Goodbye, Ruby Dee…

Ruby Dee at the 2007/2008 Screen Actors Guild, the year in which she won for her supporting performance in American Gangster.

The indomitable Ruby Dee died this past week, June 11, at the age of 91. Funny thing, I didn’t see that much coverage in the major news outlets, not really.  Oh, I read a headline late one night, but I don’t remember seeing anything on the next day’s morning news shows.  Maybe I missed it. I’ve had a hectic week; however, I do remember what seemed like wall-to-wall coverage a week or so earlier when poet-activist Maya Angelou passed away and then again when venerable TV actress Ann B. Davis died as well.

Coincidentally, I had just been thinking about Ruby Dee a few days earlier as I watched last Sunday’s Tony awards presentation, and London born Sophie Okonedo, Oscar nominated for 2004’s Hotel Rwanda, snared Best Featured Actress in a play honors for her performance as Ruth Younger, wife of scheming Walter Lee Younger, in the acclaimed revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s landmark play, A Raisin in the Sun. Of course, Dee portrayed Ruth Younger in the original stage production back in 1959, the first play by an African-American woman on Broadway, and then later in the 1961 film version, for which she won Best Supporting Actress from the National Board of Review. I’m pretty sure that I first saw Dee in Raisin when it first aired on TV, and then I saw her again, again, and again as she forged an impressive career that actually began well before her work with Hansberry.

Ruby Dee recreating her stage role as Ruth Younger in the film version of Raisin in the Sun, for which the National Board of Review hailed her as the year’s Best Supporting Actress.

Dee’s IMDb profile boasts a staggering 111 acting credits, including playing Rae Robinson in a 1950 film based on the life of baseball great Jackie Robinson–with no less than Robinson actually portraying himself (more than six decades before last spring’s hit 42 starring Chadwick Boseman as Jackie and Nicole Behari as Rae/Rachel).  Dee also made her mark in the long running daytime drama The Guiding Light as well as prime time’s  phenomenally popular Peyton Place in the 1960s. In the early 1980s, She co-hosted a PBS series with her husband of 50+ years–and fellow Civil Rights actvist–Ossie Davis, who passed away in 2005.  She once had a guest-starring role on The Golden Girls, playing a much cherished yet misunderstood  character from Blanche’s childhood. She played iconic Mary Tyrone in a 1982 tele-adaptation of Eugene O’Neil’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, for which she won a Cable ACE award (a big deal at the time as cable TV was all but ignored by Emmy voters).  When it comes to Emmy awards, well, Dee made quite an impression there as well, logging six Primetime nominations, including one for a stint on Evening Shade (on which Davis worked as a cast member) and one win, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special for Decoration Day (1990); furthermore, she garnered three more Emmy nods for her work in daytime television. Whew!  That’s a lot.

Dee was a frequent NAACP Image award honoree. As recently as 2010 she was nominated for the TV movie America. She earned a total of eight Image nominations, including the fact-based Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years (1999), co-starring Diahann Carroll. She won twice, for the series Promised Land and for  Spike Lee’s hit, Do the Right Thing; she later appeared, to devastating results, in Lee’s 1991 Jungle Fever–as the mother of Wesley Snipes as well as Samuel L. Jackson’s  unstrung crack addict, Gator. Additionally, Dee was inducted into the Image Hall of Fame along with Davis in 1989 and won the President’s Award in 2008, the same year she was nominated for American Gangster.

Ruby Dee in 2007’s American Gangster, her sole Oscar nominated role as the mother of the real life drug lord played by Denzel Washington.

Ah, American Gangster. The 2007 epic docudrama based on the exploits of drug smuggler Frank Lucas. The movie starred Denzel Washington as Lucas opposite Russell Crowe as New Jersey based law enforcer Richie Roberts. No matter those two megawatt stars, Dee stole the show as Lucas’s mother and earned her only Oscar nomination–seven years after sharing with Davis a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. Indeed, for her work in American Gangster, Dee actually won her only competitive SAG Award: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role. She was 85 at the time, and only 5’2″, but no worse for wear as she hauled off and slapped Washington in what for me was the overblown movie’s best scene. By Oscar week, Dee seemed neck-and-neck-and-neck in a tight three way race for the gold that included Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) and Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)–not to mention gender bending Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan in I’m Not There and thirteen year old Saoirse Ronan in Atonement. Talk about spanning the gamut right? An 85 year old and a 13 year year old in the same category? At any rate, Swinton’s name was called when the contents of the coveted envelope were revealed at last.  Dee lost the Oscar, true, but it wasn’t a total defeat as she continued to work in acclaimed projects for the next several years.

Her many other accolades include the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of the Arts, from the National Endowment for the Arts; she shared both honors with Davis. Looking back, Dee never delivered a stirring poem at a presidential inauguration or wrote a literary classic like Angelou did, but she still made her mark as an activist for change. A whole column could be devoted to her work on behalf of justice and civil rights; likewise, as much as I loved the late Ann B. Davis, both as the ever dependable housekeeper Alice on The Brady Bunch or in her Emmy winning role as sidekick Schultzy on The Bob Cummings Show, I think Dee’s acting accomplishments inspire ever greater awe. Whether with Ossie Davis or on her own, Dee’s hard work, devotion to excellence, and indefatigable spirit, led her to the heights of American acting royalty, a true jewel in the crown.

Thanks, Ruby….

Ruby Dee at the Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002039/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Bosley Crowther reviews The Jackie Robinson Story in the New York Times, May 17, 1950: http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9907E7DC153EEF3BBC4F52DFB366838B649EDE

 

On Golden Fonda

I’m rushing to complete this piece before TNT airs Jane Fonda’s American Film Institute Life Achievement Award celebration sometime this month; the tribute was taped less than a week ago. I’ll probably skip the TV program. Oh, I’ve watched these annual shindigs from time to time going all the way back to the 70s when Bette Davis, James Cagney, Orson Welles, and Alfred Hitchcock were honored, but for some reason the last several tributes have seemed extremely edited, to force the fun factor, and that bothers me. Besides, I don’t need the AFI, necessarily, to remind me how much I love the films of Jane Fonda or to help me remember my favorites.

When I was a wee thing, I thought Jane Fonda too gorgeous for words. Truthfully, if I saw any of her movies at that time, it would have likely been Barefoot in the Park (1967), co-starring the equally and improbably gorgeous Robert Redford; the two later reteamed for 1979’s smash The Electric Horseman (directed by Sydney Pollack), but I digress. No, mostly I recall seeing pictures of Fonda in my mother’s movie magazines, Modern Screen, Photoplay, etc. Based on what I’d heard, I imagined that she ran around naked in most of her films, mostly Barbarella. Then, she cut her hair, apparently dyed it black, and protested the war–to put it mildly. I didn’t know what to think about all that, but I was still a child, only 11 or 12. I didn’t understand the full implications of her actions, but I also didn’t want my older brother to be drafted, yet I also wanted America “to win,” so I was more confused than anything else. Fonda won the Oscar for Klute during that period, coincidentally my first time to make it through the Academy Awards from start to finish. I outlasted everyone else in the house. The French Connection won Best Picture, btw. Still, I somehow knew that Fonda played a prostitute in Klute, thereby further fostering the notion that she probably appeared nude in most of her films.

This column is not for Fonda haters. Politically, she and I probably have a lot in common. but that’s not to say that I agree with, or follow, her every move. It’s easy to write her off as a bit of a dilettante, given that she was raised second generation Hollywood and has had a tendency to attach herself to powerful charismatic men; however, she’s also a damned fine actress, and while actresses of her caliber are still doing their gosh-darnedest to create meaningful work, I think almost none of today’s top tier stars use their star power in quite the same way that Fonda did at her peak in the late 1970s and early-to-mid 1980s. Not only is she a two-time Academy Award winner for Best Actress, with five additional acting nominations, she also made her mark as an astute movie producer whose credits include such smash hits as Nine to Five and On Golden Pond though to clarify, she almost never received screen credit on the films she developed with ally and business partner Bruce Gilbert through IPC films–though we’ll get to that. Right now, these are my reminisces of a lifetime of movies starring the one and only Jane Fonda.

Left to right: Lee Marvin, Jane Fonda, and Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou, the movie that announced Jane Fonda as a star in the making.

Cat Ballou (1965): Fonda plays the title character in the mid 1960s western romp, but Lee Marvin won all the accolades, including the Oscar for Best Actor, in dual roles. Legend has it that Ann-Margret was actually the first choice for the role of the would-be school marm turned would-be outlaw. The story goes that Margret’s agent turned down the offer without notifying his client first [*]. Yikes! Fonda was on her way.

 

Jane Fonda as Barbarella. Who looks like this in real-life? No one.

Barbarella  (1968): Fonda and her then husband, French film director Roger Vadim, teamed up for this far-flung futuristic sex farce based on a comic strip. Though reportedly more scandalous than profitable in its time, it has nonetheless influenced a host of filmmakers, as well as 1980s pop-superstars Duran Duran, and once upon a time no less than Drew Barrymore threatened to star in a remake. Thank god that never happened though Britney Spears clearly jumped at the chance in her video for “Oops! I Did It Again.” I caught up with Barbarella years and years ago at the old Granada theatre, and it had not aged well. Whatever the film’s weaknesses, Fonda is not one of them. She’s the very definition of eye-candy, and the opening credits are a hoot.

 

Besides earning an Oscar nomination for They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, Fonda was also named the year’s Best Actress by the New York Film Critics Circle.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?  (1969): A year after Barbarella, Fonda and Vadim were on the skids, and the spaced-out sex kitten reinvented herself as a serious actress of the highest order in Sydney Pollack’s searing look at the desperate participants in a grueling Depression-era dance marathon. Fonda earned her first Oscar nomination, losing–not entirely undeservedly–to the great Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Affable long-time character actor Gig Young took the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his audacious turn as the crass, cruel emcee. The Academy also nominated supporting actress Susannah York and director Pollack. Indeed, They Shoot Horses Don’t They, besides having one of the most iconic movie titles of all time, also holds the distinction of being nominated for more Oscars, nine, without also competing for Best Picture. It was, in fact, the second most nominated film during the 1969/70 race (right behind Anne of the Thousand Days) with the top award going to Midnight Cowboy. The cast  also includes Michael Sarrazin, Bonnie Bedelia, Red Buttons, and Al Lewis.  I saw this unrelentingly harsh movie the first time it aired on network television and have never cared to revisit it since then even with that stellar cast.

Fonda (l) and Sutherland (r) not only co-starred in Klute, they jointly campaigned against the war. Sutherland escorted Fonda to the ceremony the night she won her Oscar. The two later reteamed for Steelyard Blues.

Klute (1971):  Fonda took home the 1971 Best Actress Oscar for her, for the times, surprisingly frank portrayal of call-girl Bree Daniels in this Alan J. Pakula thriller starring Donald Sutherland as the title character, a detective investigating the disappearance of a male executive with possible ties to Fonda’s character. The critics and the Academy went bonkers for Fonda in this film, especially as she worked hard to make her character a complex, fully dimensional human being rather than the stereotypical hooker with a heart of gold depicted in many films, but  after a number of viewings through the decades, I remain a tad unconvinced that the performance is all that though I have misgivings about the film in general.  I understand that her matter-of-fact take had just enough of an edge to make an impact.  I still prefer Julie Christie (McCabe and Mrs. Miller), which I’ve also seen several times, or Vanessa Redgrave (Mary Queen of Scots); that is, I prefer those two of the nominated performances, but, of course, Ruth Gordon as Maude in Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude is nearest and dearest to my heart and a performance likely much more beloved by legions of movie aficionados in the decades since than any of the actual nominees; plus, despite its reputation as a stinker that rose to cult status in the years following its initial release, both Gordon and co-star Bud Cort snagged Golden Globe nods during that season’s awards race. Not bad. But I digress.

^ Jane Fonda as Lillian Hellman in Julia. To put it kindly, the real-life Hellman didn’t possess Fonda’s movie star good looks. Indeed, the two women bear almost no resemblance. If Julia were made today, I’m afraid there would be a pronounced effort to make the actress look more like the real deal, a feat that would probably involve prosthetics, but I applaud Fonda for eschewing such gimmicks as they often distract from rather than enhance a performance, a characterization.

Julia (1977): The years immediately following Klute were lean for Fonda as her activism alienated her from both mainstream audiences and the Hollywood corporate power structure tthough she jumped at the chance to work with George Cukor on the U.S. – Russia ill-fated remake of The Bluebird. In the spring of 1977 she caught a break when the dark comedy Fun with Dick and Jane, co-starring George Segal along with Ed McMahon, turned into a surprise hit. In the fall, her comeback at 39-going-on-40 was seemingly complete as she commanded the screen as “scrappy” playwright Lillian Hellman in Julia, based on a remembrance, long disputed, of Hellman’s to-the-manor-born childhood friend who later used her inheritance as a member of the European resistance. In this tantalizing puzzle of a tale, taken from the intriguingly entitled memoir Pentimento, Hellman, a Jewish playwright making her mark with The Children’s Hour while duking it out with mentor and sometime lover Dashiell Hammett, embarks on a tense journey to smuggle money into Berlin and reunite with her long cherished friend. The movie opened in the fall of 1977 though I didn’t catch up with it until weeks, if not days, prior to the 1977/78 Oscars when it had shifted its run from the old GCC NorthPark to the historic Highland Park Village, and I have to say it was the most important moviegoing event of my life up to that point–and, keep in mind, I’d seen Star Wars the first week it opened in May of ’77. Certainly, the European flourishes and period decor of the theatre contributed to the ambience. At any rate, I loved everything about  Julia, including the incredible true story–as we were led to believe at the time–along with the European locales, the cinematography by Douglas Slocombe, the breathtakingly composed opening shot, the stunning score by Georges Delerue, the luxe period costumes by Anthea Sylbert, and, of course, the righteous performances of Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave (seen mostly in flashbacks as the glorious title character), Jason Robards Jr. (as Hammett), and Maximilian Schell (particularly good as the enigmatic emissary known as Mr. Johann). Fonda nabbed another Academy nod for playing a woman with tremendous gumption in spite of herself, but her generosity with other actors was becoming apparent as Redgrave and Robards both won golden statuettes–it was Robards’ second consecutive win–and Schell yielded an additional nomination. As much as I love Diane Keaton, my heart broke when Fonda lost the Oscar to the  Annie Hall star. I’d never experienced anything as emotionally nuanced as the big reunion scene between Lillian and Julia in a Berlin cafe. I was willing putty in the hands of two highly skilled thespians, and it felt like heaven. I didn’t react nearly as strongly to Annie Hall, so, yes, Fonda’s loss broke my heart; however,  it would not stay broken for long.

In the fall of 1977, Newsweek deemed Fonda and Julia worthy of a cover story: “Hollywood’s New Heroines.” Indeed, it was a heady time for actresses as earlier the same year, the same magazine featured no less than Sissy Spacek (below) just as she was being feted by the Academy for Carrie and co-starring with Shelley Duvall and Janice Rule in Robert Altman’s 3 Women.  Duvall later tied for Best Actress at that year’s Cannes fest and would have likely figured in the Oscar race in a less competitive year. How competitive was it? Well, all five of that year’s Best Actress nominees starred in Best Picture finalists: Diane Keaton in Annie Hall, Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point, Marsha Mason in The Goodbye Girl, and Fonda; moreover, The Turning Point and Julia went into the final stretch as the frontrunners with 11 nominations each, including Best Picture and Best Director. (Julia was directed by legendary Fred Zinneman, already a two-time winner for From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons [1].) Star Wars was next with 10 nods. [<The three most nominated films, btw, were all released by 20th Century Fox, clearly having a banner year.] The list of failed Best Actress possibilities from that race includes not only Duvall and Spacek but also Liza Minelli (New York, New York), Kathleen Quinlan (I Never Promised You a Rose Garden),  Gena Rowlands (Opening Night), and Lily Tomlin (The Late Show), all of whom were Globe nominated. That was also the year that Keaton dazzled critics in the steamy big screen adaptation of  Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Judith Rossner’s sensational novel about a doomed thrill-seeker amid New York City’s ever adventurous swingle scene. Cases could be made for a few other sterling performances in films that were relatively obscure or otherwise indifferently received, but you get the gist.

 

^ When Sissy Spacek appeared on the cover of Newsweek in the spring of ’77, she was basking in the glow of her Oscar nod for Carrie and earning raves for both Robert Altman’s 3 Women and Alan Rudolph’s Welcome to LA. She hosted SNL, portraying no less than Amy Carter, around the same time.

 

 

 

Jane Fonda (r) gave Jon Voight (l) the role of a lifetime in Coming Home. I was thrilled by his Oscar victory and don’t think he’s ever been better. I’d still rank it among my top five leading male performances. Easily. With the possible exceptions of Harold and Maude–also directed by Coming Home’s Hal Ashby–and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, I have probably paid to see this one in theatres more times than I have any other movie.

Coming Home (1978): With this earnest tale of Vietnam veterans learning to cope in a politically charged climate, Fonda moved from onscreen talent to behind the scenes mover-and-shaker as she co-produced the film with partner Bruce Gilbert.  At the time, many Americans who either fought in the war or lost loved ones during the fight, criticized Fonda for being a hypocrite given the militancy in which she had previously attacked the war and anyone connected to it, but the film actually shows a great deal of compassion for the soldiers who sacrificed some of their humanity while fighting a senseless and unpopular war. Of course, it’s always been easy to dismiss Coming Home, as well, as an icky love triangle in which an affection starved woman finds sexual happiness from a seemingly incapacitated pacifist (Jon Voight) rather than an overwound gung-ho soldier (Bruce Dern), and, yes, I guess that claim is hard to dismiss, but I also think there’s lots of other stuff to praise, mostly the believable, nuanced performances, and the compassion the filmmakers show for the vets. To clarify, many of the patients at the VA hospital are actually played by real-life veterans, and, per the DVD,  they improvised their dialogue in key scenes. The movie competed against, among others, writer-director Michael Cimino’s macho-fueled, operatic Vietnam epic The Deer Hunter for Oscar’s top prize though Fonda and Voight claimed top honors for Best Actress and Best Actor respectively. Voight also won the Cannes Best Actor prize; meanwhile, Bruce Dern and Penelope Milford, as a woman Fonda befriends at the VA hospital, welcomed nods in the supporting acting categories [2]. Oddly, Fonda is absent from the DVD commentary though Voight, Dern, and cinematographer Haskell Wexler contribute. The movie clocks-in at #78 on the AFI countdown of the 100 greatest love stories.

1978 was a heck of a year for Jane Fonda. Besides starring in Coming Home, she also appeared in Herbert Ross’s star-studded adaptation of Neil Simon’s California Suite, featuring Oscar winner Maggie Smith (lower right). Fonda also teamed with James Caan and Jason Robards in Comes a Horseman, directed by Alan J. Pakula, which also boasted an Oscar nominated supporting performance by Richard Farnsworth. Oh, and please note: though photographic evidence is scant, Fonda wore the same gown to accept her Coming Home Oscar that she’d worn the year before when she was up for Julia. That was the 1970s; no actress would consider doing the same today.

 

Left to right: Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, and the reactor towers at the Three Mile Island nuclear power facility in Philadelphia. The China Syndrome, written and directed by the late James Bridges, earned four Oscar nominations, including a Best Actor nod for Lemmon, who also scored the top acting honors at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival.

The China Syndrome (1979): This suspenseful, nuclear power cautionary tale opened on Friday, March 16, 1979. I saw it the following Monday, March 19, at one of the GCC NorthPark theaters, either the I & II near the mall, or III  & IV across the expressway. My gut tells me the latter, but more than 30 years later, it’s no longer crystal clear. Plus, that’s not even the real story. No, the real story unfolded on March 28, 1979, when one of the reactors at the Three Mile Island nuclear power facility in Philadelphia suffered a partial meltdown and made headlines and cover stories all across the map. In an instant, Fonda found herself with the most relevant movie of the year, and all of us who’d already seen it could barely, well, contain ourselves. Naturally, I had to take a second and third look in the Three Mile Island aftermath. Fonda plays a flame-haired TV reporter, a throwback to the vintage Brenda Starr comic strip, who’s often assigned fluff stories but stumbles upon a cover-up at a plant outside of Los Angeles. Her eager cameraman is played by Michael Douglas, who also shares producer credit. The trio is rounded out by Jack Lemmon as a plant supervisor who knows more than he cares to admit. The whole thing just builds and builds to a shocking climax, and Fonda’s Kimberly Wells serves as the audience’s surrogate along the way. On one hand, the actress seems to be repeating herself by playing a naive woman whose consciousness is raised. On the other hand, the characters are otherwise night and day, and Fonda works hard to make Wells unique. Unsurprisingly, she earned her third consecutive Best Actress Oscar nod, also unsurprisingly losing to Sally Field in Norma Rae (a role that Fonda might have played under other circumstances) in a race that also included Bette Midler’s powerhouse debut in The Rose. The China Syndrome appears on the AFI’s list of greatest thrillers, weighing in at #94.

My first manager at the old UA Prestonwood Creek 5 kept scrupulous records regarding box office performance for all the films we played. Throughout the years, even as ticket prices rose and big budget blockbusters such as Return of the Jedi, Ghostbusters, Top Gun, and Batman grew increasingly popular, Nine to Five‘s original numbers continued to hold as one of our best house performers not only for ticket sales but also for longest runs, measured in weeks.

Nine to Five (1980): Not the funniest ever made, but a lot of fun, and a huge, huge, hit. Fonda’s business savvy is evident all over this offering about sexism and office politics as three capable yet undervalued secretarial workers unite against macho-fueled corporate tyranny. Fonda and company [3] shine light on the very real disparity between men and women in the workplace, an issue not entirely resolved today but especially noteworthy at the time, yet the message is cloaked in a more than generous dollop of humor. See? Nine to Five has a message, but it’s also an office comedy; likewise, The China Syndrome works as a suspense flick, and Coming Home tells a moving, complex love story. Fonda remembers her audience as well as her purpose. In this one, she portrays a prim divorcee trying dutifully to fit-in with her more seasoned co-workers, and she’s a constant delight as her straight-laced “Judy” learns to roll with the punches though more often later rather than sooner. Of course, in Nine to Five she’s aided immeasurably, once again, by her ability to cast the right people. In this case, Lily Tomlin as the generally sensible widow with children who’s continually passed over for promotions, and  Dolly Parton, in her film debut as a cute, curvaceous, and plainspoken secretary constantly fighting her boss’s sexual advances. (Give credit to Dabney Coleman for making the most of the women’s boss, “a sexist, egotistical, lying hypocritical bigot”; to his credit he understood who the stars of the movie were and didn’t get in their way.) The DVD commentary is a real treat as the three stars are reunited, and their affection for one another is most apparent.  Of course, Parton didn’t just act in the film, she wrote the catchy title tune which, let’s face it, has become a workforce anthem. Parton nabbed an Oscar nod for the tune. She also scored a handful of Globe nominations: Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy; Best Newcomer, and, yes, Best Song. She lost the song award to the ubiquitous “Fame” (from the movie of the same name). Parton went on to snare a pair of Grammy awards as well as a People’s Choice award for her track. Nine to Five is an AFI fave as it ranks #74 on its roster of funniest comedies while Parton’s ditty comes in at #78 on the organization’s list of greatest movie songs [4].

 

Jane Fonda in Nine to Five (above) and Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie (below), practically separated at birth: same curly hairdo, similar glasses, and high-neck fussy wardrobe.

 

 

Clockwise from left: Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, and Jane Fonda filming On Golden Pond. Not only did Mr. Fonda earn an Oscar, at last, Ms. Hepburn won an unprecedented 4th Best Actress Oscar for her work as the sage who must manage both husband/father and daughter. Though deceased for many years, Hepburn remains the Academy’s sole four-time performance winner. Meanwhile, Jane earned her only Best Supporting Actress nomination for her work in the film, which included mastering a tricky backward flip into the water. At the same time audiences were flocking to On Golden Pond, Jane was also starring in Rollover, IPC’s second seasonal offering, opposite Kris Kristofferson.

On Golden Pond (1981):  Arguably Fonda’s most personable film as it presented the opportunity for her to appear onscreen with her dad, screen icon Henry Fonda. The actress-producer and her partner purchased Ernest Thompson’s play about an aging couple’s annual summer retreat,  and a final attempt for their grown daughter–with a son of her own–to work through longtime conflicts with her ornery, distant dad.  Though some critics complained that the resulting effort was just a tad too sweet, the public gobbled it up, going back again and again and making it one of 1981’s top tier hits though it technically made most of its money in early 1982. At Oscar time, it garnered 10 nods [5], including Best Picture and Best Director (Mark Rydell), placing second only to Warren Beatty’s epic Reds which led the pack with 12. Ultimately, Chariots of Fire pulled a Best Picture upset. Incredibly, in spite of being one of America’s most beloved actors, Henry Fonda had only been twice nominated by the Academy at that point: for playing Tom Joad in 1940’s The Grapes of Wrath, and for co-producing 1957’s Best Picture candidate Twelve Angry Men, in which he also starred. A year prior to On Golden Pond, Mr. Fonda had been honored with an honorary Oscar for his body of work; however, with his daughter’s vision, he found the perfect valedictory role and won a competitive Oscar at last. Alas, Mr. Fonda’s health was in rapid decline, and he was unable to attend the 1981/82 ceremony. Jane accepted the award for him. He passed away in August of 1982 at the age of 77. The AFI has singled this one out multiple times, including the enduring romance between the characters enacted by Mr. Fonda and Ms. Hepburn (100 Years…100 Passions) and the inspirational message of the film as a whole (100 Years…100 Cheers).

By the mid 1980s, Fonda had established herself as a fitness guru with a bestselling lines of books, workout videos, etc. Amid her busy schedule, she starred in, and co-produced, the Emmy winning TV movie The Dollmaker (1984), in which he portrayed a 1940s era Appalachian woman transplanted to Detroit, so her husband can find work.

 

Agnes of God (1985): No Fonda Oscar nod for this one, nor did she produce it, but she still gives a compelling performance in Norman Jewison’s adaptation of John Pielmeier’s successful play about a court appointed psychiatrist investigating a novice who claims she gave birth to a dead baby after an immaculate conception. Though Fonda did not find favor with the Academy for this one, she shares the screen with no less than Anne Bancroft (l) and Meg Tilly (r), both of whom did make the Academy’s short list: Bancroft for playing the formidable Mother Superior who clashes repeatedly with Fonda, and Tilly, sublime, as the troubled novice. Geraldine Page took the Best Actress Oscar that year for The Trip to Bountiful while Angelica Huston nabbed supporting actress honors for her wicked, wicked Maerose Prizzi in Prizzi’s Honor.

Fonda lost her last bid for Oscar glory to newcomer Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God) in a race that also included Sissy Spacek (Crimes of the Heart), Kathleen Turner (Peggy Sue Got Married), and Sigourney Weaver (Aliens), who was actually my first pick, followed by Turner. I would have given Fonda’s nod to either Jessica Lange (also Crimes of the Heart), Helena Bonham Carter (either A Room with a View or Lady Jane), or Julie Andrews, doing exceptional work as a violinist with multiple sclerosis in the adaptation of Duet for One.

The Morning After (1986): This Sidney Lumet mystery signals Fonda’s last Oscar nomination, a nod I’ve always felt was, well, generous. Oh, don’t get me wrong. Fonda demonstrates in scene after scene that she is more than capable of emoting–as if none of us knew that already–but I also think she’s somehow miscast. Simply, she doesn’t look like the boozy, washed-up, movie actress that the script keeps saying she is, the next big thing that never was. Mainly, she just looks like she’s acting. A lot. Personally, and for reasons that might not be easily explained, I’ve always thought the role would have been better served by Angie Dickinson–and that’s not an insult to Dickinson. I just think she had a worldly lived-in glamour that robust Fonda–at the peak of her fitness empire–lacked. Plus, Dickinson deserved a meaty role at that point in her career; however, this was yet again a feature that Fonda developed with her partner, so mine is a moot consideration. Dickinson or any other actress never stood a chance. The movie opens promisingly enough as Fonda’s hot mess of a character wakes up next to a dead body, a stabbing victim, in a strange loft. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work so well as a mystery because there aren’t enough suspects to make the story compelling, and the “reveal” seems tacked on almost as an afterthought. Still, Lumet provides a visually interesting tour of sunny LA, a novelty for the famously east coast based director. Fonda’s co-stars include Jeff Bridges and Raul Julia.

Still a knockout, Fonda easily topped my 2012/13 Oscar’s “Best Dressed” list.

After The Morning After, Fonda completed the overblown, if entertaining, Old Gringo (1989) with Jimmy Smits and Gregory Peck–the latter as no less than fabled writer Ambrose Bierce. From there, she filmed Stanley and Iris (1990) with Robert DeNiro, and then she took a decade-plus break from movies during her marriage to media mogul Ted Turner. She made a comeback with Monster-in-Law, opposite Jennifer Lopez, in 2005 and even copped a Golden Globe nod. She also published her memoirs to considerable acclaim. Since then, she has triumphed on Broadway in 33 Variations, enjoyed a recurring role on Aaron Sorkin’s Newsroom,  and appeared–briefly–as Nancy Reagan in last year’s White House based hit, Lee Daniels’ The Butler. She and Tomlin are prepping a new series for Netflix. I’m glad she came out of retirement and continues to find interesting projects. It’s crazy to me that she’s only three years younger than my mother and about the same age that her father was when he passed away. Amazing. I can hardly wait to see what she does next. Maybe I’ll watch the AFI telecast after all.

Thanks, Jane…

TNT airs the AFI tribute to Jane Fonda on Saturday, June 14, 2014. Check your listings for times.

[*] This alleged twist of fate involving Fonda, Ann-Margret, and Cat Ballou might only be the stuff of legend though it is reported on the IMDb as well as in Ann-Margret’s autobiography (p. 89 in my long cherished paperback copy). Anyway, we just have to take Margret’s word for it. I don’t remember reading anything about it Fonda’s book. I will say that I can imagine it happening since during that era, the mid 1960s,  Jane Fonda, Ann-Margret, and, say, Tuesday Weld loomed large as saucy starlets who could play darling ingenues one minute and then sex it up for a walk on the wild side–the title of one of Fonda’s films–the next. Btw: Per Margret, her agent signed her up for Kitten with a Whip after turning down Cat Ballou.

[1] Writer Alvin Sargant won the first of his two Oscars for his Julia screenplay; he won again for 19890’s Ordinary People, adapted from Judith Guest’s best-selling novel.

[2] The trio of Nancy Dowd, Walso Salt, and Robert C. Jones won Oscars for the Coming Home screenplay; technically, Salt and Jones received final credit for reworking Dowd’s original treatment.  Salt, who also won for 1969’s Midnight Cowboy (starring Jon Voight), has since been memorialized with an annual screenwriting award at the Sundance Film Festival named in his honor. Actress/writer/director/producer Lake Bell won that honor in 2013 for her wryly amusing In a World.

[3] “and company” includes, among others, director and co-writer Colin Higgins along with co-writer Patricia Resnick. Higgins famously wrote Harold & Maude, which was directed by the previously mentioned Hal Ashby, also of Coming Home. Higgins would later direct Parton in the rousing Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

[4] Nine to Five‘s legacy includes two TV spin-offs, one on ABC and the other syndicated, both of them featuring Rachel Denison, Parton’s younger sister, as Doralee. The show also spawned a short-lived Broadway musical featuring songs by Parton and a cast that included Tony nominee Alison Janney in the Tomlin role.

[5] Thompson won an Oscar for adapting his own play.

Cannes Do

Ah, it’s that time again, time for the annual Cannes fest to be a launching pad for several more months’ worth of film excellence and potential awards contenders.  Two years ago, French-Austrian Amour made a splash and went on to score Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Director–ultimately claiming the statuette for Best Foreign Language Film.  On the other hand, last year’s buzziest Cannes winner, Blue is the Warmest Color, garnered all kinds of accolades in the states yet was received, well, less than warmly by the Academy, being shut-out in all categories. Still again, veteran American character actor Bruce Dern scored big for Alexander Payne’s Nebraska at last year’s shindig, thereby setting the stage for a hearty round of nods for Dern, Payne, and the film itself–along with Best Supporting Actress candidate June Squibb.

^ Best Director winner Bennett Miller’s credits include 2005’s Capote and 2011’s Moneyball, both of which figured in the Academy’s Best Picture races. His latest stars Steve Carrell, Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo in a startling true story about Olympic caliber wrestlers, families, coaches, and mental illness.

Here are this year’s big winners:

• Palme d’Or
 – Winter Sleep (directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
• Grand Prize
 – Le Meraviglie (The Wonders), dir: Alice Rohrwacher
• Best Actress
 – Julianne Moore (Maps To The Stars)
• Best Actor
 – Timothy Spall (Mr Turner)
• Best Director
 – Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher)
• Jury Prize – Tie
Mommy (dir: Xavier Dolan); 
Goodbye To Language (dir: Jean-Luc Godard)
• Best Screenplay
 – Leviathan by Andrey Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin
• Camera d’Or
 – Party Girl (directed by Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger, and Samuel Theis)
• Short Film 
Leidi, dir: Simón Mesa Soto
• Special Mention: Aïssa, dir: Clément Trehin-Lalanne
, Ja Vi Elsker, dir: Hallvar Witzo

Per published reports, Turkish filmmaker Ceylan has a substantial track record at Cannes, twice winning the Grand Prix award and taking Best Director on another occasion. As recently as 2013, he earned an Independent Spirit nod for Bir zamanlar Anadolu’da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia).

This is the first Cannes award for England’s Timothy Spall, like Dern a respected character actor in his homeland; however, his work is not completely unknown on the French Riviera as he is a cherished member of writer-director Mike Leigh’s repertory company, and Leigh’s films, such as 1996’s Secrets and Lies,  often do well at the famous film fest. Of course, younger viewers are likely more familiar with Spall from his role as Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter movies, but I digress. Backing up, Spall’s Mr. Turner, about the life of British landscape painter J.M.W. Turner (1775 – 1851) is Leigh’s latest production, and that’s quite a good thing. I’m usually up for a Leigh film, and I still have glorious memories of Topsy-Turvy, his behind the scenes look at Gilbert & Sullivan and their creation of The Mikado, featuring Oscar winning costumes and makeup in addition to a grand performance by Jm Broadbent as the formidable W.S. Gilbert.

Apparently, Julianne Moore was not in attendance, but I’m super-excited for her.  It’s been too long since she had a worthy film role. Oh sure, I know she won an Emmy and a host of other accolades for her role as failed vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2012’s Game Change. That’s great, and I’m not a snob about TV, but I’d rather see Moore work her acting chops on the big screen in the same way that, as much I get a kick out of  watching Jessica Lange in American Horror Story, I’d still love to see her do more feature films. Of course, we all know opportunities for actresses over 50 tend to be somewhat sparse, comparatively speaking, that is. Still, I have to say I was hugely, HUGELY, disappointed that Moore aligned herself with last fall’s unfortunate remake of Carrie, stepping into the role of Carrie White’s whole-heartedly mentally unbalanced mom, a character made famous by Oscar nominee Piper Laurie in 1976.  Just a bad idea, the remake. A friend and I recently discussed Moore and her career as it’s been a dozen years since the heights of Far From Heaven, for which she earned a Best Actress nomination, and The Hours, for which she also scored a nod in the supporting actress category. Those were her third and fourth Oscar nominations, on the heels of 1997’s Boogie Nights (Best Supporting Actress) and 1999’s The End of the Affair (Best Actress).  In  Maps to the Stars, from the ever-controversial David Cronenberg, Moore reportedly plays a fading Hollywood actress looking for a comeback. Right?

I happen to think that Hilary Swank (l) is, in a word, brilliant, but she doesn’t work as often as I would like. I’m sure she would like to work more as well. I’ve often thought that she must be difficult to cast, something I blamed on her almost being too good playing a cross-gender role in 1999’s Boys Don’t Cry, but I  thought those perceptions would have changed after Million Dollar Baby. I whole heartedly recommend 2010’s Conviction, and I eagerly await The Homesman, from actor-director Tommy Lee Jones (r).

Speaking of actresses in need of a comeback, the film I read about most in online Cannes updates was The Homesman starring two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank and directed by Texan–and onetime Oscar winner–Tommy Lee Jones, who wowed Cannes’ jurors in 2005 with The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which he produced, directed, and starred in, taking home that fest’s Best Actor prize in the process. Swank was all of 30 when she won her second Oscar, for 2004’s Million Dollar Baby, five years after skyrocketing to stardom with Boys Don’t Cry. Now, she’s inching toward 40, and it’s been a while since she had a screen role of any consequence. 2009’s Amelia, with Swank as doomed pilot Amelia Earheart, failed to attract much attention while 2010’s fact-based Conviction, in which she plays a woman who completed law school in order to defend her brother, impressed enough members of the acting community to warrant a SAG nomination–but that seems like a long time ago.

Jones’s period western also features Meryl Streep–with daughter Grace Gummer–John Lithgow, Tim Blake Nelson, James Spader, Wiliam Fichtner, irrepressible Texas born character actress, Jo Harvey Allen, and Hailee Steinfeld, who made a splash a few years ago in the Coens’ acclaimed reboot of True Grit, earning a Best Supporting Actress nomination at a mere 14 years of age. Of all the Cannes entries that I read about, this is the one that I most want to see. Luckily, it has been picked up for distribution. Hopefully, we’ll see it just in time for the second wave of awards contenders.

Thanks for your consideration….

 

Pretty as a Midsummer Night’s…

Alas, famed cinematographer Gordon Willis passed away on Sunday at the age of 82. Willis first made a name for himself in the 1970s with such credits as The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and many films with Woody Allen, including Annie Hall, Interiors, and Manhattan. That’s three Best Picture winners in the bunch; however, Willis was never a favorite with the Academy though critics–and directors–loved him. He never won a competitive Oscar and was only nominated twice, yet he was ultimately honored for his body of work by the Academy in 2009. I originally wrote this piece, mostly as a celebration of him and his work on Allen’s A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy back in 2012, and now I repost it in his memory. Enjoy (I’ll be back soon!)

Confessions of a Movie Queen

Well, it doesn’t look like Michael and I will be going to Arkansas for a mini-vacation this year: we’ve gone there three of the past four summers, opting instead for a trek to Oklahoma in 2010.  Arkansas, of course, is beautiful, it’s not terribly expensive, and it’s just a great way to get out of the harsh concrete-ness that is Dallas and to soak up Mother Nature.  I think all of us at one time or another need to get out of the city and get out of our heads. Arkansas gives us the opportunity to do both, and it’s not so very far from home, so we can drive; flying is such a hassle. I really wanted to see the new Crystal Bridges museum in Arkansas (even with the Walmart connection), but the timing isn’t right. I’m lucky because I live in a nice walking neighborhood near a golf…

View original post 3,610 more words

Too Much, Too Little, Too Late

In Young Adult, Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) is first seen sprawled out on the bed, clearly the morning after a night of serious drinking and who knows what else. Similarly, In 13 Going on 30, the audience gets its first look at the adult version of Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner) as she’s also sprawled out on a bed, no doubt also after a night of carousing. Although Jenna has good reason to be disheveled and confused, her co-worker and fellow car-pooler assumes she’s hungover as usual.

A creative writing instructor once explained the difference between comedy and tragedy thusly: in a comedy the protagonist experiences an epiphany in time to change the outcome of a given situation for the better whereas in a tragedy the epiphany comes too late, and the consequences are severe, cruel, and, oh yes, irreversible. Tragic. Yeah, okay, I get it. I was thinking of this old maxim about a week or two ago when I watched, repeatedly,  13 Going on 30, a movie almost Dickensian (if not Faustian) in its premise as an impatient, naive girl, circa 1987, is so desperate to be part of her middle school’s in-crowd that she’s willing to humiliate her best friend while selling-out her authentic self in the process, thereby establishing a pattern that will help her achieve all of her dreams though with enormous costs.

In this seemingly good-natured fairy tale (directed by the late Gary Winick), 13 year old Jenna Rink gets a chance to fast forward through her high school and college years, waking up, just as she had always wished, a thriving thirty year-old living in Manhattan and working at Poise, once the #1 leading fashion /lifestyle magazine (on the order of say, Glamour or even Cosmopolitan), now reduced to number 2 and fading quickly.  On the outside, Jenna is very much a 30 year old with a nice apartment and a steady guy, a handsome, though goofy, hockey player; however, in this movie’s schema, Jenna is still very much a child on the inside as though she’s been dropped into the adult life she has forged for herself.  Of course, there are obvious jokes here. The same kind we’ve seen time and time again in such movies as Big and Freaky Friday. You know, a child suddenly finds his/her point-of-view at odds with his/her fully developed body,  along with the rest of the adult world and its responsibilities. Plus, the audience is treated to the sight of a grown actor impersonating an awkward, gangly child. Hilarity ensues, right? Especially in this case since, unlike the previous features, Jenna is not only still a child on the inside, she’s a child of the 1980s on the inside: she doesn’t understand the way the world has changed in 17 years, meaning cell phones, Eminem, and, uh, thong underwear. Plus, she dances to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and quotes Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield” as if it were Shakespeare.

^ To the Matt, Part 1: In 13 Going on 30, Mark Ruffalo plays the grown-up version of Matt Flamhaff (remember that name), Jenna Rink’s only true childhood friend. Unfortunately, she discarded Matt, believing he cramped her style. As adults, Matt reluctantly assumes the role of Jenna’s confidante, but a reconciliation with a man who’s engaged to be married can only go so far.

As Jenna acclimates to her adult lifestyle, she comes to understand that over the course of her “lost” seventeen years she has behaved quite badly, alienating her parents, for example, and bullying co-workers. She also parties hard and has been cavorting with at least one married man. When Jenna realizes just how many bad choices she’s made, and how truly disliked she is, she sets out to reinvent herself and to right as many past wrongs possible, starting with her estranged parents, but it doesn’t necessarily work out the way she plans because the damage is far greater than she can imagine. Jenna learns that it’s easier to redesign a magazine than it is to redesign a whole life. People make choices, she is told, and choices have significance, choices carry repercussions.

Okay, now what if I were to tell you that 13 Going on 30, released in 2004 and boasting a glorious, full-throttle movie star performance by Jennifer Garner (arguably the performance of her film career) is, even with its third-act sense of tragedy, essentially the lighter version of 2011’s darkly humorous Young Adult, directed by Jason Reitman, scripted by Diablo Cody, and starring the one and only Charlize Theron?  Or Young Adult is the seriously twisted, less fantastic version of 13 Going on 30? Oh, and let me begin by stating that I’ve done the math. Theron’s Mavis Gary is revealed to be 37 at the beginning of Young Adult.  If Mavis is 37 in 2011, that means she was 13 in 1987, which also means she was 30 in 2004, and what does that mean? It means that Jenna Rink and Mavis Gary are the same age, but while  middle-schooler Jenna is definitely a child of the 80s, Mavis Gary is all about the 1990s, the early 1990s, that is, when she reigned supreme at Mercury High School in Minnesota; however, the main difference between Jenna and Mavis is that the former is willing to toss aside the best parts of her childhood in order to claim her territory as an adult while the latter clings to girlhood memories rather than face life as an adult. Even so, they both find themselves trying to undo that which cannot be undone.

^ To the Matt, Part 2: In Young Adult, Patton Oswalt plays Matt Freehauf (eerie, isn’t it?), a former classmate of Mavis’s yet aside from hurling homophobic slurs his way, she never paid much attention to him even though their lockers were next to each other. As adults, these two hardluck cases form an uneasy alliance.

Once upon a time, Mavis Gary was exactly the kind of girl Jenna Rink aspired to emulate: the queen bee with perfect blonde hair (actually voted “Best Hair” by her peers) and the class golden boy at her side, yet almost 20 years after graduation Mavis, now living in Minneapolis, is seriously on the skids. Not only has her marriage  tanked (we know almost nothing about the husband), she’s about to lose her gig as a ghostwriter for a popular series of young adult novels on the order of Sweet Valley High–in this instance, Waverly Prep.  Oh, and Mavis drinks a lot. A lot a lot. When Mavis opens an email with a birth announcement from back home, she fixates on returning to Mercury to reclaim her former glory–and her high school sweetie.

Like the “grown-up” Jenna Rink,  Mavis Gary operates on the assumption that everyone is envious of her, envious of her striking good looks and seemingly successful career (she refers to herself as an author), but also like Jenna Rink, she’s dead-wrong. Many, if not all, of the townies consider Mavis a coarse, egomaniacal bitch with a loose screw or two. Again, just like Jenna Rink’s co-workers. Mavis is so caught up in her delusion that she doesn’t see the tragedy unfolding right before her eyes.

In both movies, the leading characters hit the proverbial wall, finding their good looks and pizzazz only get them so far. People make choices, Jenna learns, and over a lifetime those choices lead even the best of friends down different paths. When the truth hits Jenna, she tries hard to suck it up and make the best of the situation, but when the truth hits Mavis, she hits back–and hard. Not that it matters, not really.

In both 13 Going on 30 and Young Adult, the lead characters, Jenna Rink and Mavis Gary respectively, are estranged from their parents. Eventually, reunions take place, but to wildly different effect. Jenna’s mom, played by the great Kathy Baker (above)–born in Midland, Texas–knows just the right thing to say. Jill Eikenberry portrays Mavis’s mom, but their unplanned encounter proves awkward and embarrassing.

Furthermore, both films feature third act scenes that elevate them above mere entertainment to serious meditation about the human condition. In 13 Going on 30, the emotional climax comes during a heart-to-heart between Jenna and her photographer friend and confidante Matt, ever-so-skillfully played by Mark Ruffalo. The trick here is that both characters have a lot to say, but they’re speaking in measured doses. Honest, yes, but extremely civilized. Of course, as much credit goes to the writers (Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa) as to the director and the two actors, both of whom wisely avoid diving right into waterworks.  Of course, Ruffalo’s character must be adult and firm in his resolve no matter what. It’s hardwired into who he is, but he’s clearly not immune to Jenna’s dilemma just the same. Garner, on the other hand, plays multiple levels as Jenna struggles between childhood anguish and adult regret. In many ways, she is incapable of processing the gravity of the situation, yet on some level she is well aware, too late it seems, that she alone has been her own undoing. I remember being blown away watching this scene unfold the first time I saw the movie–back at the old UA Northstar 8 in Garland–a feeling corroborated by almost everyone I know who has seen it.

Meanwhile, in Young Adult Mavis faces a similar letdown though without all that TLC. Again, the matter comes down to “choices”; however, the scene that most moves me comes a bit later when Mavis gets a pep-talk from an unlikely source, a character who has hovered in the background for much of the story. Collette Wolf plays Sandra Freehauf, the sister of Mavis’s drinking buddy and fellow sad sack, Matt. Once again, two performers maximize their thespic strengths. For one brief moment Wolf’s Sandra remembers who she once was: the awkward nobody who would have given almost anything to travel in Mavis’s circle–if not take her place outright. (Much like Jenna Rink) Every time I watch this scene, I marvel at her process, her choices, as she brings brilliant life to dialogue that seems almost unplayable. Meanwhile, Theron proves she’s just as adept at listening as she is seizing control of the screen.  Interesting to note that in the DVD commentaries on each flick, the respective directors give special consideration to these third act scenes as some of their best work, indeed.

I wish both lead actresses had received more accolades for their work. I never got into Garner’s Alias TV show so much though I watched it from time to time, and she acquitted herself admirably in Juno (coincidentally from Reitman) as well the recent Oscar winning Dallas Buyers Club, but those were both supporting roles; however, I think as Jenna,  a child in a grown woman’s body–with a grown woman’s past–she delivers not only a performance that works as well-observed, skilled, and intelligent acting (like when she’s trying to hail a cab, speak professionally, or, again, in that devastating third act), but she announces herself as a true movie star, complete with deliciously heart-melting close-ups and a nice riff on Mary Tyler Moore’s familiar opening credits. I’ll be perfectly frank. Garner’s was probably my second favorite leading actress performance in all of 2004–right behind Oscar winner Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby. Not bad. (Vera Drake’s Imelda Staunton is right up there as well.) That noted, I really didn’t expect Garner to, uh, garner an Oscar nod, no, that never seemed probable; however, I full well expected  her to figure in the race for either the Golden Globes (in the Comedy category) OR the Saturn awards (for fantasy, science fiction, and horror films); alas, nada on both accounts, which frankly surprises me–especially the Saturn omission. Yes, 13 Going on 30 was only a middling hit, but it was far from a flop. Plus,  reviewers frequently praised Garner even when they were less enthusiastic about the movie as a whole.  Maybe Garner ‘s performance just didn’t seem as fresh barely a year after Jamie Lee Curtis wowed audiences and critics alike in Disney’s second remake of Freaky Friday as, after all, Curtis was indeed nominated for both the Globe and the Saturn award–and deservedly so. On the other hand, Garner eked out nods for the MTV Movie Awards as well as a Teen Choice award; her film was also a People’s Choice nominee.

On the other hand, Theron fared a little bit better. I can’t say hers was my favorite performance of 2011, but I can say that I definitely preferred her film to that dreadful Margaret Thatcher biopic that carried Meryl Streep to her third–and some would say long ovedue–Academy award. Oh, and I definitely think Theron full-well deserved the slot on Oscar’s final ballot that went to Michelle Williams in the cheap trick known as My Week with Marilyn (Marilyn Monroe, that is). I’d even trade Rooney Mara’s nod for her star making turn in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. When Theron won the 2003/04 Best Actress Oscar for playing serial killer Aileen Wuornos, we were all enthralled; the performance was staggeringly good, yet in Young Adult she’s daringly convincing playing a different kind of monster, and she has a number of moments that seem tailor made for Oscar consideration, which doesn’t have to be a bad thing if and when the goods are delivered, as they most definitely are in this case, whether it’s the exchange with Wolf, a silent meltdown in a noisy tavern, or that moment when Mavis snaps because she’s just too tired to care anymore. It’s not a scene that’s easy to forget, I assure you. Plus, besides knowing how to handle the emotional fireworks, Theron definitely knows how to toss-off a one-liner in a way that perfectly fits her character, who, don’t forget, behaves like an overgrown teenager. Again, Theron earned at least as much as a Golden Globe nod–which at least puts her ahead of Garner in that regard–though an Oscar nomination would have been fab. Still, Theron already has an Oscar along with a nomination for 2005’s North Country; plus, Young Adult, with its unapologetically acidic tone, tanked with moviegoers in a way that made serious Academy consideration almost impossible.

Both movies benefit from strong supporting casts as well, beginning with the aforementioned Mark Ruffalo and Collette Wolf.  13 Going on 30 also boasts the inestimable Judy Greer, she of the delicious crackerjack timing, as the co-worker and sometime friend who knows exactly how much to push Jenna’s buttons. Greer can make just about any ole line funnier that it needs to be, but she also handles a delicate character trajectory: neither entirely good nor bad (marvellously handled by the screenwriters), but definitely not someone who can be trusted either. Kudos, as well, to the astute  casting agent who landed teen actors Christa B. Allen, Sean Marquette, and Alexandra Kyle to portray younger versions of Garner, Ruffalo, and Geer (or, rather, their characters); Allen is particularly good. The other standouts in the Young Adult cast include Patrick Wilson, as the once-upon-a-hunk who has comfortably settled into small-town domesticity. It’s not a flashy role, but Wilson knows how to make his character’s embrace of the conventional engaging. Plus he understands how to underplay without getting trounced. Also worth noting: Elizabeth Reaser, as Wilson’s wife, an obviously intelligent woman whom Mavis consistently under-estimates. Reaser demonstrates sweetness and strength in surprising ways, a triumph given that she does so with minimal dialogue.

Regarding Young Adult‘s supporting cast, I admit that I didn’t warm to Patton Oswalt’s mopey Matt Freehauf as much as the critics did. Oh, I didn’t hate it, and I can clearly see that Oswalt delivers his zingers with relish, but I also think that there’s something too schematic about the character even though Oswalt has a likable presence. That noted, he scored a few nominations during the 2011/12 awards season, including a Critics Choice nod, so I’m clearly in the minority, and I accept that.

Tonally, these movies could not be more different, but they bear many striking similarities, and both challenge ideas about comedy and tragedy in surprising ways, but I’ll stop here rather than spoil their perfect endings.

Thanks for your consideration….

 

http://www.hotflick.net/pictures/big/004TGT_Kathy_Baker_003.html

Frankie & Alice & Halle & More Movie Bucket List

Barely more than a year ago, I wrote about Halle Berry’s Frankie & Alice, for which the actress earned a Golden Globe nod during the 2010/11 awards season. Aside from its brief, year-end Oscar qualifying run, the movie has been unavailable to mass audiences–until now. A few months ago, a reader alerted me that Berry’s vehicle would finally be getting a national release, and that is exactly what has happened as of this week, so that’s why I’m reposting this, and I hope to see F & A myself, at long last, by the week’s end.

Confessions of a Movie Queen

Per 2012’s Cloud Atlas, 2010’s Frankie and Alice (above), and a few others, Halle Berry doesn’t necessarily have the best eye for material that translates into mainstream commercial success, but she’s not afraid to challenge herself with risky projects; plus, she has an amazing talent for flooding her characters with emotion, which paid off magnificently when her gutsy, no holds barred, performance in Monster’s Ball elevated second rate material to Oscar worthy greatness. Frankie and Alice was similarly primed for awards consideration,  but, alas, to no avail. More than two years after its brief Oscar qualifying run, Frankie and Alice has still not been released on DVD/Blu Ray, and that’s shameful.

Well, as usual, Halle Berry looked smashing at the most recent Academy Awards.  Ostensibly, she was at the ceremony to participate in the salute to the James Bond franchise, per he role as “Jinx” in 2002’s Die Another Day

View original post 1,914 more words

Oscars 2013/14: Fashion Gallery

Well, that’s another one for the history books. Sure was fun. Let’s do it again next year, especially if host Ellen DeGeneres is back on board. Oh, did you hear the good news? The telecast was a smash, what with Ellen’s twitter crashing tweet, and reportedly the highest ratings for an entertainment show since the 2004 Friends series finale (that is opposed to a sports related show). Well, it’s easy enough to figure out why audiences tuned in, and it’s not just about Ellen, but the fact that there was abundant interest in many of the high-profile nominees: McConaughey, DiCaprio, Bullock, Lawrence, and Nyong’o, who seemingly came out of nowhere to become the darling of the red carpet during the latest round of awards shows. Plus, there’s always Brad and Angelina. Mr. Pitt scored as one of the producers of Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave with Ms. Jolie recognized as the most recent recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award. Technically, Jolie was officially honored at a ceremony last fall though footage of the event was shown, and Jolie co-presented the Best Director trophy with living legend Sidney Poitier. Additionally, musical performances by Idina Menzel, from the crowd pleasing Frozen, Pharrell Williams, U2, Pink, and Bette Midler also served as huge draws. Of course, no three  and half hour awards show runs without a hitch, but this was still a fun way to spend a Sunday night, definitely an improvement over last year’s Seth McFarlane edition which was all over the place (though not a flat-out disappointment).

Now, about that luxe fashion parade. I have two rules: I don’t promote designers in my version of Oscar’s fashion gallery because I think it’s tacky for well paid actors and actresses to reduce themselves to living billboards for the sake of free clothes–loaners only to boot. Anyway, since these folks have already secured their end of the deal (or deals), there’s no reason for me to jump on the bandwagon. My other rule is that I only feature the fashions that I actually like. I’d rather spotlight the positive than the negative and leave the nastiness to someone else since my belief is that even some of the more unfortunate choices were made by people who really believed they looked pretty or handsome, and who am I to argue with that. Oh, and I’ve included a few of the men this time in contrast to last year’s gallery.

Most of what follows is not in any given order, except, well, the first three. Those are probably my three faves. Now, without further ado…

1. Best Supporting Actress winner Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave), magnificent in “Nairobi blue”

2. Best Supporting Actress nominee Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)

3. Best Actress nominee Sandra Bullock (Gravity)

Penelope Cruz

Singer Pink sparkles just like those magical ruby slippers as she performs “Over the Rainbow” during The Wizard of Oz tribute

^ Jennifer Garner

Best Supporting Actress nominee June Squibb (Nebraska)

 

Olivia Wilde

Angelina Jolie, winner of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award

Best Supporting Actress nominee Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)

Kate Hudson

Charlize Theron

Jim Carrey

Pharrell Williams brings down the house as he performs his Oscar nominated song “Happy” (from Despicable Me 2). Mr. Williams’s hat attracts a lot of media attention, but I’m actually wild for his bright red shoes.

Best Actor Matthew McConaughey (l) and Best Supporting Actor Jared Leto (r), both of Dallas Buyers Club, share fashion sense as well as Oscar victories. Nice touch, guys.

One more…

Host Ellen DeGeneres as The Wizard of Oz’s Glinda the Good Witch. Ellen, we love you. Don’t ever change, and please come back next year.

Please feel free to add your comments about this year’s “Best Dressed.”

Thanks for your consideration…

Oscars Thrills: The DeGeneres Edition

Oscar host Ellen Degeneres and the tweet seen ’round the world (clockwise from top and center): Kevin Spacey, Brad Pitt, Lupita Nyong’o, Angelina Jolie, Lupita Nyong’o’s brother Peter, Bradley Cooper, DeGeneres, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Jared Leto, Channing Tatum, and Julia Roberts.

How about that Ellen? I’m glad the producers had the good sense to ask her back. I loved her the first time, but that was back in 2006/07, far too long especially considering some of the  weak-ass hosts we’ve been subjected to in the years since then. Ellen’s monologue was not side-splittingly hilarious, but she did a great job of connecting with her audience, especially those actually attending the ceremony, and putting them at ease, and she did so without being mean-spirited as is often the case. It’s just not Ellen’s style. Oh, okay, she might have crossed the line by cracking wise that Liza Minnelli–in person for the Wizard of Oz tribute–was being played by a female impersonator,  but it’s still a good gag simply because, well, it’s so true in that Minnelli, like her mother before her, has a huge gay following with plenty of impersonators in the mix.

Still Ellen was on much more solid footing when she went out into the audience and yucked it up with the nominees, offering Bradley Cooper a lottery scratch-off ticket as a consolation prize, taking and tweeting pictures of her self with Cooper, Streep, et al, ordering pizza for the hungry crowd–and then turning that into yet another joke by passing around singer Pharrell Willams’s much buzzed about hat in hopes of collecting a sizable tip for the pizza delivery guy and making a special note of putting the squeeze on high rollers Harvey Weinstein, Sandra Bullock, and Brad Pitt.  This is pure Ellen, and in spite of all the frivolity, she still managed to keep the show moving and brought it to a close in right at three and a half hours. Brad Pitt, Steve McQueen, and the rest of the producers of the Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave were  finishing their acceptance speeches 11:00, our time, and  that was that. Good job, Ellen! (Oh, and that Glinda the Good Witch costume was a hoot!)

For years, the Saturday before the Oscars has been marked as the day independent filmmakers gather to celebrate their own. Of course, there are always highly acclaimed, low budget indie offerings that somehow escape the Academy’s attention, so it’s nice when those “little” films get noticed after all. On the other hand, as more and more independent film companies get co-opted by mainstream Hollywood, it’s hard to determine what qualifies as “independent.” After all, many of this year’s Spirit award winners (formerly the Independent Spirit awards) are/were also major Oscar contenders: Best Picture -12 Years a Slave; Best Actor Matthew McConaughey; Best Actress – Cate Blanchett; Best Director: Steve McQueen; Best Supporting Actor- Jared Leto, and Best Supporting Actress – Lupita Nyong’o. Sound familiar? Other winners include: Best First Feature – Ryan Coogler (Frutivale Station)

Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave – I’m glad director and co-producer Steve McQueen remarked that even today millions of people around the world are forced into slavery and are suffering as a result. I also like that McQueen, who made history as the first black filmmaker to helm a Best Picture winner, prevailed in one of the tightest races ever. So while he lost to Gravity‘s Alfonso Cuarón in one category, he did not walk away empty handed–far from it. Again, this was a close one.

Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) – I have to say I started getting goose bumps when Leto and his mom held hands in anticipation of the announcement in his category. Then, I was overwhelmed when his name was called, and the audience erupted into applause. Oh, and that speech, everything from telling about his single mom raising him and his brother in Bossier City, LA, then segueing to human rights and still managing to thank the cast and crew of Dallas Buyers Club–not bad. Plus, he wisely avoided grandstanding about LGBT rights, as this has angered as many advocates as it has delighted, though he was absolutely correct to acknowledge the struggle of LGBT people in the elegant way he did when concluding his speech: “This is for the 36 million people who have lost the battle to AIDS and to those of you out there who have ever felt injustice because of who you are or who you love, tonight I stand here in front of the world for you. Thank you so much and goodnight.” No, I haven’t just contradicted myself. In other words, rather than go overboard, he played it just right.  Thank god he wasn’t played off by an over-eager music conductor.

Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) – As incredible as Leto’s speech was, Nyongo’s speech was also especially powerful and moving.  She began by acknowledging that every good or wonderful thing that has happened in her life has come at the cost of someone else’s suffering, such as the real-life Patsey, the much abused slave in Solomon Northrup’s autobiography (the basis for her award winning role); moreover, the actress appeared as genuinely humbled by all the hoopla as she claimed. And that’s a beautiful thing. Plus, her beauty is transfixing. Her magnificent face just captured the camera, and it (or the person operating it) could not pull in tight enough. Gosh what a moment. Plus, her dress, and the graceful way she moved in it, made her look positively like a princess.

Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity) –  This is the second consecutive year in which Best Picture and Best Director have been split. Of course, last year’s split was easy to explain since Ben Affleck, the director and co-producer of top dog Argo, was MIA on the Best Director ballot, but Argo was clearly the populist pick (an incredible true story that also had the feel of a classic Hollywood suspense flick),  and Ang Lee’s Life of Pi  was a technical marvel, a product of a visionary. The same with  Cuarón. That he was able to get his vision on the screen in such a seamless manner is an incredible achievement. Plus, there’s something else at work: a Mexican born director with a film shot in England (mostly), financed by an American studio. Yep, Cuarón’s victory plays into all of that “Film is the international language” hype the Academy trots out time after time. Still, I grew up in an era in which Best Picture and Best Director were rarely split, but that is clearly no longer  necessarily the case. Oscar voters are more inclined to share the wealth.

And while we’re at it, please note that Gravity claimed Oscars in 7 of its 10 categories. Besides Best Director, the rest of the bunch includes: Best Visual Effects, Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki), Best Editing (Cuarón again with Mark Sanger), Best Sound Mixing,  Best Sound Editing (Glenn Freemantle), and Best Score (Steven Price). That’s a grand total of 7 Oscars, second it would appear to Cabaret in the category of films that have won the most Oscars–including Best Director–without actually claiming Best Picture as well. In Cabaret‘s case, the final take was 8. Coincidentally, Cabaret lost to The Godfather, which won a total of 3 Oscars, in the same way that Gravity lost to 12 Years a Slave, which also won three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay (John Ridley); meanwhile, not a great night for American Hustle. Despite all the early hoopla, and the SAG award for Best Ensemble, the movie ended up 0 for 10, not a record, but…OUCH!!! Btw: The Turning Point (1977) and The Color Purple (1985) both went 0 for 11. Double Ouch!!! Furthermore, out of nine nominees for Best Picture, five of them went home without any awards: American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Nebraska, Philomena, and  The Wolf of Wall Street. Triple ouch? That has to be a little embarrassing. Maybe it’s time for the Academy to “let it go” and return to the traditional slate of five Best Picture candidates.

Backing up a bit: I have to say I’m thrilled for Lubezki at long last. I’ve been a huge fan since 1995’s A Little Princess and A Walk in the Clouds, and I thought after he lost for 2011’s amazing The Tree of Life, he’d never win. Still, a friend of mine with some filmmaking experience–and insight into cinematography particularly–has made the observation that the last 3 or 4 Best Cinematography winners are as much about CGI as they are about actual cinematography, and that’s a legitimate concern too. Have we now turned a corner from which there is no return? Also, regarding those award winning visual effects, Michael and I had the discussion that while the effects in the Star Trek movie were certainly fabulous, they did not have that same power to transport viewers as did the effects in Gravity; the trick, the thrill, of Gravity is that it sweeps up audiences in its excitement without leaving too much time/room  to contemplate the mechanics of what it’s doing while it’s doing it.

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine) – I did not hate Blanchett in Jasmine, and her victory is certainly no surprise, but I’m still not convinced that her performance was a singular achievement, worthy of the industry’s highest award–and almost every other award along the way. Still, she looked great, and her speech was full of witty asides. Plus, I like that she spoke to the success of films powered by women. Btw: when she mentioned that 79 year old Judi Dench was in India filming a sequel, she was likely referring to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel—not Philomena 2. Blanchett now joins the ranks of Jessica Lange and Meryl Streep as actresses who won their first Oscars as supporting players and their second statuettes in the leading actress category; Blanchett’s first, to clarify, was for 2004’s The Aviator, in which she portrayed Katharine Hepburn. To further clarify, Ingrid Bergman, Helen Hayes, and Maggie Smith have Oscars in both categories, but they first won honors as leading players.

That noted,  I think Bullock’s performance in Gravity was the worthier achievement. How did she pack such emotion into a filmmaking process that did not seem especially, well, actor-friendly? By that, I mean, director Alfonso Cuarón had a clear vision of what he wanted, and it involved a lot of technical apparatus, and Bullock was often asked to act in a vacuum, more or less, but she still delivered–and delivered in a way that doesn’t even seem like acting until AFTER the movie ends. [Per the recently released DVD, Bullock shot significant chunks of her footage on “proxy” sets and/or in an LED powered “light box,” which the crew christened “Sandy’s Cage.”) On the other hand, I guess the upside is that her nomination for Gravity shows that all those honors for 2009’s The Blindside were far from a fluke. Plus, Bullock’s a savvy business woman, and she stands to earn quite a chunk of Gravity‘s astronomical box office take. A year from now, more and more people will bemoan her loss once the luster of Blanchett’s victory fades.

Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club) – I’m glad the Texas guy made good, the crowning touch on a comeback 2-3 years in the making. Oh, and the audience ate it up, so it’s all good.  McConaughey’s speech wasn’t particularly eloquent–not to the same degree as Leto’s and Nyong’o’s, but it was heartfelt–and it was true to who he is. Plus, even though it took awhile to get to the point, I liked his story about chasing his best vision of himself, a story that goes back decades in his development, so, again, good for him. McConaughey put a lot of himself on the line for Dallas Buyers Club, and even if his goal was to win an Oscar (which should never be anyone’s goal…it’s tacky), the performance doesn’t necessarily play as pure Oscar bait, which can often backfire. No, I’m willing to give McConaughey the benefit of the doubt, and I do think this was the right role in the right vehicle for him to fully flex his acting prowess. Anybody who has been following his career for lo these 20 or so years has never doubted his talent. We were just waiting for him to sort through the all the drama and the noise of stardom and find greatness.

The Dallas Buyers Club also won Oscars for its makeup team, Adruitha Lee and Robin Matthews. All in all, not a bad haul for a movie about Dallas that was actually filmed in Louisiana. I know, right? Still, Dallas Buyers Club tells an important story, one that deserves–like 12 Years a Slave–to be remembered. I know some LGBT and/or Queer activists and their allies carp about one discrepancy or another, but they might be missing the point. I saw dozens of people, including gay men and transwomen, die of AIDS back in the 80s and 90s, and I know what I know. Those people were allowed to die, and the reasons why are worth documenting.  I’ll now get off my soapbox.

Oh, and speaking of being remembered. We must also never forget people like Alice Sommer, the subject of the winner for Best Documentary Short-Subject, The Lady in Number 6. Holocaust survivor Sommer died barely a week ago at the remarkable age of 110, reportedly the oldest known Holocaust survivor. Now, let that sink in for a moment.

Best Animated Feature Film: Frozen – Wow! What an amazing weekend for the producers of Frozen. Not only has their film become the first offering from Disney proper to win in this category, hard to believe as that might be, but it has also now become only the 18th movie to earn a billion dollars worldwide. Nice. Yeah, yeah, I know I usually give Disney a hard time for being evil and greedy, but that doesn’t mean they only want to take over the world and produce dreck. Well, maybe they do want to  take over the world, but Frozen, even as it “borrows” liberally from one source (“The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen) and Wicked (that is, the Wizard of Oz inspired book by Gregory Maguire; later the smash Broadway musical institution), is by no means dreck.

Best Song: “Let It Go” (from Frozen) – Give credit to couple Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez for giving the evening’s most entertaining speech, in rhyme, no less.  Oh, and props to Robert Lopez, specifically, for now being a member of the so-called EGOT club, that is, as a winner of  an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony.  His Emmys are  for the The Wonder Pets while his Tony awards are for both Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon; his Grammy is for the latter’s cast album.

I have to say that I’m a huge fan of “Let It Go,” especially the Idina Menzel version that appears in the film (rather than the Demi Lovato version that plays during the credits).  I think the song works as powerful character development for Menzel’s Elsa, but it’s also insanely catchy and works on its own terms as ear candy as well. And I’m fascinated that so many little girls have taken it to heart the way they have.  I enjoyed Menzel’s live rendition even though it was a wee bit shaky at times. Still, she cranked it up for a rousing finish–I mean, the song just builds and builds and builds. By the end, it’s like a wipeout and a rebirth.  Was that a standing ovation I saw? Meanwhile, a pox on John Travolta for butchering Menzel’s name as he introduced her. John, you only had one thing to do in your brief time onstage. What’s up with that? Thank goodness, Ellen knew how to go back on stage and set everyone right by correctly saying, “Idina Menzel.” While we’re at it, how about a shout out to some of the other musical highlights: Pink, all decked out in a glittery ruby dress, singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” during the Wizard of Oz tribute (again, to me a shaky start, but a rousing, expectation defying finish), Pharrell Williams working his own brand of showbiz magic during the performance of “Happy” from Despicable Me 2; Bette Midler, sublime, singing her evergreen hit “The Wind Beneath My Wings,” and Karen O singing the thoughtful “Moon Song” from Her. 

Best Documentary Feature: 20 Feet from Stardom – Wow! What a concept! Michael and I so enjoyed watching this documentary about the highs and lows of being a female backup singer (back in the 1960s and 70s mostly) in a male dominated field. Many of these women, such as Darlene Love and Merry Clayton, sing because music informs who they are, but they don’t always get the big breaks for one reason or another, or maybe they do get their breaks, but they lack the killer business instinct it takes to succeed as a “brand.”  Normally, the winners in this category don’t often work as entertainment; they tend to be weightier and/or more hard hitting, but what is hard hitting or weighty anyway? After all, 20 Feet from Stardom makes a strong point about gender, class, and color. I’m sure for the women involved,  as they revisit the stories of their lives, the movie is very hard hitting. Wow, what a thrill, and then to see and hear Darlene Love–without the assist of Autotune–onstage with the rest of the winning team makes all of it even better. A definite high point.

Some of the other highlights include:

Best Original Screenplay: Her by Spike Jonze

Best Costume Design: Catherine Martin (Great Gatsby) & Best Production Design: Catherine Martin and Beverly Dunn (The Great Gatsby)

Best Foreign Language Film: The Great Beauty (Italy)

So, the final tally looks like this:

• Gravity –  7 Oscars;
• 12 Years a Slave – 3 Oscars, including Best Picture
• Dallas Buyers Club – 3 Oscars
• Frozen – 2 Oscars
• The Great Gatsby – 2 Oscars;
• Blue Jasmine – 1
• Her – 1
• 20 Feet from Stardom – 1
• The Great Beauty – 1

That will have to do for now. I’ll get back to the fashions later in the week as I did last year.

Thanks for your consideration…

 

Oscar Dossier 2013/2014

Here, better late than never is my annual Oscar Dossier, number thirtysomething in a series as I’ve been doing this a long, long time–well before the popularity of the Internet. Honestly, I didn’t think it would happen this year. I’ve been distracted by a major family emergency, so some of my life’s little pleasures, such as rhapsodizing over Uncle Oscar, have been put on the back burner. Seriously, this thing has impacted every aspected of my life though things are looking much better now; however, I saw some pretty dark days beginning in early January and continuing through most of this month. Still, I spent as much time working on this extravaganza as possible. I even got sidetracked by the deaths of Philip Seymour Hoffman and Maximilian Schell, but I persevered; however, I decided not to write about the passing of either Shirley Temple or Harold Ramis in order to stay focused on this particular task. Rest assured, I’m a big fan of both and plan to honor them in some way soon. Oh, and you know what else I let go? A tribute to Steve Martin, the winner of the Academy’s lifetime achievement award (presented in the fall).  For now, here’s what I offer…I’ll be tinkering with this including revising and checking facts between now and Friday, still two days ahead of Oscar time.

KEY: ASC (American Society of Cinematographers); BFCA (Broadcast Film Critics Association); DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics); DGA (Directors Guild of America); GG (Golden Globe); LAFC (Los Angeles Film Critics); NBR (National Board of Review); NSFC (National Society of Film Critics); NYFC (New York Film Critics); OFCS (Online Film Critics Society); PGA (Producers Guild of America); SAG (Screen Actors Guild); WFCC (Women’s Film Critics Circle), WGA (Writers Guild of America); USC (Friends of the University of Southern California Scripter Award)

BEST PICTURE

Well, here we are. Per Entertainment Weekly, that initial rush of enthusiasm for American Hustle has waned, and we’re back to a two-horse race between PGA co-winners 12 Years a Slave and Gravity. My guess after much soul searching is that in spite of all the lavish acclaim and worldwide success of Gravity, the Academy will let its success speak for itself and bestow the most coveted trophy on 12 Years a Slave, and that makes sense to me. Oh, I’ll be equally happy with either choice, but I think 12 Years a Slave wins because it’s the more historically significant of the two films. In other words, not to take away from the thrills of Gravity, 12 Years a Slave tells a story that still needs to be told and does so quite powerfully. On the other hand, an informal sample in EW indicates Gravity has a slight edge with voters; however, at the recent British Academy Awards, 12 Years won Best Film while Gravity actually won more awards, including Best British Film, that is, the best film actually made in Britain. Confusing, right? Perplexing, yes?

American Hustle – NYFC, GG for Comedy, and SAG Award for Best Ensemble | PGA nom | Writer-director David O. Russell turns the Abscam scandal that rocked Congress in the late 1970s and early 1980s into a caper film with plenty of twists and turns (not unlike 1973’s Best Picture winner The Sting). Even so, the movie plays fast and loose with the facts and begins with a curt disclaimer, allowing only that “some” of what follows is actually true. What the movie is really about is a celebration of 70s excess with heavy emphasis on wigs and Halston and Bob Mackie inspired fashions. Still, American Hustle showcases some of today’s hottest stars: Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Jeremy Renner.  Fun stuff, but is it a winner? American Hustle has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.

Captain Phillips  –  PGA nom and GG nom for Best Motion Picture Drama| This fact based story about the 2009 hijacking of a cargo ship by Somalian pirates–and the American captain held hostage during the standoff–has been a competitor for much of the awards season, and that includes nominations from the Producers Guild of America, the Directors Guild (for Paul Greengrass), the British Academy, the Golden Globes, and Screen Actors Guild nominations for star Tom Hanks and newcomer Barkhad Abdi; however, it seems the campaign has stalled, what with the high profile omissions of both Greengrass and Hanks in their respective Oscar categories. Beyond that, there’s the matter of reports that the movie sacrifices the importance of other crew members in order to play up Phillips and his star incarnation. Captain Phillips has been nominated for 6 Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Dallas Buyers Club   – PGA nom and SAG nom for Best Ensemble | The head-to-toe transformations of actors Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto are not the only shocking things on tap in Dallas Buyers Club. What’s shocking is the way that the Food and Drug Administration was slow to approve medications, other than problematic AZT, to help treat AIDS patients during the 1980s and early 1990s as dramatized in this nominated film. Shocking is also the way to describe the lengths McConaughey’s Ron Woodroof had to go to in order to obtain such medications and bring them into the country illicitly. Woodroof’s “club” (in which participants bought memberships in order to zip through a legal loophole so as to avoid buying illegal drugs) was not unique, but Woodruff was certainly a unique individual, and his club was reportedly better  and more elaborately organized than similar outfits that dotted the country during the same period. Dallas Buyers Club is not likely to win in this race as its director is not also in the running; however, the fact that the movie is actually in the running says a lot about its staying power since skeptics were initially too eager to write it off as simply a vehicle to bolster its leading actor’s credibility. Dallas Buyers Club has been nominated for 6 Academy Awards, including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Original Screenplay.

Gravity  –  DFW, LAFCA [TIE], PGA [TIE] | GG nom for Best Motion Picture Drama|  The fall’s runaway smash hit, about a pair of astronauts hurtling through space after debris from an exploded satellite destroys their space station,  is also a critics’ and industry favorite based on a spate of awards that includes a tie for top honors from the Producers Guild of America, director Alfonso Cuarón’s Directors Guild prize, and Emmanuel Lubezki’s ASC victory.  Believe me,  if you haven’t see it, please be aware that Cuarón pulls out all the bells and whistles to create a technological tour-de-force–in 3-D for those so inclined; 2-D for the less, um, easily swayed (such as myself). The naysayers complain that the movie is big on effects and short on substance. I’ll admit that it’s not necessarily profound, in the same sense as, say, 12 Years a Slave, but it still works as excellent story-telling, again, for those so inclined to exercise a little patience and ferret out some of the deeper meaning. Gravity has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Actress, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects.

Her  –  LAFCA [TIE], NBR | PGA nom and GG nom for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy | Spike Jonze’s first film since his overblown 2009 adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are features the always watchable Joaquin Phoenix as a man–specializing in writing on-demand personalized correspondence–who falls in love with this operating system, voiced with aplomb by Scarlett Johansson. This futuristic tale boasts impressive design elements and occasional wit, but it errs by being too earnest and philosophical when it should be dark and biting. Plus, it’s not so original though it appears Jonze is on track to cop an Oscar for his–“original”–screenplay. We’ve already seen similar episodes in everything from Ovid’s “Pygmalion and Galatea” to Lars and the Real Girl, and, heck, even 1988’s Mannequin if you really want to go there. Her’s chances are hurt in this category because Jonze failed to make the cut for the Best Director award. Plus, despite loads of acclaim well in advance of its national release in January, it’s been a hard sell with the American public, grossing a mere 23 million since it opened for awards consideration back in December. Her has been nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay and Best Production Design.

Nebraska  – GG nom for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy| Alexander Payne’s black and white road movie concerns an elderly man desperate to claim what he believes are sweepstakes winnings, or somesuch, worth one million dollars. Payne’s view on  modern life in the heartland is unflinching, and his trademark dark humour doesn’t always add lighten the proceedings. Still, after sojourns to California’s wine country in Sideways and Hawaii in The Descendants, this is a return for the Omaha native whose early films, Citizen Ruth and Election, explored the darker side of life in his home state as a microcosm of America at large. Nebraska has been nominated for 6 Academy Awards, including Best Actor, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Screenplay.
Philomena  – WFCC | Based on a shocking true story, Philomena stars the great Judi Dench as a plucky Irish woman tormented by the past and determined to find out what happened to the son she was forced to give away while a young unwed mom in the years right after World War II. Philomena‘s inclusion in the Best Picture race is a nice touch, but its odds of winning are slim. Philomena has been nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.
12 Years a Slave BFCA , OFCS, PGA [TIE] – | SAG nom for Best Ensemble | This the  incredible true story of Solomon Northrup, a  19th century free man of color (with a wife and children) living in New York , who was tricked, drugged, and sold into slavery. Transported to Louisiana, he endured multiple humiliations but never gave up, and eventually he was freed and reunited with his family.  He published his story the year after his release.  This is no doubt one of the most painful accounts of slavery ever committed to film, and while Northrup’s ordeal is no more humiliating nor dehumanizing than those of people actually born into slavery or sold into slavery as children, it is a potent history lesson that, among other things,  pounds home the message that freedom is something most of us take for granted, and the film serves as a reminder that all humans need to be treated with dignity and respect. That’s a lot for one movie, but this one delivers. 12 Years a Slave has been nominated for 9 Academy Awards, including Best Actor, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The Wolf of Wall Street  –  PGA and GG noms | I’m at the end of the alphabet here, and I’m all out of words. I honestly don’t know where to begin with this one. It’s from ever-celebrated director Martin Scorsese, and it’s based on the true story of  Jordan Belfort a former stockbroker convicted of fraud in the 1990s.  Of course, Scorsese has legions of die-hard fans, and good for him. On the other hand, this film has tested the patience of many. I freely admit that I’m not a Scorsese fan, and I take each film on  a case-by-case basis. The trailer for this one was a huge turn-off for me, so I skipped it. Even so, I do know that some critics have carped that Scorsese’s take on a known crook–not to mention his high rolling, indulgent lifestyle–is a tad too  kind, leaving viewers scratching their heads; meanwhile, the movie also has the distinction of setting a record for most uses of the “f-word” in one film: reportedly 506 times in 108 minutes, yet even with Scorsese’s nod as a possible boost, this one seems to have already faded as a viable contender. The Wolf of Wall Street has been nominated for 5 Academy Awards, including Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor.

BEST ACTRESS:

Blanchett, schmanchett, I’m on board with Team Bullock. Of course, I recognize Blanchett’s incredible skill, but I never warmed to Blue Jasmine. On the other hand, I’m in awe of Bullock in Gravity because for the life of me, I can’t fathom how she found it within her to give such a gripping performance. I think, judging by Bullock’s three People’s Choice awards, that America wants to see Bullock with a second Oscar, but Blanchett is clearly the darling of the season and not likely to stumble this late in the game; however. she might lose a few votes in light of a media smear campaign against Blue Jasmine writer-director Woody Allen, regarding continued allegations that he molested daughter Dylan Farrow more than 20 years ago, a claim Allen has long denied and for whom charges were dismissed due to lack of evidence.

Amy Adams (American Hustle)  – BFCA and GG for Comedy | SAG nom| –  This is Amy Adams’s fifth nomination, and her first as a leading actress. Previously she was in the running for supporting performances in Junebug (2005), Doubt (2008), The Fighter (2010), and The Master (2012). In her first few high profile roles, Adams portrayed sweet, naive women, and that includes her starring turn as a fairytale princess in Disney’s Enchanted; however, lately Adams has found success with darker material. In American Hustle, she plays a sexy con-artist with a British accent and a heart of steel. The Academy likes to reward performers for taking chances, and apparently everyone in Hollywood is in awe of Adams. Plus, she’s the only one in this bunch who doesn’t already have an Oscar. She also earns bonus points for appearing in two Best Picture nominees in one year, the other being Her.
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine) – BFCA, DFW, LAFC [TIE], NSFC, NYFC, OFCS, GG for Drama, and SAG| Blanchett won Best Supporting Actress for impersonating–that’s the most appropriate word–screen legend Katharine Hepburn in her dewy youth in Martin Scorsese’s 2004 Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator. It was Blanchett’s second nomination after dazzling audiences and critics alike in 1998’s Elizabeth. During the 2007/08 Oscar race, she scored double nominations for playing England’s Queen Elizabeth I for a second time in Elizabeth: The Golden Age AND for portraying iconic folk-singer Bob Dylan of all people in I’m Not There. She also snagged a supporting actress nod for 2006’s Notes on a Scandal (more or less opposite fellow nominee Judi Dench).  She’s been the frontrunner in this category for most of the season thanks to a striking performance in a gem of a role, that of a once fabulously affluent Manhattanite whose world comes crashing down around her once her wheeler-dealer husband is arrested for fraudulent business deals. There’s no doubt that this is the kind of full-tilt movie star role that the Academy has long favored. There’s also no doubt that writer-director Woody Allen owes more than a smidge to Tennessee Willams’s Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. Blue Jasmine is an update, and it’s very good for what it is, but it’s also too transparently mechanical for my tastes, and that keeps me at arms length. Interesting fact: Blanchett and fellow Blue Jasmine star Sally Hawkins are the 12th and 13th nominated performances by actresses in Woody Allen films (along with 5 additional nominations for actors in leading and supporting roles); if Blanchett wins she’ll join a winners circle that includes Diane Keaton (Annie Hall, 1977), Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite, 1995), Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, 2008), and Dianne Wiest, a double victor for Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Bullets Over Broadway (1994).
Sandra Bullock (Gravity)  – BFCA for Action | GG and SAG noms| This is Bullock’s second Oscar nomination. She won for her first nominated effort, 2009’s fact-based The Blind Side–like Gravity a huge box-office hit. Though Bullock has not dominated this year’s awards season, she copped multiple honors at the People’s Choice awards, no surprise that. This likable actress has enormous audience appeal, and it’s that quality that director Alfonso Cuarón celebrates in Gravity as Bullock portrays an astronaut seemingly lost in space. I honestly don’t think the movie would work with anyone other than Bullock in the lead role.
Judi Dench (Philomena) – WFCC | Golden Globe and SAG noms| I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest Judi Dench fan. Indeed, I sometimes snicker and refer to her as Judi Stench, but when she’s good–as in Philomena and even 2012’s  lavish James Bond opus Skyfall–she’s great. Plus, you’ve got to hand it to this British theatrical giant: she’s earned seven Oscar nods in the past 16 years, including a win for a pivotal (supporting) turn as Queen Elizabeth I in 1998’s Shakespeare in Love. Dench’s multiple Academy nominations are even more impressive given her age. She was over 60 when she secured her place as a finalist for 1997’s Mrs. Brown (in which she played Queen Victoria). Few actresses over 50, even 40, work with as much regularity as Dench, let alone in award caliber projects.  With the exception of 2000’s supporting role in 2000’s Chocolat, Dench’s remaining  Oscar nominations are all for Best Actress: Iris (2001), Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005), and Notes on a Scandal (2006); she’s particularly good as a manipulative school teacher in the latter. If you haven’t yet seen it, put it on your list. Working in her favor this year is the the fact that hers is a true story, a gut wrenching one at that (always a plus), and the fact she stars in a Best Picture nominee though Adams and Bullock claim that distinction as well.
Meryl Streep (August: Osage County) | SAG and GG noms| Streep keeps breaking her own records. This is her 18th nomination–her 15th  in this category–and her hold on the title of Oscar’s most nominated performer will likely hold for some time. Katharine Hepburn, the second most nominated actress, clocks-in with 12 nods while Jack Nicholson weighs in with a dozen noms as the most situated male performer.  On the other hand, even with three Oscars, two for Best Actress (Sophie’s Choice, 1982, and The Iron Lady, 2011) and one for Best Supporting Actress (Kramer vs Kramer, 1979), Streep still lags a wee bit behind Kate Hepburn’s record breaking four wins for Best Actress. And that is not likely to change this year. Despite the well-pedigreed material–actor/playwright Tracy Letts’ Tony and Pulitzer winning play–Streep’s film performed well enough when it first opened though it has also stalled in the past few weeks, and, at least to me, it’s telling that Letts wasn’t even nominated for adapting his own work. Still, Streep, ever the professional, delivers during the story’s “big” moments though the overall effect is still on the stagey side (and sometimes, her makeup, designed to show her in the throes of cancer, is a little too obviously just that: makeup).

BEST ACTOR:

Ejiofor or McConaughey? McConaughey or Ejifor? They’re both amazing, but each voter may only choose one or the other. Not both. If I were voting today, I’d go with McConaughey. (Tomorrow, who knows?) I’ll be frank. One of my reasons for leaning toward McConaughey as a personal pick–and remember, everyone’s reasons are different and entirely subjective–is because he’s a Texan, like me. Plus, he gives a stellar performance that demonstrates the full scope of his talent. On the other hand, Ejiofor’s Solomon Northrup is worlds removed from his Kinky Boots character, thereby showcasing his incredible range as well, so, again, who knows how voters will decide. One thing working against McConaughey is his lackluster acceptance speech at the Golden Globes. He reportedly admitted later that he didn’t realize his speech was somehow an “audition.” Oh, but it is, Matty.  He was a little more polished at the SAG awards.  My advice is for McConaughey to go back and rewatch Tom Hanks’s incredibly moving speech from 20 years ago when he won for playing an AIDS patient in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, if voters are too torn, they could go the sentimental route and honor Dern. Still, I want to clarify that even though I’m pulling for McConaughey, at least for today, I won’t be the least bit disappointed if Ejiofor wins.

Christian Bale (American Hustle) – GG nom for Comedy | Christian Bale’s much heralded gift for metamorphosis is all over the place in American Hustle. Whereas in director David O. Russell’s The Fighter (2010), Bale displayed a dramatic weight loss in order to convincingly portray a real-life drug addict–and won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as a result–in Russell’s newest the now 40 year-old former child star shows plenty of extra poundage and a ridiculous comb-over as a slimy, middle-aged con- artist with marital issues and a girlfriend on the side. For all the praise Bale has earned over the years–no, decades–he has not generated as much buzz this season as have Dern, Ejiofor, and McConaughey though he (Bale) was among the honorees for the SAG’s Best Ensemble prize, and he was nominated for a Golden Globe.  Here’s an amusing tidbit.  Fifteen or so years ago, Bale was lauded as the prime candidate to play the lead in the big screen adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s controversial best seller, American Psycho; however, in the wake of Titanic‘s  astronomical grosses, studio personnel were eager to court newly minted superstar Leonardo DiCaprio for the project. The decision to replace Bale with DiCaprio sparked an outrage while also leading from one complication to the next. In the end, DiCaprio bailed, so to speak, and Christian was back on board–in one of his most iconic performances. Today, of course, Bale and DiCaprio are competing against each other for an Oscar. Let the grudge match begin. (Additionally, Best Supporting Actress frontrunner Jared Leto also appeared in American Psycho.)
Bruce Dern (Nebraska)  – LAFCA, NBR | SAG and GG noms| This is Dern’s second nomination. His first came over thirty years ago–Best Supporting Actor for 1978’s Coming Home, in the role of Jane Fonda’s Vietnam vet husband: gung-ho for the war at the beginning of the film, miserably unstable upon return. He won the Best Actor prize last May for Nebraska, in which he plays an ornery codger, a former mechanic who has sacrificed too many years to drink, who sets out on a road trip with his son, bound and determined to claim what Dern’s Woody believes is a million dollar jackpot. I’m not a fan of the word “quirky,” but that’s what Alexander Payne’s black and white film is. A slice of faded Americana in the new millenium, true enough, but quirky nonetheless. Dern’s performance is a bit understated compared to say either Ejiofor’s or McConaughey’s, and  his character doesn’t really change from the beginning of the film to its end, but the Academy loves a sweet comeback, and Dern may very well be just in time. Plus, speaking of quirky and sentimental, please remember that back in the 74/75 race, no less than seasoned veteran Art Carney won an Oscar for playing a much older man on a road trip in Paul Mazursky’s Harry and Tonto, outpacing the likes of Dustin Hoffman (Lenny), Jack Nicholson (Chinatown), and Al Pacino (Godfather II)–all of them higher profile candidates in Best Picture contenders.
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)   BFCA (Comedy), GG (Comedy)  | Wow! Can you believe it’s been exactly 20, yes, 20 years since DiCaprio earned his first Oscar nod? He was a barely known teen at the time, breaking into the big leagues as the mentally challenged younger brother of Johnny Depp’s Gilbert in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, filmed on location in Texas. DiCaprio was a revelation in a film that, while more a critical than commercial hit at the time, has endured as a classic. Of course, one reason that Gilbert Grape was rediscovered probably had something to do with the gi-normous success of 1997’s Titanic which found DiCaprio and Kate Winslet playing star-crossed lovers.  These days, DiCaprio is about as in-demand as any actor in Hollywood, and his resume includes additional Oscar nominations for 2004’s The Aviator (as Howard Hughes)  and Blood Diamonds (2006). He’s been busy lately what with The Wolf of Wall Street and last spring’s splashy 3-D adaptation of The Great Gatsby. One line of thought regarding this year’s race is that the Academy really, really wants to reward DiCaprio at long last (and as producer, this is a dream project for him), while another school of thought is that the film is too divisive with the naysayers harrumphing that director Martin Scorsese, despite his statements to the press, is too dazzled by his morally bankrupt lead character, and that makes some audiences uncomfortable. It’s easier to root for other characters in other films. On the other hand, the fact is that regardless of the controversy, DiCaprio’s peers nominated him for Best Actor, and he’s very much in the race.
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)  OFCS, WFCC | SAG and GG noms| London born Ejiofor has been shining in a wide range of roles  for more than a decade with such highlights as Kinky Boots, in which he played a drag queen on a mission. His performance signaled a wave of accolades, including Golden Globe and British Independent Film Awards nominations (for Comedy) as well as a nod from the London Film Critics. Prior to that, besides multiple stage roles abroad, he appeared in Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda (a rare feat for a leading Black actor), as well as Inside Man, Children of Men, and Salt.  Now, he’s garnering more praise than ever, and approaching frontrunner status, for playing Solomon Northrup, a real-life 19th century American and free man of color who was kidnapped and sold into slavery, as the title of Ejifor’s nominated film confirms. Since I began writing this profile, he has claimed Best Actor honors from the British Academy, a reminder that among his other skills, he knows his way around an American accent.
Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club) – BFCA, DFW,  GG for Drama, and SAG | The Texas native made the leap from attention nabbing supporting player, in such films as Dazed and Confused (1993) and Boys on the Side (1995), to full-fledged stardom when he scored the leading role in Joel Schumacher’s 1996 adaptation of John Grisham’s A Time to Kill.  A year later, he appeared in such high profile films as Contact and Amistad.  That early promise was somehow subverted by a string of mostly silly and/or forgettable films, mostly romantic comedies. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but what seemed fresh and fun in the popular How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days co-starring Kate Hudson seemed worn-out by the time he reteamed with Hudson for Fool’s Gold. Over the past two years (or so), McConaughey has been busy reinventing himself, as both a leading and a supporting player, in such varied films as The Lincoln Lawyer, Killer Joe, Magic Mike, Bernie, The Paperboy, Mud, and even The Wolf of Wall Street. Dallas Buyers Club may very well his most challenging role yet,  though the true story of a Dallas man who helped bring experimental drugs to HIV patients, including himself,  plays a little fast and loose with the facts. Still, the movie’s Best Picture nomination proves that it has legs, and McConaughey’s recent triumphs, such as his SAG award, show that–contrary to early reports–the role offers more than a gimmicky physical transformation. In other words, there’s a huge emotional arc as well.

BEST DIRECTOR

Alfonso Cuarón is the big winner so far, but a 12 Years a Slave sweep could swing things in Steve McQueen’s favor, which would be historic. What’s keeping Cuarón at the forefront of this race is that his film is such a testament to his vision, his technical expertise, and his perseverance. It is in many ways, a singular achievement, and that seems to be the prevailing thought though, again, McQueen provides the Academy a chance to make history, and his film demonstrates his skill with actors as does David O. Russell’s American Hustle.

Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity) – BFCA, DFW, LAFCA, GG, and DGA | With Gravity, Cuarón puts his money and technical know-how where his vision is and creates a cinematic marvel.  This is his first nomination in this category though he has been nominated in the past for co-writing Y tu mamá también and for co-writing and co-editing 2006’s Children of Men. This year, he’s a triple threat with nominations for producing, directing and editing.
Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) – NYFC | DGA nom|  British born McQueen–no relation to America’s matinee idol of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, is only the third black director ever nominated in this category, after John Singleton (2001’s Boyz n the Hood–also the youngest, at 24, to be nominated in this category) and Lee Daniels (2009’s Precious). Perhaps the telling difference between McQueen and the other two is that McQueen’s film is actually a Best Picture frontrunner, and that could make all the difference. Oh, and McQueen’s film boasts three acting nods, another plus.
Alexander Payne (Nebraska)  On the upside, Payne has been down this road twice: for 2004’s Sideways, and for 2011’s The Descendants; however, he’s the only director in this bunch who wasn’t also nominated for the recent DGA prize.
David O. Russell (American Hustle)  – DGA Nom | Will the third time be the charm for Russell? He was first nominated in this category for 2010’s The Fighter, and then he was back in the thick of it for 2012’s Silver Linings Playbook. Ironically, given his once highly reported on-set rows with high profile actors, Russell is now highly regarded as an actor’s director. Not only has he guided three actors (Christian Bale, Jennifer Lawrence, and Melissa Leo) to Oscar winning status, he’s accomplished the singular feat of directing two films in a row with nominations in all four acting categories. To clarify: only fifteen films can claim such distinction though none of them have featured four winners. Still, if actors/actresses–the Academy’s largest voting bloc–unite, Russell could pull ahead of critics’ darlings Cuarón and McQueen; however, even Rob Marshall, the DGA winner for 2002’s Chicago, ended up an also-ran 11 years ago even though his film was the Best Picture frontrunner (and did in fact take the top award), and even though Chicago boasted four acting nominations in three categories.
Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street) –  DGA Nom | After years of unsuccessful bids, Scorsese finally hit the jackpot with 2006’s The Departed. Prior to that victory, he’d been nominated in this category for Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Gangs of New York (2002), and The Aviator (2004). He was infamously snubbed for 1976’s Taxi Driver even though the film was in the running for Best Picture. More recently, he was back in the game for 2011’s–to me, underwhelming–Hugo.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Lupita Nyong’o delivers the goods in one of the year’s most powerful films. She’s a Yale grad, and she’s quickly become a red carpet sensation thanks to her exquisite style. What more do you want? Done.

Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)  – GG nom | If Blue Jasmine is an update on Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire (and it clearly is), then Hawkins’s Ginger is also clearly playing Stella to Cate Blanchett’s Blanche. (Blanchett’s Blanche. Ha!) It’s actually a thankless role because it’s obvious that writer-director Woody Allen is more excited by the title character and has only a limited understanding of women in Ginger’s socioeconomic class. In other words, Allen condescends to Ginger, and Hawkins has the unenviable task of making it work.  Fortunately, Hawkins is a resourceful actress. Her nomination is well earned and, perhaps, almost overdue. She’s been, or has almost been, down this road in the past with acclaimed performances in Happy-Go-Lucky and Made in Dagenham.
Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle) –  NSFC, NYFC, GG |SAG nom| Lawrence won the first prize of the season and went on to claim a Golden Globe as well, but in spite of her enormous charisma,  it’s quite a stretch to think that this popular actress could claim back-to-back Oscars before turning 24. Sure, the Academy is all about attracting younger members–and younger viewership–but back-to-back Oscars are rarities. Of course, Lawrence’s first Oscar, for 2012’s Silver Linings Playbook, was actually for Best Actress–another reason why it would be odd for her to reign as a supporting player at this point. She’s a star, after all. Her role in American Hustle, that of a comically needy wife seemingly incapable of NOT creating havoc wherever she goes and whenever she speaks, is a nice change of pace given the conscientious roles she plays in such enterprises as Winter’s Bone (her first Oscar nomination) and The Hunger Games franchise–and maybe even her award winning turn as a young emotionally fractured widow in Silver Linings Playbook.
Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) – BFCA, DFW,  LAFCA, OFCS, and SAG | GG nom | Per the IMDb, Ms. Nyong’o was born in Mexico, raised in Kenya, and attended college in the U.S.–including studying acting at Yale University. 12 Years a Slave is her movie debut though not her first professional gig as she previously appeared in MTV’s apparently controversial Shuga. Her brutally broken Patsy (in 12 Years) may very well be the most compelling, most heartbreaking character of the year, and Nyong’o just throws herself full-force into the devastation. On the other hand, some Oscar forecasters believe that Nyong’o is perhaps earning too much acclaim due to the assumption that audiences are responding to the plight of the character rather than the actual performance, meaning the award should go to an actress who had to do “more” with “less” (such as Hawkins).  I believe that it is indeed possible for voters and viewers alike to be  manipulated, for lack of a better word, in such a way, but I also think that audiences wouldn’t be responding the way they do to this character if they didn’t feel the connection to Patsy right from the start, and Nyong’o defintiely deserves credit for that. She faces considerable competition, most likely from Squibb, possibly Lawrence, but her SAG win is telling.
Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)   – GG and SAG noms | Seems hard to believe, but it’s been a whopping 13 years since Roberts triumphed in the Best Actress category for her straight-up performance as real-life colorful crackerjack legal investigator Erin Brockovich. Maybe I’m the only one who thinks time has raced by in the years since then. Roberts didn’t disappear in the role. Rather, she used her staggering movie star appeal to create a singular achievement that left audiences and Academy members cheering. It was her third nomination and first win after early triumphs in Steel Magnolias (Best Supporting Actress, 1989) and Pretty Woman (Best Actress, 1990). In August: Osage County, she plays the oldest of three sisters dealing with a helluva-cantakerous matriarch (the formidable Streep). Roberts’ Barbara is the one sister who’s unafraid to stand up to her mom even when it hurts, and Roberts attacks the part with gusto. For my money, she’s easily the best thing in the whole disappointing mess, but as was the case with Erin Brockovich, she’s still very much Julia Roberts too. What does that mean? She’s a gifted actress, but her star wattage blazes brighter than her talent. In other words, she’s no chameleon, but she’s the very best possible Julia Roberts that we have.  I can’t imagine her winning for this odd little curio, but I’m glad to see she’s got her game back after years of working rather selectively, though she had her moments in Mirror, Mirror, and I enjoyed watching her in Eat  Pray  Love.
June Squibb (Nebraska)  GG and SAG noms | Hard to believe, perhaps, but this tiny octogenarian, who looks like a run-of-the-mill dotty old lady, worked for decades in theatre before she started making films, including a stint as Electra in the original Broadway run of Gypsy. In movies, she frequently portrays stock characters, but in Nebraska, she has a role of consequence as the much beleagured wife of Bruce Dern’s Woody. For decades, it’s been her duty to try to reign in her wild card of a husband and though Squibb’s Kate might look and sound like a nag, it becomes clear over the course of the movie that she has a deep abiding love for Woody, a point made abundantly clear in a zealously delivered speech late in the film. This is the stuff of which Oscars are made, and I’m fine with that, but as good as Squibb is, her character lacks the staggering arc that Nyong’o embodies in 12 Years a Slave. Furthermore, this is a category, unlike Best Supporting Actor,  in which newer talent is often–though not always–rewarded over sentimental favorites. Just ask Lauren Bacall (The Mirror has Two Faces, 1996), Gloria Stuart (Titanic, 1997), and Ruby Dee (American Gangster, 2007).

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Being declared the frontrunner–in any category–almost from the moment a given film is released can be a burden as the awards season progresses. By the final stretch, voters grow weary of seeing the same face at various and sundry events. Plus, the cynics begin crawling out of the woodwork. In Leto’s case, he’s been singled out by some, but by no means all, LGBT activists of exhibiting heteronormative privilege and/or insensitivity during some of his acceptance speeches and promotional appearances on behalf of Dallas Buyers Club as if he is somehow incapable of empathy and unworthy of even playing such a challenging role, let alone being honored for doing so. Telling the opposition to simply “get over it” seems insensitive. Maybe the best thing is to remind one and all that Leto is only being honored for being an actor, and may the best man win.

Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)  GG and SAG noms | This 25 year old Somali native makes his film debut as the chief pirate in the fact-based Captain Phillips. Per the IMDb, Abdi moved to the U.S. with his family when he was fourteen years old. He was living in Minnesota when cast in the film. He attended college at Minnesota State and had apparently never entertained any notion about acting professionally when he showed up at an open casting call. The rest is history. His isn’t exactly a Cinderella story, however, as he has reportedly had multiple run-ins with the law. Of course, studio personnel are working overtime to downplay all that because it disrupts their narrative. Abdi is not the frontrunner in this category, but I liken his chances to that of the late Dr. Haing S. Ngor, a transplanted Cambodian who achieved cinematic immortality, and an Oscar, after being cast as Dith Pran in 1984’s The Killing Fields. If Oscar voters feel inclined to send a message and break the steady hold that Jared Leto has in this category, thereby adding an element of surprise to what appears to be an open and shut case, Abdi stands to gain the most.
Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)  – GG noms | Bradley Cooper earned his first nomination just last year for starring in director David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook. I think it’s great that Russell and Cooper have such rapport–and that Russell is steadily amassing a crackerjack repertory company (including Bales, Lawrence, and Adams), but Cooper’s role, as a federal agent who teams up with known con-artists to put the sting on corrupt politicians, is hardly supporting. He’s one of three co-leads, and that’s all there is to it. Still, the actor deserves props for letting down his guard long enough to play someone who often looks foolish whether that means sporting a ’70s era curly home-perm or being a romantic sap.
Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave) –  OFCS | GG and SAG noms |  This German born, London based, actor has been a star on the rise for a few years, beginning, say, with his portrayal of IRA member Bobby Sands in director Steve McQueen’s Hunger (which recreates Sands’s fatal  1981 hunger strike while he was imprisoned); from there, he appeared in the likes of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds and Ridley Scott’s Prometheus (a prequel to the director’s classic Alien). In 2011, he was all over the place, appearing in Jane Campion’s adaptation of Jane Eyre, yet another X-Men blockbuster, David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method (as Carl Jung), and, most notoriously, Steve McQueen’s Shame, in which he dazzled many critics as a sex-addict. He was reportedly well-positioned to earn his first Oscar nod for the latter, but that didn’t happen. Now, he and McQueen–obviously a potent partnership–are both nominated for 12 Years a Slave.  Fassbender goes all out in his nominated performance–some might say, “over-the-top”–as he tries (valiantly?) to humanize a sadistic slave owner, the point apparently being that the character is so consumed with conflict–due to his sexual attraction to a favored female slave–that he spirals out of control. No offense, Michael, but as fascinating as you are to watch, I think you’re still playing a conceit, a thoroughly contemporary , and misguidedly romantic one at that–as though he wandered in from a different movie. (What I get is that we’re supposed to see Fassbender’s character as yet another victim of the institution, and I think that’s an easy trap). I  can see the appeal to other actors however, because Fassbender’s approach seems all Method-y and obvious. (I’d be prepared eat my words, however, if someone could show me that the character is presented in similar terms in Northrup’s original text.)
Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street)  Jonah Hill’s nod proves that his first nomination for 2011’s Moneyball was no fluke. At the time, Hill worked hard to rehabilitate his image–as a slobby frat boy-type–including a well-publicized weight-loss. Hill showed that he knew how to play the game. Since then, he’s gained back the weight, but his career has not suffered. Even so, he must be considered the longshot here as he was not included among the nominees for either the Golden Globe or the SAG award. On the other hand, the fact that he is nominated here, in spite of being overlooked earlier in the season, indicates that support could be stronger than originally estimated.
Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)  BFCA, DFW, LAFCA [TIE], NYFC,  GG, and SAG | This 42 year old actor is currently in the midst of one of the most stunning comebacks in recent showbiz memory. The Louisiana native was in his twenties when he catapulted to teen-dream status in the short-lived if cultishly renowned  TV series My So-Called Life starring 15 year old Claire Danes.  After the show was cancelled, Leto tried to hard to reinvent himself in such high profile projects as Prefontaine, as 1970s track sensation Steven Prefontaine (later eclipsed by Billy Crudup in Without Limits) before segueing to  The Thin Red Line, American Psycho (starring Christian Bales), Requiem for a Dream, and Panic Room.  Sure he worked, but he wasn’t a star. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but when the offers became fewer and fewer, he retreated and pursued a career in music instead–and that seemed to be that. Now that he’s seemingly on the cusp of winning an Oscar, it will be interesting to see what he does next–and when that might be.

The cast of American Hustle (l-r): Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Jennifer Lawrence. Between them, they boast two Oscars and a total of 14 nominations.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

Woody Allen (Blue Jasmine)
Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack (Dallas Buyers Club)
Spike Jonze (Her)
Bob Nelson (Nebraska)
David O. Russell and Eric Singer (American Hustle)

Relatively slim pickings if you ask me. Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I have serious issues with Woody Allen’s  Blue Jasmine. To me, it’s too nakedly a rip-off of Tennessee Williams’s  A Streetcar Named Desire to be wholly original. What’s funny, even to me, is that I wasn’t similarly outraged when Allen was nominated for 2005’s Match Point even though it was clearly inspired by A Place in the Sun (itself adapted from Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy). The difference between then and now is that in Match Point, Allen cleverly aped the inspirational source, setting the audience up for one expectation, before deconstructing it and spinning it in an all-new direction. Not so with Blue Jasmine. Whatever. It’s not Allen’s year. No matter. He’s not a fan of the Academy. Plus, he’s already won three Oscars in this category (Annie Hall, 1977; Hannah and Her Sisters, 1986, and Midnight in Paris, 2011), and he holds the record for most nominations in this category as well: 16 total. Spike Jonze, who boasts a previous Best Director nod for 1999’s Being John Malkovich, has won some of the season’s high profile awards, but Her might not be a significant enough achievement despite the hoopla. On the other hand, the time may very well be ripe to honor David O. Russell, who was nominated for adapting Silver Linings Playbook last year, and is also in the race for Best Director. Plus, those who like his movie are nuts for it. If I were voting, I’d probably go with Dallas Buyers Club because it’s the one movie in the bunch that actually surprised me–even if it is based in a true story; however, after careful consideration, I must confess that my true favorites aren’t even nominated:  Gravity by Alfonso Cuarón, and In a World by Lake Bell.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

Screenwriter John Ridley recently triumphed at the annual Scripter Awards, sponsored by the Friends of the USC Library; it’s just one of Ridley’s many honors this season. His other credits include Red Tails, The Wanda Sykes Show, the Barbershop TV series, Three Kings, and even The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He’s also credited as an executive producer on 12 Years a Slave though he’s not on the final Best Picture ballot due to technicalities.

Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope (Philomena)
Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater (Before Midnight)
Billy Ray (Captain Phillips)
John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)
Terence Winter (The Wolf of Wall Street
)

As Steve Coogan is also one of the producers and stars of Philomena, I can easily imagine him being honored as a so-called triple threat. I also think that Richard Linklater and his collaborators are an upset waiting to happen based on their unique history: they first collaborated on 1995’s Before Sunrise and have followed that offering with two more entries in the ongoing, and critically acclaimed, saga of the characters portrayed by Delpy and Hawke. The second feature, 2004’s Before Sunset also scored a screenwriting nod, and I think they’re well-positioned to hit the jackpot, but, of course, they’ll have to get past 12 Years a Slave, which has already claimed two of the biggest prizes: the WGA and the Scriptor, awarded by the Friends of the USC Library to writers of book-to-film adaptations.

Last year, Ang Lee’s 3-D epic Life of Pi emerged as the Academy’s most honored film though it failed to claim the top prize. Instead, Lee’s project dominated the technical categories, claiming awards for Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, and Best Score, oh, and Best Director, of course. This year, history will likely repeat itself with one film heavily favored to make an impressive showing regardless of how it fares in the major categories, and that film, of course, is Gravity. Once upon a time, the surest route to a Best Cinematography Oscar was via a lavish spectacle with plenty of awe-inspiring landscape footage: Days of Heaven (1978), Dances with Wolves (1990), A River Runs Through It (1992), Legends of the Fall (1994), and There Will Be Blood (2007) easily fit the bill; however, the biz is changing, and the last few Best Cinematography winners show increasing digital sophistication such that Inception (2010), Hugo (2011), and the aforementioned Life of Pi won for both their cinematography as well as their visual effects–the latter pair, like Gravity, also shot in 3-D. That bodes well for Gravity though too much of a good thing might signal the need for change. Plus, I think many of us have given up hope that we’ll ever see cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki win an Oscar. This is his sixth nomination, and it seemed like he was as good as gold the last time he competed–with 2011’s The Tree of Life, but he lost to Robert Richardson, as noted, of Hugo fame. Still, Lubezki has already been honored by his peers in the American Society of Cinematographers though that was also the case in 2011; however, more recently, Gravity did indeed claim Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound (among others) at the British Academy Awards.

It almost seems too easy to think that designer Catherine Martin would win Oscars in two categories for her work in last spring’s lavish adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, especially since costumer Theoni V. Aldredge won an Oscar for the 1974 adaptation, starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. Will the Academy really revisit the same property even with a bigger budget? Right now, that’s the way it looks; after all, Martin won a pair of Oscars for her costume and production design on 2001’s Moulin Rouge, so we know she’s a designer with a proven track record. Plus, she already won awards in one or both categories at the British Academy awards and a variety of other bashes. Interestingly, if she wins for her work as the film’s art director/production designer, she’ll share honors with Beverly Dunn. On the other hand, despite a well-documented collaboration with Miuccia Prada on the film’s wardrobe, Martin’s is the sole name representing Gatsby on the final ballot. Oh, and did I mention that, as was the case with Moulin Rouge, she’s married to Gatsby’s director, Baz Luhrmann. Meanwhile, the Gatsby nayasyers are rallying behind first time Oscar nominee Michael Wilkinson for his American Hustle costumes. On the other hand, I’m not getting a sense of 12 Years a Slave Here. It’s possible that a sweep could develop and take everything, including Best Costume and Best  Art Direction with it.

Would you believe me if I were to tell you that Frozen, clearly inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” (by way of Broadway’s Oz-esque Wicked), may very well be on its way to becoming the first Disney film to win Best Animated Feature Film? How so? Well, the first winner in this category, Shrek, was from DreamWorks, and Japanese master animator Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away was next though, true enough, it was distributed in the states by Disney without being of Disney. Beginning with 2003’s Finding Nemo, the folks at Pixar collaborated with the Disney bigwigs for series of winners that include The Incredibles (2004), Wall-E, Up, and even 2012’s Brave; however, Frozen is a pure Disney in-house production, so, yes, if it wins, it will be a first for the studio. At this point, there’s no reason to think that this blockbuster–380 mill and counting (about a hundred mil more than Brave)–will not reign supreme. And not just because of all that money. Not only has the movie been well-reviewed, but it’s a touched a nerve with audiences (obviously), especially pre-teen girls who simply cannot get enough. Not only did Frozen clean up at the recent Annie awards, it made another kind of history by being the second such winner (after Shrek) to be directed, or co-directed, by a woman. In this case, Jennifer Lee.  Still, Lee and her team face ample competition in the form of The Croods and The Wind Rises, the swansong of the aforementioned Miyazaki. The other nominees are Despicable Me 2 (I skipped it, but I loved the first one) and the French import Ernest and  Celestine. Still, if Frozen loses, it will be one of the major upsets of the evening.

Besides the Best Animated Feature award, Frozen is also heavily favored to snag the Best Song trophy thanks to the insanely catchy “Let It Go” by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, robustly performed within the film by Wicked Tony winner Idina Menzel (and on a smash pop single by Demi Lovato). Not only is “Let It Go,” an inescapable Girl Power anthem, replete with dozens upon dozens of YouTube cover versions, I’m sure it’s also a big hit with drag queens and future beauty pageant contestants; after all the film version features a complete hair and costume change. Of course, it’s not the only song in the game, and some voters might be sick of “Let it Go” by now.  Rock gods U2 won the Golden Globe for their contribution to Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, and Pharrell Williams, of “Happy” (from Despicable Me 2) is also incredibly buzzworthy right now thanks to his recent Grammy awards for producing Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” (along with nods for collaborating with Robin Thicke on “Blurred Lines”).  On the other hand, there’s probably little or no chance for “The Moon Song,” which was actually composed by Her‘s writer-director Spike Jonze.

Thanks for your consideration…

Maximilian Schell: Man of Many Gifts

Austrian born Maximilan Schell was a mere 31 years old when he won the 1961/62 Best Actor Oscar for his impassioned performance in Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg. At the time, per the Academy’s database, Schell was the second youngest Best Actor winner, behind Marlon Brando in 1954’s On the Waterfront. This many years later, he’s still considered the fourth youngest with Adrien Brody (The Pianist) and Richard Dreyfuss (The Goodbye Girl) in the top two slots.

I watch the morning news, both local and national editions, every weekday–frequently on Saturdays as well, often on Sundays too. Strange then, that I neither saw nor read anything about the passing of Oscar winner Maximilian Schell until I flipped through the latest issue of People. Apparently, Schell died in Austria, his birthplace, last Saturday, February 1, at the age of 83. Of course, we all know how the death of another Oscar winner, Philip Seymour Hoffman, attracted scads of media attention–and scrutiny–over the past week (guilty as charged on my end), and Schell’s death somehow got lost in the shuffle.

Anyway, here’s what I know about Schell. I’ve long been a fan even though I have NOT seen more of his movies than I have seen, but I have some clear faves, and I’m familiar with some of his more high-profile offerings.

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961): In a film headlined by such established actors as Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, and Richard Widmark (not to mention Montogimery Clift in a supporting role), Schell, a relative newcomer to American films, walked away with top honors, including the year’s Best Actor Oscar along with a Golden Globe and accolades from the New York Film Critics Circle. Not only did Schell  (lower left) triumph over co-star Tracy (upper right) in the Oscar race, he also trumped Paul Newman in The Hustler and Charles Boyer in Fanny.  (The fifth nominee was Stuart Whitman in the barely remembered The Mark.) Interestingly, Schell portrayed the same character, Hans Rolfe, in a televised version of the same story in 1959. The twist in the scenario, if there is one, is that Schell actually portrays the defense lawyer, the man arguing on behalf of  someone on trial for war crimes. Even if viewers don’t buy Rolfe’s argument that blame has been cast too easily on a few individuals, while ignoring the larger picture and perhaps the bigger crime, Schell packs a wallop in his “big” moments.

Topkapi (1964): In this delightful caper, Schell (center) shared the screen with Melina Mercouri (r) and Peter Ustinov (l), who won his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar. This is a movie that Michael and I frequently watch late, late, at night. Glamorous locales, intricately plotted, plenty of suspense, a “mod” flourish or two, and more than a few laughs. Never disappoints. If you’ve never seen it, you might be surprised at how much Brian De Palma borrowed from Topkapi in the first Mission Impossible big screen adventure back in ’96, specifically the scene in which Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt uses an elaborate harness to penetrate a high level security office–a scene recently parodied in Progressive Insurance commercials featuring actress Stephanie Courtney as ever solicitous Flo. Just know that director Jules Dassin and crew did it first in Topkapi.

The Pedestrian: Schell wrote and directed this 1973 Oscar nominated German film which also looked back at at the war and war criminals. Schell appeared in the movie as well. I’m pretty sure that seeing Schell being interviewed about The Pedestrian on one talk show or another is my oldest memory  of him outside knowing he’d won an Oscar for Judgement at Nuremberg. If I had ever seen him in a film prior to that, it escaped me at that time. Okay, back to The Pedestrian. The Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film that year went to François Truffaut’s Day for Night; however, back in Germany, The Pedestrian scored at the German Film Awards, taking not only Best Picture but also Best Actor (Gustav Rudolph Sellner). Schell also directed international sensation Dominique Sanda in 1970’s Young Love, a Swiss offering which also competed at the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

The Man in the Glass Booth (1975): Schell, in heavy old-age makeup, earned his second Best Actor nomination for the American Film Theatre adaptation of Robert Shaw’s play (perhaps inspired by the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann). Though director Arthur Hiller’s treatment is a bit stagey, and Shaw asked to have his name removed from the credits, the movie serves as a powerful showcase for Schell’s tremendous talent as he navigates the difficult arc of a wealthy industrialist crumbling under the weight of cruel, conflicting identities. Detractors no doubt find it loud and/or hammy, but for me it’s simply mesmerizing. Jack Nicholson bested Schell for the Oscar, but he was in good company with also-ran Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon.

Julia (1977): Schell (r) earned his third and final Oscar nomination for performance–as Best Supporting Actor–for his brief role (practically a cameo) as the enigmatic Mr. Johann in an adaptation of one passage in Lillian Hellman’s memoirs Pentimento, starring Jane Fonda (l) and Best Supporting Actress winner Vanessa Redgrave. I’ll be frank. I was a senior in high school the year this movie competed in the Oscar race, and while most of my classmates were clearly rooting for all things Star Wars, and that means Alec Guiness as Obi Wan Kenobi, I was pulling for Schell, subtle but significant in a role full of intrigue. Interestingly, he lost to no less than Jason Robards (aka Jason Robards Jr.) as Hellman’s mentor and sometime lover Dashiel Hammet in the same film. Robards made history as the first back-to-back winner in the category, following his triumph as Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee in 1976’s All the President’s Men.

Marlene: Never content to rest on his laurels, Schell once again ventured behind the camera to create this Oscar nominated documentary about silver screen legend Marlene Dietrich. Simply, Dietrich was in her 80s at the time, and she agreed to cooperate on the condition that Schell not film her directly. To that end, audio of Schell’s interview with the aging, and quite temperamental, star is played against footage of her best work.  My memory, from seeing a clip on one of the early morning news shows, is Dietrich getting testy when pressed by Schell to explain why she considers The Devil is a Woman the greatest film ever made. I believe her response is something to the effect of “It is because I say it is.” That’s my memory. Thanks, Max.

The Freshman (1990): No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. That’s Marlon Brando on the left, parodying his Oscar winning role as The Godfather’s Don Corleone in Andrew Bergman’s 1990 romp. The movie stars Matthew Broderick (not pictured) as a fresh-faced college student who falls in with a suspicious crowd, including Schell (r) as an alternately sinister and loopy chef, as soon as he hits the Big Apple in order to attend NYU. The Freshman was one of my favorite movies from 1990 though it was not a huge hit. On the other hand, we did well enough with it back at the old UA during the same summer in which we also played Ghost and Total Recall. Those who are less than enthused with the Freshman (no connection to Harold Llyod’s 1925 offering) complain that it’s silly and derivative, but most of the jokes hit, and the derivative stuff is harmless (and even makes sense in context). To me, it’s tremendously sweet and clever, and the cast is top-notch:  Brando, Broderick, Schell, Bruno Kirby, Penelope Ann Miller, B.D. Wong, Paul Benedict, Frank Whaley, and Bert Parks (as himself). Indeed, The Freshman was actually nominated for a Casting Society of America award. Make it a double-feature with Topkapi and enjoy!

Schell’s many other credits include The Young Lions (1958), which first teamed him with both Marlon Brando and Montogmery Clift, The Odessa File (with Jon Voight–and still on my bucket list), Sam Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron (1977), Richard Attenborough’s A Bridge Too Far (1977), The Chosen (1980) and Disney’s extravagant 1979 Christmas offering, The Black Hole. One of his last films was 2008’s quirky–and that’s really the best word–The Brothers Bloom starring Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo.

He appeared in many high profile TV productions, earning Emmy nominations for Stalin (as a supporting player to star Robert Duvall), and Miss Rose White. He also portrayed no less than Peter the Great in a 1986 mini-series. He enjoyed a six episode run on the acclaimed Wiseguy and starred in a 1959 adaptation of Hamlet.

Schell’s death is not as shocking as the passing of Philip Seymour Hoffman a week ago, but I feel the void nonetheless. I don’t know whether Schell ever truly became a household name in spite of decades of exciting work, but I certainly know that he dedicated most of his life to honing his craft, creating meaningful work (often succeeding), and exploring a wide variety of opportunities. A life well-lived, Mr. Schell.

Thanks for your consideration…

Schell at the Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001703/

Academy Awards Database: http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/BasicSearchInput.jsp