Category: Best Writing

Posted on 2022-03-07 | No Comments |

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.

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)

Posted on 2022-03-06 | No Comments |

Here Comes the Groom (1951)

Recently returned to Boston, reporter Bing Crosby must get married in five days or lose custody of the two orphans he has adopted. Unfortunately Jane Wyman, the woman he’s hoping to marry, has become engaged to Franchot Tone in his absence. Crosby’s character isn’t easy to root for and the songs are mostly unnecessary, but mixed into that is some good, often slapsticky, humor. I wish it had taken a different turn in the end, but otherwise it’s a fun, lighthearted diversion.

Oscar Win: Best Music, Original Song

Oscar Nomination: Best Writing, Motion Picture Story

Posted on 2022-03-06 | No Comments |

The Battle of Algiers (1966)

Told in newsreel-style, this film reconstructs events undertaken by Algerian rebels during the Algerian War of Independence, focusing on the experiences of Ali La Pointe during that time period. It doesn’t shirk from presenting a forthright account of the atrocities committed by both sides, from the outright terrorism of the revolutionaries to the war crimes by the French. It’s a up close, bitter and honest portrayal of war, particularly as it rages within a city.

Oscar Nominations: Best Director; Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen; Best Foreign Language Film

Posted on 2022-03-01 | No Comments |

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.

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

Posted on 2022-02-28 | No Comments |

Bloodbrothers (1978)

In modern times, this movie could be titled Toxic Masculinity the Movie. In a working class Bronx family, Richard Gere is a sensitive young man who doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life but definitely would rather work with kids than the union construction job his father and uncle have pushed onto him. His father Tony Lo Bianco is a philanderer who beats his wife to the emergency room when he just suspects her of infidelity and has caused her such general anxiety that in turn her influence brought an eating disorder in their younger son. It’s an appealing early role for Gere, though he seems like he should have just been born with grey hair. I particularly appreciate his bonding with children throughout the film and his relationship with waitress Marilu Henner.

Oscar Nomination: Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

Posted on 2022-02-25 | No Comments |

One Potato, Two Potato (1964)

Abandoned by her adventure-seeking, ex-husband Richard Mulligan, the mother of a young child, Barbara Barrie, meets single man Bernie Hamilton at her new job. They begin a relationship and soon marry despite the obstacles presented to an interracial couple. At some point, her ex-husband hunts her down and sues for custody of their daughter because of his disapproval of their relationship. Reminiscent of Two Mothers for Zachary , it’s another story of a parent at risk of losing their child because someone else simply has objections to the couple being together. Like that other film, this one is based on actual court cases that happened. This film is more infuriating as the home Barrie and Hamilton have established with Hamilton’s parents is obviously loving and wholesome and even Mulligan admits his feelings could be wrong, but he can’t stop himself from objecting regardless.

Oscar Nomination: Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen

Posted on 2022-02-20 | No Comments |

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

Posted on 2022-02-19 | No Comments |

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

This movie made me realize I might not dislike Woody Allen movies if Woody Allen wasn’t in so many of them. During the Depression, Mia Farrow is a New Jersey waitress in a loveless marriage to Danny Aiello who escapes her dreary life by frequently going to the movies. After many repeated viewings of the same film, one of the characters in the movie notices her and walks out of the screen so they can be together. It’s a cute homage to the Golden Age of Hollywood with Jeff Daniels playing a fun double role as an actor and the character he has created.

Oscar Nomination: Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Posted on 2022-02-19 | No Comments |

Dune (2021)

In this adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel, Duke Oscar Issac and Lady Rebecca Ferguson travel with their special son Timothée Chalamet to a far away desert planet to learn about spice production. There’s quite a bit of political intrigue going on behind the scenes and Timothée has a bunch of dreams about Zendaya. Even with its bleak desert setting, it’s an incredibly gorgeous film with extremely high production values and some good world building, but it’s obvious that it was made as a set up for a sequel or two as the story is almost all setup with no conclusion.

Oscar Wins: Best Sound; Best Achievement in Visual Effects; Best Achievement in Production Design; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score); Best Achievement in Film Editing; Best Achievement in Cinematography

Oscar Nominations: Best Achievement in Production Design; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score); Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling; Best Achievement in Costume Design; Best Adapted Screenplay

Posted on 2022-02-17 | No Comments |

Inherent Vice (2014)

I’ve been occasionally surprised into liking some of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, but this is not one of them. A middling Anderson work, it’s a convoluted hippie detective noir told from the perspective of Joaquin Phoenix’s perpetually stoned out detective. Initially asked by his ex-girlfriend to intercede in the abduction of her current lover, he is further embroiled in a conspiracy of sorts when he is hired out on two other cases. It seems to all comes clean in the end, at least for Phoenix and the cases he was hired to solve, but it’s not entirely clear as his perspective is definitely unreliable and I’m not even sure some of the characters weren’t figments of his imagination.

Oscar Nominations: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay; Best Achievement in Costume Design