In the 1870s, undercover Pinkerton agent Richard Harris arrives in a Pennsylvania mining town to infiltrate the Molly Maguires, a group of Irish miners, led by Sean Connery, explosively protesting the actions of oppressive mine owners. It’s a solid film, portraying one example of an important part of labor history. Connery and Harris are appealing leads and have great chemistry as sometime allies and sometime foes.
Oscar Nomination: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
In 1920s Montana, ranchers Jesse Plemons meets and marries widowed inn owner Kirsten Dunst, much to the chagrin of his abusive brother Benedict Cumberbatch. During the summer, Dunst’s son Kodi Smit-McPhee visits the ranch and also endures Cumberbatch’s abuse but overtime finds common ground with the rancher. Not being a fan of Jane Campion nor really of Westerns, I didn’t have high expectations of going in, but I came away quite impressed. There’s a long interwoven tale here of shifting power dynamics, sexuality, and gender roles that slowly reveals itself and doesn’t become clear until its final moments, and maybe not even then. The performances are strong across the board and play against each other in incredible ways. 
Oscar Win: Best Achievement in Directing
Oscar Nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay; Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (2); Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role; Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Achievement in Production Design; Best Sound; Best Achievement in Cinematography; Best Achievement in Film Editing; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)
This musical follows the life of Molly Brown, a Colorado socialite best known for her assistance during the evacuation of the Titanic. Debbie Reynolds plays the spunky title character. In the first scenes, she comes across as an over-the-top, goofy, backwoods yokel, similar to Betty Hutton’s hammy portrayal in Annie Get Gun. Luckily the story quickly moves on for the character and presents her steely, determination to getting what she wants out of life. The gorgeous costumes and Reynolds’s energetic portrayal are the best parts of the films. The writing and the music on the other hand leave a bit to be desired. The big event is only given a few minutes toward the end, with Molly’s bravery presented as a quick montage of her rallying her lifeboat-mates. There are more scenes of the character on the ship in 1997’s Titanic than in this one.
Oscar Nominations: Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Cinematography, Color; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Sound; Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment
Frustrated with his fiancée Ginger Rogers’s ambivalence toward marriage, Ralph Bellamy asks his friend, psychiatrist Fred Astaire, to help out. The plan backfires as Rogers becomes convinced that Astaire is the one she loves. It’s a weak entry for the Rogers-Astaire pairings. There’s an overreliance on hypnotism as a plot point resulting in blatantly ignoring any agency for Rogers’s character. That does result in her going after most of the male characters with a shotgun, but that’s not enough to carry the film. 
Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction; Best Music, Original Song; Best Music, Scoring
In a war-torn city, a theatre troupe’s performance of the life and adventures of Baron Munchausen is interrupted by the man himself. The disruption causes the actors’ contract to be cancelled and the Baron insists on saving the city. This film was a notorious flop, which is a shame because it offers a fun adventure flick. I really enjoyed John Neville’s portrayal of the baron. It cannot live up to the wonder of Zeman’s The Fabulous Baron Munchausen and has some surprising adult tones mixed in an otherwise family friendly story, but it’s visually fanciful with twists and turns through the various adventures that conveys a great message in its circular telling. 
Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Costume Design; Best Effects, Visual Effects; Best Makeup
The acting in this telling of the relationship between Julius Caesar and Cleopatra is weird but interesting. Vivien Leigh’s Cleopatra is of course gorgeous, but she portrays the queen as a weak, petulant child. In response, Claude Rains’s Caesar is a smirking father figure, manipulating the impulsive Cleopatra to his own gains. The film is pretty to look at, but it also boring. The action is dull with the most interesting parts spoken instead of shown.
Oscar Nomination: Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color
On Christmas Eve, newlywed couple Jim Hutton and Jane Fonda, without prior warning, arrive at the home of his Korean War buddy Anthony Franciosa, whose wife has just left him. Already unsure of the commitment they’ve made, the newlyweds get a firsthand look at the future they have in store for themselves. I really went into this thinking it was supposed to be a comedy, but it’s nowhere near. The men are universally awful. Hutton deserts Fonda within minutes of arriving at the home. Franciosa readily admits that his wife was homely when they met and he only married her for her money. He also calls his son a sissy and destroys his favorite toy to teach him how to be a man or something.
Oscar Nomination: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White
Billeted in an Austrian convent run by mother superior Ethel Barrymore in post World War II Europe, British colonel Walter Pidgeon, along with aides Angela Lansbury, Peter Lawford, and Robert Coote, is tasked with monitoring for possible subversive activities against Allied countries while also supporting the repatriation of Soviet citizens. Complications arise when Lawford falls in love with Russian ballerina Vivien Leigh who is in hiding at the convent. A potentially intriguing story about the early days of the Cold War is marred by heavy-handed religious propaganda where Pidgeon’s understandable post-War agnosticism is deemed unacceptable by Barrymore and the film. It also requires a buy-in of a lukewarm romance between bland Peter Lawford and weak-willed Leigh. At least Lansbury’s character escaped that fate.
Oscar Nomination: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White
I am admittedly not a fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey nor Stanley Kubrick, so my expectations here weren’t very high. As a sequel to that film, this takes place nine years later with a joint Soviet-US mission to investigate HAL’s malfunction despite tensions being extremely high between the two countries back on earth. It’s not as visually impressive nor grand in scope as 2001. In fact, it’s pretty standard science fiction fare with a more explicit narrative that makes clear some of the events from the earlier film. For all that, I found it much more entertaining than the Kubrick’s alleged masterpiece. . 
Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Costume Design; Best Sound; Best Effects, Visual Effects; Best Makeup
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.
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