OVP: A Star is Born (1976)

Film: A Star is Born (1976)

Stars: Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson, Gary Busey

Director: Frank Pierson

Oscar History: 4 nominations/1 win (Best Original Song-"Evergreen," Cinematography, Scoring, Sound)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2023 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the Golden Age western, and the stars who made it one of the most enduring legacies of Classical Hollywood.  This month, our focus is on Kris Kristofferson: click here to learn more about Mr. Kristofferson (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Few films live in such storied annals as A Star is Born, a film that has been told 4-5 times depending on how you handle What Price Hollywood?.  It is the quintessential Hollywood story, the public name-check when we talk about the entertainment industry.  But specific to our film today, few productions have the kinds of legendary tale as that which comes from the 1976 A Star is Born, one of the most infamous film shoots in movie history.  Written by the journalist It Couple of the 1970's (John Gregory Dunne & Joan Didion), the shoot involved pretty much everyone hating each other.  Kris Kristofferson, then a huge star, hadn't been the first choice for the film (Streisand wanted Elvis Presley, who honestly would've been an interesting choice had that come about even though Kristofferson is the better actor of the two), and by the end of the production loathed both his leading lady and director Frank Pierson.  You've got Barbra Streisand having an affair with colorful 1970's mega-producer Jon Peters (who had just gotten a divorce from Lesley Ann Warren), and using her position as the most powerful person on the set to run roughshod over director Pierson, including getting final cut which may explain how the ending ends with a seven-minute long shot of Streisand.  A production where all of the cast isn't speaking (except the ones who are fucking each other), by the end of it can sometimes become a grand situation if the movie is good (look at Hell's Angels, now considered Howard Hughes' finest movie), but if it sucks, it becomes a Don't Worry Darling-style fiasco.  And A Star is Born sucks.

(Spoilers Ahead) This story is as engrained in Hollywood lore as you can get, so I don't know that I need a spoiler alert, but for those of you somehow unfamiliar, this is the story of John Norman Howard (Kristofferson), a washed-up rock star, who is more familiar with the bottle than the Billboard charts by the time the movie opens.  He meets, at a bar, a young singer named Esther Hoffman (Streisand), who is clearly a talent, and becomes smitten with her.  Eventually, he's producing one of her albums, and she's clearly headed to the top of the charts, and they even get married.  But there's a problem-John's demons are not only still there, but they're exacerbated by his jealousy over his wife's success, and she wants him to join in on it, rather than letting him slip into the background or not fight for what he's got.  In the end, this is the marriage (and John's) undoing, as he dies in a drunk driving accident, though unlike some of the other movies, it's not entirely clear that this is intentional or not.  Esther is now alone, but a fully-transcendent star, one who understands that she'll forever be linked with the man who fell before her.

This has been told very well (Judy Garland, Constance Bennett), solidly (Janet Gaynor), and poorly (Lady Gaga) before.  But this is the worst of the versions, because even with the others, specifically 2018's (I don't think Lady Gaga has proven capable of being a dramatic actress, and I think she's bad in the movie when she's not singing, but she gets coverage because Bradley Cooper is good and also because Gaga is a strong singer who gets one truly fantastic scene with "Shallow") there was something crackling between the two lead actors.  Gaga & Cooper, March & Gaynor, and especially Mason & Garland...there's heat.  But this film has zilch sexual chemistry between Streisand & Kristofferson, to the point where you genuinely don't understand why he fell for her.  This makes the film over-long, boring, and honestly...the leads give bad performances, particularly Streisand, who plays Esther less as an organic character onscreen and more as Barbra Streisand as herself.  Nothing about this works; honestly, I read a comment about how this feels an hour longer than the Garland version even though it's much shorter, and that summarizes my feelings exactly.

The film won four Oscar nominations, but it only earned one of them.  The sound is fine, but not spectacular (the concert scenes in Nashville a year earlier did a much better job of giving you a sense of talking at a performance, and of framing the musical numbers), and the cinematography is a similar situation, needlessly glossy & framed in a way that stops it from being romantic or creative.  The nomination for Best Scoring makes sense given the sales on the soundtrack were insane (I'm surprised it didn't win), but with one exception, none of the songs are either any good or performed organically-unlike Gaga's A Star is Born (where Gaga as a songwriter wrote plausible hits), it's not clear why the public latched onto either John or Esther as performers...save for "Evergreen."  One of the most iconic numbers of Streisand's discography, the song becomes the love theme for the movie, and while the movie's romantic overtones are never believable, lost in a song "as soft as an easy chair" you'd be forgiven for assuming this is a classic (because "Evergreen" is).

Ten Tony Losers That Still Ended Up Winners

For those wonderful Tony nominees today who are looking at your empty shelves, wondering why your agent didn't follow up on that call from Lin-Manuel Miranda, I know it's got to be rough to wonder what might have been.  After all, at this point Scott Rudin is probably using all of his Tony Awards as coasters.  But don't fret too hard-find some solace in the below ten nominees, all of whom (shockingly) missed on Tony night but went on to more lasting immortality:

Gypsy (1960) lost Best Musical

One of the most iconic shows in the Broadway canon (seriously-who hasn't done this show at some point on-stage?) didn't win too many plaudits its first go-around.  While it cemented the immortality of one Ethel Merman (she was already pretty much there), the show was up against The Sound of Music, and lost both the production trophy as well as lead actress (Merman fell to Mary Martin).  Sadly for both actresses, neither would make it to the big-screen version of their shows (Rosalind Russell & Julie Andrews would see to that), but Gypsy lives on as a near-constant revival on Broadway, while The Sound of Music had to suffer the indecency of Carrie Underwood trying her hand at it.

Hair (1969) lost Best Musical

Deeply controversial in its time, Hair only managed two Tony nominations back in its day, losing out to the far more traditional 1776.  However, it's very clear in the "dawning of the age of aquarius" which one of the two lived on in infamy.  It won a boatload of Grammy Awards and caused a worldwide sensation.  Decades later the Tony Awards rectified the situation by rewarding it the Best Revival of a Musical statue.

Grease (1971) lost Best Musical

Two Gentleman from Verona has the dubious distinction of losing out to arguably the most popular American musical of the past fifty years.  Grease lost the Tony Award in 1971 to the Shakespearean adaptation, but went on to become (at the time) the longest-running musical in Broadway history, and eventually launched into an even more successful film, the highest-grossing movie musical of all-time.

Chicago (1976) lost Best Musical

In 1976 it probably made sense that Chicago, a dark musical comedy that had received mixed reviews would falter to the smash hit Pulitzer Prize-winner A Chorus Line, which would go on to become (at the time) the longest-running musical in Broadway history.  However, the tables turned in a truly remarkable fashion a few years later.  A Chorus Line watched its cinematic version bomb, while Chicago was bolstered by a smash revival and a big-screen adaptation that won the Best Picture Oscar. And that revival?  It's now run longer than A Chorus Line.  And all that jazz.

Dreamgirls (1982) lost Best Musical

Even in 1982, it's kind of hard to believe that Nine was able to take out Dreamgirls at the top of the Tony Awards, considering that Dreamgirls was clearly going to run for years while Nine was mostly being bolstered by the stage prowess of one Raul Julia.  Even with that surprise, Dreamgirls persevered, lasting longer on Broadway, and eventually getting a huge big-screen adaptation that won a different Jennifer an Oscar.  Nine, on the other hand, watched its big-screen adaptation go up-in-smoke, proving that even Daniel Day-Lewis can't do everything.

Miss Saigon (1991) lost Best Musical

Here the revenge might not be a film adaptation or eventually getting a major revival, but instead just money.  LOTS and LOTS of money.  Miss Saigon somehow got bested by Will Rogers Follies in 1991, but would go on to become a massive hit on Broadway, going strong for ten years and doing over 4000 shows in that time, becoming a staple of Shubert Alley in the 1990's.

Wicked (2004) lost Best Musical

I actually remember this happening, as I was old enough to be watching the Tony Awards and being floored by Avenue Q taking this trophy.  While the puppet musical has enjoyed some resonance, it hasn't remotely approached the dominance that Wicked has over the past decade, as the Wizard of Oz musical launched the careers of stars Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel, grossed over $2.5 billion, and is still one of the hottest tickets on the Great White Way.  Now if only they'd finally get around to the movie...

Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady lost Best Actress (1957)

Julie Andrews for a brief moment there was somehow the charm of Broadway and someone who was in desperate need of some luck.  She lost Best Actress at the Tony Awards for her immortal star-turn as Eliza Doolittle to Judy Holliday and soon lost out on the part in the big-screen adaptation when Jack Warner refused to cast an "unknown" and put in Audrey Hepburn.  Andrews got revenge, though, when she made a massive hit of her own in Mary Poppins, and won both the Oscar and Golden Globe over Hepburn.  During her Globes speech, she even cheekily thanked "Jack Warner for making all of this possible."

Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl lost Best Actress (1964)

Streisand made a triumphant return to the Tony Awards last night, but it was in 1964 that she made one of her biggest splashes.  She was a massive triumph in Funny Girl on Broadway, but she lost out in one of those "she truly would have won in any other year" situations when Carol Channing's immortal role of Dolly Levi came about.  Streisand also got revenge, though, going on four years later to win the Oscar for her work in Funny Girl, and then the following year gave her own rendition of Dolly Levi, being cast over Channing in the big-screen adaptation.

Eileen Heckart in Butterflies are Free lost Best Featured Actress (1970)

Perhaps no one better says "if at first you don't succeed, try try again" than Eileen Heckart.  The longtime character actress had to not only lose the Tony Award, but lose it to her fellow cast member Blythe Danner in 1970.  Two years later, Heckart would be picking up an Oscar for her work in the cinematic adaptation, while Danner was unceremoniously dismissed in favor of Goldie Hawn for the lead.

There you have it-any other stories of triumph after losing to share with the Tony losers from last night?  And share your favorite thoughts in general on what I thought was a lovely night!

Best Picture & Best Actress: Oscar Trivia Time!

Considering that we went through the list of women this morning who had received crucial roles in Academy Award Best Picture nominees, I thought it might be fun to make it a day of actresses and Best Picture, and take a look at the extremely strong correlation between Best Picture and Best Actress.  As I've mentioned before, whenever a Best Picture features a woman in a crucial lead role, they nearly always get nominated.  I have my own theories as to why this occurs (though sexism rears its ugly head a bit, in my opinion, and certainly the dearth of good roles for women is also a factor), but nonetheless it's a very common occurrence, even in the expanded field.  In fact, this year marks the first time ever since we went from 5 to 5+ nominees in Best Picture where an actress, Charlize Theron, is actually the lead of a Best Picture nominee but didn't receive a corresponding Oscar nomination (the other two female leads in Best Picture nominees this year, Saoirse Ronan and Brie Larson, are both nominated).  Since we now have Theron on the list, I figured it would be fun to count down the Top 10 most-recent actresses to star in a Best Picture nominee but not get a corresponding Oscar nomination.  Let's take a look, shall we?

(Note: I am giving the film a pass if it managed a nomination for Best Actress but had two leading ladies.  However, if I didn't make that exception, Emma Stone in The Help and Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right would be seen below.  Also, I'm making a few judgment calls regarding lead and supporting for films like Jerry Maguire and The Cider House Rules-the comments are there to correct or disagree).

1. Charlize Theron (2015)

Film: Mad Max: Fury Road

Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 10 nominations, though none for acting

Her Oscar History: Theron has been nominated twice, for Monster and North Country (does anyone remember that movie?), and won of course for Monster.

Precursors Won by Theron: Relatively minor-Theron received a BFCA nomination for Best Actress, but largely disappeared from the conversation despite Mad Max remaining a steady presence.

Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: Action films almost never can land an Oscar acting nomination, even with a female lead and when they are hailed amongst the best ever (see also Number 6 on this list).  Even still, I was partially wondering if Theron might make it to the Dolby if only because it truly had been seven years since a lead actress had last missed for a Best Picture nominee and I was starting to wonder if it was still possible (I came very close to predicting her).

2. Cate Blanchett (2008)

Film: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 13 nominations, including two for acting

Her Oscar History: Blanchett is an Oscar favorite-she had a trophy and five nominations at the point of this snub, and has since won another Oscar for Blue Jasmine and is up again this year for Carol.

Precursors Won by Blanchett: Blanchett did score a BFCA nomination, but was absent for most of the rest of the season which focused on Brad Pitt and Taraji P. Henson.

Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: Blanchett's work in the film was solid and filled with a lot of Oscar bait (including prosthetics), but she had just been nominated twice-in-one-year for I'm Not There and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, the latter of which was an eyebrow-raising citation.  I'm guessing the Academy needed a break.

3. Keira Knightley (2007)

Film: Atonement

Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 7 nominations, including one for acting

Her Oscar History: Knightley had received her first Oscar nomination two years earlier for Pride and Prejudice.  She has since received one nomination for The Imitation Game.

Precursors Won by Knightley: The Globes, BAFTA's, and Satellite Awards all nominated Knightley.

Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: First off, it's important to remember that 2007 was not one of Oscar's finest years for this category-Cate Blanchett's work in The Golden Age still being a bizarre inclusion and Laura Linney's excellent work in The Savages being a highly pleasant but unexpected one.  I think that youth (she'd just been nominated) and overall apathy toward this film (which was a far bigger hit with the Globes and couldn't get Joe Wright a Best Director nomination with AMPAS) meant that Knightley was probably in seventh (with Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart the biggest surprise miss with Oscar).

4. Toni Collette (2006)

Film: Little Miss Sunshine

Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 4 nominations, including two for acting

Her Oscar History: Collette has one Oscar nomination, for The Sixth Sense, which at the time was a bit of a surprise (most thought it would be Cameron Diaz for Being John Malkovich), but now we assume it made complete sense.

Precursors Won by Collette: Collette was nominated for Best Lead Actress at the Golden Globes, and then to add to the confusion she was cited for Best Supporting Actress at the BAFTA Awards for the same performance.

Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: Category confusion is always a rough go-with Collette landing in both categories, she's splitting what was already likely a weak base of support in what was a very strong list of female performers (Collette, though regularly a talented actor, would have been ousting a considerably better performance had she made it in the Best Actress field).  Plus, with only four nominations and nothing in Best Director, this was not a film with a wide range of support (it's the sort of film we'd assume wouldn't have made the Top 5 in the post-2008 era, which proves such postulations may not always be accurate).

5. Scarlett Johansson (2003)

Film: Lost in Translation

Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 4 nominations, including one for acting

Her Oscar History: Johansson has been favored by the HFPA and the BAFTA Awards, but Oscar has yet to call despite plenty of opportunities.

Precursors Won by Johansson: Johansson won the BAFTA for her performance and picked up a nomination at the Globes.

Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: Unlike Collette, I think that Johansson had a real shot at an Oscar nomination this year, but the Best Actress field was ALL over the map (for you AMPAS youngsters, think 2012 and add a bit more category confusion crazy).  Johansson also had a muddled campaign with two major strikes against her: one, that she had another award-worthy performance that year (her Golden Globe-nominated work in Girl with a Pearl Earring) and someone decided at the last minute to campaign her as supporting to not compete with the other performance, despite the Globes and BAFTA (and common sense) dictating this was a lead performance.  Strike either of those two issues, and you probably would have seen a nomination in one of the categories.  Instead, it's twelve years later and ScarJo is still waiting for that invitation to the club.

6. Michelle Yeoh (2000)

Film: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 10 nominations, though astoundingly none for acting

Her Oscar History: Michelle Yeoh has never been nominated for an Oscar.

Precursors Won by Yeoh: Yeoh received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress.

Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: Like 2006, this was a very tough Best Actress lineup to break, and if it was going to go, it was probably going to be Renee Zellweger in Nurse Betty who was going to do it (she won a Golden Globe nomination over an Oscar nominee, a pretty rare occurrence).  However, Yeoh's problem may have been both that foreign language films have a notoriously rough go with the Oscars (as opposed to the BAFTA Awards, where actors are much more readily embraced) and action/fantasy films rarely can make it in leading categories (in this way Sandra Bullock is in an odd exception to the rule for Gravity recently).

7. Andie MacDowell (1994)

Film: Four Weddings and a Funeral

Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 2 nominations, none for acting

Her Oscar History: Ms. MacDowell had a brief moment of major fame in the early 1990's, but couldn't parlay any of her three Golden Globe nominations into an Oscar citation.

Precursors Won by MacDowell: MacDowell won a Golden Globe nomination, but lost to Jamie Lee Curtis.

Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: Trying to figure out what was happening in the 1994 Best Actress race is one of the great mysteries of life.  Honestly-you have the Academy skipping Meryl Streep for a performance both the Globes and SAG Awards nominated her for (only time ever that's happened), you have Jamie Lee Curtis winning the Globe over the star of a Best Picture nominee, and you have Jennifer Jason Leigh enjoying what would be one of several Academy snubs in the mid-1990's (her curse finally being lifted this past year).  Plus, there was that whole scandal about Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction being disqualified because the movie aired on HBO before it was in theaters.  Even though we know Jessica Lange won, it's hard to figure out who on earth ranked 2nd-5th (because I'm a sadist, I'm guessing Sarandon, Foster, Richardson, and Ryder).  As I mention in the linked review, I didn't care for MacDowell at all in this film (the worst major performance in the movie), but that hasn't stopped Oscar before, and lest we forget she was a fairly big name in movies at the time.  Who knows, I guess.  Forget it Jake, it's 1994?

8 (tie). Annette Bening (1991)

Film: Bugsy

Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 10 nominations, including three for acting

Her Oscar History: Bening has received four nominations, one of which came the year before Bugsy (which you would have thought would have built her some goodwill).  I've long believed that Bening has the terrible fate of probably being in second place all four times that she was nominated.

Precursors Won by Bening: Bening was nominated for the Golden Globe

Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: Of all the ten women on this list, this is probably the hardest to explain.  From what I understand, the Silence of the Lambs sweep was not expected, and Bugsy was actually a frontrunner for the Best Picture trophy.  Considering it was 1964 when a Best Picture winner had their leading lady skipped last, Bening's snub seems that much stranger.  Also, Oscar loves afterglow nominations and she had just lost the year before for The Grifters, and was married to a very popular member of the Academy.  However, whether out of genuine love for the performance (which has been called "tepid") or out of personal popularity (most likely) Bette Midler translated a Golden Globe win into a fifth place Oscar nod, keeping Bening out of the field.  If we want to postulate further, considering that Davis/Sarandon were splitting their votes and Laura Dern was in a little seen film, one could also make the argument that Bening would have ended up getting yet another second place for Bugsy, so perhaps this was for the best?

8 (tie). Barbra Streisand (1991)

Film: The Prince of Tides

Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 7 nominations, including two for acting

Her Oscar History: Streisand has an interesting history with Oscar, but she does have five nominations in various fields (including two for acting: The Way We Were and her winning role in Funny Girl).

Precursors Won by Streisand: Though she was cited at multiple awards shows (including the Oscars) for either producing or directing, from what I can find she wasn't nominated for any for her acting.

Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: As we've discussed on this blog before, Streisand has a pretty sketchy history with Oscar for someone who has two trophies.  Most people don't really seem to talk about her lack of a nomination for acting here; rather the focus is on how she missed in the Best Director field despite a citation from the DGA Awards.  This was a period, though, of pretty high profile snubs in the Best Director field, with Bruce Beresford and Rob Reiner also missing in widely-discussed instances.  I think that if we looked at the sixth or even seventh places in 1991 we'd surely find Bening's name but not Streisand's.

10. Demi Moore (1990)

Film: Ghost

Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 5 nominations, including one for acting

Her Oscar History: Demi Moore has never been nominated for an Oscar.

Precursors Won by Moore: I'm as surprised as you to find this out, but Moore did get a Golden Globe nomination for Ghost.

Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: I'm trying really hard not to editorialize with these different nominations, but does anyone actually think that Demi Moore deserved an Oscar nomination for Ghost?  The Academy chose one woman from this film to nominate, and I think we can all agree they chose the correct actress.  Moore also doesn't have a traditionally lead role in this film-that's definitely Swayze, and not only was she competing with Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Anjelica Huston, Kathy Bates, and Joanne Woodward (one of the extremely rare years where all five nominees either had or were going to have Academy Awards) amongst women who actually got nominated, but outside the nominations were Michelle Pfeiffer for The Russia House, Andie MacDowell for Green Card, and Mia Farrow in Alice.  Moore didn't stand a prayer.

Those are the Top 10 most recent actresses to miss when their film made the top prize lineup.  Which do you wager was the closest to making it (my money's on Bening)?  Which do you think was furthest away (my money's on Collette)?  And which deserved it most (I've seen eight of these, and Johansson is certainly my favorite)?  Share in the comments!

Top 200 Favorite Songs, Part 17

(If you're just tuning in, I'm doing a rundown of my Top 200 Favorite Songs-see the bottom of the page for previous entries and welcome!)

Every closeted gay person when they're growing up has to deal with a little bit of internalized homophobia.  You're trying to cope with something you don't quite understand, almost always by yourself, and as a result of that you get to Kubler-Ross's third stage for a good long while.  While I never went through the homophobic to others stage A) because I figured that would be extremely wrong and probably scar me karmically and B) it also would have been morbidly out-of-character, causing more people to raise an eyebrow than just me staying silent or dismissing bullying as wrong, I did have that brief period where I pretended not to like certain things (including boys, but that's not the point here) that were associated with gay culture.  I watched Will and Grace on the down-low, I read my copy of Oscar Wilde books secretly and without talking about them, and most importantly I openly detested any music from gay icons, most frequently Barbra Streisand.  It was something someone could have seen through pretty quickly-I was still a massive movie-nerd, and the idea of me dismissing the star of one of my favorite movies at the time as being "not really my thing" was ridiculous.  I would, as I grow up, learn to accept my love of both men and Barbra Streisand, and get over that internalized homophobia by the time I came out, but I do always remember our rocky start whenever I find myself falling for another performance or song that I'm hearing or seeing for the first time.  Like almost everyone who has heard Babs belt out a number, we've had a long history, but I'm glad everything's coming up roses now.

40. "Eternal Flame," The Bangles (1988)

I frequently find myself disparaging the 1980's in terms of music-it's definitely the decade that I find I have the least appreciation for the "popular" sound of the era.  However, there's a couple of big exceptions, perhaps none more so than The Bangles soft-rock ballad about forever love, and wondering if it truly is forever.  And yes, this is yet another song on this list inspired by Gilmore Girls love.

39. "Fix You," Coldplay (2005)

I remember after probably the hardest breakup of my life, I decided to make this my official anthem for it.  The guy I had separated from had always proclaimed this his favorite Coldplay song, but for some reason I'd never really listened to it beforehand.  While the song is more about loss than an end to a relationship, it still suited the moment, and in the years since it has given more hope than sadness to me, as like with all things time has even healed that wound.

38. "The Thrill is Gone," BB King (1969)

We lost The King of the Blues earlier this year, and I appropriately mourned by playing this song a few times on repeat.  With that growl of a beginning, all the way to King's throaty proclamation of the Blues, this is easily his quintessential song, and probably the best example of the entire genre-an absolutely masterpiece.

37. "The Boxer," Simon & Garfunkel (1969)

Despite the fact that they're not going to get a top write-up, Simon & Garfunkel are actually the most represented artists on this entire countdown with six songs (with that many, they don't really need the top write-up).  "The Boxer" is probably their harshest song on the list, showing the very salty bitterness that comes along with life.

36. "I'll Stand By You," The Pretenders (1994)

Oh, why you look so sad?  The opening of this song shows that it isn't your typical rock song, and not just because you have Chrissie Hynde's voice stands out in music.  The song is a solitary anthem, frequently borrowing from Ben E. King's similarly-themed "Stand By Me," but here it's a sign of support rather than a plea for one.

35. "Save Me," Aimee Mann (1999)

I remember the night of the Oscars, I had not yet seen Magnolia (I was too young), and I remembered thinking this song sounded strange, but had been cheering for the Sarah MacLachlan tune.  Years later I realized the error in both mine (and the Academy's ways) as this is hands-down one of the most egregiously-snubbed songs to be nominated for the Oscar.  Moving and effortless.

34. "The Way We Were," Barbra Streisand (1973)

Oscar got this one right, however.  This Marvin Hamlisch-tune is truly romantic, much like the movie which I have seen more times than I can count through the years.  There's a great scene in Gilmore Girls (again!) where Lorelai is describing the movie and talks about the  "bookshelves" and says to her ex-boyfriend "you probably don't remember the bookshelves" and I recall thinking, "I remember the bookshelves."

33. "Back to Black," Amy Winehouse (2006)

Amy Winehouse's life may always be a mirage of drugs and tragedy, but her music, well, it is that in the best sense.  The finest track from her breakout album, "Back to Black" is dark, menacing, and one that shows the harsher reactions we have when we're dumped ("we only said goodbye with words").  It's also a song in the vein of Nina Simone, with an edge even Nina wouldn't have dared to find.

32. "Night Moves," Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band (1976)

Despite listening to a lot of Bob Seger as a child, I never really got into this specific song until fairly recently.  It has slowly become my favorite, a cool nostalgic look at when life was a lot more focused on simple things, and then the way that "autumn rolls in."  Rough, magical, it's sort of a dream how relaxed and effortless this tune is.

31. "Billie Jean," Michael Jackson (1983)

I never really know how to handle Michael Jackson.  Clearly the man made some of the most memorable pop music of the past forty years, but his personal life has pretty much erased any chance of my loving him (I'm sorry, but there's too much smoke there for my taste).  However, it's impossible not to look at a song like "Billie Jean," dance-perfection and lyrically-sculpted, and not see the genius that was there.

Those are my thoughts-what are yours?  With just thirty songs left, are there still songs you're holding out for?  Have you been enjoying this run-down?  And what are your thoughts on Barbra Streisand?  Share in the comments!

If you've missed any of the past installments, go ahead and click: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

Best Picture & Best Actress: Oscar Trivia Time

I recently went through some very fun stats regarding Amy Adams and her "upset" nomination over Emma Thompson in the Best Picture race (check it out!), and thought I might expand on it.  More than almost any other category, Best Picture and Best Actress have a strangely strong correlation.  It is extremely rare that if a Best Picture-nominated film has a lead actress that she doesn't instinctively get a Best Actress nomination.  While we can all quibble over what counts as "lead actress" (category fraud discussions are always fun), this year by most definitions three of the nine Best Picture nominees had a lead actress: Gravity, Philomena, and American Hustle...and all three earned Best Actress citations.  In fact, looking through the past ten years of movies, only three actresses missed when they had lead performances, whereas 24 men missed for Best Picture nominees.  Part of this, as I pointed out in my Debra Winger article, is that men tend to disproportionately get the lead in motion pictures of all ilks-there's simply not room for all of the men to be nominated, particularly in a five-wide field while Best Picture remains at nine or ten.  For proof just look at this year, where the Best Actor lineup is 100% from Best Picture nominees...and there's still no room for Tom Hanks, Steve Coogan, or Joaquin Phoenix.

While I was making the trivia sheet for Adams, though, I decided I would see how far back I would have to go to get a Top 10 list going of the Best Picture nominees that couldn't land their leading lady with Oscar (for Best Actor you only have to go back to 2010 to hit double digits).  Here's that top ten, along with a few factoids about each of the women.  The most recent is first.

(Note: I am giving the film a pass if it managed a nomination for Best Actress but had two leading ladies.  However, if I didn't make that exception, Emma Stone in The Help and Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right would be on this list.  Also, I'm making a few judgment calls regarding lead and supporting for films like Jerry Maguire, The Accidental Tourist, and The Cider House Rules-the comments are there to correct or disagree).

1. Cate Blanchett (2008)
Film: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 13 nominations, including two for acting
Her Oscar History: Blanchett is an Oscar favorite-she had a trophy and five nominations at this point, and is surely about to win her second award for Blue Jasmine.
Precursors Won by Blanchett: Blanchett did score a BFCA nomination, but was absent for most of the rest of the season which focused on Brad Pitt and Taraji P. Henson.
Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: Blanchett's work in the film was solid and filled with a lot of Oscar bait (including prosthetics), but she had just been nominated twice-in-one-year for I'm Not There and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, the latter of which was an eyebrow-raising citation.  I'm guessing the Academy needed a break.

2. Keira Knightley (2007)
Film: Atonement
Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 7 nominations, including one for acting
Her Oscar History: Knightley had received her first (and so far only) Oscar nomination two years earlier for Pride and Prejudice.
Precursors Won by Knightley: The Globes, BAFTA's, and Satellite Awards all nominated Knightley.
Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: First off, it's important to remember that 2007 was not one of Oscar's finest years for this category-Cate Blanchett's work in The Golden Age still being a bizarre inclusion and Laura Linney's excellent work in The Savages being a highly pleasant but unexpected one.  I think that youth (she'd just won) and overall apathy toward this film (which was a far bigger hit with the Globes and couldn't get Joe Wright a Best Director nomination with AMPAS) meant that Knightley was probably in seventh (with Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart the biggest surprise miss with Oscar).

3. Toni Collette (2006)
Film: Little Miss Sunshine
Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 4 nominations, including two for acting
Her Oscar History: Collette has one Oscar nomination, for The Sixth Sense, which at the time was a bit of a surprise (most thought it would be Cameron Diaz for Being John Malkovich), but now we assume it made complete sense.
Precursors Won by Collette: Collette was nominated for Best Lead Actress at the Golden Globes, and then to add to the confusion she was cited for Best Supporting Actress at the BAFTA Awards for the same performance.
Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: Category confusion is always a rough go-with Collette landing in both categories, she's splitting what was already likely a weak base of support in what was a very strong list of female performers (Collette, though regularly a talented actor, would have been ousting a considerably better performance had she made it in the Best Actress field).  Plus, with only four nominations and nothing in Best Director, this was not a film with a wide range of support (it's the sort of film we'd assume wouldn't have made the Top 5 in the post-2008 era.

4. Scarlett Johansson (2003)
Film: Lost in Translation
Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 4 nominations, including one for acting
Her Oscar History: Johansson has been favored by the HFPA and the BAFTA Awards, but Oscar has yet to call despite plenty of opportunities.
Precursors Won by Johansson: Johansson won the BAFTA for her performance and picked up a nomination at the Globes.
Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: Unlike Collette, I think that Johansson had a real shot at an Oscar nomination this year, but the Best Actress field was ALL over the map (for you AMPAS youngsters, think 2012 and add a bit more category confusion crazy).  Johansson also had a muddled campaign with two major strikes against her: one, that she had another award-worthy performance that year (her Golden Globe-nominated work in Girl with a Pearl Earring) and someone decided at the last minute to campaign her as supporting to not compete with the other performance, despite the Globes and BAFTA (and common sense) dictating this was a lead performance.  Strike either of those two issues, and you probably would have seen a nomination in one of the categories.  Instead, it's ten years later and ScarJo is still waiting for that invitation to the club.

5. Michelle Yeoh (2000)
Film: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 10 nominations, though astoundingly none for acting
Her Oscar History: Ms. Yeoh has never been nominated for an Oscar.
Precursors Won by Yeoh: Yeoh received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress.
Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: Like 2006, this was a very tough Best Actress lineup to break, and if it was going to go, it was probably going to be Renee Zellweger in Nurse Betty who was going to do it (she won a Golden Globe nomination over an Oscar nominee, a pretty rare occurrence).  However, Yeoh's problem may have been both that foreign language films have a notoriously rough go with the Oscars (as opposed to the BAFTA Awards, where actors are much more readily embraced) and action/fantasy films rarely can make it in leading categories (in this way Sandra Bullock is in an odd exception to the rule).

6. Andie MacDowell (1994)
Film: Four Weddings and a Funeral
Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 2 nominations, none for acting
Her Oscar History: Ms. MacDowell had a brief moment of major fame in the early 1990's, but couldn't parlay any of her three Golden Globe nominations into an Oscar citation.
Precursors Won by MacDowell: MacDowell won a Golden Globe nomination, but lost to Jamie Lee Curtis.
Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: Trying to figure out what was happening in the 1994 Best Actress race is one of the great mysteries of life.  Honestly-you have the Academy skipping Meryl Streep for a performance both the Globes and SAG Awards nominated her for (only time ever that's happened), you have Jamie Lee Curtis winning the Globe over the star of a Best Picture nominee, and you have Jennifer Jason Leigh enjoying what would be one of several Academy snubs in the mid-1990's.  Plus, there was that whole scandal about Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction being disqualified because the movie aired on HBO before it was in theaters.  Even though we know Jessica Lange won, it's hard to figure out who on earth ranked 2nd-5th (because I'm a sadist, I'm guessing Sarandon, Foster, Richardson, and Ryder).  As I mention in the linked review, I didn't care for MacDowell at all in this film (the worst major performance in the movie), but that hasn't stopped Oscar before, and lest we forget she was a fairly big name in movies at the time.  Who knows, I guess.  Forget it Jake, it's 1994?

7 (tie). Annette Bening (1991)
Film: Bugsy
Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 10 nominations, including three for acting
Her Oscar History: Bening has received four nominations, one of which came the year before Bugsy (which you would have thought would have built her some goodwill).  I've long believed that Bening has the terrible fate of probably being in second place all four times that she was nominated.
Precursors Won by Bening: Bening was nominated for the Golden Globe
Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: Of all the ten women on this list, this is probably the hardest to explain.  From what I understand, the Silence of the Lambs sweep was not expected, and Bugsy was actually a frontrunner for the Best Picture trophy.  Considering it was 1964 when a Best Picture winner had their leading lady skipped last, Bening's snub seems that much stranger.  Also, Oscar loves afterglow nominations and she had just lost the year before for The Grifters, and was married to a very popular member of the Academy.  However, whether out of genuine love for the performance (which has been called "tepid") or out of personal popularity (most likely) Bette Midler translated a Golden Globe win into a fifth place Oscar nod, keeping Bening out of the field.  If we want to postulate further, considering that Davis/Sarandon were splitting their votes and Laura Dern was in a little seen film, one could also make the argument that Bening would have ended up getting yet another second place for Bugsy, so perhaps this was for the best?

7 (tie). Barbra Streisand (1991)
Film: The Prince of Tides
Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 7 nominations, including two for acting
Her Oscar History: Streisand has an interesting history with Oscar, but she does have five nominations in various fields (including two for acting: The Way We Were and her winning role in Funny Girl).
Precursors Won by Streisand: Though she was cited at multiple awards shows (including the Oscars) for either producing or directing, from what I can find she wasn't nominated for any for her acting.
Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: As we've discussed on this blog before, Streisand has a pretty sketchy history with Oscar for someone who has two trophies.  Most people don't really seem to talk about her lack of a nomination for acting here; rather the focus is on how she missed in the Best Director field despite a citation from the DGA Awards.  This was a period, though, of pretty high profile snubs in the Best Director field, with Bruce Beresford and Rob Reiner also missing in widely-discussed instances.  I think that if we looked at the sixth or even seventh places in 1991 we'd surely find Bening's name but not Streisand's.

9. Demi Moore (1990)
Film: Ghost
Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 5 nominations, including one for acting
Her Oscar History: Ms. Moore has never been nominated for an Oscar.
Precursors Won by Moore: I'm as surprised as you to find this out, but Moore did get a Golden Globe nomination for Ghost.
Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: I'm trying really hard not to editorialize with these different nominations, but does anyone really think that Demi Moore deserved an Oscar nomination for Ghost?  The Academy chose one woman from this film to nominate, and I think we can all agree they chose the correct actress for the slot.  Moore also doesn't have a traditionally lead role in this film-that's definitely Swayze, and not only was she competing with Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Anjelica Huston, Kathy Bates, and Joanne Woodward (one of the extremely rare years where all five nominees either had or were going to have Academy Awards) amongst women who actually got nominated, but outside the nominations were Michelle Pfeiffer for The Russia House, Andie MacDowell for Green Card, and Mia Farrow in Alice.  Moore didn't stand a prayer.

10. Sarah Miles (1987)
Film: Hope and Glory
Number of Nominations the Film Picked Up: 5 nominations, none for acting
Her Oscar History: Seventeen years before Miles picked up steam for this performance she was nominated for Best Actress in Ryan's Daughter, her only Oscar citation.
Precursors Won by Miles: Miles got a nomination for Best Actress at BAFTA, where the film received a staggering thirteen nominations.
Best Guess as to Why She Was Skipped: I'm going to be honest here-I haven't seen The Accidental Tourist in fifteen years, so I don't remember if Kathleen Turner should be taking this spot or if she is in fact a second supporting actress (if so, being wildly upstaged in the memories of everyone including myself by Geena Davis cost her that nomination).  Otherwise, Miles missed both because this was a relatively small film (I believe it's the lowest-grossing Best Picture nominee of the past thirty years) and because this was a very competitive Best Actress year.  One of the Oscar nominees hadn't had their names called at the Golden Globes (Meryl Streep in Ironweed) making her the logical fifth place, but you also had Rachel Chagall in Gaby: A True Story, Diane Keaton in Baby Boom, Barbra Streisand in Nuts, and the late career comebacks from Bette Davis and Lillian Gish in The Whales of August.  All of those names add up to Miles being lucky to make the Top 10 with Oscar, much less get a second nomination.

Those are the Top 10 most recent actresses to miss when their film made the top prize lineup.  Which do you wager was the closest to making it (my money's on Bening)?  Which do you think was furthest away (my money's on Miles or Collette)?  And which deserved it most (I've seen seven of these, and Johansson is certainly my favorite)?  Share in the comments!

Golden Globe Nominations ≠ Oscar Nominations, Part 3

The last in our series of articles about the Golden Globes (at least for now), I thought it would be a nice time to profile the directors who have missed at the Oscars.

The director list is much, much smaller.  The reason for this is pretty obvious-with the acting Globes, there are fifteen nominees each year that will equal at most ten nominations (leaving a certain five snubbed performances), whereas the directors are both five, unless there's a tie at the Globes.  Therefore, it's really just a case of the Globes liking certain directors more than the others.

In fact, it's so rare only 21 directors have received more than one nomination at the Globes and not received a subsequent nomination at the Oscars.  I'm not profiling all 21, so I'm just going to do a write-up of the six people who have either received more than two misses at the Oscars or have never received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director.  For the record, though, Anthony Minghella, Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Zinnemann, Hal Ashby, James L. Brooks, John Huston, Martin Scorsese, Milos Forman, Richard Attenborough, Robert Redford, Robert Wise, Sidney Lumet, Stanley Kramer, Stanley Kubrick, and William Wyler all have two nominations that didn't translate with AMPAS.  The remainder are...

6. Edward Zwick

Best Director Golden Globe Nominations: Glory (1989) and Legends of the Fall (1994)
Best Director Academy Award Nominations: None

Zwick has made a career out of making Academy-friendly films that the Academy for which the Academy won't honor him.  It's kind of hard to believe that the man who made not only Glory and Legends of the Fall but also Courage Under Fire, The Last Samurai, and Blood Diamond hasn't managed to get into Oscars good graces here.  Glory, in particular, has to have been close to making the lineup, but for me it's all about Legends of the Fall, one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasure movies.  Zwick has been far luckier in the Best Picture race, picking up a nomination for Traffic and his very own Oscar for Shakespeare in Love.

5. John Frankenheimer

Best Director Golden Globe Nominations: The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Seven Days in May (1964)

Best Director Academy Award Nominations: None

If you can believe it, the legendary Frankenheimer never once received an Academy Award nomination, despite making The Manchurian Candidate, Birdman of Alcatraz, Seven Days in May, The Train, Grand Prix, and The Fixer.  Frankenheimer is in fact the only person of these 21 directors to never have received an Oscar nomination in any category, even though on top of his pair of Globe nominations, he also received two DGA nominations, which are usually a great predictor of Oscar nominations.  Of the two, my guess is that he was slightly closer for The Manchurian Candidate, not just because it's one of the best films ever made, but because it also scored a Film Editing nomination, which is a better predictor for Best Director than the Art Direction nomination earned for Seven Days in May.

4. Barbra Streisand

Best Director Golden Globe Nominations: Yentl (1983) and The Prince of Tides (1991); Streisand won the trophy for Yentl

Best Director Academy Award Nominations: None

Yep, Streisand, who also showed up on our actors list, is also one of the most snubbed directors, and the only woman of the 21.  She also managed to pull off a trophy at the Globes for Yentl and a DGA nomination at The Prince of Tides.  It's really hard to tell what the Academy has against Streisand-her films aren't 100% up-their-alley, but it's difficult to imagine that sexism hasn't played a bit of a part in her persistent misses at the Oscars.  Streisand can at least take comfort in the fact that she has received five nominations and two trophies, but based on her precursors, it's hard not to feel that that number would be higher with a male of a similar level of fame and filmic contributions.

3. Clint Eastwood

Best Director Golden Globe Nominations: Bird (1988), Unforgiven (1992), Mystic River (2003), Million Dollar Baby (2004), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Invictus (2009); Eastwood won trophies for Bird, Unforgiven, and Million Dollar Baby

Best Director Academy Award Nominations: Unforgiven (1992), Mystic River (2003), Million Dollar Baby (2004), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006); Eastwood won trophies for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby

Eastwood's support at the Oscars sometimes gets a bit overstated as a nominee.  Sure, he's been hugely rewarded, but he's only really been successful at the Oscars with four films, whereas at the Globes he persistently gets nominated on far more occasions.  The Globes, always a fan of giving a celebrity a reward, regularly give Best Director to an actor when they didn't even receive a nomination at the Oscars (Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand, Ben Affleck, and Clint all fall into this camp), which is probably why Clint scored for Bird.  As for the other two, the far more "directorial vision" films United 93 and Precious prevailed, so it's hard to argue that Oscar made the correct choice.

2. Steven Spielberg

Best Director Golden Globe Nominations: Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The Color Purple (1985), Schindler's List (1993), Amistad (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Munich (2005), Lincoln (2012); Spielberg won trophies for Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan

Best Director: Academy Award Nominations: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Schindler's List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Munich (2005), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), Lincoln (2012); Spielberg won trophies for Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan

It's impossible not to look at that list of films and just be damn amazed.  I have always loved Spielberg, though there was a time when my love waned (I blame Dawson's Creek, which I watched religiously due to a massive crush on Kerr Smith and a deep love for his relationship with Michelle Williams, but it was so horribly written and Dawson was so annoying, and clearly had no respect for film since he only doted on one director in a sea of thousands).  However, it's hard to argue with either of these two lists.  Trying to figure out which film he was the closest on is a crazy game-Jaws and The Color Purple were not only Best Picture nominees, but strong Best Picture nominees, and the directorial branch managed to throw out Spielberg in favor of two foreign directors those years (Spielberg can take comfort in knowing that he lost to Federico Fellini and Akira Kurosawa, but still).  Those snubs are the stuff of legend, but I also suspect he was just as close for Amistad (he received a DGA nomination for Amistad as well, for the record, a sign of a close, close race).  The sixth nomination, for the breathtaking A.I. (probably my favorite of all of his movies), was a surprise to me (I'd forgotten this happened), but considering Todd Field and Baz Luhrmann had Best Picture nominees and missed out as well as Spielberg (who has only once won a Best Director nomination without the film getting Best Picture nominated once, for Close Encounters), I don't think he was much in this race.

1. Rob Reiner

Best Director Golden Globe Nominations: Stand By Me (1986), When Hary Met Sally... (1989), A Few Good Men (1992), The American President (1995)

Best Director Academy Award Nominations: None

Christopher Nolan fans, I hate to break it to you, but your guy needs to get a little more Academy cold shoulder before he becomes the most-snubbed of directors.  Like Jim Carrey and Shirley MacLaine, Reiner stands out like a sore thumb for his lack of Oscar nominations-Reiner received not only four Globe nominations without a corresponding nomination (equalled only by Spielberg) but also three DGA nominations without ever getting an Oscar nomination (equalled only by Nolan).  Looking through his nominations, it seems obvious that A Few Good Men was the film he got closest to (Martin Brest, who missed at the Globes and the DGA Awards, was probably the one who bested him), as it's the only one of the four to gain a Best Picture slot (which gave Reiner as its producer his only Oscar nomination), though I have to wonder how close Stand By Me made it.  It got a Best Picture nomination from the Globes, as well as a DGA nomination, and a screenplay nomination from the Oscars.  1986 was one of those rare years though where only three of the DGA nominees translated into the Oscars-both Reiner and Randa Haines (Children of a Lesser God) didn't succced with Oscar, and so it's hard to tell whether Reiner was in sixth or seventh place.  1989, when Reiner missed on his third Globe/DGA combination, was a year of directorial snubs, as the precursor-lacking success of Henry V meant that Reiner, Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) and Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing) all missed out on the slot.  While all of the focus that year was on Beresford (his film would win Best Picture) and Lee (whose snub smacked of racism) missing, it was in fact Reiner who was the only person who had pulled off both precursors, and could well have been the sixth place once again.  Since American President and Ghosts of Mississippi, Reiner doesn't really make films that get nominated anymore, which means he'll likely never make it in this category again, but there's little to argue with the fact that, if anyone is due for an "old age" nomination, it's him.

And those are the most-snubbed directors-what are your thoughts?  Are you as stunned as I that the guy who directed Rumor Has It and The Bucket List is the most snubbed director in Academy history?  And  do you think that Zwick, Streisand, or Reiner will ever make it into this category?  Share in the comments!