OVP: The Shootist (1976)

Film: The Shootist (1976)

Stars: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart, Richard Boone, John Carradine, Sheree North

Director: Don Siegel

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Art Direction)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 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 John Wayne: click here to learn more about Mr. Wayne (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

By the 1970's, John Wayne as a persona was not something the hip, New Hollywood cinema had an obvious fit for, but the actor was bankable & kept working.  True Grit had been a proper hit, and he actually ended up acting for much of the decade while other headliners of his generation like Bette Davis and Jimmy Stewart had to sit back and take supporting parts.  Films like Big Jake, The Cowboys, McQ, and Rooster Cogburn (a sequel to True Grit) all made money, and it was pretty clear at this point that it wasn't going to be changing tastes that eventually stopped John Wayne, but instead Father Time.  That came to pass in 1976 with The Shootist.  Wayne once again donned his cowboy hat and spurs, but this would be the last time that he would.  Fittingly, in many ways it recalls a film that he once turned down (The Gunfighter), and stars a host of major names of the past to watch him in his final ride.

(Spoilers Ahead) The Shootist takes place over the course of a single week, and starts with gunfighter JB Brooks (Wayne) finding out from his physician, Doc Hostetler (Stewart) that he is dying of cancer, and will soon die of that if he doesn't go out in a blaze of glory.  The film then becomes a series of vignettes, with Brooks meeting with a number of people from his past, many of whom are trying to profit off of their connections with a famous gunslinger since he will no longer be able to gain from it himself.  During this time, he lives in a boarding house run by Bond Rogers (Bacall), a widowed mother of a young man named Gillom (Howard) who is fascinated by Brooks' history of violence and death.  As the film progresses, it becomes clear that Brooks will not go down to cancer, but instead (in a very rare moment for a John Wayne film, as the actor only died a handful of times onscreen during his fifty-year career) he is killed in a gunfight, one that hopefully turns off Gillom (who flees rather than engages, despite his obsession with this type of violence) and protects the next generation from the mistakes of the past.

The Shootist on its merits is an oddly-structured film.  The vignettes take a bit to get used to, particularly given that you rarely can tell which characters are going to stick around and which you need to invest into, and honestly, because in many cases actors like John Carradine & Harry Morgan feel less like they are paying tribute to the film itself, and more are there marveling at Wayne, doing his final ride.  That morbid curiosity, quite frankly, is what makes The Shootist worth something.  If you take it just as a movie, it's okay, but forgettable.  But understanding that Wayne, one of the most important figures of the Old Hollywood era, was coming to an end (in many ways taking that era with him), something that Wayne himself likely understood given his age, it makes the film a lot more powerful.  It helps that Wayne is very solid in this movie, playing the part with a type of desperation, a type of bargaining, that feels unusual for the two-dimensional actor, giving a fine performance (a worthier performance to give him an Oscar for than True Grit if the Academy had been inclined).

Wayne never made a movie again.  Contrary to common belief, Wayne wasn't battling cancer when this film was made, though he did struggle with a serious case of influenza during the filming of the movie.  In 1979, though, he was afflicted with it when he was given the task of handing the Best Picture Oscar to The Deer Hunter (a movie, let's be honest, the conservative Wayne probably loathed), and if you look at the clip you can see a visibly shaken Wayne, getting a standing ovation (which in those days of the Academy were quite rare) while longtime colleagues like Gregory Peck & Laurence Olivier look on the verge of tears.  Wayne opened the presentation, a little winded and his voice breaking just slightly, with "(Oscar) and I are both a little weather-beaten, but we're both still here, and plan to be around for a whole lot longer."  The Hollywood icon would be dead just 9 weeks later.

With us finishing John Wayne month, the quintessential cowboy in our year devoted to the leading stars of westerns, next month we're going to move into a new chapter in our series.  For the final five months of 2023, we'll focus on actors who made their name in westerns during the New Hollywood era, when the western went through a transformation and would eventually fall out-of-fashion.  We'll start with an actor who who would become synonymous with the western, despite hailing from a place far from the American West.

Birth (2004)

Film: Birth (2004)
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Cameron Bright, Danny Huston, Lauren Bacall, Anne Heche
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Oscar History: No nominations, but Kidman got a Globe nomination.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

It's hard to remember now considering she's basically a treasure in the public's mind (particularly post-Big Little Lies), but in 2004 Nicole Kidman was about to endure what seemingly every actress endures in the years after her Oscar win: a backlash.  Kidman's win in 2002 wasn't without its detractors-some have claimed that while they were glad Kidman has an Oscar, that she didn't win it for the right performance (we'll get to that someday when we get to the OVP's of 2002, but I'll preface I like her work in The Hours more than your average moviegoer).  As a result, in the years that followed, Kidman's work in increasingly eclectic work with cinematic auteurs (rather than moving into more commercial fare after winning such a mainstream award) led to her having a pretty diverse filmography, even if it's one that not a lot of people saw.  One of the more critically-complicated of these was Birth, a movie that received deeply mixed reviews at the time but developed something of a cult status in the years that followed with cinephiles.  As a result, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about considering Kidman did receive a Globe nomination for the picture (and as we resume our 2019 OVP next week, we're not far off from also discussing the movies of 2004), so I caught this movie recently.

(Spoilers Ahead) Anna (Kidman) is a widow who is on the precipice of starting another marriage to Joseph (Huston) ten years after the death of her husband Sean.  During an engagement party, a young boy (Bright) shows up claiming to be a reincarnated version of Anna's husband Sean.  Initially confused, both Joseph & Anna become frustrated and send the "Young Sean" back to his family, thinking it's just a prank. However, the next day Anna's mother Eleanor (Bacall) says that the Young Sean wants to meet Anna, and they do meet at the exact place the elder Sean died.  Young Sean knows shocking details about his "old life," including things about his sex life with Anna, and while everyone else remains dubious, Anna begins to believe that this is her husband brought back to life, and starts to doubt her relationship with Joseph.  Eventually we learn that the Young Sean is not the real Sean, because the real Sean was not in love with Anna; he was in love with his sister-in-law Clara (Heche), who tells him this as proof that he can't be Sean, because Sean would've come to her, not to Anna.  The film ends with an anguished Anna marrying Joseph, who forgives her for her doubts.

The movie, as you can imagine, is pretty provocative & quite cerebral.  There is a lot of conversation about love, death, & what we lose when a loved one dies, and the things we have to do to move on with our lives (including enduring the guilt that comes with moving on from someone we loved).  I totally understand, therefore, why this is such a polarizing film.  The ending occasionally feels like a bizarre copout-it's rare that I leave a movie wanting more ambiguity, but as we learn how the fake Sean knows so much about Anna (through Anna's unopened love letters that Clara was going to give her as a spiteful engagement present, but decided against), we never really understand his motives as to why he initially chose Anna (supposedly it was because he claimed he was in love with her, but is it just a case where he liked Anna from afar, and was mentally unstable enough to believe himself to be the ghost of her late husband...there was a gap in the plot here).

That said, I liked Birth.  I absolutely loved Jonathan Glazer's followup film to Birth (2014's Under the Skin), and there's a similar pattern with this movie, where we have to understand who the real person is, and not just who is being presented to the screen.  The movie wouldn't work without Kidman's excellent central performance.  She plays this role internally, her devotion to her ex-husband (whom, perhaps, she loved more than she loves her next husband, and therefore wants to believe is still alive) so palpable, is controlled & thoughtful.  It's hard to grasp that this was one of the films that led to Kidman's foolish backlash at the time, considering she's so good in the movie, but I'm guessing in conjunction with poor commercial fare like The Stepford Wives and Bewitched at the time, it was inevitable.

OVP: How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

Film: How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
Stars: Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, Rory Calhoun, William Powell
Director: Jean Negulesco
Oscar History: 1 nominaton (Best Costume Design)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Betty Grable-click here to learn more about Ms. Grable (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Despite having been a major star for over ten years, even in the early 1950's, Betty Grable's pictures were still hits.  She had been in the Top 10 biggest box office draws of every year since 1942, and in 1950, despite a relatively ripe age of 34 (which was a bigger deal in the '50's than it would be now), she was still the highest-grossing actress in America.  However, her star started to fall apart when she demanded that Fox acknowledge that she'd been a consistent draw by requesting more artistic freedom and a giant paycheck.  This led to Grable missing out on a big opportunity-Fox's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which was a huge hit and gave a boost to the woman that was expected to succeed Grable as the top actress on the Fox lot, Marilyn Monroe.  Grable eventually came back to Fox, but they had a bit of a punishment for her in their next picture-casting her as a gold-digger opposite Monroe and Lauren Bacall, both of whom were a decade younger than Grable.

(Spoilers Ahead) How to Marry a Millionaire is a pretty slight film, and one that focuses on three women looking to get rich husbands: scheming Schatze (Bacall), naive Loco (Grable), and ditzy Pola (Monroe).  The three find a posh Manhattan apartment, and start selling off furniture in the hopes of finding a rich husband, but one-by-one they fall not for the actual millionaires like William Powell's JD Hanley, but instead for lumberjacks or criminals, or in Schatze's (the character most determined to stick to the plan) case, Tom, a man she assumes to be a grocery store clerk but who is instead wealthier than any of the men they pursue.  All of the women end up marrying for love, and in Schatze's case, accidentally it comes along with $200 million.

The film is not, unfortunately, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a picture I adored.  It's considerably drier, with only the three leading ladies adding anything to these happenings (Powell is a bore, which is a damned shame coming from the guy who made The Thin Man and My Man Godfrey so bubbly).  It's still fun, of course.  Bacall is ballsy (and gets a great joke about the "old guy in The African Queen" at one point), and Monroe is always fun to watch, and even Grable gets to have some game moments with a man who is looking to have an affair, but there's not enough laughs here.  We don't really get a sense for who these women are other than cartoons, and there aren't memorable musical numbers or someone who is as willing as Jane Russell is to commit to the cartoons the women are asked to play.

Grable's month, as a result, ends with a movie with some promise but ultimately a picture that flirts with a 2-star rating even if it's more a questionable three.  I'll admit to not finding much in Grable's extensive filmography this month to lend to her, disappointing after the joys of Jean Harlow in January.  Grable's career quickly petered out after this, the last significant picture of her time in Hollywood.  After Millionaire she turned down another role that would go to Monroe (There's No Business Like Show Business), something she was fine with; despite press at the time, Monroe & Grable got along famously, to the point where Grable requested her for what would be her last film How to Be Very, Very Popular (the Monroe part would go to Sheree North).  Grable would be turned down for the lead role in 1956's Guys and Dolls, making her quit the industry, and then became a headliner in Vegas until her death in 1973 of lung cancer at the age of 56.  Next month, we will move to a different star of the 1940's who would also find herself in the 1950's looking to Las Vegas, but not before having one of the most eclectic (and unfair) careers of any star in Classic Hollywood.

OVP: Howl's Moving Castle (2005)

Film: Howl's Moving Castle (2005)
Stars: Emily Mortimer, Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall, Billy Crystal, Josh Hutcherson, Blythe Danner
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Animated Feature Film)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

I will (on occasion) get someone who will be stunned when I haven't seen a movie.  This gets old faster than you think (despite putting near daily reviews on this blog, I will admit that I don't actually get to watch a movie every day, and even at that rate, I still would have gaps in my viewing history), but there are movies that pop up enough that I know that seeing them is actually going to help me a bit, going from a look of fake shock to an unamused expression of "oh, John has an opinion on another movie."  One of those titles is strangely Howl's Moving Castle, the only major Miyazaki film that I haven't caught since the director "went mainstream" in the US with his studio's Oscar win for Spirited Away.  The fact that I loved the 2002 movie and didn't see his immediate followup at the time is a little odd, but I was in college, and was getting paid to see specific movies each week for my school paper (and if I wasn't paid to see it, I had to pay for it from my consistently empty wallet).  So here we are, fifteen years later, finally catching it as we start to put a close on the 2005 Academy Awards.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film, like so many by Miyazaki, has a lot of plot, so stick with me for a second.  Sophie (Mortimer) is a young woman who runs a hat shop.  She is one day whisked across town (literally, they fly) by a traveling wizard called Howl (Bale), who lives in a giant floating castle. At the shop, she encounters the rude and cruel Witch of the Waste (Bacall), who puts a curse on her, turning her into an old woman (Simmons).  She goes to find Howl, but is forbidden from speaking the reasons or the why's of her curse to Howl, since he might be able to break it.  However, once she gets there she finds that Howl is a lost soul, someone who tries to stay away from the world rather than be brave, and is involved in his own curse with Calcifer (Crystal), who is a wisecracking fire demon (a thing, apparently).  Together, they go after the Witch of the Waste, but in doing so realize the true creature they must battle is Madame Suliman (Danner), another witch who has actually stripped the Witch of the Waste of her powers, and has been doing so to a depleting number of witches and wizards.  They end up doing so by essentially breaking all of the curses, and saving the kingdom in the process.

That last sentence takes about forty minutes.  One of the bigger problems with this film is that there's, in fact, too much plot.  This isn't always an issue, and especially with animation it's kind of a refreshing issue to have (in recent years, one of the bigger crimes of mainstream animated films has been creating ridiculously one-note supporting players that feel phoned-in by the writers), but it's there.  The film's thick story works for long stretches, but then randomly Howl is flying around as a monster or he's unnecessarily vain or we have to see the piles-of-flesh Witch of the Waste degraded yet again as she extends a thin tangent.  It needs trimming, is what I'm saying.

But otherwise I have little to complain about, as while this lacks the automatic magic of Spirited Away, it's visually splendid and filled with genuinely interesting performances.  Leave it to only Hayao Miyazaki to have two of the big headliners of 1940's cinema (Lauren Bacall and Jean Simmons) unite for the only team some fifty years after they regularly headlined pictures.  The film looks gorgeous.  I'm never a fan of the way that Miyazaki makes hideous imagery onscreen with select characters, and there's some problematic aspects to the way he depicts overweight people here, but overall his moving castle is a vision.  And like I said, the film's story works in large spurts.  The back story is complete, the characters well-drawn, and the conclusion pretty satisfying.  In the US, this would have surely required several movies to get through, but thankfully this is our one story with these characters.  As such, it's also the type of movie that we used to obsess over and recreate, in a world before prequels & sequels did that for us.

The Big Sleep (1946)

Film: The Big Sleep (1946)
Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers, Dorothy Malone
Director: Howard Hawks
Oscar History: No nominations-film noir usually struggled in this department, but it seems weird that such a storied movie didn't land somewhere.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Throughout the Month of June, as a birthday present to myself, we'll be profiling 15 famous film noir movies I've never seen (my favorite film genre).  Look at the bottom of this review for some of the other movies we've profiled.

All of the films we're profiling for our Film Noir Series this month are classics, movies that I have desperately wanted to see that arguably I should have seen by this point but hadn't.  That being said, there is perhaps no movie we are going to chronicle this month that is more of a celebrated classic than The Big Sleep, and it's arguably the movie I'm most hanging-my-head-in-shame over having never seen prior to this project.  The second of four films that Bogie & Baby starred in together is frequently cited as their best (and weirdly the only one of the quartet that I hadn't seen already, as I'd even watched the strange Dark Passage), and serves as the catalyst of this series.  Hopefully you've seen it, because considering how convoluted the plot is, I'll need your help in the comments to sort it out.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie features Philip Marlowe (Bogart), a private detective hired by a wealthy, dying man who is trying to pay off the gambling debts of his youngest daughter Carmen (Vickers).  As he leaves, he is confronted by Carmen's older sister Vivian (Bacall), who is recently divorced and suspicious of the man her father has hired.  Marlowe begins investigating, assuming that he's less going to be going after the gambling debts and more investigating what happened to the dying man's protege Sean Regan, and soon finds himself covering up a murder, as a drugged Carmen is found at the home of a crooked used bookstore owner (stay with me now, it's going to get harder to follow in a second), and begins to investigate to try to figure out what really happened.  Carmen is clearly a suspect, as is Vivian, but it's a criminal ring that revolves around a man named Eddie Mars (Ridgely) that seems to be the proper culprit.  We see Marlowe go through seedier back alleys and deals (there's a running gag about him essentially collecting guns they're so often in his face), but eventually he outsmarts Mars, who while he may not have been the killer, at least of Regan (it's heavily implied that it's Carmen who is the killer, though never confirmed outright), he did certainly kill a man in cold blood, and deserved his bloody ending (by the laws of Hollywood).  The movie ends with Marlowe framing a dead Mars for the murders, with the assurance that Carmen will get help, and ends up in an embrace with Vivian, with whom he's fallen in love during the picture.

The Big Sleep is perhaps best known for its convoluted plot, and while I rarely have my cell phone out when I see a movie (it's a respect thing), this one I made sure to keep it buried as there are a lot of characters, and not every question gets answered.  Famously, director Howard Hawks had no idea based on the book what happened to the chauffeur, and so he telegrammed Raymond Chandler, the author of The Big Sleep...who also couldn't figure it out (real talk-I just saw the movie and I'm not entirely sure either).  The movie chops a lot of the more salacious aspects out of the novel, including a subplot involving the bookstore owner being both a pornography peddler and the gay lover of Vivian's ex-husband, neither of which would have worked in mid-1940's cinema.  To make matters more bizarre, there are essentially two different versions of this film, the one that was released in 1946 (nearly a year after production had completed) and one from 1945, which was eventually released in 1997 (with Hugh Hefner of all people leading the charge to make the original version of the film available to the public) and also is a common version of the picture that floats around in the ether.  The best way to tell the difference is the small but crucial role of Mona Mars is played by two different actresses: 1945 had Pat Clark and 1946 featured Peggy Knudsen (for the record, I saw the 1945 version, but for symmetry's sake we're going to say 1946 because that's when the film was originally released).

All of this is to say that The Big Sleep is a lot of work, and not always in a good way.  There's too much plot here, and while the twists are fun, they don't always make sense, and it's not a particularly good mystery that doesn't seem to tie together the loose ends (or leave enough clues for you to figure things out on your own).  The production of this movie is legendary, but the film it produced isn't as fun as some of the other movies with this iconic duo.  Bogart is marvelous as Philip Marlowe, though, and just based on his work here it's probably worth the "classic" label this movie achieved. He's wry, sexy, and plays this role with an assuredness that even one of cinema's most confident leading men rarely duplicated.  Bacall is gorgeous, but she's been better.  This was very early in her career, and she seemed to be getting her bearings still as an actress, more sliding on her natural charisma than talent.  The movie is basically stolen from her by the supporting women, all of whom are uniformly good.  Dorothy Malone plays a horny bookshop owner (for real...is this the prototype for the slutty librarian trope?), who seduces Bogart on a rainy day for some afternoon delight (it's staggering to me that this scene made it past the sensors...perhaps they were also mesmerized by Malone, who got her big break here and was headlining films within 2 years of its release).  Sonia Darrin (the only living cast member of the movie) wasn't credited for the film as the femme fatale Agnes thanks to a fight her agent had with Jack Warner, but she's supremely fun sparring with Bogart.  Best of all is Vickers, who steals every scene she's in as the drunk, oversexed Carmen.  Best known today as one of the many wives of Mickey Rooney, there's a raw, cutting edge to this performance that the rest of the film lacks and that feels a bit jarring even for 40's noir, and you kind of wish if they were going to make two versions of the film, one would have been entirely from her perspective.  This great acting makes up for a plot that stretches too thin for my tastes, and while I get the classic angle of the picture enough to warrant a "thumbs up," we'll get to better movies as this month progresses & we take a peak at more storied noir.

Previous Films in the Series: The Woman in the Window

Ten Mini Reviews

Usually at about this time each year, the amount of movies that I have gotten to has become completely overwhelming, and I am ridiculously behind on my reviews.  It's an unfortunate side effect of having my busiest time of year at work coupled with my busiest time of year in my personal life coupled with having the busiest time of the year on the blog.  Suffice it to say, it starts to get to me and while I always want to give every single movie I see its due, I also don't think I can get to all of these while the memory is still there for me to properly create a full review.  So with apologies to the filmmakers, I'm going to be doing short reviews here; we'll still have full reviews of all of the remaining Oscar nominees I haven't discussed from 2016, as well as A Monster Calls because I feel like I owe it to you to explain why I loved it so much, but these movies are going to just get the one paragraph.  If you want more of my thoughts, I'll gladly interact in the comments (incentive!)

(Spoilers for the films may be ahead)

Dark Passage
Thoughts: The least viewed of the Bacall/Bogart pictures, it weirdly has the most famous gimmick of the bunch, where we have a "subjective camera" technique seeing the film almost entirely from Bogart's point-of-view as he escapes from prison.  The film is solid, if predictable (shocker-the third most famous cast member is the real criminal!), and I loved the way that Bacall's performance is both a brazen young woman and completely lovestruck (few people did that better than her).  Still, once the gimmick is over it's never quite as strong as the top half-part of me wished they'd have stuck with it, even if that would have meant Bogart only in voiceover.
Ranking: 3/5 stars

Deadpool

Thoughts: I had sworn to myself I wasn't ever going to see a Ryan Reynolds movie again, but somehow he and Jason Bateman continue to haunt me and I end up stuck with them in front of me even when I didn't want to do so.  Here it was me buying the last-minute hype that Deadpool could land in a major category (or at least Best Makeup) and I ended up stuck in a boring, tired pile of garbage that succumbs to the same cliches that it tries to disprove.  Reynolds may have found a role tailor-made for him, but that doesn't mean he's a good actor.
Ranking: 2/5 stars

Dirty 30

Thoughts: Arguably the film I wanted to review fully the most (give or take Paterson), this film, while not a follow-up to Camp Takota, is at the very least a sequel in terms of who is involved.  The Holy Trinity of YouTube come back, but this time it's Mamrie at the center and all the better for it as she's the most naturally-gifted of the actresses at the center.  Hollywood, in desperate need of a romantic comedy lead, is foolish if they aren't taking advantage of an actress who can sell even some juvenile humor with aplomb-when the script works for her, this is genuinely just a good movie-no YouTube curve needed.
Ranking: 3/5 stars

Eye in the Sky

Thoughts: A taut thriller, the last real performance from Alan Rickman before his untimely death (I'm not counting Alice in Wonderland 2), the film is intriguing and actually quite watchable; it's the rare thriller you're not entirely sure how it will end.  The film's treatment of Americans isn't kind, but considering the buffoon we recently elected...not unfair.  Mirren could do this in her sleep (in fact most of these actors could), and I thought the most intriguing parts of this movie (particularly the sly sexism that hits her harder than the other men, particularly when one of her subordinates disobeys) are skated over, but by-and-large this is imminently watchable to the point where I wonder if the director didn't notice it was happening in the script, even if nowhere near the Oscar nomination some were drumming for the dame.
Ranking: 3/5 stars

The Innocents

Thoughts: No actress in 2016 more fully landed on my list of "on the radar" in a bigger way than Lou de Laage.  Between this and her mesmerizing work in L'Attesa, I can attest that I'll be seeking her out in a big way in future years, and I suspect a Cesar is in her future.  The film is not always easy, and occasionally is very hard to sit through, but it's beautifully shot and a more complex picture than you'd normally expect from a mid-fall foreign art house hit.
Ranking: 3/5 stars

The Legend of Tarzan

Thoughts: It seems funny to review Alexander Skarsgard right now, knowing what he's capable of as an actor (is anyone else thoroughly enjoying Big Little Lies right now-I'm totally enamored?).  This film, of course, is not really an acting showcase, but Skarsgard's shot at movie stardom. The casting department could not be lazier (about the only way they could have found a more cliched set of supporting players would have been to throw Paul Giamatti in there for no reason), but the action is fun and I thought the movie itself was beautifully shot.  Still-this is silliness on-top of silliness, and oh man is Chrisotph Waltz terrible.
Ranking: 2/5 stars

The Light Between Oceans

Thoughts: I will admit that initially I had higher hopes for this movie-it was one of my most-anticipated pictures of 2016, particularly considering how much I've loved the three leads in recent years.  However, that disappointment shouldn't be confused with a bad movie, even if it's sadly a pretty predictable one.  Fassbender and Vikander are both great as the tragic romantic leads, and Weisz might under-emote as the grieving mother, but that feels more like the script's fault that she doesn't get any big scenes. Still, some of the film's best moments (particularly Vikander begging her husband to lie for her sake, to keep her from being lonely) show a movie with great unrealized potential.

Ranking: 3/5 stars

Miss Sloane

Thoughts: Sometimes it's hard to remember that not everything is about the Oscars.  This is particularly hard to stomach when a movie stars one of your favorite actors of the moment, one of whom you wish had an Oscar (hint, hint), but Miss Sloane isn't really an Oscar movie.  It's the sort of taut late-Summer thriller that used to get vacation homes for Julia Roberts or Ashley Judd but has somehow gone out of fashion (perhaps because it got completely absorbed by television?).  Either way, this is a fun movie even if it's wildly over-the-top, and is proof that if Chastain ever wants to just cash-out with big paychecks, she has that ability while still remaining watchable.
Ranking: 3/5 stars

Paterson

Thoughts: Surely the best film on this list, and the one with the best performance, I almost skipped including Paterson because I wanted to discuss it more, but that's technically true of all of these movies (I really just want to talk about movies all day long).  That being said, the comments are there if you want to go further.  Until then, remember that this is a fascinating little study of one single life, proving that you can make pretty much anyone compelling with good writing and good acting, and Driver's central performance exhibits a man that feels like he's being under-served in major movies even if he's cast almost everywhere.  That penultimate scene is a doozy, one almost every other actor would have underplayed or screwed up but Driver nails against the wall and keeps you guessing-when is he going to get some Oscar love?
Ranking: 4/5 stars

Sunset Song

Thoughts: Probably the biggest "who?" film on this list, I saw this because it was Terence Davies' follow-up to the sexy and brilliant The Deep Blue Sea. so it felt like a civic duty.  The movie shows the impossibly hard life of Scottish peasants right before World War I.  The movie is beautiful, and has that "case of the handsomes" in that it's rarely compelling, and never really lets up with the hardships even for a moment.  The central love story feels, in my opinion, to be too jumpy in the treatment of Ewan, which is a pity as there was a great movie somewhere in the pages of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's famed novel.
Ranking: 3/5 stars

100 Things I Love Most About the Movies

Considering that I did a rant on Friday and a link round-up on Saturday, I figured it was highly appropriate for me to continue my streak of doing what I say I'm going to do on the day I say I'm going to do it by having a GTKY Sunday article!  Recently Nathaniel over at the Film Experience (one of my favorite blogs) wrote an article about the 100 Things He Loved Most at the Movies after Allyson over at The Best Picture Project wrote a similarly-themed article.  I am enamored with this idea, and so I figured I would do the same, largely stream-of-consciousness (these are not in order, not definitive, are largely what first came to my head in a swirl of movie magic-love, and not all-inclusive, but they should give a bit of an indication of my adoration of the cinema).  Without further adieu:

1. Movie marquees-it's the world's greatest menu board.
2. Medium popcorn, M&M's, and a bottled-water, aka the greatest meal of the week.
3. That humming sound when the projector switches from the trailer to the actual movie.
4. The American Film Institute specials-the way that I learned about the cinema for the first time.
5. Oscar nomination morning
6. The Oscars themselves.
7. The scene where Ilsa talks to Sam about playing it "for old times sake."
8. Barbara Stanwyck in sunglasses.
9. Marlon Brando's arms in A Streetcar Named Desire
10. The costumes in Ran
11. Marilyn Monroe in a pink dress in Gentleman Prefer Blondes
12. Jeff Bridges downward gaze

13. Lauren Bacall's eyes
14. Michael Fassbender's neck
15. Trying to figure out what Bill Murray whispers in Scarlett Johansson's ears.
16. "Oh Jerry, let's not ask for the moon-we have the stars."
17. That moment when a new acquaintance realizes that I love movies not in the way normal people love movies.
18. The look on someone's face when they are describing their favorite movie memory...usually after I have to beg them to talk and then they cannot stop.
19. Jesse & Celine-sunrise, sunset, midnight.
20. "I wanted a killer from a world filled with killers."
21. The barn-raising scene in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
22. Sean Connery shooing the birds in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
23. The dance scene in Waterloo Bridge
24. The train scene in The Hours
25. Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter
26. Cate Blanchett's narration in Lord of the Rings

27. The dinosaurs in The Tree of Life
28. The scene in the woods in The Conformist
29. The title scene of Celine & Julie Go Boating
30. "You're wearing the thimble"
31. A guy you like taking your hand for the first time in a darkened movie theater.
32. "Open the pod bay doors Hal"
33. Janet Gaynor in Sunrise
34. The opening tracking shot of Touch of Evil...really all tracking shots
35. "Tradition!"
36. "John Doe has the upper hand"
37. The library in Beauty and the Beast
38. Every time I see the words "Composed by John Williams"
39. Zuzu Petals
40. When people clap sporadically at the end of a movie
41. "I wish I knew how to quit you"
42. Jean Hagen in Singin' in the Rain

43. "The Ludlows" theme from Legends of the Fall
44. When Jill comes home in Once Upon a Time in the West
45. The Annie Hall lobsters
46. Teaser trailers
47. "Hero" in Boyhood
48. The first trip to Neverland in Peter Pan (the 2003 version)
49. Lois Smith's scene in Minority Report
50. "Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown"
51. Deborah Kerr's giant skirt in The King and I
52. Gloria Grahame in Crossfire
53. The moment of "I feel so in-the-moment and alive" every time I saw Titanic on the big screen as a teenager...and as an adult.
54. Orson Welles furiously clapping in Citizen Kane.
55. "Dr. Grant, my dear Dr. Sattler, welcome to Jurassic Park."
56. Offenbach in Life is Beautiful

57. "Edelweiss"
58. Rooftop fighting in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
59. The scene in the woods in House of Flying Daggers
60. Barbra Streisand adjusting Robert Redford's hair in The Way We Were
61. Kissing in the rain...with an orange cat.
62. Nat King Cole singing "Starlight" in Sleepless in Seattle
63. The way that Maggie Smith says "succession of the Stuarts" in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
64. The walk down the stairs in Children of Men
65. Gregory Peck's ears
66. Shirley MacLaine's legs
67. Meryl Streep on the sea wall in The French Lieutenant's Woman
68. Frederick A. Young

69. The lights outside the Edina Landmark
70. "I'm Easy"
71. Kim Novak's hair in Vertigo
72. "I am big, it's the pictures that got small"
73. "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night"
74. The wood-chopping scene in Shane
75. John Wayne in a doorway in The Searchers
76. The way that my mom cries every time we watch Hoosiers together
77. My dad taking me to my first R-rated movie (Traffic)
78. The way that I caught my grandfather crying during Apollo 13
79. My brother and my annual awards shows
80. The reunion scene in White Fang

81. The title scene in Blow-Up
82. Kelly MacDonald's voice
83. The Pixar lamp
84. Faye Dunaway reading the "tale of Bonnie and Clyde"
85. Gene Tierney in Laura
86. Peter O'Toole blowing up the train
87. Audrey Hepburn's press conference in Roman Holiday
88. Ruth Hussey in The Philadelphia Story
89. Rouge City
90. Hogwarts
91. The words "Directed by Ingmar Bergman" in the opening credits
92. Brad Pitt, shirtless, in Thelma & Louise
93. "I had a farm in Africa"
94. The crispness of the night air after you've left a Saturday evening movie
95. The way that the weekend feels extra long when you see a movie on a Thursday night.
96. The Godfather Waltz
97. Lampwick's transformation
98. Kate Hepburn's lilt
99. Judith Anderson and Joan Fontaine by the window in Rebecca
100. "If I have to lie, cheat, steal, or kill, as God as my witness, I'll never be hungry again!"

Those are mine (as of this moment)-what are yours?  Share yours in the comments (or share a link to your list on a different blog and I'll include it here!).  And make sure to check out Allyson and Nathaniel's links and blogs up-top: they're awesome too!!!!

AFI's 25 Greatest Actresses, Part 3

I'm on a roll here, so I'm just going to keep this countdown going (we'll possibly have a quick break in-between Parts 3 and 4, but we're only at the halfway point here so lots of great actressing to come).  If you missed Parts 1 or 2, please click here and here so you're all caught up.  And now, onto the last nine actresses from the AFI's 25 Greatest Actress countdown.

17. Lillian Gish (1893-1993)

Oscar Nominations: Gish would receive only one Oscar nomination in her career for the bawdy western Duel in the Sun.  The Academy wisely gave her an Honorary Oscar at the 43rd Academy Awards for an extraordinarily long (it would stretch 75 years) career.
Probably Best Known Today For: Her incredible longevity, and having a name that is synonymous with Silent Era cinema.  She doesn't have a specific film role that people know her from, but the name Lillian Gish conjures a bygone era of Hollywood.
My Favorite Performance: Her career stretched so many decades and so many periods it's difficult to pick a specific favorite, so I'm going with two and I don't care what you think.  If it's Silent Era Gish, it would have to be her mesmerizing work as Eternal Motherhood in Intolerance (a film that has to be seen to be believed), but if it's Sound Era Gish surely I would need to go with her work as Rachel Cooper (forever brandishing that gun) opposite Robert Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: It would probably have to be one of the D.W. Griffith films (she starred in all five of his most acclaimed and successful pictures), and considering it contains one of the most iconic images of her, I'll go with Gish floating on ice in Way Down East.

18. Shirley Temple (1928-2014)

Oscar Nominations: Temple never received a competitive Oscar nomination or win, but she did pick up the first Juvenile Award at the Oscars in 1934.
Probably Best Known Today For: Being the quintessential child star.  Like Gish, very few people could name an actual Shirley Temple movie, but everyone knows who she is, thanks to those dimples and her curly hair.  Her moniker is also synonymous with a fruity non-alcoholic cocktail that every little kid has in hopes of emulating the fancy (not so angelic) drinks their parents are imbibing.
My Favorite Performance: All right, the third leg of this competition is when my shame grows exponentially.  I have never seen a single child performance of Shirley Temple's.  That said, I have seen some of her work as an adult, and though it has been many (MANY) years since I last saw it, I actually remember her fondly in John Ford's Fort Apache.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: Clearly there's a few that I need to get caught up with, so I don't know if I should cite Temple on the staircase with Bill Robinson in The Little Colonel, her pining for "Animal Crackers in Her Soup" in Curly Top, her iconic work as Johanna Spyri's titular heroine in Heidi, or jumping aboard the good ship lollipop in Bright Eyes.  I probably need a marathon.

19. Rita Hayworth (1918-1987)

Oscar Nominations: Ms. Hayworth is our third performer to never win or be nominated for an Academy Award, proving that clearly the bombshells did not play well with classical AMPAS (the other two so far being Marilyn and Mae West).
Probably Best Known Today For: Her iconic looks and glamour.  Though not as central to pop culture as Marilyn, she was the 1940's equivalent of the actress, and her name conjures sophisticated beauty and a spectacular mane of red hair.  She also has a key role (as a poster) in The Shawshank Redemption, which many modern film stars will recognize her photo from.
My Favorite Performance: This is going to make me hang my head, but as much as I hate to admit it, I don't believe that I have ever seen a Rita Hayworth movie.  I was always entranced by her beauty as a cinema-adoring young man, but without AMPAS to guide me in her direction I never got into one of the movies.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: Surely Gilda has to be at the top of the list (I have seen her "put the blame on Mame" in film clips, of course), what with her brilliant hair-tossing.  My adoration of Orson Welles also means that The Lady from Shanghai would also be high on my wish list.

20. Lauren Bacall (1924-2014)

Oscar Nominations: Bacall would receive an Oscar nomination very late in her career for The Mirror Has Two Faces (losing in a major upset to Juliette Binoche).  In 2009 she would receive an Honorary Academy Award "in recognition of her central place in the Golden Age of motion pictures."
Probably Best Known Today For: Her short but memorable marriage to Humphrey Bogart.  Bogie and Baby are one of those couples like Liz and Dick and Paul and Joanne that continue to dominate the public's obsession with Hollywood romance to this day (Brangelina, anyone?).
My Favorite Performance: I mentioned this in my obituary to Bacall, but To Have and Have Not remains my favorite of her work.  I love the sheer confidence that she portrays, never really seeming the nineteen-years-old she is onscreen, and commanding that leading role in a way few other actors could in their debut performances.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: I have seen half of the Bogie/Bacall filmography, and of the two I have remaining, I think The Big Sleep is probably the more pivotal movie to check out (rather than Dark Passage), though both flicks are in my Netflix queue.

21. Sophia Loren (1934-Present)

Oscar Nominations: Loren received two Oscar nominations in her career, winning for Two Women in 1961 (the first person to win for a foreign-language film).  She would go on to win an Honorary Oscar in 1991 for her body of work.
Probably Best Known Today For: For starters, thankfully being alive and still working (the only woman on this list still with us).  Loren recently starred in Rob Marshall's Nine, but is probably best known for her enduring beauty.  Consistently considered one of the most striking and attractive women in the history of cinema, she was a major star at the height of America's fascination with foreign language cinema. (Completely Random Aside-I once had a car that I named after Loren because the car was so pretty).
My Favorite Performance: I am pretty lax in my Loren film-watching, but I can claim that I have seen her Oscar-winning work in Two Women, and for lack of a better choice, I'm going to go with that for my favorite (still have a lot to see here).  I also remember really liking Houseboat as a kid.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: I am going to go with Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, which unites Loren with one of her favorite directors (Vittorio de Sica) and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

22. Jean Harlow (1911-1937)

Oscar Nominations: Like our three other major sex symbols on this list, Harlow would never be nominated for or win an Academy Award.
Probably Best Known Today For: Being the original Marilyn.  Harlow was to the 1930's what Rita was to the 1940's and Marilyn was to the 1950's-a bombshell the public couldn't get enough of, and like Monroe, she is also remembered for her tragic early demise (from kidney disease in 1937 at only 26).
My Favorite Performance: I could totally cheat here and say City Lights, which is indeed one of my favorite silent films and a truly wonderful movie, but Harlow has only a bit part in it.  As a result, Harlow joins Rita Hayworth on the list of actors whom I have seen no major movies of their filmography.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: At this point, everything, clearly.  I'm most looking forward to Red Dust, where she is at her most glamorous, and the critically-acclaimed Dinner at Eight.  Honestly, though, you could easily add Hell's Angels, The Public Enemy, Platinum Blonde, or Libeled Lady to that list and I would have no qualms.

23. Carole Lombard (1908-1942)

Oscar Nominations: Lombard only received one Oscar nomination in her career, for her work in My Man Godfrey in 1936 (she lost to Luise Rainer).
Probably Best Known Today For: If Lombard is known for anything today, it is likely her tragic demise.  Lombard, one of the biggest stars in Hollywood and at the peak of her career tragically died in a plane accident when her aircraft crashed into a mountain.  The death was felt all over Hollywood, and the press heavily covered her mourning husband, Clark Gable.
My Favorite Performance: It's hard to really top My Man Godfrey, one of a string of truly brilliant comedies of the 1930's (the dramatic films, in my opinion, didn't hold up to the screwball masterworks of this era), and Lombard had wildly good chemistry with William Powell in the picture (this despite them having been divorced several years earlier-can you even fathom that happening now with someone like Brad and Jen or Tom and Nicole?).
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: Probably the Ernst Lubitsch classic To Be or Not To Be, which has been rescued by cinephiles after a tepid initial reception.

24. Mary Pickford (1892-1979)

Oscar Nominations: Pickford received one Oscar nomination in her career, and thanks to her insane celebrity at the time she won despite its questionable quality (for Coquette).  A more appropriate award came over 45 years later when she picked up an Honorary Academy Award for her body of work.
Probably Best Known Today For: Being the original America's Sweetheart.  Much like Lillian Gish, most people would have difficulty coming up with any of her films, but her name brings to mind the Silent Era and her role as one of the biggest stars of early cinema (likely the biggest female star of the era).
My Favorite Performance: I'm going to balk on this one, as the only Pickford performance that I have seen is Coquette, which is tragically bad (possibly the worst Oscar-winning performance I have ever seen).  I don't think it'd be appropriate to pin one of Hollywood's most significant founders with that as their best work.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: Obviously most of her principle work in silent pictures.  I would probably start with Sparrows, which is considered one of her finest and most interesting pictures, and far more in her acting wheelhouse than Coquette.

25. Ava Gardner (1922-1990)

Oscar Nominations: Gardner would receive only one Oscar nomination in her career, for Mogambo in 1953 (she would lose that year to Audrey Hepburn).
Probably Best Known Today For: Her extremely high profile marriages to and relationships with some very famous men.  She was married three times, to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and most notably to Frank Sinatra in one of the most storied Hollywood marries of the 1950's.  She was also in a romantic relationship with Howard Hughes (chronicled in The Aviator, where she was played by Kate Beckinsale), and had a strong (possibly romantic) friendship with Ernest Hemingway.
My Favorite Performance: I haven't seen a lot of Gardner's work, but certainly my favorite of her performances was in Show Boat, partially because of Gardner but mostly because it's one of my mom's favorite films.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: Probably the classic 1959 drama On the Beach, where she stars opposite Gregory Peck and Fred Astaire in a movie about the fallout of nuclear war.

And there you have it (fifteen years after the fact)-a look at the 25 greatest actresses from the American Film Institute.  We'll continue our five-part series tomorrow, but in the meantime head to the comments and discuss today's nine actresses-who is your favorite in the bunch?  What are your favorites of all of their films?  And what movies did you just write down as ones you still need to see?

Lauren Bacall (1924-2014)

I was still relatively new to the Oscars in 1996, and therefore, I was trying desperately to find any reason to talk about it.  I had a copy of the TV Guide predictions from Gene Siskel and those wonderful odds charts that Entertainment Weekly used to make (I'm going to sound like an old man here, but Entertainment Weekly used to be quite wonderful).  And everyone was certain that Lauren Bacall was going to win Best Supporting Actress, even if I got the impression that she might not have deserved it.  She was, they kept saying, a legend.  So when Juliette Binoche won for The English Patient (which would go on to be one of my favorite films, if not the title-holder, but I hadn't seen it yet), I learned that Oscar does indeed throw an upset my way every once-and-a-while and I was steamed for Ms. Bacall, the presumed frontrunner.  I was rather perturbed by Binoche, who would go on to be one of my favorite actresses, and though I had never seen her in anything, Bacall would instantly become a favorite of mine.

Of course, through the years I corrected that (though, oddly, I have still never seen the performance in The Mirror Has Two Faces that got her an Oscar nomination, but again-I have the OVP for that).  Bacall was a sturdy presence on the screen, and while never the great actress that a contemporary like Ingrid Bergman was, she was a Grade A, one-of-a-kind movie star in the way that few others can be.  Classy, breathtakingly beautiful, with a sultry voice and a whistle to match-it's no wonder that Humphrey Bogart fell in love with her.  Her career was never better than when she was being charmed (or more often, charming) Humphrey Bogart, and though I always feel a bit unkind when I do this, her best performance for me still remains her first in To Have and Have Not (though again, missing pieces in the filmography include The Big Sleep).  I love the way that she just owns that screen.  It takes a lot of guts to know you're good when you're only nineteen and playing opposite one of the biggest stars in cinema, but Bacall was what used to be called a dame-she had guts.

Her career was never quite as fruitful as it was in the 1940's, but she did go on to star in a number of classic movies throughout her career, including How to Marry a Millionaire, Written on the Wind, Designing Woman, and The Shootist (if any of these aren't sounding familiar or you've never seen them, do yourself a favor and start adding some films from before 1995 to your Netflix queue), and had a spectacular career on Broadway which resulted in two Tony Awards (oddly for roles that Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn made famous on the big-screen decades prior).  Late in her film career she made something of a splash in Nicole Kidman's auteur-wilderness phase, appearing in both Dogville and Birth, and most recently picked up a Governors Award at the Oscars (sadly, because AMPAS is occasionally full of fools, this wasn't telecast so that twelve-year-old rooting for this woman who was called a legend never got to see her pick up her Oscar).  She was a classy, marvelous movie star, and probably one of the first actresses to ever introduce me to that concept.  Lauren Bacall died yesterday at the age of 89, but like all of the great movie stars, she'll live on as long as people love terrific movies that star confident, fascinating women.  RIP to a marvelous star, and thanks for teaching us all how to whistle.

Top 10 Women Who Should Join Twitter

While I was doing my daily check-in with all things social media yesterday (anyone else find Pinterest particularly slow?), I was thinking about the people who I wish were on Twitter, but are not.  I started to make a list for a post, in fact, and ended up with six women listed before I got to a guy, and so I figured I’d make this post gender-specific.  Here are the ten women I wish were on Twitter but aren’t:

10. Catherine Deneuve

The gorgeous, icy French actress recently turned seventy (Happy birthday!) and is an icon of French cinema.  She’s worked with Roman Polanski, Luis Bunuel, Francois Truffaut, Jacque Demy, and Lars von Trier-you know those five combined have some epic stories she could start sending out (seriously-has this woman written a memoir?)  She’s also very politically active and is a fashion icon.  Who wouldn’t want to follow her?

9. Sofia Coppola

I promise this list won’t be made up entirely of enigmatic, fashionable women (okay, I don’t promise that at all-if I was straight I’d clearly end up turning into Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity, brought down by my own personal Barbara Stanwyck).  Coppola regularly finds herself making interesting movies and gallivanting around the world to film festivals and New York and Italy.  For the record, I also think that all of these people should be on Instagram in addition to Twitter.

8. Jacki Weaver

Have you ever seen Jacki Weaver, the deliciously talented woman who won our 2010 OVP Award, in an interview or a speech?  She’s an utter delight-regularly talking about her ex-husbands/lovers and her experiences with directors and her love of acting.  Throw in some recent Senate polling numbers and that’s basically all my Twitter feed is.  Melissa Leo is there Jacki-sign yourself up!

7. Patti LuPone

LuPone is the grand dame of Broadway-every young actress on Broadway wants to be her (and, let’s face it, so do a lot of young actors).  LuPone, though, has something vital to being a great presence on Twitter-she has opinions.  Lots and lots of opinions-she takes great stances about audience etiquette on Broadway (a worthy topic) and wrote a deeply juicy memoir a few years back that would translate well to the occasional shade-throwing tweet.

6. Meryl Streep

In my heart, of course, Meryl is always first place, but that would be too expected so I'll keep her in sixth.  Meryl is funny, elegant, charming, and always nails every interview that she’s ever done.  Plus, she’s worked with every single person in Hollywood, so you know she’d be having great back-and-forths with Jane Fonda or Leo DiCaprio on Twitter.  Come, join the party Meryl!

5. Lauren Bacall

For a while there, there was a rather popular fake Bacall Twitter feed where the Oscar-winning actress slammed Twilight and made up saucy stories about her fellow Golden Age stars.  Wouldn’t it be a hoot to have the frank and delicious real thing on Twitter, telling us what it was like to go to the Brown Derby with Vivien Leigh and Joan Crawford?

4. Pippa Middleton

I know the rest of the world might be “over” her (she’s not even a godparent, sad face), but I cannot get enough.  My day is instantly brightened with some sort of Pippa news and I am waiting to see when she’s engaged.  Plus, this is the closest I’m going to ever get to Kate joining, and you know that Pippa would snap a few candids with nephew George!

3. Tilda Swinton

Doesn’t it feel like Tilda Swinton, who is so intensely quotable and always popping up in some avant garde conversation, is already on Twitter?  It does, but she isn’t, and it needs to be rectified.  The Oscar-winning actress is a fountain of great opinions, is constantly working on interesting projects and with hip artists, and is a fashion icon.  Who doesn’t want to see what Tilda wears on laundry day, or if Tilda Swinton has a laundry day?

2. Jennifer Lawrence

Lawrence has famously taken a stance against Twitter, but we all weren’t going to join Twitter until we did, so it’s just a matter of time Jen.  More than any other actor of her generation, Lawrence isn’t afraid to go there with a naughty story or a saucy aside.  Twitter was born for Jennifer Lawrence to join-let’s get a behind-the-scenes look-pretty please Katniss!

1. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler

Only an idiot would need me to explain why this is something we all need more than oxygen and water.

Those are my ten (err…eleven)-what are yours?  Which famous ladies (or gents) would you like to see on Twitter?

The Triple Crown of Cinematic Life Achievement

In the next week, we'll be hearing one of the biggest awards announcements of the year: this year's recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors.  I will be awaiting with baited breath to see who will be in attendance when the President, First Lady, and Washington's elite sit around and give out the highest government honor for the arts.

The Kennedy Center Honors are part of what I consider the Triple Crown of Life Achievement Awards, which are the Kennedy Center Honors, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the AFI Life Achievement Award.  Some may quibble the SAG Life Achievement Award should be included, but that award is given as much (if not more so) for charitable work than for achievement in the arts.  The Film Society of Lincoln Center annually bestows an award, but it isn't televised and it isn't as well-known (though they do honor the likes of Robert Altman, Catherine Deneuve, and Federico Fellini, so they clearly have solid taste).

The most recent recipient of one of these three awards was Mel Brooks.  He's still missing the DeMille, which made me wonder-who has won all three, and who is just one or two legs away from finishing.  I'm limiting myself to those involved primarily with cinema for the study, though obviously the Kennedy Center Honors and to a lesser extent the Cecil B. DeMille Award honor other aspects of the performing arts.

The weird thing about these accolades is that they are rarely the tail-end life achievements for the performers.  Most of the actors are not only working still, but would go on to do something of significance afterwards.  Taking the AFI Award, for example, seven artists would go on to receive Academy Award nominations after they won the honor, as well as multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.  Brooks, at 86, is oddly old to be getting one of the trophies-the average age for an AFI winner is 69 (which means that over half of the people actually won before they hit seventy).  While the Kennedy Center Honors skews a bit older, keep in mind when we discuss who has a good shot at winning the Triple Crown in upcoming years that your best bets will be people born between 1944-1953.

Starting with Henry Fonda in 1979 all the way up to Dustin Hoffman this past year, twenty people have pulled off the hat trick (listed in order by first-name because that's how Excel arranged them): Barbra Streisand, Bette Davis, Clint Eastwood, Dustin Hoffman, Elizabeth Taylor, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Jack Nicholson, James Stewart, Kirk Douglas, Martin Scorsese, Morgan Freeman, Robert de Niro, Sean Connery, Sidney Poitier, Steven Spielberg, and Warren Beatty.  As you can see, it's fairly star-heavy (only Scorsese and Spielberg haven't doubled as onscreen headliners, and they still get top-billing on their films), fairly male (only three women have won the trio), and surprisingly lively, with twelve of the twenty still with us.

With the Kennedy Center Honors right around the corner, there are only four living people who have never won that have the AFI Award and the DeMille: Al Pacino, Shirley MacLaine, Michael Douglas, and Harrison Ford .  While any of these four could get the award (they're all obviously famous movie stars and highly-deserving), my gut says that Pacino is the most likely.  Pacino, of the four, makes films the most consistently, has the most Oscar nominations, and since the awards like to stagger every couple of years, Pacino's recent win in 2007 (the AFI) means the timing would be perfect.  I'd put Douglas, the youngest of the bunch (at 68), in the next position; his film career isn't quite as accomplished, but he's coming off of a major film role in Behind the Candelabra, and awards shows like to recognize an artist while they're still in the public conversation.  Ford also falls under this umbrella, having made a few films this year (including a potentially huge hit in Ender's Game), but his lack of a Kennedy Center Honor when he won his AFI and DeMille awards over a decade ago makes me wonder if his time is past.  MacLaine just won the AFI Award, is the oldest of the four, and doesn't make films nearly as frequently, so I think she's the least likely (also, the Kennedy Center Honors are a bit sexist in whom they reward each year, with only one woman usually winning a spot).

Three living people have never won the DeMille Award, while still gaining the Kennedy Center Honor and the AFI Award: Mike Nichols, Meryl Streep, and last year's AFI Award Winner Mel Brooks.  Streep clearly stands out here, as she's an enormous favorite of the HFPA, and at 64, is still "young" enough to still win Lifetime Achievement Awards .  Streep, though, has to be rewarded in a year that she isn't nominated (it's extremely rare that an actor gets a DeMille Award when they're nominated in another category-Dustin Hoffman in 1997 was the last one), and it's hard to imagine that Streep, with eight Golden Globes already, deserves a ninth one, even if it's an honorary trophy.  With both August Osage County and Into the Woods being certain to gain her favor with the Golden Globes, it could be a few years (or they could just bite the bullet and risk her winning a trophy on the same night as her DeMille win).  As for the others, Brooks is 87 and Nichols is 81, which would make either of them over twenty years older than the median age of DeMille winners.  Brooks probably deserves this the most, as he is incredibly never won the Golden Globe, despite being an EGOT and having four nominations at the GG's.  Nichols, a fellow EGOT-ter, did win a Globe, but in 1968, so it wouldn't be a stretch to say he's due as well.

Finally, there are the two living actors that have never received the AFI Award: Lauren Bacall and Robert Redford.  Both Bacall (88) and Redford (77) are considerably older than the average winner of the award, though Redford's exclusion in particular is bizarre, considering his work on behalf of the Sundance Film Festival (he's one of the few movie stars, along with Robert de Niro, who could give a very real example of how he has helped the AFI's mission).  Though he's politically active (always a tough call when you're devoting an entire night to someone), I suspect that he will take this award someday.  Bacall, on the other hand, with very few major films in the public memory (she's more famous for her off-screen relationship with Humphrey Bogart and for being one of the last great Golden Age starlets at this point) is probably going to finish her career with two-legs out of three.

That of course turns us over to those that died one award short of the Triple Crown.  Notice how relatively rare it is to win two but not three:

Died without a Kennedy Center Honor: Alfred Hitchcock, Barbara Stanwyck (both oddly enough stars who could never land a competitive Oscar)
Died without a Cecil B. DeMille Award: Lillian Gish, James Cagney, Billy Wilder (Wilder would win three Golden Globes competitively, Gish would lose in her one nomination for The Comedians and stunningly Cagney was never nominated-anyone know what Jimmy did to tick off the HFPA?)
Died without an AFI Award: Bob Hope, Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Paul Newman (Hope, Ball, and Sinatra all won their other awards in part for non-cinematic mediums, which isn't something that helps here, whereas Heston and Newman both had the film careers to win here, but their political activism may have cost both)

Finally, there are the remaining cinematic stars who have only won one of the three trophies.  Again, this is rare-there are twelve living people who have all three, and only a slightly larger sixteen who have just one of the three trophies:

Have Only Won the Kennedy Center Honor: Angela Lansbury, James Earl Jones, Joanne Woodward, John Williams, Julie Andrews, Ruby Dee, Shirley Temple Black, Steve Martin (it's worth noting that Woodward won the same year as Paul Newman, which, not to be condescending, probably helped; other than Woodward, only Temple Black didn't have the help of another medium, and her political involvement almost certainly assisted her here, not to mention that we had a Republican president at the time)
Have Only Won the Cecil B. DeMille Award: Anthony Hopkins, Doris Day, Gene Hackman, Jodie Foster, Robin Williams, Sophia Loren (Foster and Williams are both still young enough that they could pick up other awards rather quickly, Day and Hackman are both fairly reclusive which means this is the end of the road for them, and I can't explain Hopkins and Loren-they should have at least gotten the Kennedy Center Honor by now)
Have Only Won the AFI Award: Tom Hanks, George Lucas (both are still under 70-I suspect this will happen eventually for both of them in at least one, if not both of the remaining awards)

And that was my research.  I know it's a bit wonky (gotta love awards trivia though!), but what are your thoughts?  What film titans do you hope the Kennedy Center Honors pick this year?  Who are you most surprised has not been cited on any of these lists?  And who is the next Triple Crown winner?  Share in the comments!