Category: Oscar Winner

Posted on 2022-03-03 | No Comments |

The Omen (1976)

When American diplomat Gregory Peck is told that his son died during childbirth, he agrees to pass off an orphaned boy as his own, unbeknownst to his wife Lee Remnick. Five years later, Peck has been appointed ambassador to the UK where mysterious events spawn around the family, seemingly centered on the child who has been named Damien. This is some great 1970s suspense horror, similar to The Exorcist or The Amityville Horror . It does slog a bit in the middle during a fact-finding trip and doesn’t make nearly enough use of Remnick, but it does make good use of the creepy old English atmosphere and has some rather creative murder scenes. A later career Peck does a fine job carrying the film, gradually changing from a hard nosed non-believer to a knife wielding demon killer.

Oscar Win: Best Music, Original Score

Oscar Nomination: Best Music, Original Song

Posted on 2022-03-01 | No Comments |

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

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 2022-02-12 | No Comments |

The Long Goodbye (2020)/The Queen of Basketball (2021)

Slowly working through this year’s available-to-me Oscar nominees, I checked out these two that are currently watchable on YouTube. The Long Goodbye was made as an accompaniment to Riz Ahmed’s album of the same name. An extended Muslim family in the United Kingdom is gathered together when their festivities are interrupted by a gang of armed men who force them to the street and the women into unmarked vehicles. Though I found the second part of that a bit heavy handed in its approach, the two together stand in stark contrast to each other. I really enjoyed the third act with Ahmed’s rap providing a powerful finishing statement.

The Queen of Basketball tells the story of Luisa Harris the first woman officially drafted by the NBA. What could be a fairly straightforward telling of her life from her college basketball career and her time on the Olympic team to her later life as a mother, coach, and teacher is made incredibly delightful and moving by the Harris’s own account of the events. She comes across as a beautiful soul and it’s a shame that she passed before the nominations were announced.

Oscar Wins: Best Live Action Short Film (The Long Goodbye); Best Documentary Short Subject (The Queen of Basketball)

Posted on 2022-02-10 | No Comments |

King of Jazz (1930)

An early sound and color film, this revue ostensibly serves as a celebration of the work of Paul Whiteman, the titular King of Jazz. Beginning with a Walter Lantz cartoon, the array of musical and comedy bits, some featuring a young Bing Crosby as a member of the Rhythm Boys, are mostly entertaining in their own right, many similar to later Busby Berkeley numbers, but it’s the visuals that are truly stunning and just took my breath away. Made with an early two-color Technicolor process which contains no blue, the film is entirely done in shades of coral, aqua, silver, and black, which all shine beautifully in the restoration on the Criterion release. The set and costume designers had a perfect eye to how these colors interacted and presented on film and it is gorgeous. Some amazing camera wizardry, such as the orchestra walking out of a suitcase carried by Whiteman, and extremely lavish set pieces just enhance the beauty.

Oscar Win: Best Art Direction

Posted on 2022-02-10 | No Comments |

The Accidental Tourist (1988)

Seeing the movie poster for this for many years, I’ve always assumed this was mostly about a quirky Geena Davis whom William Hurt meets on a vacation, maybe whose hijinks cause flights to be lost or hotels to be cancelled. Instead it’s about business travel writer William Hurt who is still coming to terms with the death of his son and whose wife, Kathleen Turner, has recently left him. It’s presented that he has become more distant since his child’s death and that manic pixie dog trainer Davis helps him to feel again, but there’s no indication that he wasn’t that way before the tragedy and there’s not really a change afterward. It’s quite the dull affair though even more quirkiness is added in a trio of siblings for Hurt, played by David Ogden Stiers, Ed Begley Jr., and Amy Wright.

Oscar Win: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Music, Original Score

Posted on 2022-01-07 | No Comments |

When We Were Kings (1996)

Featuring footage from the actual events and commentary from more modern talking heads, this documentary conveys the story of The Rumble in the Jungle, the historic fight in Zaire between Mohammad Ali and George Foreman. It doesn’t shy from questioning the ethics of having such an event sponsored by a brutal murderous dictator, but it also celebrates bringing two excellent American Black athletes to compete in an African country. It’s a bit biased in favor of Ali, not giving nearly as much time nor characterization to Foreman. That’s somewhat in conjunction with presenting the fight as an underdog story about the past his prime Ali against the younger Foreman, but it also allows the charismatic, bombastic Ali to shine . I question a bit the choice of two old white males, George Plimpton and Norman Mailer, to provide the descriptions of the actual fight as well as the bizarre characterization of a succubus taking away Foreman’s power, particularly as it was paired each time with the performance of Miriam Makeba , but Mailer’s take on the fight’s final moments were enthralling. I loved the footage of Zaire 74, the concert event that was to lead up to the fight until it was postponed due to Foreman’s injury, and am looking forward to checking out the documentary that focuses more on those musical acts.

Oscar Win: Best Documentary, Features

Posted on 2022-01-06 | No Comments |

Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978)

Carol Laure’s husband Gerard Depardieu is so concerned with her apparent depression that he thinks having complete stranger Patrick Dewaere sleep with her will solve what is ailing her. The two men become friends, but nothing they do improves Laure’s condition, even after the men decide impregnating her is the solution. I love the first half of the film where the men don’t even bother trying to discuss what’s wrong with the woman, or even if she thinks there is something wrong. They talk over her, bring in other men to weigh in, and ignore that the one person who does get an emotional reaction from her is another woman who sits and listens. It’s a funny and relatable tale of relationships. But then the trio being working at a summer camp and the film takes a turn that throws away everything else that happened, culminating in a completely nonsensical ending that just left me befuddled.

Oscar Win: Best Foreign Language Film

Posted on 2022-01-04 | No Comments |

Kon-Tiki (1950)

This is the film I thought I was getting when I checked out the other Kon-Tiki movie. The impact of this one might be greater after seeing that newer film. This shows the actual footage from the expedition shot by Thor Heyerdahl and his crew. There’s a much more real sense of the danger and scope of what the group was putting themselves through versus the somewhat sanitized, artificial Hollywood-ized version seen in the narrative film.

Oscar Win: Best Documentary, Features

Posted on 2022-01-03 | No Comments |

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)

Based on the same battle as the infamous Tennyson poem, Errol Flynn and his brother Patric Knowles are British officers stationed in India. A love triangle develops between the two brothers when Flynn’s fiancé Olivia de Havilland inexplicably falls in love with Knowles. This love story is used as the impetus for all of the military actions in the film, especially the final titular charge, and requires the viewer to ignore the chemistry between Errol and Olivia. While the similar looking Knowles is excellently cast as Flynn’s brother, he lacks the charisma and charm of the other actor.

Oscar Win: Best Assistant Director

Oscar Nominations: Best Sound, Recording; Best Music, Score