Category: Best Acting

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The Great Lie (1941)

When his marriage to Mary Astor is deemed invalid, George Brent returns to old flame Bette Davis. Unfortunately Mary got pregnant during their short time together, a fact that does not become clear until George disappeared during a business trip to Brazil. It’s a weird far-fetched plot, but well acted all around particularly during the scenes between the two women. I was glad to see two McDaniel siblings, Hattie and Sam, in larger, interacting roles, though of course they’re both still servants.

Oscar Win: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

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Emma (1932)

Dedicated nanny and housekeeper Marie Dressler has been with one family through good times and bad, from the childbirth death of the mother and the husband’s financial successes to the raising of their four spoiled children to adulthood. After so many years together, the husband proposes marriage but he sadly dies on their honeymoon. There’s an interesting story there, but way too much is jumped over in its short, seventy-odd minute runtime. I would have loved to see all the family relationships develop more as there are tender moments and history that is really glossed over. While she does her best with the role, Dressler’s character is the only one given much development though even her background is completely blank.

Oscar Nomination: Best Actress in a Leading Role

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King Richard (2021)

Will Smith is Richard Williams, the father and coach of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams. The film conveys the eldest Williams as a thoroughly complex character: a determined, obsessive, arrogant, loving, helicopter parent with one singular goal. It’s an interesting look into how to raise a champion, or two, especially when the odds are against you. While he doesn’t disappear completely into the character, Smith does offer a fairly good portrayal of the man.   Best Picture Nomination  Sports

Oscar Win: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Oscar Nominations: Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Achievement in Film Editing; Best Original Screenplay; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)

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Butterflies are Free (1972)

When blind musician Edward Albert meets his new neighbor, free-spirited Goldie Hawn, the two hit it off almost immediately. He’s impressed by her independence and she admires his adaptability. Complicating their newfound relationship is her inability to stick around when things get tough and his overbearing mother who is apprehensive about giving him more freedom. The two leads are appealing in their roles and play off of each other well. It’s a bit stagey as the action takes place almost entirely in his San Francisco apartment, but the large open space, decorated by the previous hippie tenants, provides plenty of area to keep it from getting stale.  Romance

Oscar Win: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Oscar Nominations: Best Cinematography; Best Sound

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The Citadel (1938)

An adaptation of a novel that helped lay the foundation of the NHS, Ronald Donat is a doctor who over the course of his career witnesses firsthand the inequalities of for-profit medicine from the coal miners whose ailments are ignored to the rich folk whose hypochondria is treated with the best medicine could offer. Rosalind Russell is his beautiful, faithful wife who encourages him to follow the moral path. For me, it was mostly just an okay film though it does get its message across. Donat carries the film well, but his voice here reminded me a lot of Ray Milland so I was distracted multiple times, making sure Donat hadn’t suddenly morphed into Milland.  Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Director: Best Writing, Screenplay

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Dangerous (1935)

When already engaged Franchot Tone meets downtrodden actress Bette Davis, whose performance once inspired him to change careers, he offers her a helping hand which eventually leads to an offer of marriage and assistance with her floundered career. It reminds me a bit of Davis’s role in Of Human Bondage, as she admits here that she destroys everything she touches. Her character here seems a little less ruthless, that is until she cripples a man, but also capable of redemption. Those traits make for a lighter feeling film and her performance a lot less impactful.

Oscar Win: Best Actress in a Leading Role

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The Bostonians (1984)

Suffragette Vanessa Redgrave and Southern lawyer Christopher Reeve vie for the attentions and affections of Madeleine Potter the allegedly charismatic daughter of a faith healer. Aside from being rather slow, the biggest problem with the film is that there is nothing enthralling about Potter’s character and her only trait seems to be the inability to make decisions on her own. It makes one wonder why either of the other main characters gives a wit as to what she does with her life. Reeve is thoroughly dislikable a misogynist who just wants to marry Potter and get her barefoot and pregnant for all her livelong days. Redgrave is ethereal, but she seems mostly motivated to further her cause even if while she shows actual love for Potter.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Costume Design

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Twice in a Lifetime (1985)

On the night of his 50th birthday, Gene Hackman goes to a bar without his homebody wife Ellen Burstyn and flirts with the younger, new barmaid Ann-Margret. Despite, or maybe because of, thirty years of marriage with his wife and having three now adult children together, he finds himself falling for Ann-Margret and beginning an affair. It’s a bit exasperating to watch Hackman disintegrate his long-time family unit without much thought, but in parallel, it also shows how people get stuck in patterns without much thought to their happiness or the direction their life is going. I enjoy watching films set locally so I can try to guess the neighborhoods they were filmed in, that is as long as it’s not really Vancouver or some other city pretending.

Oscar Nomination: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

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Nine (2009)

8 1/2 isn’t my favorite Fellini and this musical version does nothing to improve that rating. Haunted by the ghosts of women from his past and present, director Daniel Day-Lewis is suffering from writers block over the filming of his latest movie. This touches on the general notes of the original film, but doesn’t develop the themes much at all. Day-Lewis isn’t bad in the role, but he lacks the Italian charm of Mastroianni. Instead of expanding on the ideas of the film, the musical numbers just distract. Compared to the narrative scenes, they are all overly produced and feel interchangeable over the course of the film.  Musical

Oscar Nominations: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Achievement in Costume Design; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song; Best Achievement in Art Direction

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The Last Detail (1973)

Two Navy lifers Jack Nicholson and Otis Young are tasked with escorting Randy Quaid from Norfolk to a military prison in Maine. Along the way they entertain the naïve eighteen year old any which way they can before he starts serving his eight years in jail. There’s a great bit of interplay between the three men as they get to know each other and society over the course of several days.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

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