1991 - The Prince of Tides

The dust has truly settled on another Oscar season, so let me wrap it up by noting the decidedly average result of my predictions. I correctly picked only 16 of the 23 winners this year. Mind you, I did exceedingly well with the major categories, nailing Picture, Director, both Screenplays and three out of the four acting awards. Emma Stone pipped Lily Gladstone at the post, it seems, and that was my lone error in the top eight categories.

As I write this, I'm again in Los Angeles. I'm about to finish off this current year of review, which ironically began in this very city two years ago when I saw Bugsy on the big screen. Indeed, no visit to LA is complete without at least one trip to one of the many revival cinemas here, so I have my sights set on a few potential Best Picture nominees that are screening.

For now, though, we come to the final movie in the 1991 Best Picture race...


The Prince of Tides
Director:
Barbra Streisand
Screenplay:
Pat Conroy & Becky Johnston
(based on the novel by Pat Conroy)
Starring:
Barbra Streisand, Nick Nolte, Blythe Danner, Kate Nelligan, Jeroen Krabbé, Melinda Dillon, George Carlin, Jason Gould, Brad Sullivan
Academy Awards:
7 nominations
0 wins

In a somewhat strange turn of events, I watched this movie with the genuine conviction that it was my first time seeing it. However, after checking my movie diary (yes, I maintain a spreadsheet, tracking every movie I've seen since 1994 - don't judge!), I noticed I had in fact watched The Prince of Tides over 20 years ago. Yet, I had absolutely no recollection of it. Usually, even for a film I haven't seen for many, many years, I would at least feel some slight pangs of familiarity with certain scenes, or even a line or an image, but nope, I got to the end of the movie and was still utterly convinced that was the first time I'd watched it. In a way, I suppose it means I got to enjoy all the twists and turns all over again. I wish I could watch The Sixth Sense or Fight Club or Psycho the same way.

Based on the novel of the same name, The Prince of Tides centres on high school football coach Tom Wingo (Nolte) and his South Carolinian family's struggles. His childhood was marred by an emotionally manipulative mother (Nelligan) and a physically abusive father (Sullivan), and he also seems to be in a rut with his current home life, barely caring that his wife, Sallie (Danner), is having an affair.

In New York City, Tom's sister, Savannah (Dillon), has attempted suicide, and her psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein (Streisand), has requested some help from the family. Despite loathing New York, Tom goes to meet with Dr. Lowenstein, initially remaining tight-lipped about his family's past trauma. But as he eventually opens up, he and Lowenstein begin falling for each other, complicating things further.

It would be easy to be fooled into thinking this film was based on a play, instead of the novel from which it was actually sourced. The locations are mostly static and there's an abundance of dialogue, often melodramatic. Barbra Streisand's direction doesn't shy away from that melodrama, to the point that it seems to be the main driving force behind the production. In fact, if it weren't for the headlining movie stars, you'd be forgiven for confusing this for a TV movie. Along with cheesy lines from clichéd characters, the score cements the film's melodramatic vibe. Consider the stereotypical training montage sequence. Instead of a fast-paced rock song soundtrack, à la Rocky, this one has slow classical music.

But hey, I love movies, even melodramatic ones, so regardless of that previous paragraph, this film is still very entertaining. I found myself invested in all the characters, clichéd or not. The scene where Tom finally tells the story of the family's secret definitely packs a very large emotional punch. I can also forgive the fact that the film struggles to decide whether it's a family drama or a romance flick. For the majority of the story, I would have assumed it was the former if it weren't for the film's poster inexplicably giving away the two protagonists' eventual union. Mind you, there's more to the film after that point, so thankfully, it doesn't reveal everything.

The cast all do a superb job of elevating the material. For me, the gold star goes to Blythe Danner (pictured), who not only missed out on an Oscar nomination for this moving portrayal of a frustrated wife, but has sadly never received one for any of her brilliant work. Barbra Streisand also delivers an affable performance, sans Oscar nomination. Nick Nolte as the dissatisfied family man hiding his pain with humour, and Kate Nelligan as the bitter, controlling mother were the only two cast members to receive nominations, both well deserved. In total, the film received seven nods, but walked away empty-handed on Oscar night.

Oscar Winner Predictions 2023

Well, my Oscar nomination predictions turned out to be my worst showing in about ten years. On the plus side, I correctly picked all 10 Best Picture nominees, which seems like it should be worth something. I also aced Best Costume Design for the third year in a row ... I'm not sure what that says about me.

Now, let's turn our attention to the winners. For the last couple of years, I've felt rather unsure about my picks due to a lack of clear frontrunners in most races. This year, however, most of the categories - particularly the big ones - seem unlikely to result in a surprise when the envelope is opened. Oppenheimer is almost certainly going to be mentioned a lot on Oscar night. I've pegged it for eight awards, which I'm fairly confident about, but it could even pick up one or two more. Three of the four acting races are essentially locks - Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey, Jr. and Da'Vine Joy Randolph. Only Best Actress is somewhat up in the air, with Emma Stone and Lily Gladstone basically alternating wins throughout awards season. But I'm putting my money on Gladstone to win the final battle.

While some of the craft awards will very likely find themselves as part of the Oppenheimer sweep (Cinematography and Film Editing, amongst others), others are a little trickier. I've selected Poor Things for Production Design and Costume Design, in large part because of their BAFTA wins, but the Brits often have a slight bias towards British films, so the Academy might decide to stick to a more American film and award those two categories to Barbie instead. We shall see in a few days.

In the meantime, you can check out all my predictions here.

Oscar Nomination Predictions 2023

Time for me to put on my Nostradamus hat and see if I can predict who's going to wake up to an Oscar nomination on Tuesday morning. Only 24 hours to go!

This year has been a strange one to predict. There's a small handful of films that have dominated my picks, which always makes me nervous. I've included the same four films in eight different categories and three of those films are together in a further three categories. In total, I've cited Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon and Poor Things 13 times each, followed closely by Barbie with 11 nods. Such domination by such a small selection of movies seems unlikely to come to fruition, but then again, lots of things have been changing over the last few years, so you never know. 

In any case, for better or worse, here are my predictions for the nominations of the 96th Academy Awards.

1991 - Beauty and the Beast

With the actors' and writers' strikes behind us, Oscar season is well and truly heating up. Always an exciting time of year, in large part due to the glut of Oscar-bait movies that are released. Other than the Barbenheimer duo, I've not seen many of the contenders so my watchlist is growing as rapidly as my anticipation for such titles as Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, May December, Napoleon, Past Lives, American Fiction, Poor Things, The Holdovers... So many movies, so little time.

Meanwhile, next up in 1991's shortlist is the first animated film to gain a Best Picture nomination...


Beauty and the Beast
Director:
Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
Screenplay:
Linda Woolverton
Starring:
Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, Angela Lansbury, Bradley Pierce, Rex Everhart, Jesse Corti
Academy Awards:
6 nominations
2 wins, for Best Original Score and Best Original Song

In this classic fairy tale, a heartless prince (Benson) is transformed into a monstrous beast by an enchantress, who explains that the only way to reverse the curse is to fall in love and be loved in return. Ashamed, the Beast isolates himself for many years in his castle, accompanied only by his servants who have themselves been transformed into household objects.

When an old man, Maurice (Everhart), stumbles upon the castle after losing his way in the forest, the Beast imprisons him for trespassing. Maurice's daughter, bookworm Belle (O'Hara), tracks her father to the castle and makes a deal with the Beast: she'll stay with him in the castle if he lets Maurice go. As the two get to know each other, Belle slowly discovers that the Beast is not as gruff as his outwardly appearance would suggest.

It's not often the Academy nominates a family film for its big prize, and indeed, this was the first animated film to achieve the accolade, so that in itself gives Beauty and the Beast a permanent place in Oscars history. And while the traditional hand-drawn animation is certainly outdated compared to today's shiny 3D effects, the film's beauty (no pun intended) is genuinely charming. In fact, the truth is this picture does indeed employ some early computer animation techniques, culminating in the 3D background during the ballroom dance sequence, a groundbreaking feat for the time.

This picture also came at a time when Disney was at its height in terms of musical animation (though, I suppose some would argue they've always dominated that space). The Little Mermaid was a couple of years earlier, with Aladdin, The Lion King and Pocahontas to follow soon after. All five of those films accomplished the double feat of Oscar wins for Best Original Song and Best Original Score. Some have complained that, while the songs may have deserved their respective wins, the only reason Alan Menken won four Score awards (Hans Zimmer scored The Lion King) was because Academy members didn't truly comprehend the distinction between a film's score and its songs. Certainly, the songs in Beauty and the Beast are worthy of praise due to their classic toe-tapping Broadway style and witty lyrics (hence the three nominations for Best Song) but I'd also argue that Menken's incidental music which underscores the scenes between the musical numbers is just as wonderfully emotive, well worthy of its win.

Along with witty song lyrics, the film's dialogue is often witty as well. It's easy to dismiss all these old-fashioned Disney kids movies as just that, exclusively for kids, but there's plenty of laughs for the grown-ups too. In particular, I enjoyed the banter between Lumiere and Cogsworth (pictured), expertly voiced by Jerry Orbach and David Ogden Stiers who sound like they had a lot of fun in the booth.

Granted, it's often cheesy and over the top, both in the cheap laughs and the forced melodrama, so it doesn't hold a candle to the brilliance of a Pixar movie, but it's not quite as childish as I'd imagined. In the end, of course, this is a fairy tale, and the script plays to those strengths with its streamlined and efficient story, capped off by a satisfying, albeit cliched, ending.

1991 - JFK

Oof, I'm yet again introducing a blog post by noting how embarrassingly long it has been since my last one. This time, it's just over a year (not including Oscar predictions). Hopefully, this slow pace won't remain for too much longer.

Let's dive in to another of 1991's Best Picture nominees...

JFK
Director:
Oliver Stone
Screenplay:
Oliver Stone & Zachary Sklar

(based on the books "On the Trail of the Assassins" by Jim Garrison and "Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy" by Jim Marrs)
Starring:
Kevin Costner, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Laurie Metcalf, Gary Oldman, Michael Rooker, Jay O. Sanders, Sissy Spacek, Joe Pesci
Academy Awards:
8 nominations
2 wins, for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing

Shortly after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Costner) discovers that the alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald (Oldman), had ties to his jurisdiction. Garrison and his team soon focus on anti-communist David Ferrie (Pesci) but when the FBI's own investigation clears Ferrie, Garrison drops the case.

Three years later, the government's official report on the assassination is released, but Garrison remains unconvinced that Oswald was the lone assassin. He speaks to several witnesses and gathers more evidence with an aim to bring businessman Clay Shaw (Jones) to trial for conspiring to kill Kennedy. However, Garrison's obsession with the case causes fractures in his marriage as his wife Liz (Spacek) confronts him about his priorities.

Speaking of obsessions, a school friend and I were absolutely captivated with this film as teenagers. (Not as obsessed as we were with the Back to the Future trilogy, but pretty close.) If memory serves, we saw JFK at least twice during its original theatrical run, and when it was released on home video, we pored over every detail. Watching it again for this blog - at least two decades since my last viewing - was an exercise in nostalgia. I was hooked right from the opening seconds of the film, as soon as I heard the hauntingly familiar sound of the snare drum.

Back in the 90s, I bought into all of it. All the inconsistencies and anomalies surrounding the official story of JFK's assassination were mind-blowing to me and a slam dunk in the case against the lone assassin hypothesis. Now, of course, the conspiracy theory seems like nonsense. It's simply a lot of conjecture and circumstantial evidence. But here's the thing ... it doesn't really matter. The film itself is just so well put together that even if you think the content is all fairy dust and unicorn farts, you'll still be engrossed in the mystery, astounded by each new cockamamie revelation.

It plays a bit like an episode of Law & Order, the investigative team moving from one witness to the next, interviewing each while a visual flashback complements their testimony. Occasionally, however, this leads into perhaps the film's only drawback - it's just a series of information dumps. Laurie Metcalf's deep dive into Oswald is a good example. It's a straight five minutes of pure exposition about Oswald's past. Likewise, Donald Sutherland's cameo, which is about three times longer. In some ways, the whole movie is simply a laundry list of all the supposed anomalies related to the case. It's a lot to absorb, at times.

Nonetheless, the film remains engrossing and entertaining every step of the way, which is no mean feat considering it's over three hours long. It achieves this due to some unique and stylised cinematography, along with the tense and unsettling editing, both of which earned well-deserved Oscars. John Williams' impressive score also contributes to the film's powerful atmosphere. Not only does the aforementioned snare drum riff deftly set the mood, but the main theme is memorably potent.

And what a cast! Led by Kevin Costner (pictured), who peaks with a gut-wrenching final speech, the entire cast, cameos and all, are superb. If I had to pick a few standouts, Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek and Joe Pesci each deliver compelling performances. For the trivia buffs, Oliver Stone cast his own young son, Sean, to play Garrison's eldest child. And that's an uncredited Martin Sheen voicing the narration at the beginning of the film.