Best Pictures #33: 2016 (89th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee, La La Land

by A.J.

Best Pictures #33: 2016 (89^th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee
La La Land

La La Land is one of best reviewed, most lauded, and most loved movies of 2016. It has already won several awards and is very likely to win more. It received 14 Oscar nominations, tying the record set by All About Eve (1950), though All About Eve’s 14 nominations was done with fewer categories, which seems slightly more impressive. La La Land is the front runner to take home the Best Picture Oscar. Let’s get one thing straight: I like La La Land. I might even really like it, but I did not love it, at least not the way everyone else did. 

The plot is simple enough: Struggling jazz pianist Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) meets and falls for aspiring actress Mia (Emma Stone). Together they sing and dance through some of the loveliest scenes of Los Angeles on film. This is a side of L.A. not often seen movies. The center of American filmmaking is most often the setting of action and crime movies or it is meant to be a nonintrusive background. In La La Land, Los Angeles is stylized and romanticized. It is a city of purple sunsets, cool, blue nights, and hills and canyons and highways for song and dance numbers. I would not say that Los Angeles is a character because sets aren’t characters, but it is at the forefront of La La Land.

It’s no surprise that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone have good chemistry; this is their third movie together after all. Each does a fine job in their respective roles. They sing and dance well enough, though they sing and dance like nonprofessionals that have been taught specific, not too challenging choreography. Each has a signature song: Sebastian has the melancholy “City of Stars” and Mia’s “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” serves as the film’s climax. Both songs have been nominated for the Original Song Oscar.

La La Land takes place in a daydream world and writer-director Damien Chazelle seeks to transport the audience to this wonderful musical world. He succeeds, to a point. La La Land is meant to be a loving, enthusiastic tribute to the musicals of the 1950’s and 40’s. The misstep it makes is this: instead of taking inspiration from the great musicals of the past to create a new, fresh take, it simply lifts from and imitates those films instead. Action and science fiction are the genres most often criticized for being derivative, but musicals can be derivative too. There are numerous visual references to other musicals (enough for a side by side video comparison). Some are indirect: the bold, bright color pallet of costumes and sets is reminiscent of the musicals of Jacques Demy. Others are more direct: Gosling jumps up on a lamppost just like Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain. Unfortunately, since I’ve already seen most of the movies La La Land references (Jacques Demy’s Umbrellas of Cherourg, Young Girls of Rochefort; Fred Astaire musicals: Shall We Dance, The Band Wagon, Funny Face; and, most of all, Singin’ in the Rain, An American in Paris, and every other Gene Kelly musical), subtly and not so subtly, it comes off less as a tribute and more as a hollow imitation.

There’s a lot to like in La La Land. It’s a nice story about aspiring performers falling in love and trying to achieve their dreams. From the pink and purple sunsets to Stone’s bright, yellow dress, La La Land is filled with bold and vibrant solid colors that cannot help but catch the eye. The songs are pleasant and enjoyable, even if you don’t like jazz (and I don’t). Some of the musicals numbers are very visually appealing—I’m thinking of Sebastian and Mia’s dance at the observatory specifically—but others never open up to be as grand as I was expecting. The opening number plays like generic tableau of what someone that hasn’t seen a musical thinks a musical is like. I suppose I just can’t help but be reminded of the classic musicals with undeniably better performers and songs and wonder why I’m not just watching one of those again. I didn’t get the feeling of unabashed joy and love and wonder that I get whenever I watch Truffaut’s Day For Night, Gene Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain, or even Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous (all about performers in the entertainment business). But still, I enjoyed this movie.

Nominees: Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, Marc Platt, producers

Director: Damien Chazelle

Screenplay: Damien Chazelle

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend

Production Companies: Black Label Media, TIK Films Limited, Impostor Pictures, Gilbert Films, Marc Platt Productions

Distributor: Summit Entertainment

Release Date: December 9^th, 2016

Total Nominations: 14, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Director-Damien Chazelle, Screenplay-Damien Chazelle, Actor-Ryan Gosling, Actress-Emma Stone, Cinematography-Linus Sandgren, Editing-Tom Cross, Costume Design-Mary Zophres, Production Design- David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds-Wasco (set decoration), Sound Editing- Ai Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou, Sound Mixing- Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee, Steven Morrow, Original Score-Justin Hurwitz, Original Song-Audition (The Fools Who Dream): music by Justin Hurwitz, lyrics by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Original Song-City of Stars: music by Justin Hurwitz, lyrics by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul

Best Pictures #32: 2016 (89th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee, Moonlight

by A.J.

Best Pictures #32: 2016 (89^th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Moonlight

You could call Moonlight a black coming of age movie. You could also call it a gay coming of age movie. Both statements would be true, but they would greatly reduce the substance of Moonlight and underestimate what it has to offer. Moonlight is about as far from an afterschool special as you could get. It is glimpse at a life and a world not often dramatized, or usually not dramatized well, that moves past expected clichés with ease and becomes an affecting work of art.

Moonlight is a film in three chapters. Each has a different actor portray the main character, Chiron, at different but important times in his life. In the first chapter titled “Little,” Chiron is a young boy being chased by bullies calling him “f*ggot.” He finds refuge not at home with his mother, but, in an abandoned apartment. It is there he meets Juan, a kind and benevolent man that gives the shy, quiet boy a meal and becomes a mentor and father figure to Chiron. It may seem a paradox that Juan, who is a decent man, is also the neighborhood drug boss and sells drugs to Chiron’s mother, but Chiron’s world is a confusing world. Juan’s time with Chiron is brief but greatly affecting and memorable. So, is Mahershala Ali’s performance, for which he has received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting actor.

The other two chapters, “Chiron” and “Black” show us Chiron’s teenage and adult life. Big chunks of time during which major events occur in his life are skipped between chapters. Other movies would have focused on these skipped moments but director Barry Jenkins prefers to suggest rather than show. It’s the right choice for this film. Chiron is a withdrawn, quiet person and his story is one of slow, quiet realization.

I’ve read at least one review that has used the phrase “cinematic poetry” to describe Moonlight. I wouldn’t use that exact phrase, though there is something poetic about the title of play Moonlight is based on, “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue.” The cinematography by James Laxton and the score by Nicholas Britell, orchestral and haunting, are a perfect moody match and both have received Oscar nominations. Moonlight is certainly an art film, but it is gentle, unpretentious, and dreamlike experience.

Nominee: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Adele Romanski, producers

Director: Barry Jenkins

Screenplay: Barry Jenkins, story by Tarell Alvin McCraney, based the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell Alvin McCraney

Cast: Trevante Rhodes, Andre Holland, Mahershala Ali

Production Companies: A24, Plan B Entertainment, Pastel Productions

Distributor: A24

Release Date: October 21^st, 2016
Total Nominations: 8, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Director-Barry Jenkins, Adapted Screenplay- Barry Jenkins, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Supporting Actor-Mahershala Ali, Supporting Actress-Naomie Harris, Cinematography-James Laxton, Editing- Joi McMillon, Nat Sanders, Original Score-Nicholas Britell

Best Pictures #31: 2016 (89th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee, Manchester by the Sea

by A.J.

Best Pictures #31: 2016 (89^th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Manchester by the Sea

It’s not difficult to understand why Manchester by the Sea is a hard sell to casual moviegoers (even I had not planned on seeing this movie until it earned more and more awards recognition, including six Academy Award nominations). It is the story of a withdrawn and somber man, Lee (Casey Affleck), who has to go back to his home town after the death of his brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler), to look after his nephew, Patrick, and must deal with memories of a past tragedy. Some critics, in an effort to coax reluctant moviegoers to see what seems like a rather gloomy drama, have talked up Manchester by the Sea as being surprisingly funny. This is not untrue, but people shouldn’t go into this movie expecting a dark comedy. Any humor in Manchester by the Sea comes across as incidental, as though it slipped in by accident in spite of the heavy subject matter. Those comedic moments feel real and that is one area in which this movie excels. When Patrick, played by Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Lucas Hedges, tells his uncle that his girlfriend is going to spend the night, there is a long awkward pause before Lee responds with, “Am I supposed to tell you to use a condom?” Lee is not up for the role of legal guardian and he knows it.

Casey Affleck’s low key and incredible performance is the centerpiece of Manchester by the Sea and has made him the frontrunner for the Best Actor Oscar. Lee is a relatively silent character. He pushes down his emotions but never escapes them. Returning to his hometown of Manchester by the Sea is an unhappy prospect. Being named legal guardian of his nephew in his brother’s will is another unhappy prospect. It’s not that Lee doesn’t care about his nephew, flashbacks show that he has affection for Patrick and had no problem expressing it, but that was before Lee suffered the devastating tragedy that still looms over his every waking moment. None of the reviews I read for Manchester by the Sea state what that tragedy is, so I won’t either, but it becomes quite clear early on in the movie.

Writer-director Kenneth Lonergan has directed two other films (You Can Count on Me and Margaret), but his background is as a playwright. While Margaret was loaded with big emotions and big showy performances, everything about Manchester by the Sea feels subdued. The one notable exception is when we finally get the flashback of the tragedy in Lee’s past; the reveal is almost operatic (it’s worth noting that Margaret ended at an opera). As the film goes on and Lee spends more time back in Manchester, the film starts to feel episodic and starts to drag. It’s not that scenes go on for too long, there are just too many of them (the first scene I would cut is Lonergan’s extended cameo). Lonergan, who picked up Oscar nominations for Director and Original Screenplay, hasn’t given us a play written for the screen. Scenes are not limited to one or two sets, he really opens up the world of these characters making Manchester by the Sea (a town with an improbable name) feel like a real town populated by real people.

Manchester by the Sea’s premise is a simple one: at worst, it is fodder for a cheesy Hallmark Channel movie, at its best it is a portrait of a man dealing with grief and emotional pain on a day to day basis who slowly finds his footing again. Things don’t wrap up with a nice bow, but they end as best they could for these characters. It’s a satisfying conclusion to everything we’ve just seen. Yes, Manchester by the Sea deals with tragic events and a dour character, but if you’re looking for a film that will leave you feeling despondent and depressed you’ll have to find another movie.

Nominees: Lauren Beck, Matt Damon, Kimberly Steward, Chris Moore, Kevin J. Walsh, producers
Director: Kenneth Lonergan

Screenplay: Kenneth Lonergan

Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler

Production Companies: K Period Media, B Story, CMP, Pearl Street Films

Distributor: Roadside Attractions, Amazon Studios

Release Date: November 18^th, 2016

Total Nominations: 6, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Director-Kenneth Lonergan, Original Screenplay-Kenneth Lonergan, Actor-Casey Affleck, Supporting Actress-Michelle Williams, Supporting Actor-Lucas Hedges

Best Pictures #30: 2016 (89th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee, Fences

by A.J.

Best Pictures #30: 2016 (89^th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Fences

Fences has impressive credentials. It is based on the Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner play by August Wilson, adapted for the screen by Wilson himself before his death in 2005 (Though one potentially dubious internet source claims that Wilson’s adaptation was completed by Tony Kushner who received a producer credit instead of a writing credit). It stars Denzel Washington and Viola Davis who both won Tony Awards for their performances in a 2010 revival—the production itself won Best Revival—and it is directed by Washington himself. Now, Fences has earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and acting nominations for Washington and Davis. Viola Davis seems to be a lock for Supporting Actress, and Washington seems to have a good shot at snagging another Oscar.  

Set in a working class black neighborhood in mid-1950’s Pittsburgh, Fences is the story of an aging and bitter man, Troy Maxson (Washington), and his strained if not dysfunctional relationship with his sons and his wife, Rose (Viola Davis). To say that Troy thinks of himself as a working-class hero would be an understatement. Everything he does, whether at work or at home, is done out of sense of responsibility and obligation. Loving, or even liking, his own family doesn’t enter in to it; Troy puts a roof over their heads and food on the table because that is what he is supposed to do. Shouldn’t that be enough? Shouldn’t his teenage son, Cory, forego school sports and potential recruitment by a college to help Troy build a fence in return? Or perhaps Troy is afraid of seeing his own failed professional sports aspirations realized by his son? There is a lot to observe and ponder and it is no wonder that Fences is assigned reading for certain college classes.

I haven’t seen either of the films Denzel Washington has directed previously (2002's Antwone Fisher and 2007's The Great Debaters), but here his directorial style is simple and straightforward: let the performances carry the movie forward. This approach works, to a point. Fences, being based on a play, is dialogue heavy. There isn’t much fence building or baseball playing, though both are important to the story; they are more important as metaphors. What is important is the performances which are very good indeed. Troy is a complex but not very likable character—no doubt this is what was intended by Wilson—and Washington excellently plays him as such. He has a comfort and ease for the rhythm of Wilson’s dialogue. Conversations with Troy usually turn into monologues that his family and friends have heard before but tolerate. Viola Davis’s Rose is a mostly reactionary character, but only because there is no other way to be with a character like Troy. She is the one who patches things up with Troy’s sons and his mentally disabled brother, Gabe. Rose finally does get a big scene pouring out her feelings and frustrations which is delivered quite well by Davis.

I didn’t mind the heavyhandedness of the fence metaphor. Troy’s jovial and wiser than he lets on best friend, Bono, tells him that some people build fences to keep people out and some people build fences to keep people in. The film does not treat this as a revelation, but as a reminder to Troy that certain situations must be dealt with sooner rather than later.

As Fences spilled over two hours with scene after scene of shouting and yelling I grew listless. Even if you did not know that Fences is based on a play, it would not be difficult to make that guess. The characters feel confined to one or two locations. There are a few brief scenes at other locations but this film adaptation does not “open up” the play. This is inescapable in a play, but in a film without a distinct visual style or lively dialogue or performances it feels constricting. This is a film of big, serious performances and big, serious speeches but it doesn’t add up to much aside from being a showcase of top notch actors at the top of their game.

Nominee:  Todd Black, Scott Rudin, Denzel Washington

Director: Denzel Washington

Screenplay: August Wilson, based on his play

Cast: Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Stephen Henderson

Production Companies: Bron Creative, Macro Media, Scott Rudin Productions

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Release Date: December 16^th, 2016

Total Nominations: 4, including Best Picture
Other Nominations: Actor-Denzel Washington, Supporting Actress-Viola Davis, Adapted Screenplay-August Wilson

A.J.'s Top 10 Movies of 2016

by A.J.

January is the time to catch up on all the movies that were released at the very end of the last year to qualify for the Academy Awards. Now that it is February, I've (mostly) caught up. This year, the Academy nominated nine films for Best Picture of 2016, but there were 10 movies from last year that I found exceptionally entertaining.

10. Hell or High Water

Hell or High Water is a modern day western about a pair of bank robbers and the lawman pursuing them. This movie has great cinematography of the Texas plains, great performances, and a screenplay that divides our sympathies between both cops and robbers. It doesn’t reinvent or shake up the genre, but it doesn’t need to, it’s executed extremely well.

9. The Witch

Released in the first half of 2016, The Witch is the story of an isolated family living in colonial America being menaced by seemingly supernatural events. I recommended this film a lot during Shocktober at the video store and wrote about it for 13 Nights of Shocktober 2016.

8. Hunt for the Wilderpeople

In New Zealand, a delinquent young boy, Ricky, is sent to live with a kind woman named Bella, and her husband, Hec, a gruff, grumpy outdoorsman (played by Sam Neill). After Bella dies suddenly, Ricky is scheduled to go back into the state foster system, but he and Hec go on the run and live in the wilderness while evading the authorities. This is a wonderful, sweet, and charming movie with a broad, offbeat sense of humor. Written and directed by Taika Waititi, who co-wrote and directed the hilarious What We Do In the Shadows, it delivers a fun story that is heartwarming without being saccharine.

7. Zootopia

I wasn’t planning on seeing this Disney animated movie, but I’m very glad I did. Judy Hopps, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin, is the first rabbit to be accepted into the Zootopia police force, but she feels underused, stuck on menial traffic duties. She ends up teaming up with a fox conman (confox?) voiced by Jason Bateman to solve a missing persons case that uncovers something more sinister. Zootopia ends up being a film noir that deals with race and gender issues while being a great buddy cop movie. It is also about a young woman that is living on her own for the first time in the big city and has to work 10 times harder to prove everyone’s underestimations of her wrong.

6. Sing Street

Writer-director John Carney, who brought us Once, one of the best films of the last decade with equally fantastic music, has created another non-musical musical set in Ireland and it is an absolute joy. Sing Street is a sincere tribute to 80s new wave music, a genre much looked down on. We follow Conor, who is dealing with his parent’s divorce and starting a new school run by a cruel, petty priest whose discipline is actually bullying. Conor wants to impress the pretty and mysterious Raphina, so he tells her that he’s in a band and asks her to be in their music video. When she accepts, he actually has to form a band, write songs, and make a video. The songs they make are genuinely good and their music videos are amusingly amateurish, but accurately capture the style of professional videos of the era. This movie never laughs at its characters or their ambitions. This is a wonderful coming of age film without a single cynical frame.

5. Arrival

We’ve been lucky enough to have had some excellent science fiction films recently (Interstellar in 2014, and The Martian in 2015 come to mind), and Arrival is among them. Mysterious alien spacecrafts appear at different locations all over the world and a renowned linguist, played by Amy Adams, is brought in by the government to try to communicate with the alien beings. Adams turns in a great performance (entirely deserving of an Oscar nomination that she did not receive) that grounds the entire film in genuine emotion even as it moves into heady sci-fi territory. Even though Arrival does not go out of its way to simplify or explain itself, it never becomes inaccessible and only becomes more intriguing and entertaining as the story unfolds.

1. Four-Way Tie
There were four movies I saw last year that I found so completely wonderful and well-made from beginning to end that I couldn't place them in an order. So, here is my four-way tie for the best movie of 2016.

20^th Century Women

Annette Bening is at the center of this ensemble comedy-drama that is the freshest coming of age film I’ve seen in quite some time. Bening plays a single mother of a 15-year-old son living in Southern California in 1979. She isn’t exactly a hippie parent, but she is certainly nontraditional and open to whatever may be the best way to raise her son. She enlists the help of the motley group of misfits (Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning, Billy Crudup) that lives with them. Each helps in their own way to raise Bening’s son and together form a makeshift family. Each role is well written and well-acted. Director Mike Mills throws in some stylistic touches that not only evoke the era, but also reflects what the characters are experiencing. The best thing about 20th Century Women is that the characters in this movie don’t just feel like people, they feel like people I know.

Jackie

This is not a traditional, by-the-numbers biopic, recreating people and events that we are familiar with as a pageant. Jackie is something far more special and affecting. It is an intimate and emotional glimpse of a woman dealing with tragedy and grief while the public watches. The assassination of JFK was a national tragedy, but it was also a personal tragedy for Jacqueline Kennedy and her family.

While watching Jackie I felt as though this could have been a traditional biopic; it certainly starts that way. Not long after the murder of her husband, Jackie agrees to an exclusive interview, but tells the reporter that this will be her version of the story. However, the approach director Pablo Larrain takes to tell her story, with flashbacks and close ups and the haunting score by Mica Levi, makes this an unconventional movie that avoids biopic clichés. Natalie Portman has the difficult task of portraying the enigmatic First Lady with the unique and distinct voice. Portman more than meets the challenge and is entirely deserving of her Oscar nomination for Best Actress (and she would have my vote). She shows us a woman that at all times projected a persona, both publicly and privately. But more than that, she humanizes a chapter in American history and captures the personal side of a public story.

Love & Friendship

To those people that think costume period pieces or films of Jane Austen books are dull, stuffy, or boring, I suggest they see the incredibly funny and lively Love & Friendship. Based on the early Jane Austen novella, Lady Susan, the story follows the duplicitous Lady Susan (Kate Beckinsale), recently widowed, who moves in with her in-laws and begins a hunt for a wealthy husband. Her teenage daughter, after running away from her boarding school, joins her mother at the country estate. This complicates Lady Susan’s plans. Despite her scheming and plotting, Lady Susan remains a likeable character. Beckinsale is able to play Lady Susan as though she unintentionally has good intentions.  

Writer-director Whit Stillman understands the text, the subtext, the period, the characters, and the humor of the source material resulting in a Jane Austen adaptation that feels fresh and offbeat. In short, he is a perfect match for Austen. This film seems to have made critics realize that Stillman’s previous “comedies of manners” are actually modern day Jane Austen stories. I must admit I’m not usually a fan of Kate Beckinsale, mostly because of her choice of films (more Underworld sequels?), but with the right material and the right director (Stillman—see The Last Days of Disco for further proof) she can be an outstanding actress indeed. It may come as a surprise to some, but, yes, Jane Austen is very funny.  

The Nice Guys

If The Nice Guys feels like a throwback to the kind of action-comedies that Hollywood seems to have stopped making, it is likely because it was written and directed by Shane Black who wrote Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, and The Long Kiss Goodnight. He’s written and directed the best Marvel movie so far, Iron Man 3, and the underseen but exceptional Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Now he brings us a thoroughly funny and excellently crafted modern film noir. The setting is Southern California in the 1970s and we meet Russell Crowe as a tough guy for hire seeking to improve himself. He reluctantly teams up with Ryan Gosling, a private detective that isn’t quite inept, but is certainly comical, to find a missing young woman. The case, of course, uncovers something far more sinister and complex.

Crowe and Gosling are wonderful as mismatched partners and have great chemistry together. Each turns in their most dynamic performance in years. Crowe excels at playing a tough guy that is actually, well, a nice guy. Gosling shows off his comedic talents, both verbal and physical (one of his best moments is his reaction to finding an open bar). They run into gangsters, shootouts, conspiracy theories and more. The action scenes are well done and pretty violent. The danger these characters find themselves in is real—innocent bystanders are killed by stray bullets—but this is not a dark or cynical movie. The Nice Guys evokes the 1970s while avoiding clichés like packing the soundtrack with hit songs from the era, and the costumes and hairstyles are believable on the cast members. This is a smart movie with a sharp sense of humor that I can't recommend enough.

Classic Movie Picks: February 2017

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies schedule for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)


It's award season in Hollywood, which means it's time for TCM's "31 Days of Oscar" programming. Each day in February (and a few in March, too) will feature films which were Academy Award winners or nominees. This year, the films are being shown from A to Z starting with Abe Lincoln in Illinois on February 1 and ending with, well, Z on March 3. The alphabetical order creates some interesting programming blocks of films you might never see on a double feature except during 31 Days of Oscar. I've chosen a few of my favorite groupings this month.

2/1: A is for archetype
8 PM - All About Eve (1950)
10:30 PM - An American in Paris (1951)
12:30 AM - Annie Hall (1977)
What better way to start the month than with the film which holds the record for most Oscar nominations, All About Eve? It's 14 nominations have since been tied by Titanic and this year's awards frontrunner La La Land; however, there were fewer categories in the 50s, so All About Eve's record is even more impressive. The film won 5 awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Costume Design, and Best Supporting Actor for George Sanders. In his autobiography Sanders said of winning an Oscar, "I was grateful and flattered to get mine, but apart from making my already large ego one size larger it did absolutely nothing for me." The film's star, Bette Davis, might disagree. Davis and co-star Anne Baxter were both nominated for Best Actress, the first time two lead actresses had been nominated for the same film; however, the award that year went to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday. The film is the ultimate backstage story, centering on an established stage actress threatened by an ambitious younger woman with her sights set on stardom. Davis's powerful performance as Broadway star Margo Channing and Baxter's equally good turn as the cunning upstart Eve Harrington, plus the bitingly witty dialog by writer /director Joseph Mankiewicz, make this one of the best of all time.

Though musicals had been popular since silent films became talkies, it was rare for a musical to win best picture. An American in Paris broke the trend garnering 8 nominations and 6 wins, including Best Picture. Gene Kelly stars as an American painter living in Paris who has a complicated romance with a French girl. The charming performances of the cast, particularly Kelly and love interest Leslie Caron, beautiful dances choreographed by Kelly, and the iconic music of the Gershwins, make An American in Paris a true delight. One of the most memorable sequences is the 17-minute "dream ballet" which ends the film. The power of this sequence must have stuck in the minds of the Academy voters because while director Vincente Minelli lost out to the director of A Place in the Sun, George Stevens; Gene Kelly was given an honorary award "in appreciation of his versatility as an actor, singer, director and dancer, and specifically for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film." I would give credit to both Minelli and Kelly for the creative vision which made this film one of the crowning achievements of MGM's golden age.

Annie Hall received 4 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Woody Allen's direction, the screenplay by Allen and Marshall Brickman, and Best Actress for Diane Keaton. The only nominated category it didn't win that year was Best Actor, in which Allen lost to Richard Dreyfuss for his performance in The Goodbye Girl. Comedy is another genre which is not often recognized by Oscar. Annie Hall was the first comedy since 1963's Tom Jones to win Best Picture (beating out Star Wars along the way); and I'm not sure there's been another since then...maybe Shakespeare in Love?  The story is a simple one in which boy, comedy writer Alvy, meets girl, aspiring singer Annie, but the two quickly complicate matters with their neuroses and insecurities. With this film, Allen created the blueprint for modern romantic comedy. 

2/8: F is for force
12 AM - The French Connection (1971)
2 AM - Friendly Persuasion (1956)
The French Connection was the big winner of 1971, with 8 nominations and 5 wins, including Best Picture. The film, which follows two Brooklyn narcotics detectives tracking a drug kingpin, is memorable for a breathless car chase sequence and Gene Hackman's forceful portrayal of brutish cop Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle. No surprise then that the film picked up Oscars for Best Editing and Best Actor, in addition to awards for its director, William Friedkin, and screenplay by Ernest Tidyman.

Friendly Persuasion proves that you can also make an impact through the rejection of violence, a sentiment echoed by this year's Oscar nominated film Hacksaw Ridge (ironically, an extremely violent film). The story centers on a Quaker family in Indiana whose commitment to peace is tested during the Civil War. The film received 6 nominations for Best Picture, Screenplay, Sound, and Director, as well as for the featured song "Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love)" and supporting actor Anthony Perkins. Though set against the tumult of the Civil War, this is also a sentimental film about a family kept together by their strength of will and faith. But despite box office popularity, able direction by William Wyler, and strong performances by Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire, Friendly Persuasion lost the big prize that year to the star-studded spectacle of Around the World in 80 Days filmed in ultra wide screen Todd-AO.

2/11: H is for hysteria
10 PM - A Hard Day's Night (1964)
11:45 PM - Harvey (1950)
Put together quickly to capitalize on worldwide Beatlemania, A Hard Day's Night is much better than it has any right to be and ending up getting two Academy Award nominations. The filmmakers were secretly worried that the Beatles could be a passing fad; therefore, the film needed to get to theaters quickly. The filming was completed in six weeks and the finished product premiered only three months after filming began! The hilarious, and Oscar-nominated, screenplay by Alun Owen focuses on a day (or so) in the life of the band  as they talk to the press, evade hordes of screaming fans, and generally goof around, all in the lead-up to a performance on a television show. The screenplay is further helped by the innate charm of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, as well as a crack supporting cast of British character actors, most notably William Brambell as Paul's crotchety, mischievous grandfather. Of course another big reason to watch the film is the music, including the title song and other hits like "Can't Buy Me Love" and "All My Loving." Producer George Martin received the film's second Oscar nomination for the score. (Note: the category of "musical score - adaptation or treatment" was only around from 1963 to 1968, and most nominees were films which had been adapted from Broadway musicals with existing scores.)

Harvey received two Oscar nominations, Best Actor for star James Stewart and Best Supporting Actress for Josephine Hull (which she won). However, it's a shock to me that the screenplay, adapted for film by Mary Chase and Oscar Brodney from Chase's Pulitzer Prize winning play, was completely overlooked. The concept -- that a small-town eccentric (or drunk, depending on your opinion) is accompanied everywhere by a 6'3" invisible rabbit to the embarrassment and dismay of his family -- is so out there, it takes a masterful touch to make it work. Stewart gives one of his most memorable comedic performances as the gentle iconoclast Elwood P. Dowd, though he lost the Oscar to Jose Ferrer's starring performance in Cyrano de Bergerac. The play had been a hit on Broadway for five years and the filmmakers imported most of the original cast, including Hull as Dowd's increasingly desperate sister. A couple of interesting facts about the film -- though it is implied that Elwood is an alcoholic, due to the film production code he is never shown taking a drink; many of the shots in the film are intentionally wider than they need to be to allow room for the invisible Harvey.

2/19: N is for nominee
6:30 AM - North by Northwest (1959)
9 AM - Now, Voyager (1942)
11 AM - The Nun's Story (1959)
They say it's an honor just to be nominated. Sometimes a really great film can pick up a few nominations, but in the end lose to that year's juggernaut. That's what happened to Alfred Hitchcock's spy thriller North by Northwest, which picked up 3 nominations for Art Direction, Editing, and Screenplay; unfortunately for Hitch, his film was up against Ben-Hur which would set a record that year with 11 wins. (The record still stands, but is shared with Titanic and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.) The original screenplay award that year would go to the Doris Day-Rock Hudson comedy Pillow Talk. Combining many of Hitchcock's signature elements -- mistaken identity, a glamorous blonde, diabolical villains, and fear of those people and institutions we should trust -- plus favorite leading man Cary Grant, North by Northwest is the quintessential Hitchcock picture. The famous crop duster scene is so well done, it is suspenseful no matter how many times I watch it. However, one of the best parts of the movie didn't even get a nomination: Bernard Hermann's memorable score.

Also coming up empty at the 1959 Oscars was The Nun's Story, directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Audrey Hepburn. This moving portrait of a nun who must repress her natural independence first as a novice, and later on a mission to Africa, was one of the most popular movies of the year. The strength of the film lies in the star power of Hepburn, and she gives a superb performance as Gaby/Sister Luke; playing against her fashion-plate image, she spends most of the film covered up in a nun's habit. Hepburn was nominated for Best Actress, but lost to Simone Signoret, the polar opposite of a nun as an unfaithful wife in Room at the Top. The film received 8 nominations in all, including Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Score, and Adapted Screenplay. I'll admit that the film might sound dull at first, but The Nun's Story is so well-crafted it will pull you in and keep you captivated.

Now, Voyager is an emotional drama about a plain, put-upon woman who comes into her own through the help of a psychiatrist and her chaste love for a married man. It was Bette Davis's biggest hit of the 1940s and provided many quotable lines, including "Don't ask for the moon, we have the stars." The brilliant Bette Davis was again nominated for Best Actress, but did not win. (Lest you're feeling sorry for her now, she had already won the award twice in the 1930s for her performances in Dangerous and Jezebel.) Gladys Cooper, who played Davis's domineering mother, received a Best Supporting Actress nomination. Both the Best Actress and Supporting Actress Oscar would go to the stars of that year's big winner Mrs. Miniver, Greer Garson and Teresa Wright, respectively. However, Now, Voyager did manage one win for the elegant score by Max Steiner.





2/22: R is for romance
8 PM - Roman Holiday (1953)
10:15 PM - A Room with a View (1986)
Roman Holiday is an effervescent romp through the streets of Rome which made Audrey Hepburn a star. She plays a princess on an official tour of Europe, who runs away from her duties and has an adventure with an American reporter (played by Gregory Peck). The film received 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Editing, Art Direction, Screenplay, and Supporting Actor for Eddie Albert. It won in three categories: Best Actress, Costumes, and Motion Picture Story. It is interesting to note that, at the time, "motion picture story" was a separate category from screenplay; so, Dalton Trumbo's original story (perhaps inspired by England's rebellious Princess Margaret) won the Oscar, but the completed screenplay did not. Hepburn's chic, modern clothes and gamine haircut were copied by women around the world, which probably helped costume designer Edith Head grab the win over other films with more elaborate costumes.

It's back to Italy with A Room with View, a delightful period comedy about a young Englishwoman torn between her straitlaced fiance and an impetuous Bohemian she meets in Florence. The film received 8 Oscar nominations, tying that year's ultimate Best Picture winner Platoon. It won in three categories: Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, and Costume Design. A Room with a View was the first worldwide hit for producer Ismail Merchant, director James Ivory, and writer Ruth Prawer-Jhabavala, who adapted the story from the E.M. Forster novel. If you think "Merchant-Ivory film" means a stuffy costume drama, this film may surprise you. It pokes fun at the buttoned-up aspects of Edwardian culture, but never dips into farce; while the romance is handled with deft delicacy.