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The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actor – 1999
Most people know 1999, so I’ll save the editorial.
American Beauty wins Best Picture, Best Director for Sam Mendes (talked about here), and Best Actor for Kevin Spacey (talked about here). Hilary Swank wins Best Actress for Boys Don’t Cry (talked about here), and Angelina Jolie wins Best Supporting Actress for Girl, Interrupted (talked about here). All pretty standard. I’m sure most people have opinions on this year.
And this category — I understand it, but don’t love it. Michael Caine is Michael Caine. I get it. Performance-wise? Terrible choice. Why not Cruise, I have no idea.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – 1999
And the nominees were…
Michael Caine, The Cider House Rules
Tom Cruise, Magnolia
Michael Clarke Duncan, The Green Mile
Jude Law, The Talented Mr. Ripley
Haley Joel Osment, The Sixth Sense Read the rest of this page »
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1983
1983 is a really weak year. When Terms of Endearment wins Best Picture, you’re witnessing a pretty weak year. It’s not that the film is bad, it’s just — it’s not a strong Best Picture winner.
Shirley MacLaine won Best Actress for the film (talked about here), which had to happen, since she was way overdue by this point, and despite the strength of the category, she needed to win. And Jack Nicholson won Best Supporting Actor for the film (talked about here), which, I don’t understand. I guess they just wanted to give Jack another one. Sam Shepard really should have won there. Best Actor this year was Robert Duvall for Tender Mercies, which, the category was pretty weak, and Duvall needed to win an Oscar (his snub in 1979 was Unforgivable). So I support the win, even though I wasn’t over the moon about his performance. Best Supporting Actress was Linda Hunt for The Year of Living Dangerously (talked about here). She played a man. ‘Nuff said.
Now this category. How the fuck was Phillip Kaufman not nominated for The Right Stuff? He’d have won the category with these nominees.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1983
And the nominees were…
Bruce Beresford, Tender Mercies
Ingmar Bergman, Fanny and Alexander
James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment
Mike Nichols, Silkwood
Peter Yates, The Dresser Read the rest of this page »
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1958
1958 is a pretty weak year. A weak Best Picture winner from a relatively weak set of nominees. I love Gigi, but it probably shouldn’t have won Best Picture, and wouldn’t have in a stronger year. And of the remaining nominees, only The Defiant Ones was really worth voting for. The rest were really stagy and were basically plays on film.
Vincente Minnelli finally won Best Director for the film (talked about here). Thank god. The man was practically owed two by this point. Best Actor this year was David Niven for Separate Tables (talked about here), which I guess is an okay decision. Curtis and Poitier cancelled each other out and Newman would eventually win one. And David Niven’s awesome. Best Actress was Susan Hayward for I Want to Live! (talked about here), which had been coming to her for some time. And Best Supporting Actor was Burl Ives for The Big Country, which was a great decision, since he was great in both that and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof this year.
And then there’s this category. Hiller had been solid for over 20 years, and was good enough to win Best Actress twenty years earlier. This was an easy one.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1958
And the nominees were…
Peggy Cass, Auntie Mame
Wendy Hiller, Separate Tables
Martha Hyer, Some Came Running
Maureen Stapleton, Lonelyhearts
Cara Williams, The Defiant Ones Read the rest of this page »
The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1964
1964 is a quintessential Oscar year. My Fair Lady is so obviously a Best Picture choice that it’s almost not even worth questioning the fact that it beat Dr. Strangelove. Sure, (all of those things), but when you look at what the Academy likes, it makes perfect sense.
George Cukor (finally) won his well-deserved and earned-twice-over Best Director statue for the film (talked about here), and Rex Harrison also won Best Actor for it (talked about here). Then Best Supporting Actor this year was Peter Ustinov for Topkapi (talked about here) and Best Supporting Actress was Lila Kedrova for Zorba the Greek (talked about here). Both categories were shitty and both decisions really don’t matter too much. I’m cool with the Supporting Actor decision but dislike the Supporting Actress one. 1964 is actually a pretty weak year masked by some iconic, “Oscar” decisions.
Like this category. Weak as hell. Weak, weak, weak, weak, weak. Yet — Mary Poppins wins. Who’s gonna argue with Mary Poppins winning? The decision masks how weak the whole thing is.
BEST ACTRESS – 1964
And the nominees were…
Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins
Anne Bancroft, The Pumpkin Eater
Sophia Loren, Marriage, Italian Style
Debbie Reynolds, The Unsinkable Molly Brown
Kim Stanley, Séance on a Wet Afternoon Read the rest of this page »
Hugo and the History of the Movies (Part III)
Yesterday we covered all of Hugo before the dramatic turn reveal through that the film is not about Hugo or the automaton or even Georges Méliès, but rather about the movies.
This is the part where it gets exciting for me, because I get to talk about the reason I love this film so much. Yesterday, I left off with the cover of “The Invention of Dreams.” Today, we’ll dive into just how Hugo is about the history of film, what it tells us, and how it manages to teach viewers about film history without them even realizing it. (It’s like that old tale of the kid not liking a vegetable, and then eating it without realizing it and going, “Oh, I guess I do like that.”)
Today, we go back through a history of the movies:
B+ Movie Blog 