You are currently browsing all entries tagged with 'Academy Awards'

And The Oscar for Best Picture Which Prevented The Murder Of Three Innocent Men Goes To…

  • March 6, 2012 4:23 am

Movies can change lives.  Can save them, in fact.

“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory,” a film nominated for best documentary this year, is one of them.

Spoiler alert: stop reading now if you don’t want to know how the story of death row inmate Damien Echols and lifers Jessie Misskelley and James Baldwin turns out, and if you don’t want to hear Alfredo yammering from his soap box about the death penalty.

Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin, teenagers at the time, were convicted in 1994 for the horrific murder of three eight year old cub scouts.  Read more...

Honest Movie Titles: Oscars 2010 Edition

  • March 7, 2010 11:42 am

Courtesy of our friends at CollegeHumor, a look at the posters of some of this year’s Oscar nominees and what these films really should have been titled. Happy Oscar viewing!

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Should Have Been Nominated (#7-12)

  • March 6, 2010 11:26 am

Oscar day is tomorrow and I didn’t quite get around to showcasing all the worthy films on my list that were neglected by the Academy. So I will throw them all out in my last blog on this topic and open it up to your suggestions as well.

 Diva

“Cool” is the only word I can think of to describe “Diva”.  This was probably the first foreign film I saw that really made me want to watch more foreign films.  It was so different from the usual Hollywood movie.  It was so flashy, so colorful.  The unique cast of characters included a young, bootlegging postman who lives in an auto garage; an African American opera singer; a Vietnamese, roller-skating, pink-plastic-raincoat clad shoplifter; and her older boyfriend?/guru who likes to cook wearing a snorkel mask. This movie even made me actually want to listen to opera. What more can I say but to give kudos to a movie that was ahead of its time in showing diverse and anti-stereotypical characters.  Read more...

Should Have Been Nominated (#6)

  • March 2, 2010 2:56 pm

With Oscar day nearly upon us, I still have a few more picks for “Should Have Been Nominated”. For my latest, I have selected the 1986 film “Jean de Florette” directed by Claude Berri.  But really, the film must be seen with its sequel “Manon des Sources” or “Manon of the Springs” in order to complete the tale of greed, betrayal and revenge. 

The story is about a manipulative landowner, Cesare Soubeyran (played by Yves Montand) and his nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) who conspire to block the only water source for a nearby property in order to bankrupt the unsuspecting heir of the property, Jean Cadoret (Gerard Depardieu) and force him to sell. 

On the surface, it may seem like a simple story of good guys against bad.  But where the story excels is in the complexity of the characters who are not so black and white.  In fact, the POV is actually with the bad guys. Daniel Auteuil does an excellent job in his portrayal of Ugolin, the ugly nephew and pawn of his uncle. You find yourself both despising and sympathizing with Ugolin. Even his evil uncle, Cesare Soubeyran, is revealed to be a tragic figure in the end.  Read more...

Should Have Been Nominated (#5) & Los Angeles, Italia Festival

  • February 22, 2010 2:54 pm

My latest pick in my series of films I think should have been nominated for an Oscar, is the 3rd and final film of Sergio Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy: “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (AKA “Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo.”) None of the films in the trilogy were nominated for any Oscar, but I think this last one is particularly deserving.

“The Good the Bad and the Ugly” is the quintessential Western film with an unforgettable, classic, 3-man show down at the end. The film is currently ranked #4 in IMDB’s list of top 250 movies of all time, as ranked by tens of thousands of film lovers.  Quentin Tarantino has stated that this movie is “the greatest achievement in the history of cinema.” Besides Tarantino, the great Leone has had an enormous influence on directors such as Sam Peckinpah, John Woo, and of course, Clint Eastwood, who dedicated his movie “Unforgiven” “to Sergio and Don.”  Read more...

Should Have Been Nominated (#4)

  • February 17, 2010 1:27 am

 

This the 4th pick in my series of movies that should have been nominated for an Oscar. (And happily I’m on target for this week’s Flavah of “Oscars”.)

The movie is Tarsem’s visually stunning “The Fall”. Practically every shot in this movie is a work of art, full of breathtaking and unforgettable imagery, and yet, I was surprised to learn, none of the backdrops were computer-generated. Instead, Tarsem scouted for the perfect locations over a period of 17 years while shooting ads in 18 countries to give him just the right shots.

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Should Have Been Nominated (#3)

  • February 12, 2010 3:27 pm

This is the 3rd in my series of blogs of movies that should have been nominated for an Oscar. I also wanted to tie in this week’s Flavah of “Love”. So I racked my brain for a lesser known, but deserving love story and this gem came to mind: “The Road Home” directed by Yimou Zhang (“Raise the Red Lantern,” “Ju Dou,” and “Shanghai Triad”).  Read more...

Should Have Been Nominated (#2)

  • February 10, 2010 12:20 am

This is the 2nd in my series of blogs of movies that should have been nominated for an Oscar.

Today’s pick falls into the category of being foreign. The film is Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film, “Ikiru”.

“Ikiru” in Japanese means “to live” and the title is apt for the subject it examines. It follows the story of Kanji Watanabe, a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for thirty years, essentially doing nothing and contributing little to society (as can be said about most bureaucrats). Ironically, it’s only after learning that he has stomach cancer with less than a year to live that he finally comes to life and attempts to find meaning in what time he has left.   Read more...

SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED (#1)

  • February 8, 2010 3:47 pm

With the 82nd Academy Awards quickly approaching, I thought I would write a series of blogs on my favorite movies that were never nominated for an Oscar in any category.

I have to say that most of the time, the Oscars do recognize good movies in some form or fashion, even if it’s just for great sound. That’s not to say that I always agree with the outcomes or that they haven’t left out a movie that deserved to be in a certain category, but for the most part, the best made movies can boast at least 1 Oscar nomination. Still, I am amazed at how some really deserving films slipped completely from the minds of the members of the Academy.

After perusing my list of outcast movies, I decided that they generally fall into 1 of 3 categories: 1. The film is a genre film (Horror, Action, Thriller, etc.) 2. The film is foreign or 3. The film is just too indie (and therefore probably didn’t have the right Oscar campaign budget.)

So my first pick in the series is a very familiar one and perhaps one of the most iconic films ever made in the genre of Horror:  Read more...

My Father’s Night at the Oscars

  • January 20, 2010 12:27 am

It was about 3 years ago today that I was having dinner with my father and he declared to me that he had already bought his suit. “What suit?” I asked? “For the Academy Awards,” he said. “You’re going to get nominated.”

I was flattered, but so far, while the film itself was doing well with award nominations, Letters from Iwo Jima had not garnered a single screenplay nomination. Not by the WGA, not by the Golden Globes, not by any other major award. So I told him, “I hope you can return it.”

But he insisted that the Rafu Shimpo said I was likely to be nominated, and the word of the Rafu Shimpo was like the word of God. “Well, OK, if I get to go, you can be my date,” I said, not really expecting to have to live up to the promise.

The 79th Academy Award Nominations were announced on Jan. 27, 2007, and The Rafu Shimpo was right after all and my date to the Oscars would be my father.  Read more...