Category: Oscar Nominee

Posted on 2021-10-02 | No Comments |

Serpico (1973)

It’s important to know about the life of Frank Serpico in this time where once again police corruption is on people’s minds. Al Pacino is Serpico, a man who always wanted to be a cop but was greatly disappointed to find that the entire NYPD system is overwhelmingly corrupt. Yet he somehow manages to not compromise the values he was led to believe encompassed ‘to protect and serve’. The story is quick and told concisely, with time measured in the growth of Serpico’s adorable sheepdog. Dressed in a killer wardrobe, Pacino is resplendent in portraying Frank’s idealism and also his anxiety having always to be on guard around those he should best be able to count on.

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

Posted on 2021-10-02 | No Comments |

Bells are Ringing (1960)

The first time I watched a Judy Holliday movie, it took me awhile to like her. Her voice and dumb blonde act that can be grating. But her bubbly personality is infectious and it’s nay impossible to eventually root for her in whatever predicament she gets herself in. I have not had the same epiphany with Dean Martin. Here, Holliday is an operator for a phone answering service who can’t help but get involved in the lives of her customers, Martin being one of them. The romance between them is hammered in, especially since Dean seems like he’d rather be anywhere but in this picture. The production feels like the stage adaptation it is, with sets that swallow the actors. The songs lackluster and forced into the narrative, but the story itself is cute particularly when all the customers’ lives entangle.

Oscar Nomination: Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture

Posted on 2021-10-01 | No Comments |

The Dead (1987)

The first three-quarters of this film is like being invited to a holiday party where you don’t know anyone. The guests are warm and welcoming, but as an outsider, it takes a bit to figure out who everyone is and how they relate to each other. The winter setting inspires a bit of wistfulness amongst the characters as they contemplate their losses from both the past and future. Anjelica Huston, being directed by her father in a screenplay written by her brother, is vulnerable and beautiful as the wife of the hosts’ nephew, especially when she is recalling the lost love from her youth.

Oscar Nominations: Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Costume Design

Posted on 2021-09-30 | No Comments |

The Actress (1953)

The story of Ruth Gordon’s early years as an aspiring actress doesn’t sound like a particularly interesting plot and it really isn’t. Jean Simmons plays Ruth as a manic pixie to poor effect. Though I do think it was rather inspired to cast Simmons and Teresa Wright as relatives, though they look more like siblings than mother and daughter. Despite the title, the film is really Spencer Tracy’s. He plays her father with more depth than usual and his character arc is heartfelt. There’s also a delightful scene where he participates full-heartedly in a gymnastics exhibition.

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

Posted on 2021-09-30 | No Comments |

Five Star Final (1931)

This is such a dark and dismal portrayal of a newspaper editor who, desperate to sell more papers, revives a twenty year old story about a murderer who has since put her life together. I found it intriguing that Edward G. Robinson, known best for portraying gangsters, is the editor and he assigns the story to Boris Karloff, whose career is filled with playing ghoulish characters. The story projects where it’s going a mile away, but that does not make the events any less heartbreaking. In a later year, I could see Marian Marsh, as the murderer’s grown daughter, winning a Best Supporting Actress nomination simply for her monologue toward the end of the film.

Oscar Nomination: Best Picture

Posted on 2021-09-28 | No Comments |

Predator (1987)

This is a relatively successful blending of slasher and action film where you pretty much get what you expect. Arnold Schwarzenegger leads a team of steroided-out vigilantes ostensibly out to recover a downed helicopter in a Central American jungle. Unbeknownst to them, there is more than guerilla fighters for them to contend with. Carl Weathers is intriguingly cast as the pencil pushing bureaucrat who knows more than he lets on. Of course, he’s also super buff and overwhelmingly armed, so he fits right in with the rest. The special effects involving the Predator are a bit dated, but they are still effective particularly when showing his shape in the trees.

Oscar Nomination: Best Effects, Visual Effects

Posted on 2021-09-28 | No Comments |

Seeing Red: Stories of American Communists (1983)

I’m so glad this film exists. History, particularly the type that powerful people don’t want shared, is so often lost after the people who lived it die. This documentary is filled with interviews and footage from loyal members and supporters of the American Communist Party. It tells the history of the party in the US, particularly from its highest popularity to its decline during the derangement that was the Second Red Scare. It’s intriguing to me that this was made during the climax of the Cold War and still painted a sympathetic view of these American patriots.

Oscar Nomination: Best Documentary, Features

Posted on 2021-09-26 | No Comments |

Crimson Tide (1995)

When a Russian ultra-nationalist takes control of nuclear missiles, Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington are called to duty aboard a US submarine. After they receive potentially conflicting orders, they end up instead fighting against each other for control of the vessel. The crew, including the likes of Viggo Mortensen, James Gandolfini, and Steve Zahn, all are forced to pick sides. The fun bit of the film is that the viewer gets to play along. Who is actually doing the mutinying is a debate all households can engage in. I can imagine the ending could be enraging for people wanting a clear-cut answer, but I found it satisfying.

Oscar Nominations: Best Sound; Best Film Editing; Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing

Posted on 2021-09-26 | No Comments |

Come Back, Little Sheba (1952)

At the beginning of this film, Shirley Booth is annoying. She’s pushy and needy and seems oblivious to the people she bulldozes over. But she’s more than that. She’s desperately lonely, she has suffered more rejection than she can bear, and she loves fully, her recently recovered alcoholic husband played by Burt Lancaster. Lancaster is a little less fully realized. He’s conservatively close-minded and unhappy with the direction his life took after an unexpected pregnancy forced him to marry, allowing these things to cause him to spiral. There’s quite a bit of this that ends up feeling like an AA advertisement, but these two performances, especially Booth’s, elevate it to something stronger.

Oscar Win: Best Actress in a Leading Role

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

Posted on 2021-09-26 | No Comments |

Otello (1986)

An Italian opera about a Shakespeare play produced by Globus-Golan is probably testing my patience on one or two points. The lighting and filming of this have the quality of a stage production made for PBS. The colossal sets are either filled with dozens of extras or overwhelming a single pair. The singing and acting are spot on though and after reading a synopsis of Verdi’s opera, I was able to just go along for the ride. The blackface is unfortunate but it is reassuring that that particular quirk of Othello productions is going out of favor. Regrettably the disagreeable sexual politics remains.

Oscar Nomination: Best Costume Design