As successful London theatre actress Annette Bening approaches middle age, she finds herself disillusioned personally and professionally. Bening shines in the role, but that’s all there really is to recommend. It’s rather tropeful and I was bored until the climax. It was at that high point that it becomes memorable enough that it made me realize I almost certainly have seen the film before.
Oscar Nomination: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Brad Davis is sent to a Turkish prison after attempting to smuggle 2kg of hashish out of the country. He’s initially given a sentence of four years for possession and he must decide whether or not to join fellow English-speaking prisoners John Hurt and Randy Quaid in taking the Midnight Express, slang in the prison for an escape attempt. Differentiating from the non-fiction book it was adapted from, it strangely includes a girlfriend character which adds some explicit sex scenes, while purposefully suppressing the homosexual sexual activity that actually happened. The depiction of the prison is a surprising oddity as the prisoners are allowed a bit of freedom of movement within its walls but are also subjected to a great amount of violence from guards and other prisoners. It’s a bleak reminder to not screw around when visiting other countries. 
Oscar Win: Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Music, Original Score
Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Director; Best Film Editing
While Harriet Andersson painfully dies of uterine cancer, her sisters Liv Ullmann and Ingrid Thulin and servant Kari Sylwan keep watch, struggling to care for her while dealing with their own issues. I’m sure much of the film went over my head as it is quite stylized and the perspective quickly changes between the four women, but the performances reflect lives of pain and loneliness. Unforgettably the rooms these women embody are dramatically and oppressively covered in red while they themselves drift around in white dresses.
Oscar Win: Best Cinematography
Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced; Best Costume Design
When Jean Arthur’s soldier husband Lee Bowman returns on leave for the first time, they feel they have nothing in common and find themselves in divorce court. Her father Charles Coburn convinces the judge that they just need to rediscover what got them together in the first place and they are sent to relive their first days together in San Francisco. It’s a very silly premise that it doesn’t even bother holding true to half the time. It still remains light and cute with a couple of sweet romantic touches, but does not make enough use of Arthur’s talents nor does it feature enough of Coburn. It strikes me as very weird that their child is put into protective custody when his parents are forced to go to San Francisco when there’s a perfectly capable grandfather at home. 
For six years despite reservations, Kristen Stewart agrees to act as the embodiment of her sister-in-law Laura Dern’s literary persona/avatar. Other than reading the blurb for the film, I was previously ignorant of the actual J.T. LeRoy controversy and the story is interesting enough that I’m curious how a documentary would handle it. The leads are expertly cast as Dern is completely believable as the quirky, pushy, new-agey writer, as is Stewart as the awkward, unsure, gender fluid relative who is pressured into continuing the charade.
When his dancing partner Ann Miller quits to go solo, Fred Astaire believes he can find anyone to take her place and chooses Judy Garland. Wet blanket Peter Lawford is along for the ride in a best friend role, but there’s really little purpose to his character. I admire the talent of Astaire and love to see him work, but in so many of these musicals, he looks like he could be the father of his love interest, which is the case here again. He and Garland perform well together, but they have little romantic chemistry. Miller is also undeniably talented, but in every film I’ve ever seen her in, she performs unnaturally toward the camera. The film has very little to do with Easter, though begins and ends on the holiday and there’s very little by way of a story. Even after watching the film, I don’t understand what exactly happens at an Easter parade. 
Oscar Win: Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
In 1926, writer Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days and it remains a mystery what actually happened during that time. This film imagines a history where she has followed her husband’s lover to a spa in Harrogate. Vanessa Redgrave portrays Christie appealingly, but the film turns out somewhat as a lackluster mystery. This isn’t helped by the inclusion of American reporter Dustin Hoffman who is offered as an uninteresting love interest.
Oscar Nomination: Best Costume Design
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Jewish married film dubbers Maria Belkin and Vladimir Fridman immigrate to Israel and realize they must reinvent themselves in their new country. It’s a sweet little film about an older couple having to refigure out where they fit in the world and with each other. It also has a lovely sense of nostalgia towards film, particularly those of Fellini, and sharing the love with the world at large.
The co-owner of a secretarial school Jean Arthur accidentally accepts a job offer from the editor of a fitness magazine George Brent. There’s not a whole lot to the story other than added friction by way of a friend of Brent’s who needs him to take on his secretary/mistress so as to not arouse his wife’s suspicion, but it’s nice seeing Arthur not only proving how capable she is, but being promoted for it. There are a few annoying bits regarding the fitness aspect (vegetarianism treated with distain, push for sexy females on the magazine cover instead of well-built men) which unfortunate distract during such a short film.
Possessing an unusually heightened sense of smell, Eva Melander works for Swedish customs, sniffing out smuggled contraband. When she encounters someone else with similar features, it sends her on a voyage of personal discovery to her origins and unexpected revelations about the world at large. This is a very weird film and there were many places it went that were hard to get behind. Melander’s performance is striking. With the makeup for her character, she is completely unrecognizable, but her inner humanity still shines through. 
Oscar Nomination: Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling