Oscars Fortnight: Airport

Airport (1970)

Whenever we do these weeks or months around a certain theme, it’s all about finding the different connections that pop up between disparate films. Today’s entry has a few of those, since for the second day in a row, we’re reviewing a Burt Lancaster movie where he’s part of a larger ensemble, but also like the last movie I reviewed, happens to feature a score by Alfred Newman. Considering the 31-year difference between Wuthering Heights and Airport, it’s not all that surprising to learn that this would be Newman’s final film score. The presence of Newman and Lancaster illuminates the fact that Airport is a movie very much catering to a 1970s audience, but also has its roots in old-fashioned Hollywood entertainment. Continue reading →

Oscars Fortnight: From Here to Eternity

From Here to Eternity (1953)

The 26th Academy Awards (1954)
Nominations: 13
Wins: 8

Is there a more romantic scene in cinema than Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr making out on the beach in From Here to Eternity? I can’t count how many times I’ve seen this scene parodied, from Airplane, to The Nutty Professor, to multiple times on The Simpsons. Little did I know the scene in question is depicting two adults committing adultery. Is From Here to Eternity an edgier movie than I thought?

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Oscars Fortnight: Marty

Marty (1955)

28th Academy Awards (1956)
Nominations: 8
Wins: 4

Well, I’m sorry to report that none of this year’s best picture nominees are remakes of previous Oscar-winning best pictures, which means I needed a new gimmick for the 2024 Oscars Fortnight. The one I settled on were best picture nominees that were made by first-time directors, since there are actually two of them up for the award this year, American Fiction and Past Lives (I’ll be writing about both). Now, you may be wondering, how often does someone’s first feature get nominated for film’s most prestigious award? I don’t know! I didn’t find a comprehensive list anywhere, but I know some of the movies we’ve already covered, like Citizen Kane and Dances with Wolves, were directorial debuts so it can’t be insanely rare. Who cares? All that really matters is I got the perfect movie to watch around the Valentines season, so let’s get into Marty!

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Oscars Fortnight: Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights (1939)

The 12th Academy Awards (1940)
Nominations: 8
Wins: 1

Welcome once again to Oscar season here at Mildly Pleased! This is the time of year when we spend a tasteful two weeks looking back at Oscar nominees of years past as we eagerly anticipate (and in some cases dread) what will bring home the gold on Hollywood’s Biggest Night.

This year, the approach I took was reviewing two movies that are stuffy period pieces and two that are decidedly not. The first of which is Wuthering Heights, a movie that I’ve been interested in after reading Emily Brontë’s novel last year. It’s a movie that seems to exist in that netherworld of being a classic, but not an unimpeachable classic, since it was on AFI’s original 100 Years…100 Movies list from 1998, but was bumped from the updated 2007 list. That feels fair for what this movie is, as it’s a well-made production from perhaps the studio system’s greatest year, but can’t help but pale in comparison to other sweeping romances of that era with a similar vibe. Continue reading →

Most Anticipated Movies of 2024

After a bizarre year for cinema, we set our sights on… possibly another bizarre year for cinema. That’s right, we’re doing our annual look ahead to our most anticipated (and least anticipated movies) of the new year. In 2024, superhero movies seem to be out (unless you’re talking about our least anticipated list) and what’s in is, well, who knows really. We’re just guessing here as to what will be good and what will not be good, but these are the movies that either piqued our interest or have us dreading their release date. Continue reading →

Sean’s Top 10 Movies of 2023

Early on in 2023, before a very necessary pair of strikes screwed everything up, it seemed like we had a really easy theme all set up for my annual wrap-up: unfinished business. Between the likes of Fast X, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One we had an absolute glut of (perhaps arrogantly conceived) half movies. And then there were all the franchise pay-offs on the other end of the spectrum, John Wick: Chapter 4, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and plenty more were all slated to wrap-up some other long-running stories. Then things went off the rails and we all started to wonder if the recovery we all thought we were promised in 2022 would never actually come to pass.

Well, all that chaos aside, I’m sticking with that theme. Because I’ve got some real unfinished business. I thought I had a pretty good handle on 2023 until I started seeing my friends’ lists and award nominations and realized I actually still had a ton of homework to do. And then I went and had a really weird couple of weeks that sapped my motivation to pay attention to movies. So I created a living document here. And I’m gonna keep trying to work on 2023 as we continue on into the new year. You got a problem with that? Too bad!
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Colin’s Top 10 Movies of 2023

I didn’t really touch on this in my top ten albums or TV shows lists, but it didn’t feel like a particularly special year for either of those mediums. I would not say the same for movies, even if it was sometimes hard to tell where the state of film was heading, especially after actors and writers went on strike and we had that weirdly long gap of notable movies coming out in the wake of Barbenheimer. Though, once November rolled around, I felt like we got a bunch of really great, prestige-y movies, and it seems we’re still getting a bunch coming out in time for the Oscars.

This feels a bit like the way things used to be, and I could complain about this familiar feeling of having to cram in watching a bunch of movies in December and January in preparation for this list, but I won’t. Mainly because movies are in such a weird, uncertain state that I’m just glad talented filmmakers are able to get their work out at all, and if that comes with the price of seeing the best films of the year all at the same time, that’s the price I’m willing to pay. This is all a long-winded way of saying that I thought this turned out to be a pretty good year for movies, and hopefully one that saw Hollywood reflecting on how to reinvent itself instead of churning out the same old garbage. Continue reading →