Showing posts with label Robert Redford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Redford. Show all posts

Friday, June 9, 2017

Extra-Ordinary Achievements: Director, 1980

Our first week of the 1980 Oscars endeth here, with the nominees for Best Director. And here started a new trend, too: bankable pretty boy actors finally winning an Oscar for hiding their looks...behind the camera.


Robert Redford wasn't the first actor-director to win this category, but you wouldn't exactly lump Woody Allen in with him, Warren Beatty, Kevin Costner, and Mel Gibson, would you? It is still Redford's only competitive Oscar win, though he'd later be nominated as director and producer for Quiz Show - can you believe his acting has only gotten him one nod?

David Lynch was the unexpected choice for The Elephant Man, a decision made by executive producer Mel Brooks (!) after seeing his only other feature, 1977's Eraserhead. Some tsk-tsked at Lynch going mainstream, but boy is that a loose definition for what he gave us. Lynch would later be nominated twice more, for Blue Velvet and Mulholland Dr.

Roman Polanski was back with his first film since fleeing the United States following sexual assault charges. Tess, and adaptation of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, was a project he originally envisioned for his wife, Sharon Tate, before she was brutally murdered by the Manson Family. The film is dedicated to her. Polanski was previously nominated for Chinatown and would later win for The Pianist.

Martin Scorsese had already given the world Taxi Driver, yet Raging Bull marks his first Oscar nomination. It wouldn't be the last: seven more Best Director nods would follow over the years, with only one them resulting in a win: The Departed. He should have been up for Silence this year, but who am I?

Two years after it was shot, The Stunt Man finally came to cinemas; seven years before that, director Richard Rush started the ball rolling. More on that when we get to Adapted Screenplay, but for his troubles, Rush got two Oscar nods, critical raves, and cult cinema status.

But what did he get from me? That's after the jump.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

THE 2013 HOLLMANN AWARD WINNERS!

Ugh, so at this point I either get them all out now or don't get them out at all. So, without any ceremony whatsoever, in a move akin to that of the 2007 Golden Globes, here are the winners of the 2013 Hollmann Awards:

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

SAG Award Nominees

Simply the Best

STUNT ENSEMBLE
All is Lost
Fast & Furious 6
Lone Survivor
Rush
The Wolverine

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Daniel Bruhl, Rush
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
James Gandolfini, Enough Said
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

High-fives all around. Perfect.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
June Squibb, Nebraska
Oprah Winfrey, Lee Daniels' The Butler

Look, Squibb's fine in the movie, don't get me wrong, but who's voting this as Best of the Year? I don't think she fully succeeds in overcoming the inconsistencies Payne has her play.

ACTOR
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Forest Whitaker, Lee Daniels' The Butler

No Redford? Have we all gone mad? I figured Whitaker was getting in, but I had thought maybe McConaughey, maybe Hanks, would be swept out in favor of the Sundance Kid's effective solo performance. I'm glad they weren't, of course -- McConaughey's pretty good, and Hanks is giving one of the best performances in his career. But Redford, man....they should have kicked out Whitaker.

ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Meryl Streep, August: Osage County
Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks

I've yet to see the Streep and the Thompson, and they're two of my favorite actresses, so I'm optimistic. That being said, I do not get the hosannas over Bullock's performance. She does a good job anchoring the film, I guess, but when I look at the quietly gutting Rooney Mara in Ain't Them Bodies Saints, the layered warmth and panic of Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Enough Said, the relatable cycle of renewal and defeat Greta Gerwig portrayed in Frances Ha; when I look at all that, I can't help but feel we can do a hell of a lot better than Sandra Bullock in Gravity.

ENSEMBLE
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
August: Osage County
Dallas Buyers Club
Lee Daniels' The Butler

Dallas Buyers Club! Now there's a surprise! Honestly, I was hoping they'd come through for Prisoners here, but I think I'm one of a handful of people who knows what that movie was all about -- and adores it. That's a true ensemble with across-the-board greatness -- and while I like an all-star cast as much as the next fella, Lee Daniels' The Butler is hardly across-the-board in its merits. I mean, Jesus, Forest Whitaker?

I don't want to sound like I'm beyond disappointed with these results. I'm just not exactly thrilled by them. Like, OK, bully for Lee Daniels' The Butler and 12 Years a Slave - I loved both of them. But other than Dallas Buyers Club in Ensemble, the omission of Redford, and All is Lost in Stunt, there was nothing thrilling about this lineup. I'm sure I'll have a better handle on these by Christmas -- by then, American Hustle and August: Osage County will be out. You know, for US MORTALS.

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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Two Uniforms, a Con Man, and a Pair of Middle-Aged Sadsacks: Actor, 1973

The five men nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role all walked away with an Oscar -- in different years, of course, and some in different categories. Only for Jack Lemmon was it this year, this category.