1990 Oscar Viewing Project

"It's the nineties, for God's sake," and indeed it is as we encounter our 34th Oscar Viewing Project (see links to the other 33 below).  The Oscar Viewing Project is now in its 2nd third (we'll likely never be below that at this pace, as I try to get through 5-7 of them a year), and we're entering the first year of what my brother & I refer to as our "wilderness period" of movie watching.  I was born in the 1980's, but the movies didn't become my life until the mid-1990's.  This was driven by a series of events, specifically watching my first Oscars at the 1995 ceremony (i.e. the Braveheart Oscars) on repeat after my brother & I taped it, the inclusion of AMC (and eventually TCM) in my parents' cable package, the advent of the AFI 100 Years TV specials, the discovery of Entertainment Weekly at our school library, the opening of a standalone video rental place in my town, my parents letting me watch PG-13 movies, and my mom instituting Tuesday night movies, where she would take my brother & I (regardless of what was showing) to the 7 PM showing (i.e. the G/PG/sometimes PG-13 slot) while my dad had golf night, and so pretty much every week in the summer from roughly 1995 to 1998 we would watch a movie.  This gave me a pretty extensive vernacular with what was going on in the world of movies, and generally meant I had seen 20-30 films from the calendar year by year's end.

From 1990-1994, though, it's a weird spot because these are not "classics" that I had to seek out or have no memory of watching in real-time, but were really when movies were still just a "normal" thing for me, not something I was obsessed with and made my entire personality.  In 1990, I definitely watched at least two movies (The Rescuers Down Under and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) in theaters, and so I have at least some context for this year in real-time, even if the bulk of these movies are me watching them later at home.  By 1995, Oscar-related films like Apollo 13 & Babe I'd seen in movie theaters, and had known they were going to be Oscar nominees beforehand, and so the early 1990's feel like a weird time of catchup for me as a teenager, a feeling that has stretched well into adulthood.

I give you this preamble in part because this is a personal journey of Oscar exploration, and in part because I think it's good context.  The early 1990's are a time where I see some of these movies from a child's eyes (I remember my parents' VHS copies of films like Ghost & Pretty Woman, and secretly watching them when I was too young to understand what they were wholly about), and revisiting them as an adult has shifted some of my perspective on them, but in other ways they are immobile.  As always, to ground you in the films of the year, the domestic Top 10 at the box office in 1990 was:

1. Home Alone

2. Ghost

3. Dances with Wolves

4. Pretty Woman

5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

6. The Hunt for Red October

7. Total Recall

8. Die Hard 2

9. Dick Tracy

10. Kindergarten Cop

I have actually seen all of these movies, and to underline my point about growing up with them, I had seen 70% (save for #7-9) by the time I turned 16.  Honestly, you have to go Another 48 Hours at #14 on the domestic box office list to find a movie I haven't caught from the top box office that year.  While I have seen all of the Oscar nominees below, there are a couple of precursor contenders that I haven't seen yet, namely The Russia House, White Palace, and Q&A that I haven't caught yet, but plan on doing so before we get to the My Ballot.  

But now, it's time to go back to a time when Nelson Mandela was being freed in front of the world, the Hubble telescope was having us reach for the stars, Roseanne Barr was teaching us new ways to never sing on national television, and the entire nation was mourning the loss of Jim Henson.  And of course, let's remember the movies...

Note: For the last time (likely ever) the Visual Effects category was not a competitive category, but instead was given to Total Recall as a special prize.  We'll have a proper category for this when we get to it for the My Ballot with five nominees, and it's worth noting that it's relatively accepted that Dick Tracy, Ghost, and Back to the Future, Part III were shortlisted for this but none of them got nominated (all of which I've seen as well), but I want to note that Total Recall was seen by me for this project, and I generally was impressed with the visual effects, particularly the way that they used makeup effects toward the end of the picture. 

Picture

1. GoodFellas

2. Ghost

3. The Godfather, Part III

4. Dances with Wolves

5. Awakenings

The Lowdown: Let's begin with me saying that 1990 is, collectively, one of the first years I ever saw all five of the Best Picture nominees (I've had this lineup completed since before I graduated high school, which was a while ago), and also a year where (both for Oscar and in general) I don't love the movies themselves as much as others.  The glossy movie star-driven blockbusters that would become the decade's calling card hadn't started yet, and we don't have some of the best prestige work that I enjoyed in the 1980's.  Of these films, it's an easy call for GoodFellas, one of the best films of Martin Scorsese's career.  Ghost ages better with reappraisal, and Godfather 3 is not as bad as its critical reputation allows, but GoodFellas is an easy champion.

Director

1. Martin Scorsese (GoodFellas)

2. Stephen Frears (The Grifters)

3. Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Part III)

4. Barbet Schroder (Reversal of Fortune)

5. Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves)

The Lowdown: It's weird to think about now, but at one point in time Martin Scorsese was basically the Hitchcock or Kubrick of his era-a man who was constantly nominated for Academy Awards but never was able to win any of them.  Meanwhile, I'm giving him his third statue for the OVP (again, links below) for the really incredible way that he upended the gangster flick after decades of hero-worship of it through the Godfather pictures (which of course in this case he competed alongside).  I will also acknowledge I have some respect for Dances with Wolves, but you're going to find out they do not extend to Kevin Costner's involvement in the film (and this ain't its final 5th place finish).

Actor

1. Richard Harris (The Field)

2. Jeremy Irons (Reversal of Fortune)

3. Gerard Depardieu (Cyrano de Bergerac)

4. Robert de Niro (Awakenings)

5. Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves)'

The Lowdown: A very odd lineup, and not a strong one (this isn't Oscar's fault...my My Ballot for 1990 is going to be very weird unless I start discovering some stronger stuff in the upcoming viewings...this is much more a year for actresses).  Oscar went with Jeremy Irons, and honestly this wouldn't be the worst thing that ever happened for the OVP-Irons is a really good actor, one who somehow only got one Oscar nomination despite being in the AMPAS wheelhouse (British, handsome, classy, constantly in prestige fare), but I'm going to go with Harris over him.  Harris's part is a bit more theatrical, but it also has a stronger build, and he's also batting in a lesser movie while still excelling.  The rest, even Robert de Niro, don't really need mention.

Actress

1. Anjelica Huston (The Grifters)

2. Kathy Bates (Misery)

3. Meryl Streep (Postcards from the Edge)

4. Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman)

5. Joanne Woodward (Mr. and Mrs. Bridge)

The Lowdown: While I will own that I'm not inspired by 1990 as a whole, that doesn't mean that I don't have moments, and this is one of the best Best Actress lineups Oscar ever pulled together.  Any of these women would be a winner, and I wouldn't be stunned if my My Ballot looks a lot like this-even Woodward in fifth place is doing a lot of strong work.  I ended up going with Huston over Bates (a controversial choice, I know) not because Bates isn't splendid (one of the best Oscar upsets), but because Huston nails this part so well that I have long been obsessed with it.  The interiority in her work, the way that she nails the animal instinct of that final scene...she's honestly never been better.  I'm aware this means that Bates may never get an OVP statue from me, but...that's why we decide this in a vacuum, and I prefer Huston in a vacuum.

Supporting Actor

1. Joe Pesci (GoodFellas)

2. Andy Garcia (The Godfather, Part III)

3. Bruce Davison (Longtime Companion)

4. Al Pacino (Dick Tracy)

5. Grahame Greene (Dances with Wolves)

The Lowdown: Joe Pesci is one of those truly spectacular actors who rarely works...but when he does, it always felt like an event.  In 1990 you've got him not just nailing the fiery persona behind GoodFellas but also playing the funniest henchmen outside of a DC Comic in Home Alone.  Davison is subtler than I would've expected given the subject matter (his final scene is the best in the movie) and I actually think Andy Garcia brings a hot-headed style to Godfather III (and no, this is not just because I palpitated every time he was onscreen...Andy Garcia in Godfather III was a formative experience for a teenage John watching this on VHS for the first time), but they just aren't in the same hemisphere as what Pesci brings to his doomed mob hitman.

Supporting Actress

1. Whoopi Goldberg (Ghost)

2. Annette Bening (The Grifters)

3. Lorraine Bracco (GoodFellas)

4. Diane Ladd (Wild at Heart)

5. Mary McDonnell (Dances with Wolves)

The Lowdown: While I didn't go with the consensus choice for Best Actress, that won't be the case here.  Whoopi Goldberg owns Ghost, giving us a lesson in comedy, and totally nailing the frequently cliched role of "best friend to the leading lovers" that has long been the bread-and-butter of the romantic genre.  I do really like Annette Bening, particularly the glossy over-her-head feeling she gets the further The Grifters goes (without ever totally telegraphing it), and Lorraine Bracco has strong moments even if she's pitched a little to the hilt in some scenes of GoodFellas, but like Oscar said-this is Whoopi's year.

Foreign Language Film

1. Cyrano de Bergerac (France)

2. The Nasty Girl (Germany)

3. Ju Dou (China)

4. Journey of Hope (Switzerland)

5. Open Doors (Italy)

The Lowdown: For me, this is a pretty tight contest between France & Germany.  I liked elements of Ju Dou, but honestly Raise the Red Lantern a year later leaves a much longer shadow.  Cyrano is more conventional, a space we've gone to before, but this is also my favorite adaptation of Rostand's story, and it doesn't have the not-always-successful narrator tricks of The Nasty Girl, even if the latter has a more compelling story (and honestly, a better lead performance).

Adapted Screenplay

1. GoodFellas

2. The Grifters

3. Reversal of Fortune

4. Dances with Wolves

5. Awakenings

The Lowdown: Adapted Screenplay goes to the crooks, and the two films I pretty much universally love of this bunch: GoodFellas and The Grifters.  There's something wonderful about The Grifters, a movie I find I champion more than most do, as it strips down some of the best elements of the neo-noir (the sex, the deceit, the ability to have a non-Hays Code ending) and creates something that feels fresh and calculating, but I can't deny GoodFellas in the end, the extremely rare screenplay so well-written it even makes the narration work.

Original Screenplay

1. Ghost

2. Metropolitan

3. Avalon

4. Alice

5. Green Card

The Lowdown: A pretty middling field, even if none are objectively bad.  I'm picking Ghost not just because it's the best, but also because it takes a really challenging genre to make without it turning camp or cloying (the romantic drama-fantasy) and really makes it sell (it's also genuinely funny).  Metropolitan is the most sophisticated (I was stunned to find out it's not based on a play or novel), and part of me wants to go with it but I think its ending doesn't work at all, and neither Avalon nor a weak default nomination for Woody Allen really compare to the Unchained Melody of Ghost.

Sound

1. Dances with Wolves

2. Total Recall

3. Days of Thunder

4. The Hunt for Red October

5. Dick Tracy

The Lowdown: We're shifting into the Oscar era for Best Sound where we are very much valuing the big, action-film even over the prestige fare of the giant epic (Dances with Wolves is the only epic in this bunch, and it's not without its battle scenes).  I actually really like what the team does with Dances with Wolves, between the Civil War beginnings to the way that it adds elements of "the last western" realism to the scenes with Costner off finding himself, all while beautifully bringing in that lush John Barry score.  Total Recall and its futuristic & impressive battles would also have been a good idea, but I think I'm ready to give a statue to Oscar's Best Picture winner here.

Sound Editing

1. The Hunt for Red October

2. Total Recall

3. Flatliners

The Lowdown: It's a running joke with Oscar that he tends to, when it was a separate category, always think first of submarine movies when it comes to Sound Effects Editing (look at the history of the category-it pops up way more than you'd think), and to some degree I agree with him.  The water effects, constant claustrophobia, & many buttons & levers of The Hunt for Red October are really done and a large part of what builds the suspense, even if the space age adventures, and especially some of the final scenes in the dying planet of Mars in Total Recall hold their own.

Score

1. Dances with Wolves

2. Home Alone

3. Avalon

4. Ghost

5. Havana

The Lowdown: I feel like a lot of these OVP Score contests from the 1970's through the 2020's is a battle of "to John Williams or not to John Williams" and this is a particularly tough one as I adore the score to Home Alone (and honestly Avalon or Ghost would be a good winner here too...there's only one true dud in this lineup).  But John Barry's score to Dances with Wolves is just a perfect piece of music, and adds the best parts to a movie I really did not care for overall.  It deserves the W.

Original Song

1. "I'm Checking Out" (Postcards from the Edge)

2. "Somewhere in My Memory" (Home Alone)

3. "Sooner or Later" (Dick Tracy)

4. "Blaze of Glory" (Young Guns II)

5. "Promise Me You'll Remember" (The Godfather, Part III)

The Lowdown: You know that line that I said above about how movies have connections to your childhood you can't really escape.  For me, one of the few true memories of childhood, specifically around Christmas, that I need to bring back every year is hearing "Somewhere in My Memory" playing in the background.  It's also a movie that reminds me, more than maybe any other, of my little brother as I know how much he loves Home Alone, which gives it a nostalgic necessity I really cherish.  I'm judging on a scale (and honestly all of these movies are good), and for me "I'm Checking Out" is better (and better-used in the film) so I'm giving it the trophy, but it's tight and you should expect both to end up in the My Ballot.

Art Direction

1. Dick Tracy

2. Hamlet

3. The Godfather, Part III

4. Cyrano de Bergerac

5. Dances with Wolves

The Lowdown: Honestly, a really solid lineup (there are no losers in this bunch, even if I won't repeat all of them with my My Ballot).  I tend to like the Mel Gibson Hamlet more than most (for the record, people turned on this one well before they turned on Gibson), and I think the castles & work here is really beautiful.  But Dick Tracy is so inventive, it's impossible to deny-the comic book lights, the way that it feels at once like it's springing from a dime novel AND a 1940's Hollywood set, despite relatively modern makeup & visual effects surrounding it-and all that color!  Glorious!

Cinematography

1. Dances with Wolves

2. The Godfather, Part III

3. Avalon

4. Dick Tracy

5. Henry & June

The Lowdown: Leave it to those crazy pervs in the Cinematography branch to totally go for a film as banal as Henry & June just because they tastefully shot most of the sex scenes so well.  That random silliness aside, this is really a battle between the increasingly aged & sepia-hued glories of The Godfather, Part III and the gorgeous expanses of Dances with Wolves (points are due for the way that Avalon feels of another time though).  I would not be opposed to giving it to the third Godfather film (and lord knows Gordon Willis deserved a competitive Oscar at some point), but it's hard to argue with the glories of the West.

Costume Design

1. Hamlet

2. Cyrano de Bergerac

3. Dick Tracy

4. Avalon

5. Dances with Wolves

The Lowdown: Hamlet has been cited three times (to date) for Best Costume Design, and like 1948 (see link below), we are giving it the gold medal here (1996's version with Kenneth Branagh is still unseen, but don't worry...we'll get there eventually-every one of these contests I do I become more & more determined to truly finish this project...also fun fact within a fun fact-I have been to Elsinore in my world travels, and thought it was breathtaking).  For me, the biggest competition is the period costuming in Cyrano.  I think some of the comic book costuming in Dick Tracy is a bit silly, and Avalon doesn't stand out, but the gorgeous 17th Century decorations of France were on-par with 14th Century Denmark, but not quite enough to conquer to the monologuing Dane.

Film Editing

1. GoodFellas

2. The Godfather, Part III

3. Dances with Wolves

4. Ghost

5. The Hunt for Red October

The Lowdown: I feel at this point like a broken record-GoodFellas was the best, and somewhere behind it is Godfather III and Ghost.  I will own, given its really rough reputation as a movie, that Godfather III being in second here is no accident.  I think a lot of the problems with it are casting (Sofia Coppola, apologies, but you are the weakest link...and George Hamilton is not a strong substitute for Robert Duvall), but the editing works-we get a really strongly-structured story, one that feels inline with the originals even if it isn't that level of classic (like, say, GoodFellas, which basically invented a new type of editing with its cocaine-inspired manic nature).

Makeup

1. Dick Tracy

2. Edward Scissorhands

3. Cyrano de Bergerac

The Lowdown: It feels weird to end in Makeup, not Visual Effects (I believe this is the only time we'll do this as we're alphabetical and Makeup has been a category for a much shorter time than Visual Effects), but I'm glad we're doing it with two icons of the category.  There are only winners between the garish brilliance of Dick Tracy and the transformative genius of Edward Scissorhands (honestly, Cyrano ain't bad either), but I'm going with Dick Tracy both because there's more characters to be in awe of and because it feels so in-tune with the glorious silliness of a comic strip, rather than needing to take itself too seriously.

Past Oscar Viewing Projects: 1931-32, 1948, 1957, 1964, 1972, 1981, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025

OVP: Isle of Dogs (2018)

Film: Isle of Dogs (2018)
Stars: Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Kunichi Nomura, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Scarlett Johansson, Harvey Keitel, F. Murray Abraham, Tilda Swinton, Liev Schreiber
Director: Wes Anderson
Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Animated Feature Film, Score)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

The films of Wes Anderson are an odd conundrum for me.  Usually, when it comes to a deeply-stylized director, an auteur, if you will, I have strong opinions.  They might be good, almost "stan-nish" (Malick, Scorsese, Bergman), or they might be loathed (Inarritu, Russell, McKay).  But Wes Anderson I am almost always ambivalent toward, despite the fact that his films are very specific, so you would think they would recall some sort of reaction from me, either for the good or the bad.  There are movies of his that I like, there are others of his that I disliked, but I've never felt absurdly strongly one way or the other with Anderson.  He just sort of is this weird tangent I sit through at the movie theater.  When he made Isle of Dogs I was smart enough to know that he'd get another Animated Feature nomination so I caught the film before the nominations announcement (it seems likely that he'll eventually win his Oscar in this category, but unlike another stylized director, George Miller, he's worked here long enough for this not to seem strange), but once again I leave the film with a sense of "ehh" neither particularly damning of it but not overwhelmed either.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film's plot is, admittedly ridiculous (though a lot of great movies have ridiculous plots, so don't assume this is an insult).  The mayor of Megasaki (Nomura) in Japan has banished all of the dogs of his city to an island made of trash in the middle of the sea, officially under the pretense that he's trying to rid the city of the animals in hopes of preventing "canine influenza" from spreading to his citizens, but really it's part of a bizarre 1000-year-old vendetta to destroy all of the dogs in Japan.  The mayor's nephew Atari (Rankin) goes to trash island trying to find his dog Spots (Schreiber).  He is led in this quest by Chief (Cranston), whom we learn to be Spots's brother, who hates humans but slowly warms to Atari, and takes on the role as his protector.  They find him while being chased by a series of robot dogs, and eventually we discover that Spots has moved on from Atari, raising his family with a female dog, and makes Chief officially the child's protector.  Together, along with a student reporter named Tracy (Gerwig), they foil the mayor's plan, and eventually Atari becomes the mayor with Tracy dating him, and Chief becomes his protector, with his enigmatic girlfriend Nutmeg (Johansson) by his side.

The movie is beautiful, let's just say that first.  The films of Wes Anderson have a distinctive palette, but here he outdoes himself with mountains of garbage, a gorgeous city (that is clearly meant to be inspired by Tokyo) that Megasaki rules, and a series of distinct but specific dogs.  There's something to be said for the way that he uses the personalities of the dogs to match their voices in a way that works but isn't too wink-y, and some of the details in the movie are catchy.  If you look closely enough at the credits, you'll find that Anjelica Huston is credited as "mute poodle" a character that's in the film but doesn't actually talk, so there's literally no reason for her to be credited other than an in-joke between two old friends.  Perhaps the best such trick is casting Yoko Ono (yes the Yoko Ono) as an Assistant Scientist...named Yoko Ono.

But the movie is (and I know his defenders hate when people say this about him) "too twee" for me.  It has too many characters to really connect with any of them, and it borders that line between honoring and exploiting a culture that's not your own (Anderson is from Houston), with Anderson casting Japanese actors to play the Japanese characters...and then making all of their dogs be played by white actors.  The film is inventive, frequently to a fault, but I don't want to tear down inventive so I'm going with 3 stars because it's technically "good," but I left considerably under-impressed.  This isn't even Anderson stretching like he did with Grand Budapest or finding a new place to test his skills like Mr. Fox-it's just kind of another movie, one similar and borrowing heavily from what he's done before without anything new to say.

OVP: Supporting Actress (2011)

OVP: Best Supporting Actress

The Nominees Were...

Berenice Bejo, The Artist

Jessica Chastain, The Help

Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids

Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs

Octavia Spencer, The Help

My Thoughts: While Best Supporting Actor is oftentimes filled with venerable and previously celebrated men over 50, Best Supporting Actress is a little more diverse.  In this particular year, we have five actresses who all have their moments of comic relief, but add solid depth to their films.  We have hard-working character actresses who are getting their first chance at an Oscar, women highlighting Best Picture nominees, women stealing their respective films from their more famous costars, and in one case, a woman returning to the Oscars for the first time in twelve years after a seemingly "one-and-done" Best Actress nomination (just goes to show you-you never really can tell which first-time nominees will return and which ones will be getting their one dalliance with the little golden man).

Let's start with that former nominee-Janet McTeer, who received a nomination for Best Actress in 1999 for Tumbleweeds (so she's the only person in this race we're guaranteed to be discussing in a future, or rather past Oscar conversation, though I suspect one of these ladies gets another nomination in the next five years).  McTeer's performance is the life energy of the film-while Close's performance is dignified and handsome, it's not in the same caliber of what we normally expect from her, and it pales in comparison to what McTeer is doing onscreen.  Quite frankly, the makeup effects help a bit-McTeer, not nearly as well known as Glenn Close, is not instantly identifiable within the confines of her disguise, and that adds to her mystery.  The way that she has found herself in a loving relationship, the way she is able to fend off advances from Pauline Collins, and find a sense of comfort and even normalcy in a at-the-time greatly unordinary relationship, is excellent.  Think of how adrift the film becomes without McTeer to anchor it-in an otherwise ordinary film, she shows that you can always rise above your material by fully understanding your character.

Fully understanding a character is exactly what Melissa McCarthy is doing in Bridesmaids.  In what was one of the "huh, really...that's awesome" sort of nominations that come along every now-and-again in a genre Oscar doesn't usually honor for acting (Weaver in Aliens, Depp in Pirates, etc), McCarthy carries her Megan from the confines of a slapstick/gross-out comedy to the Kodak Theatre.  I mean, as I mentioned in Original Screenplay, it helps that McCarthy is not in-fact in a traditional gross-out comedy, but one with a deeper message.  But you have to hand it to this veteran television actress (whom I have loved so much in the role of Sookie St. James on Gilmore Girls, and has also won more fans over in roles on Samantha Who? and Mike & Molly, for which she won the Emmy)-she can most definitely act.  Think of the tightrope she's walking with the character-keeping a character with few social cues and brimming confidence utterly believable.  Most actors would have simply created an absurd, only-in-the-movies person onscreen, but McCarthy knows better.  Think of our introduction to her-the way that she throws herself so easily into a conversation without knowing Wiig's Annie for longer than 20 seconds.  She goes on-and-on about her life and troubles, with the certainty that Annie wants to hear this, despite Annie staying silent.  We've all been on a plane or sitting on the subway with this person-the, no boundaries, complete sharer.  Later on in the film, we see her open up a little bit to Annie, but never without losing her sense of self.  And the physical comedy bits in the bridal shop and on the plane are of an actress who is more concerned about delivering for her character than ensuring she maintains a sense of glamour onscreen.  All-in-all, even from a performer I have long admired on the sides, I wasn't expecting an excellence like this from McCarthy-a truly Oscar-worthy performance.  I'm so hoping that directors take note and give her more chances to shine (and maybe even another shot at the gold guy please?).

On the list of actors that I also wish casting directors would consider for bigger roles, Octavia Spencer is certainly toward the top.  Like McCarthy, Spencer was a big name in one of the largest original hits of 2011, so it would behoove directors to find better roles than one-off characters on forgettable sitcoms.  After all, her Minnie is the terminator in The Help-a combination of confidence and fearlessness coupled with a genuine concern for the real dangers she has to face everyday.  While she's not getting the heavy-lifting that Viola Davis is, she still manages to take advantage of her big moment in the sun ("Eat my shit!") and keep her character from becoming caricature.  While all of the comedy moments are absolute fun, I also remember the sternness and graveness in her voice when she tells her daughter "no sass-mouthing."  Spencer manages to brilliantly find that tone between a mother who is trying to sound stern and a woman genuinely concerned about her daughter's safety without trying to scare her.  It's one of the many quieter moments that takes Spencer's comedy relief and creates a flesh-and-blood woman onscreen.

I am bound-and-determined not to end every article with The Artist, so we're going to put a pin in Spencer's costar and turn over to Peppy Miller.  Heading into the Oscar nominations morning, I felt certain that McTeer, Chastain, and Spencer were going to be nominated, and that it would be Bejo, McCarthy, and Shailene Woodley in The Descendants that would be sparring for the final two slots.  While I wasn't a big fan of what Woodley was doing onscreen (too easy, too many cliches that she chose to use to patch together her character), there was a nice chemistry between she and Clooney, and I guess that's my way of saying that I was hoping Bejo would be the one that got cut (actually, I would have picked someone completely different to fill the final slot if there was no holds barred-see below for that).  Bejo also has strong chemistry with her costar Jean DuJardin, and she has an expressive and excellent face that works well in her role.  That's about it, though.  While Jean DuJardin finds the heart of George Valentin, I feel like I never really know what Peppy Miller's deal is.  Why did she suddenly fall-in-love with George Valentin (aside from the obvious-hello handsome)?  And if it is that shallow, why does she keep coming back to him?  Her character is obviously ambitious and willing to go the extra mile-how is it that she falls so easily for Valentine the person in addition to Valentin the movie star?  Bejo can obviously dance, and she understands the mechanics of silent film very well (the scene with the coat is easily her best), but I left the film wanting desperately more from her-great supporting actresses build on their character and give them depth and more direction.  Bejo hits her marks, looks the part, and that's about it.

Finally, we will come to Jessica Chastain (in the time it took me to write this article, she probably already made another movie).  Chastain made seven films in 2011, and received bushels of collective critics awards, so one suspects that this nomination was just as much for The Tree of Life, The Debt, Take Shelter, and Coriolanus as it was for The Help, but since we only judge based on the merits of the films, we'll stick to just Celia Foote.  Chastain is almost unrecognizable in the first few scenes of the film with her bleach blond hair and "ahh, sugar" accent (I'll admit that I spent a few minutes figuring out which character she was before the eyes gave it away).  She's also fifth on the cast sheet in a cast (blessedly) filled with women (I say blessedly because I could use some more predominantly female casts in my life-I get enough predominantly male casts), so she needs to strive to make an entrance.  This is particularly difficult in a cast that features two other Oscar-nominated performances, not to mention two (now three) Oscar winners, three (now five) more Oscar nominees, and even more women who have made major impacts at the Emmy and Tony Awards.

Chastain does this by making everything connected.  She's obviously playing a dumb blonde, but she's clearly not dumb about everything.  The way that she hides her personal shame over the miscarriages, the way that she tries desperately to fit in, and yet isn't willing to compromise herself goes a long way to explaining this loveable, yet ostracized trophy wife.  It's a tribute to Chastain that we leave having a strong understanding of her character, since her character is perhaps the most ancillary of the major players in the movie.  You can't imagine how the story would work without Minnie, Skeeter, Hilly, or Abilene, but Celia could easily be just window dressing.  With Chastain at the wheel, though, you get a performance that's worthy of the film, and even more so, worthy of Oscar.

Other Precursor Contenders: The BAFTA Awards were far more "hometown hero," skipping Berenice Bejo, and oddly, fellow countrywoman Janet McTeer in favor of Judi Dench's fairly routine work in My Week with Marilyn (never underestimate Dame Judi at the BAFTA's) and Carey Mulligan for her work in Drive (again, oddly not for her far more compelling work in Shame).  The Screen Actors Guild Awards went with a carbon copy of the Oscars, while the Golden Globes skipped up-and-coming Melissa McCarthy in favor of up-and-coming Shailene Woodley as George Clooney's daughter in The Descendants.  Octavia Spencer would successfully win all three precursor awards.

Performances I Would Have Nominated: I have to admit-though they wouldn't exactly be the lineup I would have put forward, McTeer, Spencer, Chastain, and McCarthy are all worthy of the category and I'm fine keeping them where they are, so unfortunately this discussion in directed toward the slot held by Berenice Bejo.  If double nominations were allowed, I'd be all onboard with Chastain's even better performance in The Tree of Life as Mrs. O'Brien (the way of Grace).  However, since they aren't, I'll advocate for a one-time Oscar favorite, Ms. Anjelica Huston.  Huston's work as an overbearing mother dealing with her son's chances at survival in 50/50 is a tour de force of an actress given limited screentime.  She makes every moment matter, and doesn't stop her nitpicking even when she's wrestling with every parent's worst nightmare underneath.  It's a rare opportunity for the wildly underused Huston, and she doesn't let it slide.

Oscar's Choice: Like every precursor, Oscar loves a scene-stealer, and so Octavia Spencer won this rather decisively over presumed second place Melissa McCarthy.

My Choice: McCarthy.  While Chastain would have been a real threat for The Tree of Life or if you could combine her filmography, she didn't get in for the right performance, and so I'm going with the actress that took a stock role and made it Oscar-worthy.  Few people can do something like that when there's so little Academy-bait in the script, and so I want to take full advantage of Oscar nominating not only an atypical role, but a triumph of comic timing and acting, and the best supporting actress performance of the lineup.  I'd follow that with Spencer, McTeer, Chastain, and Bejo.

I know that I said that I'd be done this weekend, but I had people in town, so we shall dive into the Big 4 tomorrow.  But now, let's discuss these women-which of these five ladies deserved to win Best Supporting Actress?  Who was wrongfully snubbed in the category?  And of all of the performances of the year, who most deserved Best Supporting Actress of 2011?

Also in 2011: Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, 2011 Recap

OVP: A Cat in Paris (2011)

Film: A Cat in Paris (2011)
Stars: Steve Blum, Marcia Gay Harden, J.B. Blanc, Anjelica Huston
Directors: Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Animated Feature)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Occasionally, the Animated Feature race likes to go for the foreign films, and in the past year, they went for not one but two (the other being Chico & Rita, which will hopefully come to the blog in August), giving Arthur Christmas coal on nomination morning, and for the first time ever, ignoring Pixar (though when the movie is Cars 2, can you really blame them?).

The movie opens on a cat attacking a lizard, and a girl storing that lizard in a sardine can, which is never really explained except perhaps to prove that this film is clearly not domestically made (if it were American, the lizard would come back to life and be voiced by Albert Brooks).  The girl has stopped speaking after the recent murder of her father by a notorious crime lord (Blanc), and has bonded with her new nanny (Huston) and has become distanced from her mother (Harden), a detective trying to find the man who killed her husband.

The cat, meanwhile, has a double life as a thief's (Blum) assistant, swiping jewels and priceless art all across Paris, making them quite literally...(wait for it)...cat burglars.  Groan.  Despite this horrible entendre, their capers are actually good solid fun, and involve an hilarious bit with a sleepwalker.

The film, of course, takes many twists and turns, and keeps you bouncing off the edge of your seat as the girl, thief, detective, and crime lord jump on and off the rooftops of Paris, only to find themselves on the top of one of the City of Lights must celebrated landmarks.  The pacing is excellent, primarily because it's just over an hour long (making it possibly the shortest film ever nominated in the Animated Feature race).  This brevity helps keep things moving (the film is fairly predictable, and though the animation is shiny and plum, the little girl and the Hanna-Barbara gang of buffoon henchmen make "wearing out the welcome" a great risk), however it leaves a large amount of plot holes, particularly what happens to the thief's many exploits and plunder.

The film competed against a rather middling lineup (without a Pixar gem to spruce things up, the Animated Feature race gets a little disheveled), but it cannot compete with Rango, which still remains my favorite of the five nominees.  Chico & Rita, which is usually the choice of the critics who don't go with Verbinski's film, may change that, however.

With this, by the way, I have officially seen all but four of 2011's OVP films, and three are at the top of my Netflix list, so stay tuned!

And per usual, here's some food for thought questions-do you prefer international to domestic animated films?  Did you find A Cat in Paris superior to the wild west reptiles (or were you more on board with the swashbuckling cat, karate-chopping panda, or the 1940's singer/songwriter?)?  And what year would you most like to have completely finished from your Oscar-viewing?