YARDS OF GRAPEVINE | Movies, TV, Oscars & S'more

Those Oscar Missed: Best Supporting Actress

Posted on January 11, 2013 by filmscorehunter

CONTRIBUTED BY JAKE THOMPSON

Best Supporting Actress has sometimes produced some surprise winners, but it has grown mostly predictable for the last decade. What strikes me is how quickly the winners of the last decade have been largely forgotten (with the exception of Cate Blanchett, Penelope Cruz, and Tilda Swinton). How many people even remember that Jennifer Hudson won nearly six years ago for Dreamgirls (I was against this because most of her performance was singing, not acting)? Or Mo’Nique about three years ago for Precious (I was against this because I felt that Paula Patton, who wasn’t even nominated, gave the better supporting performance)? What’s Renee Zellweger been doing for the last few years? It’s saddening when an Oscar win is not used to gain bigger or better roles. It’s even more saddening when some truly excellent supporting performances get ignored or go unnoticed. But now, let us highlight those major snubs.

One major snub is Anne Baxter for 1950’s All About Eve. She gave what is now a legendary performance as Eve Harrington, a fan of Margo Channing who gets to meet the famous Broadway actress. She gets hired as Margo’s assistant and meticulously puts her plan to replace Margo as a new star into motion. Baxter is quite devilish as her Eve manipulates, blackmails, and tries to seduce her way to the top. It’s too bad she wasn’t nominated, but that’s because she lobbied and pushed for a Best Actress nod instead (which she got along with Bette Davis, but it only destroyed Davis’ chances of winning). Baxter later regretted pushing for Best Actress instead of Supporting Actress. Baxter is a two-time nominee (1 Best Actress nod for 1950’s All About Eve, 1 Supporting Actress win for 1947’s The Razor’s Edge).

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Posted in Best Supporting Actress, Oscar Talk | Tagged A.I. Artificial Intelligence, All About Eve, american Gangster, Anne Baxter, Annie Hall, best actress, best supporting actress, Bette Davis, Cate Blanchett, Damage, Diane Keaton, Dreamgirls, Frances O'Connor, Jennifer Hudson, Kirstie Alley, Knocked Up, Leslie Mann, Marvin's Room, Miranda Richardson, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Penelope Cruz, Precious, Rachel Getting Married, Reds, Renee Zellweger, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ruby Dee, Sandra Bernhard, Sleepy Hollow, Something's Gotta Give, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Family Stone, The King of Comedy, The Razor's Edge, tilda swinton, Tom and Viv | 3 Comments

Those Oscar Missed: Best Original Screenplay

Posted on January 10, 2013 by filmscorehunter

CONTRIBUTED BY JAKE THOMPSON

Best Original Screenplay refers to a screenplay in which the material is not based on another medium. Even if the screenplay is about someone or something that was real, it would still count as an original screenplay as long as it wasn’t based or inspired by any published or soon-to-be published materials. There have been less and less original screenplays being produced in the last decade by Hollywood, especially for blockbusters (Christopher Nolan’s 2010 film Inception being a shining example, but even that didn’t get made until 2008’s The Dark Knight proved to be a huge hit). Original screenplays don’t get as much recognition as they should, and even when they do, there are still other original screenplays that go unrecognized. The Academy has been guilty of this, especially just recently with last year’s Oscars (2011’s Win Win and 50/50 were absent from the Original Screenplay nominees). Unfortunately, the major snubs in this category go much farther than that.

One major snub is 1976’s Taxi Driver. Written by Paul Schrader, the script was inspired by the diaries of Arthur Bremer (the man who shot George Wallace in 1972) as well as Schrader himself (Schrader had been lonely for a period of time after a divorce and a break-up, living in his car). A lonely taxi driver named Travis Bickle tries to cope with insomnia and becomes infatuated with a woman named Betsy. When the relationship fails, Travis (who’s also fed up with the crime and prostitution he sees daily) resolves to assassinate a presidential candidate and rescue an underage prostitute. Schrader’s script was so powerful that it helped launch his directing career. It’s such a shame that he wasn’t nominated for his work here, for he has yet to receive a single Oscar nod.

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Posted in Oscar Talk | Tagged (500) Days of Summer, 50/50, Arthur Bremer, Best Original Screenplay, Christopher Nolan, Danny Rubin, David O. Russell, George Wallace, Groundhog Day, Harold Ramis, Hickey and Boggs, Hollywood, I Heart Huckabees, Inception, Jeff Baena, Michael H. Weber, Moon, Paul D. Zimmerman, Paul Schrader, Scott Neustadter, Taxi Driver, The Dark Knight, The Fighter, The King of Comedy, Win Win | 3 Comments

2013 Oscar Nominations

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Zac Petrillo

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Bradley Cooper in “Silver Linings Playbook”
Daniel Day-Lewis in “Lincoln”
Hugh Jackman in “Les Misérables”
Joaquin Phoenix in “The Master”
Denzel Washington in “Flight”

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Alan Arkin in “Argo”
Robert De Niro in “Silver Linings Playbook”
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “The Master”
Tommy Lee Jones in “Lincoln”
Christoph Waltz in “Django Unchained”

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Posted in Movies, Oscar Talk | Tagged Academy Awards, Amour, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Films, Haneke, Lincoln, Movies, oscars, Spielberg, Zero Dark Thirty | Leave a comment

FINAL 2013 OSCAR NOMINATION PREDICTIONS

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Zac Petrillo

While this has been a particularly unpredictable Oscar season, now that the dust has all but settled on the nominations, a good amount of “locks” have surfaced in all categories. What makes this year more fun than most is the open nature of the winners in virtually every category. But before we get there, I’ve put together a list of what I see as the most likely nominees. Perhaps the most fun come Thursday’s announcement will be to see if the Academy goes for such bubble films as The Master, Moonrise Kingdom, Skyfall, and Beasts of the Southern Wild. How far they go on these will likely speak to the overall diversity of nominations in general. I see this year having a fairly even spread with the leading nominations-getter (Lincoln) pulling in 11, followed by 8 from Zero Dark Thirty, and then an even countdown from there.

Argo has been on the rise lately. I would not be surprised to see it pop up in more categories than many people expect. I have a sneaking suspicion it might appear in Cinematography and even Production Design. Likewise, Les Miz seems to have a strong contingent of supporters that will pull it in for the major category and many of the tech categories too. I’m not ready to commit it to Actor, Director, Editing or Screenplay but I wouldn’t be shocked if it landed in any of those. Silver Linings Playbook has the potential to emerge in multiple Acting categories and many of the tech-ish categories like Editing. It’s liked, if not loved, by many in Hollywood. I think it’s a sleeper for numerous categories. However, the DGA snub hurts.

The Master’s support has been dwindling since it bowed in September. While it would be a complete travesty for it to be shutout of the Acting races, I wouldn’t be enitrely knocked over if it happens. Skyfall has the potential to break up the Oscars. With the 50th Anniversary tribute already in place and the buzz for “action” movies building towards an inevitable Oscar nomination in recent years, Sam Mendes’ film could be something of bracket buster. I’ve come to expect the Oscars to do the most conservative thing possible, so I still suspect Skyfall will get left out. But time will tell…

So now then:

Best Picture:
Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Argo
Silver Linings Playbook
Les Misérables
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Moonrise Kingdom
Life of Pi
Django Unchained
Alt: Amour or Skyfall

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Posted in Amour, Anna Karenina, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Documentary, Films, Movies, Oscar Talk, Uncategorized, Zero Dark Thirty | Tagged 2012, Academy Awards, Amour, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, best picture, cinema, Django Unchained, film, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Moonrise Kingdom, Movies, oscars, picks, predictions, Silver Linings Playbook, Skyfall, Zero Dark Thirty | 2 Comments

Those Oscar Missed: Best Adapted Screenplay

Posted on January 8, 2013 by filmscorehunter

CONTRIBUTED BY JAKE THOMPSON

Best Adapted Screenplay refers to a screenplay on which the material is based on another medium (examples being short stories, novels, plays, comic books, TV shows, video games, short films, newspaper articles, or even previous films). In the last decade in particular, Hollywood has been churning out more and more films based on existing properties (largely in part due to an already established name brand). These adaptations have been mostly hit or miss; for every great adaptation (Hugo), there is an extremely poor one (any Twilight film). Although a lot of terrific adapted screenplays have been nominated in the past, there have been some major snubs that the Academy has missed out on.

One major snub is 1950’s In A Lonely Place. Written by Andrew Solt (and an uncredited Nicholas Ray) from an adaptation by Edmund H. North and based on the novel by Dorothy B. Hughes, the script focuses on Dixon Steele, a Hollywood screenwriter with a volatile temper who’s accused of murdering a young woman. A pretty new neighbor provides him with an alibi, and Steele enters a complicated relationship with her soon after. The script is tight, and the strong dialogue is enhanced by the performances of Gloria Grahame and especially Humphrey Bogart. The script is faithful to the source material, but with the exception of a few changes (particularly the ending). It’s such a shame that Solt wasn’t nominated for his work here, for he had never received an Oscar nomination.

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Posted in Oscar Talk | Tagged 12 Monkeys, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Al Capone, Andrew Solt, Barry Lyndon, Batman Begins, Best Adapted Screenplay, Bob Kane, Christopher Nolan, David Mamet, David S. Goyer, Diane Johnson, Dorothy B. Hughes, Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Edmund H. North, Eliot Ness, Franz Seitz, Full Metal Jacket, Gloria Grahame, Gunter Grass, Happy Anniversary, hugo, Humphrey Bogart, In A Lonely Place, Inception, Jean-Claude Carriere, Jeph Loeb, Jonathan Nolan, Memento, Nicholas Ray, Oscar Farley, Point Blank, Stanley Kubrick, Stephen King, That Obscure Object of Desire, The Dark Knight, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Long Halloween, The Shining, The Tin Drum, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Untouchables, The Verdict, Twilight, Volker Schlondorff, Wag the Dog, Watchmen | 4 Comments

Those Oscar Missed: Best Documentary Feature

Posted on January 7, 2013 by filmscorehunter

CONTRIBUTED BY JAKE THOMPSON

Best Documentary Feature can be an excellent showcase for documentaries that should not be missed. I admit that I don’t get to see as many as I would like to, but when I do get to see a documentary on the big screen, it’s always a rewarding experience. Strangely, the docs I do get to see are rarely nominated for the Oscar (Werner Herzog’s Encounters At the End of the World and Charles H. Ferguson’s Inside Job are the only docs I’ve seen in the last five years that actually got nominated). Even this past year (2012, a year in which I saw a personal record-breaking 11 documentary features), it turns out that I’ve only seen two of the shortlisted documentaries for the Oscar (Five Broken Cameras and Bully). There have been some major snubs for this award in the past (and some of the most famous documentaries ever weren’t even nominated). Let’s check out these major snubs.

One major snub is 1975’s Grey Gardens, is a documentary feature directed by Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer, and Albert and David Maysles. It depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive socialites, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale (the aunt of first cousin of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis). Both women lived at Grey Gardens, a decrepit mansion at 3 West End Road in the wealthy Georgia Pond neighborhood of East Hampton, NY. It’s such a shame that Hovde, Meyer, and the Maysles brothers weren’t nominated for their work here. The Maysles brothers are one-time nominees (1 Documentary Short Subject nod for 1974’s Christo’s Valley Curtain). Hovde and Meyer have never been nominated.

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Posted in Documentary, Oscar Talk | Tagged Albert Maysles, Arthur Agee, Best Documentary Feature, Best Film Editing, best picture, Bill Maher, Bowling For Columbine, Bully, Charles H. Ferguson, Christo's Valley Curtain, David Maysles, Edith Beale, Ellen Hovde, Encounters At the End of the World, Errol Morris, Fahrenheit 911, Five Broken Cameras, George W. Bush, Grey Gardens, Grizzly Man, Hoop Dreams, Inside Job, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Koyaanisqatsi, Larry Charles, Michael Moore, Muffie Meyer, Randall Dale Adams, Religulous, Sicko, steve james, The Central Park Five, The Fog of War, the Maysles brothers, The Thin Blue Line, werner herzog, William Gates | 1 Comment

My Favorite Films of 2012

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Zac Petrillo

I don’t pretend to know what the best film of 2012 actually was (as though these things can be defined) and I’m not sure I even know that I had a favorite. This has been a peculiar year filled with interesting films. Even the standard Hollywood fair presented some wonderful journeys (Lincoln and Skyfall being standouts). That said, few films emerged as “instant classics” the way they have in other years. The 20 films below make up roughly 20% of the movies I saw, so it’s hard for me to believe there aren’t better ones out there. But these are the ones I found most compelling.

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Posted in Films, Movies, News, Top Movis 2012, Uncategorized | Tagged Amour, Arbitrage, Bernie, Blood of my Blood, cinema, cosmopolis, Films, Holy Motors, How to Survive a Plague, Killer Joe, Killing Them Softly, Les Miserables, Lincoln, Looper, Middle of Nowhere, Moonrise Kingdom, Movies, Prometheus, Reality, Rust & Bone, Skyfall, The Central Park Five, The Color Wheel, The Master, The Paperboy, This is Not a Film, Top Films 2012 | 8 Comments

Those Oscar Missed: Best Documentary (Short Subject)

Posted on January 4, 2013 by filmscorehunter

CONTRIBUTED BY JAKE THOMPSON

Best Documentary (Short Subject) is one of the few Oscar categories that home viewers would probably not be very familiar with. As with the other two short film categories, I was originally not going to include them in my journey through major Oscar snubs (mostly because trying to determine which shorts actually qualified as MAJOR snubs would take weeks, months, perhaps even a year of research). I’ve decided, however, to present contenders for the short film categories that were NOT nominated for an Oscar, but could’ve (perhaps should’ve) been. I’m doing this to be fair to the short films and so that I will have covered every current Oscar category. Some of the shorts might be familiar to you; some might not be. Please take a look at these possible contenders.

1951’s Day of the Fight is a black-and-white documentary short directed by Stanley Kubrick. It follows middleweight boxer Walter Cartier on the day of his fight with middleweight Bobby James (April 17, 1950). He’s shown going to mass, eating lunch at his favorite restaurant, and then preparing for the fight. The fight itself is shown afterwards. It’s such a shame that Kubrick wasn’t nominated for his work here. Kubrick is a 13-time nominee (4 Adapted Screenplay nods for 1964’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 1971’s A Clockwork Orange, 1975’s Barry Lyndon, and 1987’s Full Metal Jacket, 1 Original Screenplay nod for 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, 4 Director nods for 1964’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1971’s A Clockwork Orange, and 1975’s Barry Lyndon, 3 Picture nods for 1964’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 1971’s A Clockwork Orange, and 1975’s Barry Lyndon, won Visual Effects for 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey).

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Posted in Documentary, Oscar Talk | Tagged 66 Scenes From America, Academy Awards, Alain Resnais, Best Documentary (Short Subject), Bobby James, Day of the Fight, Dock Ellis, Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No, Films, James Blagden, Jorgen Leth, La Soufriere, Movies, Night and Fog, Oscar Snubs, Stanley Kubrick, Walter Cartier, werner herzog | 1 Comment

A Bond Newbie’s Thoughts on 007: Live and Let Die

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Zac Petrillo

Short Take: A bizarre set of scenes stacked on top of one another coupled with a strangely cautious James Bond makes for a uniquely entertaining experience.

We all know the reputation of the Roger Moore Bond movies: somewhere between cartoonish, careless, cocaine-induced, and disposable. Maybe it was a bit of low expectations, but Live and Let Die, while not entirely memorable, ascended all of my preconceived notions and played as something altogether different (though not negatively so) from any other Bond’s I’ve seen. Cradled inside the oddity of tribal rituals and tarot card reading, Live and Let Die seems a product of its 70s pedigree of antiheroes and blaxplotation archetypes. While not entirely “artistic,” the film’s campy intentions and Tom Mankewicz’s (Herman’s nephew and Joseph’s son) reserved plot aspirations allow for clarity and easy-viewing that are appropriately enjoyable.

After three men are mysteriously murdered, James Bond is dispatched to New York to investigate a gangster by the name of Mr. Big. Bond’s presence is foreseen Mr. Big’s hired clairvoyant, a tarot card reader named Solitaire. Bond’s search leads him to crocodiles, a man with a claw as a hand, snake charmers, and Mr. Big’s true identity as Kananga, a drug lord planning to saturate American markets with Heroin. Before his plan takes shape, Bond must use Solitaire to take Kananga down.

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Posted in 007, Films, James Bond, Movies, Reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged 007, Blaxploitation, Bond 50, cinema, Daniel Craig, Films, James Bond, Jane Seymour, Live and Let Die, Movies, Pierce Brosnan, Reviews, Roger Moore, Solitaire, Tom Mankewicz | 1 Comment

Those Oscar Missed: Best Foreign Language Film

Posted on January 1, 2013 by filmscorehunter

CONTRIBUTED BY JAKE THOMPSON

Best Foreign Language Film has always been a little odd to me. It isn’t the quality of work that gets nominated that worries me, but it’s the politics that can sometimes prevent a certain film from being submitted by its native country in the first place. It’s hard to complain because so many exemplary foreign language films have been nominated over the years. I really wish that the director would also be a recipient for this category in addition to the submitting country, but I’ll just have to settle for hoping that this happens someday. There have been some surprising omissions in this category, and now I will translate into English those major snubs.

One major snub is 1957’s Wild Strawberries. Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, this film features Victor Sjostrom as a 78 year-old widowed physician who, while traveling from Stockholm to Lund to receive the degree of Doctor Jubilaris, begins to re-evaluate his life after experiencing nightmares and daydreams brought on by hitchhikers he meets along the way. This terrific film also features Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Bjornstrand, and Max Von Sydow. It’s such a shame that Bergman’s film wasn’t nominated here, but interestingly it did get an Original Screenplay nod at the 32^nd Academy Awards.

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Posted in Oscar Talk | Tagged 12, 2046, 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Academy Awards, Akira Kurosawa, Amores Perros, Angry Harvest, Beaufort, Best Foreign Language Film, Bibi Andersson, Colonel Redl, Cristian Mungiu, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Das Boot, Days of Being Wild, Divided We Fall, Everybody Famous!, Gomorrah, Gunnar Bjornstrand, In the Mood For Love, Ingmar Bergman, Ingrid Thulin, Jurgen Prochnow, Katyn, King Lear, Lothar-Gunther Buchheim, Maggie Cheung, Man of Iron, max von sydow, Mephisto, Mongol, Mori Motonari, Mother India, Muddy River, Nights of Cabiria, Nine Lives, Oscar Snubs, Pierrot Le Fou The Green Ham, Ran, Tatsuya Nakadai, The Boat Is Full, The Counterfeiters, The Devil Came At Night, The Gates of Paris, The Official Story, The Taste of Others, Three Brothers, Three Men and a Cradle, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Victor Sjostrom, When Father Was Away On Business, Wild Strawberries, Wolfgang Petersen, Won Kar-Wai | 3 Comments

YARDS OF GRAPEVINE | Movies, TV, Oscars & S'more

Those Oscar Missed: Best Supporting Actress

Those Oscar Missed: Best Original Screenplay

2013 Oscar Nominations

FINAL 2013 OSCAR NOMINATION PREDICTIONS

Those Oscar Missed: Best Adapted Screenplay

Those Oscar Missed: Best Documentary Feature

My Favorite Films of 2012

Those Oscar Missed: Best Documentary (Short Subject)

A Bond Newbie’s Thoughts on 007: Live and Let Die

Those Oscar Missed: Best Foreign Language Film

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