Bare bones Oscars with no music or comedy routines, or videos made for the show, = I'm not interested. I don't particularly care what Hollywood insiders think about this or that movie or actor. I'm sure it was Covid-driven but, hey, they were there. It wasn't a remote ceremony.
Only saw Nomadland and Ma Rainey. Bozman literally had no competition for best actor in those two. Bozman's acting was on fire (Davis' too). But I know nothing about Hopkin's performance so can't judge.
Bare bones Oscars with no music or comedy routines, or videos made for the show, = I'm not interested. I don't particularly care what Hollywood insiders think about this or that movie or actor. I'm sure it was Covid-driven but, hey, they were there. It wasn't a remote ceremony.
Only saw Nomadland and Ma Rainey. Bozman literally had no competition for best actor in those two. Bozman's acting was on fire (Davis' too). But I know nothing about Hopkin's performance so can't judge.
I saw all the nominated movies and I agree that Boseman was great. But Hopkins performance in The Father was amazing. Nuanced, ego-less and so frighteningly real. The movie was a harrowing but all-to-real vision of what lies in store for so many of us. Tell your kids to watch it so they're not surprized a few years from now.
I caught some of the Oscars, and I didn't mind the low-key format. I'm usually bored by the musical numbers anyway.
I haven't seen The Father either, but I've been reading Hopkins' performance was phenomenal.
And twitter is all atwitter about the fact that they apparently put last actor on last because they were expecting Bozeman to win - which was kinda dumb if true.
Ran across an old favorite movie which rarely plays. Klute 1971 classic Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland. I caught it too near the end and Movies is not a channel that is available On Demand.
This is a dare, not a recommendation, for those of you who have shown affection for sci fi.
Background: Years ago an indy director named Shane Carruth made a sci fi movie called "Primer" on a shoestring budget. It has a cult and critical following. I think it's been mentioned here.
After a long hiatus, he made "Upstream Color." It received mostly high critical praise and it too has a cult following but it's divisive and has generated a significant amount of hate. It is about as bizarre, inscrutable, and avant garde a movie as you'll ever see. I just watched it and I definitely fall into the thumbs down camp, agreeing with one big newspaper critic that its the kind of movie that gives art films a bad name. But hey, it's not that long and you may align with the critical majority that views it as some kind of profound breakthrough in film making.
This is a dare, not a recommendation, for those of you who have shown affection for sci fi.
Background: Years ago an indy director named Shane Carruth made a sci fi movie called "Primer" on a shoestring budget. It has a cult and critical following. I think it's been mentioned here.
After a long hiatus, he made "Upstream Color." It received mostly high critical praise and it too has a cult following but it's divisive and has generated a significant amount of hate. It is about as bizarre, inscrutable, and avant garde a movie as you'll ever see. I just watched it and I definitely fall into the thumbs down camp, agreeing with one big newspaper critic that its the kind of movie that gives art films a bad name. But hey, it's not that long and you may align with the critical majority that views it as some kind of profound breakthrough in film making.
I liked Primer, but didn't go for Upstream Color because of the reviews, so I may give it a shot if I have some time. I've been listening to the soundtrack for a few years, though. It's very good.
I liked Primer, but didn't go for Upstream Color because of the reviews, so I may give it a shot if I have some time. I've been listening to the soundtrack for a few years, though. It's very good.
didn't realize Carruth did the soundtrack too. (also for Primer. writer, director, actor, composer. freakin genius. )
Listening to the Upstream soundtrack now, it's on Amazon Prime. great ambient.
surprising how few movies he's made though. I wonder what his story is. He's been directing episodes of The Girlfriend Experience.
He's also the main male character in Upstream Color. I think he's very negative about the film industry. He has little money. He had some ambitious project that fell though for lack of financing. He said somewhere that he was quitting the business.
Oh yeah, what a shame. He could easily be up there with Rian Johnson or Darren Aronofsky. In fact I know Primer was a big influence on Rian Johnson’s Looper.
The festival kicks off May 5 with a sextet of explosive cases involving Murder in the First. The jury system itself is on trial in 12 Angry Men (1957), as Henry Fonda argues against convicting a young man accused of killing his father. The defense dominates Anatomy of a Murder (1959), with James Stewart trying to convince a jury that Ben Gazzara was justified in killing the man who raped his wife. Then the focus shifts to defendants Martha O’Driscoll in Criminal Court (1946), Ann Todd in Madeleine (1950), Dana Andrews in Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) and Loretta Young in Midnight Mary (1933).
Courtroom Comedies take the stand May 12 as married lawyers Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn argue the opposite sides of a case with feminist implications in Adam’s Rib (1949). Ginger Rogers falls for fellow juror, the married Dennis Morgan, in Perfect Strangers (1950). Edna May Oliver battles fellow jury members in Ladies of the Jury (1932). Jean Arthur and Ronald Colman try to help activist Cary Grant beat a murder rap in The Talk of the Town (1942). And, Grant finds himself in an odd love triangle when he falls for judge Myrna Loy, whose teenaged sister (Shirley Temple) falls for Grant in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947).
The focus shifts to Military Justice on May 19, starting with an explosive, all-star dramatization of the Nuremberg Trials in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), featuring Oscar winner Maximilian Schell alongside Spencer Tracy, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland and Burt Lancaster. Kirk Douglas defends soldiers accused of defying an unjust military order in Paths of Glory (1957). Jack Thompson defends soldiers facing court martial for following orders during the Boer War in Breaker Morant (1980). Paul Newman is on trial for his actions as a Korean War POW in The Rack (1956) and Jose Ferrer, as Captain Alfred Dreyfus, faces treason charges in I Accuse! (1958).
On May 26, the festival ends with films highlighting lawyers arguing For the Defense. Gregory Peck won an Oscar for playing Atticus Finch, defense attorney for a Black man falsely accused of rape in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), while nominations went to Spencer Tracy for playing a fictionalized version of Clarence Darrow defending a man who taught evolution in Inherit the Wind (1960). Al Pacino was also nominated for portraying an attorney defending a judge he doesn’t trust who’s been accused of rape in And Justice for All (1979). The case is closed when Conrad Nagel defends Greta Garbo, in her last silent film, when she’s charged with killing her husband in The Kiss (1929), and Spencer Tracy battles the bottle and his own falsely accused client (James Arness) in The People Against O’Hara (1951).
Just watched 12 Angry Men for the umpteenth time. Such a good movie. So tightly written and directed. A marvel. Favorite courtroom movie, even though outside the courtroom.
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well, I'll add it to my list then!