Matt vs. the Academy

Awards season is heating up, which means I have a lot of movies to catch up on. I've only seen two of the major contenders so far - Gravity and Blue Jasmine. The former seems certain, at this stage, to garner multiple Oscar nominations, if only for the mere fact that it covers all its bases. It has the potential to be cited in both the creative and technical categories, along with Best Picture and perhaps even a Best Actress nod for Sandra Bullock. Perennial screenplay nominee Woody Allen may add another notch to that belt with Blue Jasmine. In addition, the film may give Cate Blanchett her second Oscar. At the very least, a nomination is almost certain. While the 2013 contenders shuffle for position, we continue our look at the 1934 Best Picture nominees... Imitation of Life Director : John M. Stahl Screenplay : William Hurlbut (based on the novel by Fannie Hurst) Starring : Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Rochelle Hudson, Ned Sparks, Louise Beavers, Fredi Washing...

Finally back in New York now, just in time for the snow. Sure, it's pretty, but after spending a few weeks in Australia and then Southern California, I'll take warmth over pretty any day. While in Los Angeles, I got the chance to visit the UCLA Film Archive again. Almost three years after my first visit there to watch Skippy and East Lynne , I went back to view another title exclusively held on this campus. Hence, the first nominee to be reviewed in the behemoth Best Picture contest of 1934 is... The White Parade Director : Irving Cummings Screenplay : Rian James, Jesse L. Lasky, Sonya Levien, Ernest Pascal (based on the novel by Rian James) Starring : Loretta Young, John Boles, Dorothy Wilson, Muriel Kirkland, Astrid Allwyn, Frank Conroy, Jane Darwell, Sara Haden Academy Awards : 2 nominations 0 wins The copy of The White Parade that is available for general viewing at the UCLA Film Archive, while in DVD format, is not exactly in pristine condition. The D...

This year of review has certainly taken its time to complete, but despite that, the verdict was a relatively quick decision to make. Most likely, that's due to one of the films lining up almost perfectly with my taste in genre. Still, here's my explanation. The nominees for Best Picture of 1961 are: Fanny The Guns of Navarone The Hustler Judgment at Nuremberg West Side Story Selecting my least favourite of the 1961 Best Picture contenders was even easier than choosing my winner. Fanny is artificial and, though it has its charms, it is clearly overshadowed by its four competitors. Each of the remaining films would be a worthy victor. The iconic musical West Side Story is thoroughly entertaining, enough to win over the Academy and be chosen as their Best Picture. The Guns of Navarone excites with its masterful action and adventure. And Judgment at Nuremberg engages its audience by laying bare some heavy philosophical issues. But it's the gritty and abso...

With our Australian visit behind us, Kat and I are now relaxing in Los Angeles for a few days before heading back to New York. Almost immediately after arriving back in the States, America's penchant for large food portions became obvious. That's what you get for eating at The Cheesecake Factory , I guess. And now, the final movie to review from 1961's Best Picture race... Judgment at Nuremberg Director : Stanley Kramer Screenplay : Abby Mann Starring : Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, William Shatner, Werner Klemperer Academy Awards : 11 nominations 2 wins, for Best Actor (Schell) and Best Adapted Screenplay Soon after the end of World War II, a down-to-earth judge from Maine, Dan Haywood (Tracy), arrives in Germany to fill his post as the chief judge in a military tribunal. Accused of crimes against humanity, the defendants are four German judges, including the internatio...

After a busy few months, Kat and I are currently on holiday in Sydney, catching up with friends and family, and enjoying the sunshine (when it appears). And since we're only here for a short time, I've been trying to cram in as many of those Aussie things (mostly food items) that are unavailable in the States. So far, I've managed to feed my nostalgia with a packet of Toobs , an Oporto meal, a KFC Zinger burger, a sausage roll from the servo, a pizza with more than one topping (NYC, your cuisine is amazing, but you really need to learn how to top your pizzas), my mum's homemade schnitzel and dumplings, my father-in-law's barbecue, a burger with the lot, and boxes and boxes of Shapes . I also got the chance to plonk myself down in front of the TV to watch some cricket and witness the Aussies dominate the Ashes , both of which haven't happened in a long time (i.e. the watching and the dominating). Suffice it to say, it has been a very pleasant trip so far. The...

Well, this current year of review is certainly taking its time. At this rate, I'll never finish this project. But as long as I review more films in 2013 than are nominated next January, I'll take that as a win... To be fair, it's been a busy few months. In July, I went to Baltimore to guest star in an episode of the second season of House of Cards. Look out for that on Netflix early next year. In September, Kat's and my theatre company produced (and she starred in and I directed) a successful run of an Aussie musical called Once We Lived Here. And I'm currently starring as Puck in a crazy production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which all the other actors draw their characters from a hat at the beginning of each performance. (I get to play Puck every night, though.) But the biggest news of all is that Kat and I are expecting our first child in March, so I'll be trying to get as many reviews in before then. In fact, the due date is right around the Oscar...

I'm back. Another long hiatus, I know. It's hardly worth acting surprised about it any more. I won't bother with excuses. Nor will I make empty promises that it won't happen again. Instead, let's get straight into our next review. It's the eventual Best Picture winner from the 1961 race... West Side Story Director : Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins Screenplay : Ernest Lehman (based on the musical play by Arthur Laurents & Jerome Robbins) Starring : Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, Simon Oakland, Ned Glass, William Bramley Academy Awards : 11 nominations 10 wins, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Chakiris), Best Supporting Actress (Moreno) Inspired by Shakespeare's tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story moves the action from medieval Verona to contemporary New York City, and the Montagues and Capulets are replaced by two rival street gangs - the Jets, a bunch of ...

How is it already May? And while we're at it, how is it already 2013? I actually watched this next movie over a month ago, but once again, other things got in the way. One of those other things was a short film that I wrote and directed called Homesick. It's the story of an Australian couple who moves to New York with their six-year-old daughter, Molly. When Molly stops talking due to a serious bout of homesickness, her father takes her on a day trip around New York City, pretending they're back home in Sydney. Kat and I played the Aussie couple, and it was quite a surreal experience having auditions for our daughter. But we found a girl with enough red hair and freckles to pass as our progeny. The film is complete now, post production and all, and has already been entered into its first film festival, so I'll keep you all updated on its progress. We now begin our look at the nominees from the Academy's 1961 Best Picture contest. First off... Fanny Director ...

Choosing which Best Picture nominee I would have voted for is always challenging, but when there are ten contenders, as is the case for 1942, the difficulty obviously increases. As such, the possibility exists that my decision will be inadvertently influenced by a film's longevity and position in cinematic history. There's a good chance that subconscious phenomenon has occurred for this verdict, but so be it. The nominees for Best Picture of 1942 are: Kings Row The Invaders The Magnificent Ambersons Mrs. Miniver The Pied Piper The Pride of the Yankees Random Harvest The Talk of the Town Wake Island Yankee Doodle Dandy Since 1942 was the first full year in which the U.S. participated in World War II, there were understandably a great deal of pictures that dealt with war themes. Four of the Best Picture nominees use the war as a main focus, while Yankee Doodle Dandy's unabashedly patriotic style features the war towards the end of the film. Separat...

In all the post-Oscars excitement, I forgot to link to this in my last post, so here it is now: the menu from my annual Oscars party . The final nominee in the Best Picture contest of 1942 is... Random Harvest Director : Mervyn LeRoy Screenplay : Arthur Wimperis, George Froeschel, Claudine West (based on the novel by James Hilton) Starring : Ronald Colman, Greer Garson, Philip Dorn, Susan Peters, Henry Travers, Reginald Owen, Bramwell Fletcher Academy Awards : 7 nominations 0 wins Due to shell-shock from World War I, a British soldier (Colman) is now a patient in an asylum without any memory of his past life. Known now as John Smith, he escapes the asylum and befriends Paula (Garson), who immediately takes a liking to the amnesiac, taking him under her wing. After nursing him back to mental health and encouraging him to pursue his talent for writing, the two fall in love and get married. The fairy tale is destroyed, however, when Smithy is hit by a car in Liverpool a...

Another Oscars ceremony over and I managed to predict 18 of the 24 categories correctly, which equals my previous best, so I'll take it. No major surprises this year. In the end, it seems Argo comfortably took the Best Picture award after all. So since I love statistics, why don't I just list my favourite Oscar stats from this year's awards... Argo became only the fourth film to win the big prize without achieving a Best Director nomination (after Wings, Grand Hotel and Driving Miss Daisy). Ang Lee's directing win is notable for the fact that he now has two Best Director Oscars for films that did not win Best Picture (previously winning for Brokeback Mountain, which lost to Crash), a rare feat. Daniel Day-Lewis is now only the sixth performer to have three Oscar statuettes, all three of his wins for lead roles (second only to Katharine Hepburn with four Best Actress awards). Christoph Waltz achieved his second acting win from only his second nomination. And since ...

This year's Academy Awards ceremony is now less than 24 hours away, so my giddy excitement is a-brewing. While working on my predictions, I went back and forth on a number of categories, eventually contradicting some of what I wrote in the last few posts. The fact that the Best Picture winner is not at all clear (it's a tight race between Argo and Lincoln) is brilliantly exciting, especially for all those office Oscar pools, whose winners may well be decided on the last category of the night. Here are my humble predictions . From the 85th Academy Awards to the 15th, here's my take on the next Best Picture nominee from 1942... The Magnificent Ambersons Director : Orson Welles Screenplay : Orson Welles (based on the novel by Booth Tarkington) Starring : Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt, Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford, Richard Bennett Academy Awards : 4 nominations 0 wins The wealthy Amberson family is the talk of a small...

I'd like to write at least one more post before the Oscars ceremony on Sunday, but if the past is anything to go by, I'd better write about the Best Director and Best Picture races now, just in case. As I've mentioned previously, based on precursor awards alone, it would not be unreasonable to predict Argo and Ben Affleck to take out the Oscar double. The film and its director have cleaned up at the major awards (Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Critics Choice, and both the Producers and Directors Guilds). However, there's one fatal flaw in that prediction - Affleck wasn't nominated for a Best Director Oscar. So that award is now up for grabs. Michael Haneke and Benh Zeitlin, helmers of Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild, respectively, seem unlikely winners. Likewise, David O. Russell hasn't been talked about much in this category so his work on Silver Linings Playbook will most probably go unrewarded here. That leaves Steven Spielberg and Ang Lee, both previous Osca...

A few days ago, I offered my thoughts on the supporting performance categories at this year's Academy Awards. Today, let's look at the two leading actor categories. The Best Actor award is Daniel Day-Lewis' to lose. His performance in Lincoln has swept just about every industry and critic's award so far this season. An Oscar win this year would not only earn him a rare third acting Oscar (only five others have achieved that feat) but it would also mean he had won thrice in the leading role category, placing him second only to Katherine Hepburn, whose four awards were all for Best Actress. Hugh Jackman is perhaps his closest rival for the award, but it doesn't look good for Wolverine. Best Actress is more competitive, essentially a toss-up between Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty and Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook. Both won Golden Globes for their performances, but Lawrence won the SAG award. (Unexpectedly, Emmanuelle Riva won the BAFTA, but I...

Ben Affleck's frustration over being denied a Best Director Oscar nomination is once again alleviated (or enhanced, depending on your perspective) after his win at the BAFTAs yesterday. His film Argo also took out the Best Film, so the conundrum I discussed in my last post continues... Anyway, as this year's Academy Awards ceremony rapidly approaches, let's take a deeper look at some of the races, starting with the Supporting categories. The Supporting Actress Oscar has all but been engraved with Anne Hathaway's name on it. She has won almost all of the precursor awards for her role in Les Miserables and is a clear favourite. Lincoln's Sally Field is perhaps the only possible upset but I don't put her chances very high at all. Supporting Actor is a bit more complicated. At one time, I had my money on Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master, who had taken a whole bunch of the critics' prizes. But Django Unchained's Christoph Waltz won the critic's ...

For the first time in a long time, I actually have some spare time, which increases the chances of more movies being reviewed for this blog. Time will tell... It also allowed me to cram in a bunch of the current awards season's movies before I missed the deadline to vote in the SAG awards. Still a few more Oscar contenders to see, but I've caught up a little bit. The most fascinating aspect of this awards season is Argo's domination of the major awards so far. Since its director, Ben Affleck, was left off the Academy's Best Director shortlist, that seemed to close the door on the film winning Best Picture, yet it has won the main gongs at the Critic's Choice, Golden Globe and Producer's Guild ceremonies. Plus, it won the SAG's Ensemble award and Affleck himself took out the Director's Guild's top prize. Quite the conundrum. More on this year's Oscars in the next couple of weeks, but for now, on to the next review, which is another nomin...