gearing up to win one one of these days. Then we have the other three. Here’s where I find it gets really interesting. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1953
And now for one of my personal favorite years and individual categories of the entire Oscar Quest — Best Actress 1953. I posted a list the last time I covered 1953, of all the great films that came out this year. That list is why it’s one of my favorite years for movies. As for this category, there are three films on this list that I love dearly, two extremely so, with the other two being particularly strong as well, leading to a category that, while easy to separate in terms of how I’d rank them, is still one of the strongest I’ve personally seen.
As for the rest of the year, From Here to Eternity pretty much swept everything. While it might not have been my personal choice as Best Picture of the year, it’s still a very good film, and it’s understandable why it won. Fred Zinnemann also winning Best Director HAD TO happen. The reason for that is, one, he directed the hell out of the picture. Two, he didn’t win the year before this for High Noon, which is kind of a shame. Though, John Ford won for The Quiet Man instead, which was a good decision, but everyone acknowledges that High Noon lost all its awards (except the Gary Cooper one, because who’s gonna dispute Gary Cooper?) because it’s clearly an anti-HUAC film and it was a weird time in their lives. So him winning this year was virtually assured. Frank Sinatra won Best Supporting Actor for the film, which I’ve talked about, and Donna Reed won Best Supporting Actress for it as well. Which only leaves two categories: Best Actor, which was William Holden for Stalag 17 (most likely due to a vote split from dueling From Here to Eternity nominations), and this one, which I’ll get into forthwith.
BEST ACTRESS – 1953
And the nominees were…
Leslie Caron, Lili
Ava Gardner, Mogambo
Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday
Deborah Kerr, From Here to Eternity
Maggie McNamara, The Moon is Blue (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actor – 1991
1991. This year makes me smile. It’s so fucking good. First, here’s a list of the films that came out in 1991: An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, Backdraft, Barton Fink, Beauty and the Beast, Boyz N the Hood, Bugsy, Cape Fear, The Doors, The Fisher King, Hook, JFK, Necessary Roughness (a personal favorite of mine. A great football movie that is largely unknown), Point Break, The Silence of the Lambs, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Thelma & Louise, and of course, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze. It was a very good year, 1991.
What makes me even happier is that, 4 out of the 5 Best Picture nominees are incredible films. Beauty and the Beast, Bugsy, JFK, and The Silence of the Lambs. The Prince of Tides? Ehh, not so good. But te other four? Wow. There was almost no bad choice this year (though Bugsy would have been kinda weak, considering they ignored Goodfellas the year before). And then the acting choices. Anthony Hopkins as Best Actor for Hannibal Lecter? Genius. Jodie Foster as Best Actress for Clarice Starling? Awesome. Mercedes Ruehl as Best Supporting Actress for The Fisher King? Best choice of the category. Jonathan Demme as Best Director for Lambs? Good choice (considering Stone had two Oscars already for directing, and one for writing). Jack Palance gets a Best Supporting Actor Oscar? Well, let’s talk…
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – 1991
And the nominees were…
Tommy Lee Jones, JFK
Harvey Keitel, Bugsy
Ben Kingsley, Bugsy
Michael Lerner, Barton Fink
Jack Palance, City Slickers (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1959
I’ve covered 1959 a few times in recent weeks. Ben-Hur, sweeps all the big awards, Best Picture, Best Director for William Wyler, Best Actor for Charlton Heston, and Best Supporting Actor for Hugh Griffith. So all the male awards went to one movie. (Because, in such a male-dominated industry, Best Picture and Best Director are, essentially, male awards.) Which only leaves two. Best Actress, and this one. Best Actress went to Simone Signoret for Room at the Top, which, as you can guess from reading the two categories from this year that I’ve already covered, I’m not okay with. It’s not subtle. So what we have is, outside of Best Picture and Best Director, a year I don’t really like. And yet there were such great films this year.
Wow. I covered it all in one paragraph. That might be a first. I really don’t have anything else to say about this one. Remember this, folks, this doesn’t happen often.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1959
And the nominees were…
Hermione Baddeley, Room at the Top
Susan Kohner, Imitation of Life
Juanita Moore, Imitation of Life
Thelma Ritter, Pillow Talk
Shelley Winters, The Diary of Anne Frank
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1974
I know myself so well. I seem to schedule these things on purpose so things come up at just the right time. I generally set out an entire month’s worth of categories in advance, just so I don’t have to sit and pick from the lot. Everything gets nice and balanced that way, and when the day comes up, it’s, “Oh, hey, I’m talking about this category today.” And, somehow, I manage to always have things scheduled for the right mood. For instance, if I’m on a really productive streak, it seems like all the categories I really want to talk about come up, so that way I end up writing a lot and really recommending the films I want to recommend. Or if I’ve been out binge drinking the night before, it seems like the category for that day is always a quick one. Things always seem to work out that way. Today I get to vent my frustrations on what I consider to be one of the worst single choices (in the acting categories) in the Academy’s history. Worst. Of all time.
My criteria for judging how bad a category is consists of several factors. First, who won, and how does that performance rate on its own? Second, who, specifically did they beat? As in, what was the main competition for it. Example: How Green Was My Valley beat Citizen Kane. That is, for all intensive purposes, the main competition. Next, how strong was the rest of the category? Is it a simple case of voting one over another, or did they pass on multiple good and/or better choices in favor of the bad one? And the last two — these are to a much lesser extent, but still factor in — how badly did this mess up history (ie, did this require that a makeup Oscar be given to someone at some point in the future, which would then possibly deprive someone else of an Oscar in that case and perpetuate the makeup Oscar cycle) and did someone not get an Oscar because of this? That means, was this someone’s only/best chance to win an Oscar, and did they not ever end up getting one, possibly due to this bad decision. Think people like Richard Burton or Peter O’Toole, who never won Oscars. A bad decision is made worse if because of it, someone like Peter O’Toole was deprived of an Oscar. These last two categories definitely get intertwined at a certain point, but, largely, can remain separate. Now, if a decision fits firmly in the sweet spott of the Venn Diagram, then it deserves to be counted among the worst decisions of all time. This, my friends, is in that sweet spot. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1969
1969 is a year I’m undecided on as a whole. Parts of it I’m very okay with, but parts of it I’m just not sure. For example — Best Picture this year went to Midnight Cowboy, as did Best Director. Now, personally, I’d have voted for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid here. And my big question is how acceptable Midnight Cowboy is, having won. I’ve yet to fully make up my mind. I mean, it’s kind of okay, but is it really? That’s my question. Fortunately I don’t have to decide this just yet, so I can go on living on the fence.
Best Actor this year was John Wayne for True Grit, the career Oscar to end all career Oscars. I’m cool with it, since he deserved one, and Hoffman and Voight eventually got Oscars. Peter O’Toole was also nominated here, and he never got one, but, you know, he was never winning for for being in a remake of the same film that won another dude an Oscar 30 years earlier (Goodbye, Mr. Chips). And Richard Burton? Yeah he deserved an Oscar, and he was brilliant in Anne of the Thousand Days, but you know, there were two years earlier in the 60s where he could have gotten an Oscar and they didn’t give it to him. So I blame that on the Academy. So that’s cool, I feel.
Then Best Supporting Actor was Gig Young for They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? That was cool, considering the category wasn’t terribly interesting. And Best Supporting Actress went to Goldie Hawn for Cactus Flower, which is cool, since she was hysterical in the film.
This category though, was fucking stacked. Great actresses and great parts. All great parts. Everyone in this category was really good in their role, and fittingly enough, 3 of the 5 went on to win Oscars (that’s even if we exclude the winner here). But really, any of these actresses could have won and it would have been okay. That’s how great this category was. Definitely one of the better Best Actress races I’ve seen. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1999
Ah, Best Director ’99. I was originally going to end Best Director month with this one (since I’d already done 2000-2010, and this would have been the most recent category left and the most fitting to end with), but I decided to wait because I knew this would be a nice break for me in a month like this. Talking about this category is like when, on a test, after three long essays on the Boer wars, you get a question like, “So tell us why Nixon fucked up in the 70s.” And you’re like, “I know that! I can write twice what they want me to without pausing for thought!”
1999 was a good year. I think I explained it once as being a bit, on the nose. Don’t get me wrong, I love American Beauty — I fucking love that movie. I’d have voted for it all the way — but, it’s kind of, I don’t know, it feels too easy. It’s because the film is kind of stagy. Which doesn’t so much affect Best Picture as much as it affects this category. But we’ll get to that in a second. First let’s recap:
Best Actor this year was Kevin Spacey for American Beauty. Best Actress was Hilary Swank for Boys Don’t Cry (don’t get me started on this one), Best Supporting Actor was Michael Caine for The Cider House Rules (or this one), and Best Supporting Actress was Angelina Jolie for Girl, Interrupted (I talked about this one already).
So now, we come to the big conundrum — do I vote for the director of the movie I’d have voted for Best Picture, or do I vote for the director who directed the hell out of his movie and was much more “flashy” in his effort? What do you do? Pop quiz, hotshot. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1989
Haven’t had one of these in a while. A category where I actually, by my rules, need to look for alternatives. Since it has been a while — recap:
My rule is, in any given category, if I disagree with at least 3 of the nominees, and really think the category is weak, I’ll look up alternatives from other films of the year and see if the category is weak because the year was weak or because the Academy made shitty picks.
First, before I get into the category, let’s recap the rest of the 1989 Oscar year, because it’s not much better. Best Picture went to Driving Miss Daisy, and I think those three words already evoke a reaction. This is one of those movies that people know — “They fucked up.” The movie isn’t as bad as its reputation suggests, but — it was up against Born on the Fourth of July, Dead Poet’s Society, Field of Dreams, and My Left Foot — it’s clearly not the best film from that list. Best Actor went to Daniel Day-Lewis for My Left Foot, in a no-brainer acting decision. Dude was incredible. Best Actress went to Jessica Tandy for Driving Miss Daisy, which is cool, I guess. She was like 90 at the time. Best Supporting Actor went to Denzel Washington in Glory, and Best Director, which I’ve discussed already, went to Oliver Stone for Born on the Fourth of July.
Now, let’s get back to the alternatives. Honestly, I can’t find any. Wow. This year was weak for supporting actresses. The best I can do is, maybe, someone from Do the Right Thing? Ruby Dee? Either way, poor showing. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1992
1992 Best Actor is almost the male equivalent to Best Actress 1956, which I discussed (in crazy detail) yesterday. This category is so fucking stacked it’s ridiculous. And what’s weird about it is, if pretty much anyone in this category won, no one would have found it weird. I mean, clearly there’s a winner here, but, I think we all know the reason for that (“Hey, we fucked up back in the 70s, here’s one for you now!”).
I love 1992 as a year. Unforgiven wins Best Picture, Best Director for Eastwood, Best Supporting Actor for Gene Hackman. Then Emma Thompson (how can you not like Emma Thompson?) wins Best Actress for Howards End, and Best Supporting Actress goes to Marisa Tomei for My Cousin Vinny. It’s great all around.
BEST ACTOR – 1992
And the nominees were…
Robert Downey Jr., Chaplin
Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven
Al Pacino, Scent of a Woman
Stephen Rea, The Crying Game
Denzel Washington, Malcolm X (more…)
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