Category: Best Acting

Posted on | No Comments |

Sons and Lovers (1960)

Young aspiring artist Dean Stockwell’s ambitions and relationships with women are hindered by his ties to his supportive but domineering mother. The performances here are all exceptionally strong, especially Stockwell in the lead and Wendy Hiller and Trevor Howard as his parents. The story meanders a bit with the narrative not cleanly flowing between scenes, but there are surprisingly frank in its discussions and expressions of sexuality for a period piece made at the time.   Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Win: Best Cinematography, Black-and-White

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White

Posted on | No Comments |

The Good Earth (1937)

In early 1900s China, young farmer Paul Muni marries Luise Rainer, a slave in the village’s Great House. The couple experiences extremes of highs and lows together, wearing down every ounce of strength from the wife. If one can get beyond the very blatant yellowface, it’s an epic family drama that celebrates hard work and ingenuity to improve and maintain one’s station, though a bit too simplistically. The lead performances are a uneven when held in comparison; Muni is almost comically cheerful, while Rainer’s face is filled with sorrow often in the same scenes.  Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Wins: Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Cinematography

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Film Editing

Posted on | No Comments |

Last Tango in Paris (1972)

For some reason, young and engaged Maria Schneider agrees to an anonymous affair with middle-aged Marlon Brando, whose wife has recently died by suicide. The escapism that these two characters find in their clandestine relationship is overwhelmed by two of the film’s explicit sex scenes: one that made me laugh in its silly ridiculousness and the other exploitive to the point of being an assault on the actress involved.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Director

Posted on | No Comments |

Being Julia (2004)

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

Posted on | No Comments |

Midnight Express (1978)

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.   Best Picture Nomination  Crime

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

Posted on | No Comments |

Belfast (2021)

The coming of age tale of nine year old Jude Hill, including an absentee father working in London and an attraction to a Catholic classmate, is disrupted when the Troubles comes to his neighborhood. His entire family must decide which path they will follow from that point on. The whole film feels like a personal memoir for writer-director Kenneth Branagh, very similar to Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma all the way to the black and white cinematography. It’s an oddly short film for the subject manner and I wish there was more time spent on characterization, particularly of grandparents Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench who are both delightful and wise in their roles. The film is often shot from a lowered perspective, giving a great feeling as if it is truly from a child’s perspective.  Best Picture Nomination

Posted on | No Comments |

West Side Story (2021)

When this remake of West Side Story was announced, I wondered what purpose it could possibly serve. The 1961 version has received high acclaim since it was made and seems better situated to exemplify the preceding decade. After watching this film, my misgivings weren’t allayed. In this take on Romeo and Juliet, Rachel Zegler, whose brother David Alvarez is a leader among the Sharks, spontaneously falls in love with Ansel Elgort, a former member of rival gang the Jets. While the film doesn’t establish their ages, the actors look as if there is about a fifteen year difference. It also doesn’t help that Elgort is rather weak in the role, particularly when he’s singing with the much talented Zegler. Overall there are some bad (constantly overpowering the view of the actors with light sources), neutral (changing the tomboy character to a trans man and the Jewish doc to Rita Moreno), and some great changes (little bits of added backstory and casting Latinx actors who intersperse more Spanish into their dialogue) but as a whole don’t give enough difference in vision to explain why anyone wanted to make this version happen.   Best Picture Nomination  Musical  Crime

Oscar Win: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Oscar Nominations: Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Achievement in Production Design; Best Sound; Best Achievement in Costume Design; Best Achievement in Cinematography; Best Achievement in Directing

Posted on | No Comments |

The V.I.P.s (1963)

A group of rich and famous people are majorly inconvenienced when they are stranded at Heathrow Airport due to fog. The film delves into all the mundane details of the rich people problems that these rich, white people are facing and how the delay could bring ruin to each of them. It’s generally boring, particularly as it insists on focusing mainly on Elizabeth Taylor leaving Richard Burton for a more appealing younger man. Even young Maggie Smith is underutilized as a secretary unrequitedly in love with her boss The airport setting is somewhat fun, particularly in its period details, and Margaret Rutherford is a delight, though also underused, as a scatterbrained duchess trying to save her family’s estate.

Oscar Win: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Posted on | No Comments |

The Great Waltz (1938)

The life of Johann Strauss II is told through a generic love triangle between him, his wife Luise Rainer, and opera singer Milizas Korjus. The music is beautiful though Korjus’s singing is overwhelming and featured too frequently. Outside the musical scenes, the rest of the film is rather bland and unmemorable.  Music  Musical

Oscar Win: Best Cinematography

Oscar Nomination: Best Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Film Editing

Posted on | No Comments |

Spencer (2021)

During the 1991 Christmas holiday, Kristen Stewart’s embattled Princess Diana arrives at the Queen’s Sandringham Estate to be subjected to holiday festivities with the royal family. I sincerely want to like Stewart as an actress. I think she makes some interesting choices in her roles, but every single time her quirks come out (her constant head tilt, hunched shoulders, and way of spitting out her lines) that all I see is her instead of the character she’s playing. In stills of this film, she looks so much like Diana that I thought it wouldn’t be the case here, but once she started moving that changed. I eventually just started thinking of it as Princess Diana’s inner angst represented by Kristen Stewart, similar to Keegan Michael Key’s Luther for Barack Obama, and I was able to appreciate the film much more for it. Though I’ll never be able to really understand the difficulties in such a life for someone who was groomed for it, the film does capture her struggles even if sometimes through an indelicate hand.

Oscar Nomination: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Scroll to Top