The Accidental Tourist (1988)

61st Academy Awards (1989)
Nominations: 4
Wins: 1

We’ve talked plenty about how William Hurt had an unparalleled ’80s, but perhaps it’s also worth mentioning that Hurt’s Body Heat collaborators — director Lawrence Kasdan and Kathleen Turner — also had a pretty remarkable decade. Kasdan started out the ’80s writing multiple George Lucas hits, then quickly segued into directing with the aforementioned Body Heat and The Big Chill, before closing out the decade with today’s Oscar-nominated movie, The Accidental Tourist. Then there’s Kathleen Turner, who managed to carve out an ’80s that somehow managed to sidestep her sex appeal in Body Heat by appearing in some of the decade’s smartest pieces of fun escapism (Romancing The Stone, Peggy Sue Got Married, Who Framed Roger Rabbit). Continue reading →

Midnight Express (1978)

51st Academy Awards (1979)
Nominations: 6
Wins: 2

Turns out I didn’t plan this Oscars Fortnight terribly well. I was planning on reviewing 1978’s Coming Home today, but didn’t realize until I sat down to watch it that it’s currently not on streaming (whoops). Then, after scrambling to find another Best Picture nominee from the same year (since I wanted to keep my pattern of reviewing movies 10 years apart), I found that my second choice, An Unmarried Woman, also isn’t currently on streaming. This is a bit of a nutshell commentary on the less-than-ideal state of streaming classic movies currently, and also happens to be how I landed on Midnight Express, a film I’d always meant to get around to seeing, even if it lived up to its reputation as being a bit of a rough watch. Continue reading →

Funny Girl (1968)

41st Academy Awards (1969)
Nominations: 8
Wins: 1

Well, we’ve got another William Wyler movie to be reviewed today, which puts him pretty far ahead as the most discussed director in Oscars Fortnight history (we also previously reviewed Wuthering Heights and Ben-Hur). I think what made Wyler such a prolific Oscar-friendly director is that he was able to adapt his style of prestige-laden elegance to other styles of crowd-pleasing entertainment as the decades went on, like the ancient epics of the ’50s or in this case, the excessive pre-New Hollywood musicals of the ’60s. Wyler’s movies have never been cool, which is perhaps why he’s never talked about anymore as one of the greats, but honestly, I think I’ve still yet to see a movie of his I didn’t like, so it’s hard to say his Oscar glory was unearned. Continue reading →

Auntie Mame (1958)

The 31st Academy Awards (1959)
Nominations: 6
Wins: 0

Welcome once again to Oscar Fortnight, the time each year where we take two weeks to look back on past films that have achieved Oscar glory, or in the case of my first film, was happy just to be nominated. This year, we’re doing things a bit differently, since a certain recent bachelor party derailed our plans of posting a review each day leading up to Hollywood’s Biggest Night. So instead we’re doing these reviews preceding the Oscars ceremony last night in what we’ve referred to as our March of The Ten Wins (Sean’s idea, not mine). Considering Anora‘s big wins last night, it feels appropriate to start things off with another film showing that every once in a while the Academy will give a little love to a kooky comedy. Continue reading →