There are 60 posts filed in Oscars Fortnight (this is page 7 of 9).
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.
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.
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
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
The 93rd Academy Awards (2021)
Nominations: 6
Wins: 1
I wanted to close out our fortnight with something from this year’s batch of Best Picture nominees, and since Colin already reviewed Nomadland, it really had to be Minari. This has been a long time coming, as Minari has been on my radar since is debuted at Sundance way back in January 2020. Typically I’m able to see the “big deal” indie movies at least sometime in the December-January awards catch-up season, but given the on-going situation this movie wasn’t something I could see until it hit virtual cinemas in February. That was such a long time to spend listening to critics hype it up that I almost resented it and dragged my feet to finally watch the movie. But boy am I glad I finally did.
The 82nd Academy Awards (2010)
Nominations: 2
Wins: 1
I, like John, got very much into the Oscars around 2006 as well as the idea of seeing every Best Picture nominee each year. This culminated in one of my absolute wildest nights in college when I went all alone to go see the extremely forgettable Kate Winslet vehicle The Reader. However, 2009 was the year where that longterm plan came to a screeching halt, almost entirely because of The Blind Side. I saw every other Best Picture nominee in 2009, but I had so little interest in seeing this movie that I just couldn’t pay money to see it. This, of course, was a result of The Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences changing their cap of 5 Best Picture winners each year to a maximum of ten, ushering in a breadth of Best Picture nominees that hadn’t been seen since the early ’40s. Continue reading
The 78th Academy Awards (2006)
Nominations: 5
Wins: 0
Hollywood loves revenge. It’s one of the easiest ways to simultaneously motivate a character and get the audience on their side. It doesn’t matter if you’re Batman or Beatrix Kiddo, as long as you’re trying to right as perceived wrong, that’s a compelling story we’ll all want to see. As an added bonus, revenge stories come pre-packaged with ethical dilemmas for filmmakers to sink their teeth into: what does justice look like? Who decides when enough is enough? Do the ends justify the means? Ultimately: is revenge ever the best course of action? Increasingly, I find my answer to that question is no. And based on 2005’s Munich, I think Steven Spielberg agrees with me.
