Category: Oscar Nominee

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Richard III (1955)

I’m glad I had watched the 1995 film version of the play fairly recently because it was less of a struggle to get through this one being familiarized with the narrative. I’m also really glad that Olivier’s Hamlet was black and white, because the colors in this are really distracting. I expect beautifully detailed castle interiors and instead get bare, cheap-looking sound stages. The costumes are garishly colored and the wigs are ridiculous. Both might be more faithful to a stage production, but film can do better. I much preferred the scenes filmed naturally in the outdoors toward the end. Olivier’s Richard is pretty good. It’s hard not to when he’s a master Shakespearean, but still found Ian McKellen’s superior for gross Machiavellian sliminess.

Oscar Nomination: Best Actor in a Leading Role

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Innerspace (1987)

The concept behind this is rather clever. Dennis Quaid is a disgraced Navy pilot who signs up for an experimental miniaturization project. Due to some mishaps, he and his pod are injected into Martin Short. Unfortunately there is way too much plot devoted to rival organizations trying to steal the miniaturizing technology. Those bits and the chase scenes that ensue are really drawn out and slow. Otherwise, the interactions between Quaid and Short are fun and even manage to wrangle in some of Short’s generally annoying antics. I’m somewhat meh with Meg Ryan’s role as the girlfriend, but the effects are quite good even more than thirty years later.  SciFi

Oscar Win: Best Effects, Visual Effects

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Kon-Tiki (2012)

I checked this out thinking it was the 1950 Oscar winning documentary. Little did I know that there was a more recent Oscar nominated feature film with the same title on the same subject. Thor Heyerdahl grabbed four other guys, built a raft, and decided to travel across the Pacific Ocean to prove that Norwegians populated Polynesia after getting kicked out of Peru. That whole concept feels a bit too yay white colonialism to me, particularly since the theory of a westerly migration is completely false and Thor had no idea what he was doing, not even knowing how to swim. Getting passed all that, it is really beautifully filmed with smooth CGI’ed animals and quite a bit of fraternal bonding. The stakes don’t feel particularly high, especially knowing that the documentary exists, but I’m still looking forward to seeing that film to compare the real life footage to this dramatization.

Oscar Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

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New Boy (2007)

This movie is so trite and awful I don’t really want to comment on it. A young African transfer student is bullied on his first day of school and experiences flashbacks regarding a harrowing experience he had back home. In the end, he bonds with his bullies because they are all subjected to the idiocy of their incompetent teacher. Oscar bait for short films seems to concentrate too hard on horrible takes on social issues. At least there are occasional good ones to make it worthwhile.

Oscar Nomination: Best Short Film, Live Action

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The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936)

A little hyperbolic to say, but this movie should be shown in all schools these days. While questionable in the actual portrayal of Louis Pasteur and the events of his life, it does illustrate the importance of science, being open to having preconceived notions challenged, and vaccinations. It’s hard to get passed the idea that washing hands and boiling instruments would be a questionable to the field of medicine. I’m glad I watched this so soon after Scarface because the comparison really shows Paul Muni’s skills as an actor.  Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Wins: Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Writing, Original Story; Best Writing, Screenplay

Oscar Nomination: Best Picture

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When Ladies Meet (1933)

What a delightful Pre-Code film! Myrna Loy is a writer who, much to the consternation of her wannabe suitor Robert Montgomery, is in love with her married publisher Frank Morgan. Ann Harding is the wife of the publisher and the mother of his children. The suitor tries to meddle into the others’ relationships hopefully to his own advantage, resulting in the two women meeting though at first not knowing each other’s identities. This interaction makes the film, where each woman is honest about their feelings on love and the roles they fill. I didn’t enjoy the direction the end took, but fear that the 1941 adaptation would be less honest and forthright, especially missing the tender approaches by Loy and Harding.

Oscar Nomination: Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White

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La Dolce Vita (1960)

Grappling with what to write about this, I recognize that I probably don’t understand the great majority of what the film is trying to say. Marcello Mastroianni is a journalist who is always searching for the next thing: the next big story, the next woman who excites him, the next thing that’ll bring him the best that life has to offer. Told in episodes that proceed over the course of some portion of time, he ages and progresses on this journey, using the males in his life as inspiration and caution. Every day with potential leads to an exciting, electric night that turns into the grey reality of morning. I love watching Mastroianni move, there’s a cool European smoothness, but also a bit of self-deprecation in the way he hunches his shoulders as if he’s hoping these things will just come to him. Anita Ekberg’s fountain scene is iconic for so many reasons, she exuberates with those best parts of life, fully engrossing in everything life has to offer.

Oscar Win: Best Costume Design, Black-and-White

Oscar Nominations: Best Director; Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White

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Bullitt (1968)

I’m slowly starting to warm to Steve McQueen as an actor. I’m not sure I’m on board with his reputation for being so cool, but he does bring a bit of effortless but grizzled with a bit of underlying troubledness to his characters. Here he is the titular character, a San Francisco cop tasked with guarding a Chicago mobster who is scheduled to be a witness at a Senate hearing. After the mobster is killed while in custody, Bullitt tries to keep the case open longer so he can gather more evidence about the guy and his intentions. The film is probably best known for its San Francisco car chase scene, which is indeed fabulous, but it is also a neat crime mystery in its own right, set up well to potentially have sequels with the same character.

Oscar Winner: Best Film Editing

Oscar Nominee: Best Sound

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Daddy Long Legs (1955)

I wish I were a bigger fan of Leslie Caron because she’s obviously a beautiful dancer. I just can’t get into her roles in these 1950s spectacular musicals. Here she is a French orphan who catches the eye of wealthy playboy Fred Astaire so that he offers to secretly pay for her to attend college in the United States. The pairing is pretty gross as Astaire is bordering on being old enough to be her grandfather. The costuming seems to play with this idea, making her look young in the orphanage and while in school but older when she’s being wooed. The songs are fairly unmemorable, but the dancing is a sweet blend of Astaire’s tapping and Caron’s ballet.   Musical

Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Music, Original Song; Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture

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Destino (2003)

I didn’t know this existed until it was randomly suggested as a More Like This on imdb. Originally conceived as a collaboration by Walt Disney and Salvador Dali in the 1940s, it was shelved until Roy E. Disney brought it back to life while working on Fantasia 2000. It’s a wonderful blending of the two artists’ works hauntingly accompanied by the singing voice of Dora Luz. There is a bit of me that wishes it had been completed 75 years ago to fully realize the original intentions, but it’s still a beautiful piece.

Oscar Nomination: Best Short Film, Animated

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