Ben-Hur (1959)

32nd Academy Awards (1960)
Nominations: 12
Wins: 11

I’m gonna level with you, I wrote a big chunk of this review earlier this week before accidentally closing my document without saving it. So just like Judah Ben-Hur had to endure years of slavery and hardship, I had to endure writing this again, and you have to endure reading it. Let me see if I can remember the anecdote I initially started with.

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The Caine Mutiny

27th Academy Awards (1955)
Nominations: 7
Wins: 0

I’ve been revisiting all the Batman movies lately and throwing The Caine Mutiny in the mix really makes me want to watch something that passes the Bechdel Test again soon. I’m pretty sure my next Oscars Fortnight pick does. But The Caine Mutiny, man, this is a dudely story. It’s a movie about the officers on a Navy minesweeper during WWII deciding to mutiny against their unhinged captain and the subsequent court-martial that hangs their futures in the balance. Not a lot of room for the ladies in that space, but with a runtime just a bit over two hours, there’s plenty of time for some truly powerhouse performances from some of the brightest stars of the fifties.

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Gaslight (1944)

The 17th Academy Awards (1945)
Nominations: 7
Wins: 2

Gaslight is undoubtedly most famous for the phrase it coined that has gained more prominence in the past few years as disinformation and manipulation have become a bigger cultural force (fun stuff!). So much so that there was even an SNL sketch parodying the film from earlier this year, which falls into the category of “I’m not really sure who this is for” SNL sketches. Anyways, it’s not the first origin point of the phrase “gaslighting”, since George Cukor’s 1944 film is based on Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play Gas Light as well as the 1940 British film adaptation that this Gaslight added Hollywood production values to. Still, it has remained perhaps the most famous iteration of this material due to Ingrid Bergman’s Oscar-winning performance of the story’s gaslit heroin, while the film itself also remains subtly unsettling. Continue reading →

Grand Hotel (1932)

The 5th Academy Awards (1932)
Nominations: 1
Wins: 1

Welcome to our second year of Oscars Fortnight! Just like last year, these next two weeks will consist of reviewing Oscar movies in anticipation of the big night on March 27. Our requirements are basically just that if a film was nominated for Best Picture and we’ve always wanted to see it (but never got around to it), we’ll review it.

The film I’ll be reviewing here is kind of an odd Oscar case, in that it was both a Best Picture nominee and winner, despite not being nominated for any other categories (which has still only happened this one time). The reason for this probably has more to do with there being less Oscar categories in the ceremony’s early years (supporting actor categories weren’t even included yet), though you do have to wonder how this wasn’t at least nominated for Best Art Direction. My main reference for Grand Hotel has always been that it comes up in another Best Picture winner, The Apartment, which features a scene where Jack Lemmon is about to sit down to a TV dinner and watch this star-studded cast before being dissuaded by an overabundance of advertising interrupting the film. Thankfully, this problem didn’t come up watching it on HBO Max. Continue reading →