2024 Oscar Viewing Project

For the first time ever, I finished watching all of the Oscar Viewing Project nominees before the Oscars, a huge moment for me overall.  I didn't do my official year-end awards my brother, however, until this past weekend, so I am publishing both this AND the My Ballot weeks after I finished these (and am actually writing this before the Oscars so for the first time ever I am doing this without knowing whom Oscar actually picked).  As is tradition (we will not do our 20+ articles anymore, but I will be logging every completed OVP in one giant article here when I finish, hopefully on a monthly cadence for either an OVP or My Ballot going forward), here is the Top 10 of the domestic box office:

1. Inside Out 2

2. Deadpool & Wolverine

3. Wicked

4. Moana 2

5. Despicable Me 4

6. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

7. Dune: Part Two

8. Twisters

9. Sonic the Hedgehog 3

10. Mufasa: The Lion King

Keeping with recent tradition, I saw virtually all of these, missing only Sonic 3 (is this good...I generally like Jim Carrey, so should I get caught up on these?).  In terms of box office I also missed Bad Boys: Ride or Die, It Ends With Us, and Venom: The Last Dance, but saw virtually every major awards contender (save for Lee with Kate Winslet...again, is it good?), including, of course, the Oscar nominees.  Let's look back on 2024, remembering a time when a Democrat was in the White House, when the President-Elect briefly faced justice for his crimes, and when we were all flipping for Simone Biles & the sexy nerd aesthetic of Stephen Nedoroscik.  And of course, let's remember the movies...

Note from John: When I did this series during the time when I wrote individual articles, and had this blog be a daily part of my life, I made a point of highlighting each nominee in my many write-ups.  While I will be writing these every time I complete a year (hopefully monthly going forward), I can't make that time commitment, either in terms of number of articles or in terms of giving each nominee their due with a mention.  I promise, though, that I have given each nominee their due under the confines of the specific category while making my rankings (and of course I've seen every single nominated picture), including giving higher rankings to movies I didn't like if the craft was better than ones I did like (Oscar should consider that).  Hopefully you enjoy the trimmed-down, but still devoted to the original concept version of the OVP we'll have going forward!

Picture

1. Dune: Part Two

2. Nickel Boys

3. The Brutalist

4. I'm Still Here

5. Conclave

6. Anora

7. A Complete Unknown

8. Wicked

9. The Substance

10. Emilia Perez

The Lowdown: I'll start out by saying something that I suspect gets repeated in this article-I did not think that 2024 was a particularly impressive year for the movies.  In fact, I thought it was the dullest year for movies since 2020, a combination of slavish over-praise of the Oscar fare (which was largely middling more than grand), and many of the blockbusters being underwhelming.  That said, I do really admire the first 3 films on this list.  Dune is better than the original, even if it's not quite as non-descript, Nickel Boys is an experiment that largely works, and The Brutalist is truly perfect until the intermission card comes up.  The rest...well the order speaks for itself, and because Oscar can only focus on ten movies in a given year anymore...we'll get to them all more in detail below.

Director

1. Brady Corbet (The Brutalist)

2. Sean Baker (Anora)

3. Coralie Fargeat (The Substance)

4. James Mangold (A Complete Unknown)

5. Jacques Audiard (Emilia Perez)

The Lowdown: Without Denis Villeneuve, this contest becomes considerably easier.  Corbet botches the ending to The Brutalist, but that's more an issue with the writers and one key supporting actor than the direction, which is really the cornerstone of the movie.  He deserves the win, with Baker second over Fargeat because I think that his story feels easier to get off the rails (and also I liked Anora better than The Substance even though I'll own that Anora is more a writer's movie and The Substance is more a director's picture).  I still can't believe that James Mangold, after years of attempting the same route (middle-of-the-road AMPAS fare like Walk the Line, Girl Interrupted, & Ford v. Ferrari that has no directorial signature) managed to grab a nomination.

Actor

1. Adrien Brody (The Brutalist)

2. Timothee Chalamet (A Complete Unknown)

3. Ralph Fiennes (Conclave)

4. Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice)

5. Colman Domingo (Sing Sing)

The Lowdown: This is as good of a time as any to remind you of two things: 1) The OVP is made in a vacuum, so I do not consider whether someone has an Oscar or not when handing out trophies and 2) I have a My Ballot where I pick my own nominees, and in that I also decide in a vacuum who should win.  This isn't about career awards, so under those circumstances I have no problem handing Adrien Brody a second statue for his luminous work in The Brutalist even if in real-life I might have thrown a bone to the fine work of Chalamet and Fiennes, who are both still hunting for their first Oscar.  I don't think that Sebastian Stan's film choice would impact his ranking (A Different Man would also get him 4th, for the record), though I will admit I'm excited by this direction of his career, as I love a handsome man finding his inner character actor.

Actress

1. Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here)

2. Mikey Madison (Anora)

3. Demi Moore (The Substance)

4. Cynthia Erivo (Wicked)

5. Karla Sofia Gascon (Emilia Perez)

The Lowdown: With or without the scandal, it's an easy call to put Gascon's performance in fifth.  Emilia Perez is a dreadful, cinematic abortion of a movie (virtually nothing redeemable in it...the worst nominee since Bohemian Rhapsody), and she is not up to snuff as the lead.  For the actual win, I'm going with Torres, whose quiet determination in I'm Still Here has the added bonus of a script that always knows where she's headed, which you cannot say for Madison's (solid) Anora.  Demi Moore's role in The Substance has a lot of fans, and while I think she's better than the movie (which badly overshoots its ending), she can't carry it through & makes Elizabeth too unknowable.

Supporting Actor

1. Yura Borisov (Anora)

2. Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain)

3. Guy Pearce (The Brutalist)

4. Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice)

5. Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown)

The Lowdown: This is a quick reminder that I will always dock a point for any actor who is obviously the lead but is committing category fraud to improve their Oscar chances.  If I was judging based on total performances, I might give it to Culkin's really strong work as a broken man filled with overflowing charisma, but under these rules, there's no way he takes out Borisov's sensitive, brooding security guard in Anora, a scene-stealing performance that makes the movie.  Guy Pearce is the only actor who seems capable of holding together The Brutalist in its back half, but I have him in third both because his competition is good (expect a few repeat names when we get to the My Ballots tomorrow), as well as because I don't think he lands the final moments of the picture quite well enough.  I didn't get what Strong or Norton were doing, and feel like this was a nomination for being showy more than being good.

Supporting Actress

1. Ariana Grande (Wicked)

2. Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown)

3. Isabella Rossellini (Conclave)

4. Felicity Jones (The Brutalist)

5. Zoe Saldana (Emilia Perez)

The Lowdown: Once again, Saldana loses a point because she's the lead (without that I think she is ahead of Jones given she at least understands the film's tone).  You could make an argument that Grande is also the lead, but because there's an argument I keep her in first, and honestly even without that I might keep her there due to a weak field.  Barbaro's Joan Baez looks the part, but I wanted a bit more of the ambition of someone who is more famous than Dylan having him usurp her throne, and the lack of resolve there shows how difficult a Dylan biopic was always going to be.  Grande's work is in her wheelhouse, and sometimes borders into parody of Kristin Chenoweth (who is the better actor), but she's so good it's hard to fault feeling indebted to the original.

Adapted Screenplay

1. Nickel Boys

2. Conclave

3. A Complete Unknown

4. Sing Sing

5. Emilia Perez

The Lowdown: I have not read Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning source material (though a copy of it is sitting behind me...the eternal nagging of the books on my shelf that I've never read continues to haunt my dreams), but what comes across on the film is spectacular.  A meditative, thoughtful look at how hard it is to beat the system, and how life can find a way...and a plot can find a way even as you mine Terrence Malick for inspiration.  Conclave would make a worthy winner as well, giving us a really scrumptious 1990's-style thriller that is virtually impossible to find in 2024.

Original Screenplay

1. A Real Pain

2. Anora

3. The Brutalist

4. The Substance

5. September 5

The Lowdown: Jesse Eisenberg's look at how we keep certain people in our lives and in our hearts years after they stop feeling like they fit into whom we became is really wonderful.  I know the focus is on grief, and the mourning that happens when we lose someone we can't replace, but that juxtaposed against the question mark of the friendship that's core to the film is really why this is something special.  Anora and The Brutalist both have wonderful sections, but they don't know how to inform key characters (specifically their female leads) and The Brutalist doesn't know how to make its ending work (which is not the case for Anora-that ending lands the film), so I can't seriously put them against A Real Pain in this field (Eisenberg wins handily).

Animated Feature Film

1. The Wild Robot

2. Flow

3. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

4. Memoir of a Snail

5. Inside Out 2

The Lowdown: It's become depressing how predictable this category is, with even the off-beat or independent films heavily telegraphed the entire season so there's no surprises on nomination morning.  One of many reasons why I wish this was only a three-wide like I'll do at tomorrow's My Ballot for 2024.  But taking that out of the equation, this is a solid list, particularly the top two which are completely different looks at how nature cannot endure the touch of humanity.  I went with The Wild Robot because I felt its story more, but either would make a worthy winner.  I will note, that in the first 19 years of this category, Disney/Pixar only got the #5 slot once (2002's Lilo and Stitch)...in the past five years it's gotten it 80% of the time.  This is not an appealing trend for the Mouse House.

International Feature Film

1. The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany)

2. Flow (Latvia)

3. I'm Still Here (Brazil)

4. The Girl with the Needle (Denmark)

5. Emilia Perez (France)

The Lowdown: As I said above, I wrote this before the Oscar ceremony, so I don't know any winners, and this is the category I'm most curious to see where it landed (it might not be the most shocking win, but it's the one I am trying to guess if the Emilia Perez buzz has died enough to allow for a different Best Picture nominee instead).  Really, though, this shouldn't be a contest.  While I admire I'm Still Here's look at how sins shouldn't necessarily be forgiven if they're heinous enough (and sure as hell shouldn't be forgotten), and the gorgeous computer game aesthetic of Flow, The Seed of the Sacred Fig was one of the best movies of 2024, full stop.  An engrossing look at fascism and the way that it strips away any shred of humanity you have...assuming you had much to begin with (because fascism also numbs you to such horror).

Sound

1. Dune: Part Two

2. The Wild Robot

3. A Complete Unknown

4. Wicked

5. Emilia Perez

The Lowdown: I still miss when the Sound categories were split in two, but honestly...I get why looking at this.  I will own that I am not giving these statues to the same movie, but it's hard to argue with Dune being the dominant choice here, its gorgeous elevation of the sounds of the deserts of Arrakis combined with new special effects and great crowd work.  Behind it are The Wild Robot (I love the nature sounds, combined with strong music & vocal work) and the concert recreations of A Complete Unknown.  Solid lineup overall, honestly, and I want to say that as most of it I don't repeat tomorrow-lots of good choices this year.

Score

1. The Brutalist

2. The Wild Robot

3. Conclave

4. Emilia Perez

5. Wicked

The Lowdown: This is the first of only two times that an Emilia Perez nomination isn't in last place (the next category is the other one), and there's a reason for that-the musical score of Wicked is lovely, but it's not original...I can't pinpoint anything in the score that isn't borrowing from Stephen Schwartz's fabulous Broadway composition, and so this nomination feels like a cheap way to up Schwartz's (and the film's) Oscar count, even if the actual score is better than Emilia Perez.  That said, the other three scores are all wonderful, and will show up tomorrow with my My Ballot, best of them being the atypical, confrontational work of The Brutalist.

Original Song

1. "Like a Bird" (Sing Sing)

2. "Never Too Late" (Elton John: Never Too Late)

3. "El Mal" (Emilia Perez)

4. "The Journey" (The Six Triple Eight)

5. "Mi Camino" (Emilia Perez)

The Lowdown: I do not think the music in Emilia Perez, even the lauded numbers like "Mi Camino" is any good.  The singing is not strong, the music feels too conversational, and the lyricism is dreadful (the best of the bunch, "La Vaginoplastia" is at least catchy and visually interesting).  That said, "El Mal's" problems are more so the way it's staged (bad lighting & dance direction) than it being a bad song.  Honestly, none of these are that good, both because 2024 wasn't a great year for film tunes, and because Oscar needed to get creative to come up with a decent lineup in a year where there weren't many good choices.  I picked "Like a Bird" because it's fitting to the film and doesn't feel as disposable as Elton John's "Never Too Late," a song that has his great vocals but feels like a cheap ending after hearing so many actual classics in the documentary.

Cinematography

1. The Brutalist

2. Dune: Part Two

3. Maria

4. Nosferatu

5. Emilia Perez

The Lowdown: We'll get into the Best Picture nominee that I can't believe didn't make this lineup tomorrow when we discuss the My Ballot, but for today let's all be thankful for the two deserved nominees that DID make it.  Between The Brutalist and Dune: Part Two, I'm favoring The Brutalist more so because it's truly inventive and it pays off...getting experimental with a movie can always be a risk, so when that risk pays off, you need to use it to break the tie, but both are sensational.  That Emilia Perez is nominated here, given that they literally couldn't even get the lighting cues right during the centerpiece musical number, is insanity to me-other than Best Actress, maybe the worst nomination from the film?

Costume Design

1. Wicked

2. Conclave

3. A Complete Unknown

4. Gladiator II

5. Nosferatu

The Lowdown: Best Cinematography is my favorite of the My Ballot lineups I pulled together, while Costume is unfortunately my least favorite.  That isn't meant as a slight to the winner here, Wicked, which I have made room for in tomorrow's My Ballot, but it is a sign that the costume work here wasn't as great as it could've been (I would've loved us to maybe stray a bit more from the pink-and-green motif, which is why one of my favorite costumes last year was Michelle Yeoh's celestial lilac-colored gown...but this is still great & Wicked's worthiest tech nomination).  Conclave's repeated costumes and twists on the cardinal outfit are a worthy runner-up, and lovingly-detailed.

Film Editing

1. The Brutalist

2. Conclave

3. Anora

4. Wicked

5. Emilia Perez

The Lowdown: The invisible art, film editing for me came down to the quick plot-pacing of Conclave, and then the avant garde approach of The Brutalist.  Of the two, I was most smitten with the sheer scale & confidence of The Brutalist, a movie that I liked better, and while I will quibble with the ending, I don't think you can blame that even a little bit on editing, as even in the worst scenes I was struck by how it kept pulling the viewers into the movie, cavernous in its approach.  The nomination for Wicked, given that it's only half a movie, feels odd & maybe the most confounding (and coattails-driven) citation in 2024.

Makeup & Hairstyling

1. The Substance

2. Wicked

3. A Different Man

4. Nosferatu

5. Emilia Perez

The Lowdown: Horror so rarely gets into this category (which is odd because An American Werewolf in London was the first film to win the statue), and given how quintessential makeup is to the success of the genre, it's kind of exciting to see its return (the last horror film to be cited was 2010's The Wolf Man).  But it's more exciting to be able to give it the crown because it's genuinely good.  Whatever issues I had with The Substance, the makeup wasn't one of them, giving us the ruthless destruction of poor Demi Moore's Elizabeth Sparkle, which is more impressive than the "borrowing from past experience" work in Wicked or the drawing a real-life comparison in A Different Man, which take the runners-up positions.

Production Design

1. The Brutalist

2. Dune: Part Two

3. Conclave

4. Nosferatu

5. Wicked

The Lowdown: In my opinion the best lineup that Oscar pulled together in 2024, none of these are stinkers, and while I won't copy this list verbatim to my My Ballot tomorrow, every one of these feels like an appropriate Oscar nominee.  I am not immune to the Oscar crutch of honoring a movie because it's about a specific production aspect, and indeed, the gorgeous work in The Brutalist (inexplicably on a $10 million budget) is hard to deny.  Dune: Part Two does a great job of expanding this world, and I was in awe of the (also weirdly inexpensive) palatial estates of Conclave, but I have to hand this one to the team from The Brutalist.

Visual Effects

1. Dune: Part Two

2. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

3. Better Man

4. Alien: Romulus

5. Wicked

The Lowdown: I grade these on a 5-star system, and I generally dock a star whenever a lead performance is in supporting or an end credits song with no presence otherwise in the movie is up, so as to even the playing field without sacrificing the nominee's chances entirely.  I think I will start to do that for movies that use dead actors without their permission (I don't care if the estate said yes...I still think it's morally repugnant).  Much of Alien: Romulus is gorgeous, and it would be higher-ranked (possibly in My Ballot territory) if they hadn't used Ian Holm the way they did (both uncanny valley and using a dead man in this way is gross).  Certainly above Better Man, which tried to cover its VFX budget with dark cinematography.  The Top 2 are indisputable-two of the most spectacular franchises around living up to their reputations once again.

OVP: The English Patient (1996)

Film: The English Patient (1996)
Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas, Naveen Andrews, Colin Firth
Director: Anthony Minghella
Oscar History: 12 nods/9 wins (Best Picture*, Director*, Actor-Ralph Fiennes, Actress-Kristin Scott Thomas, Supporting Actress-Juliette Binoche*, Art Direction*, Cinematography*, Adapted Screenplay, Costume*, Sound*, Film Editing*, Original Score*)
(Not So) Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

Stating a favorite movie has gotten harder as I've gotten older.  For years, it was a de facto answer (Casablanca), as sure as I could tell you my name is John or that I would definitely have sex with Colin Farrell if given the option.  But recently I've started to poke holes in that facade, realizing that as I've seen more movies than the average person will see in their entire lifetime at this point that it's okay to bring up Chinatown or Call Me By Your Name or Once Upon a Time in the West as potentially my favorite film ever made.  One of the movies that most strongly comes up when I decide to stray away from Casablanca as the Grand Teton of movies is The English Patient, a movie I was blessed enough to see at a "secret movie night" recently.  The English Patient is so ingrained in me that not only did I know it from literally the opening chord of the score (I literally squealed to my mom, sitting next to me, "it's my favorite movie!"), but also I have seen this film so often that I could literally mouth along to the words, as if I was at a rock concert and suddenly a favorite anthem began to play.  Since the film is arguably the movie I have the most arched eyebrows for when I mention it as potentially my favorite movie ever (even my mom who has known of my obsession with the film since I used to watch it alone in my bedroom every two months or so in high school, didn't quite get it after watching it with me for the second time), I figured I should rescue it today from the annals of being a Seinfeld punchline and talk about my English Patient.

(Spoilers Ahead) Okay, so the plot of The English Patient is somewhat hard to summarize as it's essentially two stories told chronologically and concurrently, so you're getting back story to one tale (about our present-day "English Patient" who has suffered terrible burns in a plane crash, and what happened to him before he was burned), and our current-state tale of Hana the Nurse (Binoche) who keeps losing everyone that she loves in horrible accidents toward the end of World War II.  The first half follows Almasy (Fiennes), the "English Patient," as he has a torrid affair with Katherine Clifton (Scott Thomas) who is married to Geoffrey (Firth).  All of them are helping to create maps of Northern Africa, which initially just feels like a past-time for bored and wealthy Europeans, but becomes crucially important as World War II breaks out, and increasingly battles are being fought between the Allies and the Axis powers in Africa.  Meanwhile, we learn seemingly contradictory things about Almasy in present-day, with him claiming to have been married to Katherine, and having him be accused of betraying the Allies (and his team, including the Cliftons) to the Germans, and in the process causing a thief named Caravaggio (Dafoe) who has traced down Almasy to come seeking his revenge, as Caravaggio blames Almasy for him being maimed (he had his thumbs cut off during illegal torture) during the war.  The film even has time for a second romance in the modern-day, between Hana and a young Sikh named Kip (Andrews), who disarms bombs and mines for a living.

The movie functions at once as a melodrama, a pair of doomed romances, and a mystery.  The first time you see it, it's not entirely clear what to do with our misleading narrator, who lies frequently in the present, so you don't know until the end that he's been telling the truth in the past.  The film kind of has something for everyone in this regard-if you don't really love the romances, you can always latch onto the "war is hell" portion of the story, as well as the central mystery, and of course there's two romances to point you toward, both of which feel fully-fleshed out (that's not a nudity joke, though there is ample nudity in the picture).

What I love about The English Patient (and this could honestly be a book, so for your own eyes I'll try to keep this relatively brief) is the way that it feels like a complete, epic story.  Frequently when a director like Minghella were to shoot for a big-picture sweeping tale there would be sluggish, potentially even ancillary aspects to the movie that don't keep it going; look at Minghella's impressive but less successful Cold Mountain for an example of a movie that can occasionally be spellbinding but gets lost along the way, never quite justifying its run-time.  The English Patient doesn't do that-it leaves layers for future viewings (it's impossible to get the depth of Binoche's Hana, and her misery the first time you see it, realizing what she has to go through while still maintaining a relatively caring-and-cheerful demeanor), but it's also a complete story all on its own.  It's not an epic that is long for the sake of being grand-it's long because the story demands it, and there isn't a lot of "spare" in the picture.  Unless you truly hate, say, the romance between Hana/Kip (and how could you do such a thing?), The English Patient is that rare movie that justifies heading into 3-hour territory without ever being dull.

The performances are brilliant.  All three of the Oscar-nominated leads are giving their best work here, and considering we're talking about Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, & Kristin Scott Thomas, that's saying something.  I can never quite decide my favorite performance in the picture, though I'd probably lean toward Fiennes on most days; he finds a thoroughly caddish rogue, someone we shouldn't sympathize with, and makes him a Heathcliff of the 20th Century.  Almasy is a brute, and probably not worthy of Katherine (or Hana, for that matter), but you understand the attraction here, and why he'd be the great love of her life.  Binoche finds an openness in Hana that is her trademark, but I love the quieter moments in her performance, the way that she is genuinely curious about the man she's caring for (always falling in love again), upon reflection.  Scott Thomas is in full-on glamour mode, never looking lovelier, but also is a woman who understands how to toe the line between being in a man's world, where she's frequently dismissed because of her gender and beauty, and someone who still manages to get things she wants, the way she wants them.  Along with sensitive portrayals from Dafoe & Andrews, the film's acting is just as good as the costumes, cinematography, and scoring, something you can't claim for a lot of romantic epics.

All-in-all, this is a movie I will always love, and that pretty much every age (even as I am now the age of the characters onscreen falling madly in love, rather than just someone imagining being so) of my existence will latch onto.  I am self-aware enough to know this isn't a picture for everyone-the dialogue is highly-stylized ("the heart is an organ of fire," "find that plant-cut out its heart,") but watching it in a packed theater, where the sparing jokes still land and the tender walk up to the Cave of Swimmers still had a number of wet eyes, I am reminded of why I love the movies-the very best ones unite us and captivate us in their stories.  The English Patient is a melodrama, one brimming with romantic tragedy, but it's also the very best of what the cinema can encapsulate-it's an escapist but all-too-human look at the lives of ordinary people put into extraordinary circumstances.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)

Film: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)
Stars: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Tiffany Haddish, Stephanie Beatriz, Charlie Day, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Jason Sand, Brooklynn Prince, Maya Rudolph, Will Farrell, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Cobie Smulders, Ralph Fiennes, Bruce Willis...it's a lot of cast
Director: Mike Mitchell
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

When the first Lego Movie came out five years ago, it felt like an unexpected phenomenon.  Buoyed by a not-yet-ubiquitous Chris Pratt, the John Everyman of Emmet as the main character in a film with a metric ton of site gags and inside jokes toward the Lego Culture was a genuinely good movie, as much an awesome commercial as it was a relentless pop culture orgy.  Since then, we've actually had two more installments in the series, with the equally as good The Lego Batman Movie, and then the first misfire in the series The Lego Ninjago Movie (full disclosure: I haven't seen this picture yet, so the "misfire" label is based on box office/critical consensus and not my own personal estimation).  As a result, The Lego Movie 2 arrives really as the fourth film in the series, and with weightier expectations about what it can accomplish compared to the first film in the series.  The movie falls in the middle of those expectations, still clever in its moments, but weighted down by knowing it could be better and with gags that fall flat as often as they soar.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie picks up a few seconds after the events of the previous movie, with a war of sorts breaking out between the Duplos in the last moments of the first film, and then over the next few years we see the destruction of the Legos' world at the hands of the Duplos, repeatedly destroying their cities.  This results in a sort of Mad Max-style dystopia where Lucy (Banks) takes on the role of Max, and is perplexed why Emmet (Pratt) seems to act as if nothing has changed.  One day a mysterious masked stranger (Beatriz) comes to their city, and steals away a number of the characters, including Batman (Arnett), Benny (Day), Unikitty (Brie), and Lucy.  Emmet tries to track them down, and eventually finds a mysterious city with a potentially duplicitous shape-shifting Queen (Haddish) presiding.

The film, before I get to the bad, is super cute at parts.  The overall song score is considerably better than the first film, in my opinion, though I doubt they get the cultural cache of "Everything is Awesome."  You will almost certainly be adding "Catchy Song" to your iPhone, and Tiffany Haddish nails her evil villain number (even though, it turns out, she's not an evil villain), and in my opinion steals the movie out-from-under everyone around her.  There are a few site gags that are really strong, mostly surrounding Haddish's shape-shifting Queen, and some of the previous film's characters, like Arnett's Batman, remain hilarious.

So why am I just "meh" about the film?  Honestly, it's because the story itself is a bit of a drag. Unlike the first movie, there's no surprise about the real-world here.  We know the real-world exists, and it's pretty obvious to anyone over the age of seven that our main character has a baby sister who is trying to befriend him by copying his favorite hobby of legos.  This sentimentality is so omnipresent that it makes The Lego Movie 2 feel less like a film and more like a proper commercial: "see, the whole family can unite with Legos!"  This might be naive, but if I'm going to be forced to watch product placement, I want it to feel fresh.  It doesn't help that Banks & Pratt have become near-constant presences at the movies in the past few years, and since neither seem to change up their schtick, this is something we've already seen even when its new.  Tiffany Haddish is at risk for this in the future, but at least she hasn't done a G-Rated version of her screen persona yet so the Queen is a new element to this universe, something sorely lacking in the rest of the movie.  It's possible from the box office that this may be the final installment of the Lego franchise, or at least the last one that features Emmet & Lucy-if this is the best they can come up with, perhaps that's a good thing.

The Lego Batman Movie (2017)

Film: The Lego Batman Movie (2017)
Stars: Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson, Ralph Fiennes, Jenny Slate
Director: Chris McKay
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

I find it amusing when people talk about movies like The Lego Movie being a commercial, as if Frozen or Despicable Me aren’t built entirely to launch a thousand toys, pillowcases, night lights, and Halloween costumes as well.  The Lego Movie just took a known property, and then built the movie around it, something that has since been done by pictures such as Trolls and The Emoji Movie.  Yet The Lego Movie was something else-a truly funny, successful picture with likable characters, quotable dialogue, and a solid amount of in-the-know winking, mainly mocking the concept of the “chosen one” narrative.  It was genuinely the best Animated Movie of 2014, and made my Top 10 list that year, so I was curious to see how its off-shoot (there’s no indication that this is a sequel other than it features the same vocal cast, as I don’t recall hearing a single allusion to the previous movie) would succeed-could the same sort of magic come back, or would we have diminishing returns?

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie centers around Batman (Arnett), the same brooding, self-important and loner hero that has been the centerpiece of decades of cinema.  The movie smartly avoids an origin story, as everyone knows the origin of Batman by heart (George-and-Martha Wayne don’t need to die ever again-we all know how they’re going to turn out…same goes for Uncle Ben), and instead dives right into the ego-centric side of Batman, intent on warding out villainy without any connection to actual humanity, and frequently baiting criminals with his actions.  Think of how many of Batman’s foes are driven almost exclusively to defeat him, rather than any other motives driving them to their insane acts of violence.  It’s also worth noting, and noted often in the film, that Batman doesn’t necessarily end crime, but instead is just fighting off a constant cycle of it in the crime-soaked land of Gotham City.

The movie focuses on Barbara Gordon (Dawson), the new Police Commissioner, trying to put Batman into retirement through crime-solving measures.  She is joined in being annoyed by Batman by the Joker (Galifianakis), who wants Batman to admit that the Joker matters to him and that he is his arch-nemesis, that he truly hates him rather than just is fighting him off.  The movie follows similar beats to past Batman movies, where he has to count on a band of heroes and eventually villains (but not before they get a really shady one-liner in against Suicide Squad) to defeat Joker, who is joined by a plethora of villains from other franchises (Sauron, King Kong, Voldemort…only Lego could get these many properties under one umbrella) and then saves the day.

The movie’s plot is pretty simple, but it is a winner due to the wonderful vocal performances, particularly Arnett & Galifianakis, both gamely skewering their comic book personas while also creating actual characters.  It is also quite clever, finding ways to both hero-worship and mercilessly mock the rest of the Batman franchise.  The best bit of the movie would be when Joker is listing off the villains he’s teaming with, starting with the iconic (Penguin, Catwoman, Bane), and then moving into the absurd (like Condiment King).  The hilarious part of this is that every villain he actually lists is indeed a villain from some point in the DC franchise, and the only disappointing aspect here is they didn’t fit my personal favorite (ridiculous) Batman villain, Lady Penelope Peasoup, into the lineup.  These pop culture asides occasionally have diminishing returns (they feel like easy, and sometimes repetitive laughs), but particularly in the movie’s first half it’s hard to argue that they aren’t funny.

Overall, while I can’t quite claim this is as good as The Lego Movie, this is still a riot, assured and its own identity.  Let me know where this ranks in your own estimation compared to the other Lego movies (The Lego Ninjago Movie is opening this weekend, so we now have three), and where do you hope the films head next yet?  Could we see similar franchise targets in the future (say, a Lego Star Wars Movie?).  Share below!

My Dozen Favorite Actors

Well I didn't quite get this out when I wanted to, but we're back with round two of my three-part look at my favorite actresses, actors, and directors.  For those unfamiliar with round one, click here, and for those that have been eagerly awaiting, let's take a look at my all-time favorite actors (listed alphabetically, as actually ranking them sounded too difficult-to-choose).

Honorable Mention: Like the actresses, there were countless names that showed up here for me.  We have a few actors who just barely missed the cut (Michael Caine, Al Pacino, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Dustin Hoffman all spring to mind, but their careers were too inconsistent for my tastes).  We have a few actors who don't work enough or don't quite have the body-of-work I was looking for, but the talent is very, very real (James Dean, Daniel Day-Lewis).  There's a few actors whom I've always thoroughly enjoyed, but for whatever reason I've still got too much missing in their filmographies to really make the jump here for them (Alec Guinness, William Powell, Robert Mitchum, and Fredric March all come to mind).  And finally, there's some younger actors I adore, but I'm not quite there yet to call them one of my twelve favorites, even though they're appointment viewing at this point for me (Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Fassbender, Michael B. Jordan, Oscar Isaac, and Channing Tatum are all actors I give myself a pass to see in pretty much any film).  That being said, here's our Top 12.

Warren Beatty (1937-Present)

Oscar History: As an actor, which is the focus here (there are several men who moonlit as directors throughout their careers on the list, but you don't get extra credit for that in the countdown), Beatty is 0/4 in terms of Oscar.  However, he is also a 14-time nominee, getting cited for writing, producing, and directing in addition to his four Best Actor nods, and won Best Director for Reds and then the Thalberg in 1999.
First Impressions: Beatty, like several actors on this list, has never really made a kids movie.  My first interaction with Beatty was strangely at a young age, though, as my brother and I would regularly play with a Dick Tracy colorform toy at my grandmother's religiously, though our focus was less on Beatty's oversized image (it always bothered me that he wasn't proportional to all of the other Dick Tracy characters), but instead on Madonna and her glamorous silhouette, which as a young gay child was far more fascinating to me.
Why the Love: Beatty is rarely onscreen (in some ways he's similar to Day-Lewis up-top), but when he is, he's always the beautiful, driven dreamer.  He somehow combines the beauty of a young Mel Gibson with the actorly determination of Montgomery Clift, and he isn't shy about making his characters flawed, potentially even unlikable, and making you uncomfortable for wanting to still pursue them (think of Splendor in the Grass or Reds).  All-in-all, he's one of those screen presences that even when he's leering into bombast, he's insanely watchable.
My Favorite Performance: Surely this is Bonnie and Clyde.  Beatty has made a lot of movies that I enjoy, but he's never been sexier, more vulnerable, or stronger than as Clyde Barrow.
Missing Piece: I would have to say Bugsy as it's perhaps the last truly significant film of his career, and a film that many people expected to win the Academy Award for Best Picture when Silence of the Lambs pulled off the upset.

Marlon Brando (1924-2004)

Oscar History: 8 nominations/2 wins (On the Waterfront and The Godfather)
First Impressions: I want to say that my first impression of Brando was either seeing him, randomly, in kitsch wall art while shopping at our local K-Mart, or perhaps it was (in fact) the first movie I really remember catching him in, which was A Streetcar Named Desire, a movie that profoundly changed my life.
Why the Love: Where to begin?  Brando was a complicated genius, one who spent long periods of his career making, arguably, crap (name a decent Brando film from the 60's or 80's-I dare you), but when he was on there really is no one in the world of the movies that can compare.  Brando, at his best, could portray a sensitive vulnerability unmatched by other actors, a combination of raw, animal lust and a brooding desire (word choice intentional).
My Favorite Performance: Streetcar contains my two favorite onscreen performances, period, and I doubt that that ever changes.  It's weird when you have Terry Malloy, Don Corleone, and Paul from Last Tango in Paris on-deck to relegate them to lower tiers on the podium since they're all landmark pieces of acting, but there's just no topping Stanley Kowalski.
Missing Piece: Like a few actors on this list, I've actually seen most of Brando's major performances, as well as a few that he'd probably wish I'd forgotten.  I'm going to go with Viva Zapata, one of only two Oscar-nominated turns of his that I'm still missing (the other being A Dry White Season), as it clearly had some ardent fans.

Robert de Niro (1943-Present)

Oscar History: 7 nominations/2 wins (The Godfather, Part II and Raging Bull)
First Impressions: My first impression of Robert de Niro was actually a film that I didn't really like, but my parents did (which was rare when I was a kid) called Awakenings, a film that I truly should watch again as I have little memory of it other than I didn't care for the picture.
Why the Love: You'll notice that Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino didn't make this list, but de Niro, the third leg in the "once brilliant, now largely coasting on our considerable movie memories" portion of their trio, does.  That's because de Niro is, when he's at his peak, the best of the three.  A marvelous actor, his streak in the 1970's and 80's is unmatched by most actors-it's hard to imagine a rawer bunlde of energy.  He's earned comparisons to Brando, but while Brando played off of his sexuality and fluidity, de Niro is nerves and live wires, electric in the way that he commands the screen at his peak.
My Favorite Performance: Taxi Driver.  I could easily say Godfather Part II and Raging Bull (you're going to have a hard-time convincing me he doesn't deserve three Oscars), but Taxi Driver is just an extraordinary piece of work, and quintessential de Niro.
Missing Piece: I have only missed one of de Niro's Oscar-nominated turns, so I will say Cape Fear, a film that I'm actually curious about as it was on the precipice of de Niro going into his "cash in on the legend" phase.

Michael Douglas (1944-Present)


Oscar History: 1 nomination/1 win (for acting, Douglas has only won for Wall Street, though as a producer he also won a second trophy for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)
First Impressions: This one is easy in terms of remembering because it was a quintessential part of my childhood.  So many of our relationships with movies are forged by our parents, and for me I saw Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile countless times growing up because they were two of my mom's favorite movies.  Hence a very early appreciation of Michael Douglas.
Why the Love: Douglas is a great everyman, and may have been the most vibrant and relevant actor of the 1990's, despite his strange lack of an Oscar nomination during that period.  Like de Niro, he kind of phones it in lately but when he was on-top of himself, he was even better than his famed father: a movie star panache combined with a wonderful, actorly approach.  Douglas will always be one of those rare male actors I loved unabashedly, even when he felt down for the count.
My Favorite Performance: Surely The American President-his Andrew Shephard isn't Jed Bartlett (few creations are, and President Bartlett had multiple seasons to grow upon me), but is more appropriate for a film setting and manages to breed that rarest of cinematic products-an intelligent, competent romance between two equally-savvy human beings without resorting to motifs, but instead keeping them smart.  It's a triumph, and shows off Douglas' rather sharp comedic skills, which are often under-utilized.
Missing Piece: I want to say Basic Instinct-there's a few holes I have in Douglas filmography (Falling Down and The China Syndrome also feel like they're toward the top of this list), but Stone at her peak with Douglas at his seems like something I'd have trouble turning down-it's coming up in the Netflix queue.

Ralph Fiennes (1962-Present)

Oscar History: 2 nominations (sadly no wins, but Schindler's List and The English Patient both are strong crutches to lean upon)
First Impressions: I think it'd have to be The English Patient in terms of actual cinema-Fiennes didn't start doing fare for younger audiences until later in his career, at which point I was an adult proper and saw all of his films anyway.  I do distinctly remember his nomination in 1996 and getting into much ballyhooed conversations with people who didn't remotely care about such things over whether it was pronounced Rafe or Ralph.
Why the Love: Ralph Fiennes is the most electric actor currently working in the cinema this millennium, save for perhaps a Shawnee, Oklahoma native we'll get into in a minute.  Fiennes is always on-point and interesting, even when he's got a film that appears to require him to be just stately and British (Harry Potter, James Bond), and when he's doing his dramatics, he's dynamite.  Think of how M. Gustave, Amon Goeth, and the murderous, profane Harry are all played by the same man-he exhibits a range that rivals Streep in the 1980's.  That Oscar consistently has looked over such wonders is a bit of a stain on their reputation, but at least we have those movies to revisit until the end of time.
My Favorite Performance: Fiennes is one of those actors I love pretty much every time he leaves his trailer, so I feel a little cheap saying that forever and always Count Laszlo de Almasy will remain, eternally, at the top of my list of favorite performances from the Brit.  And yet, his maddening, marvelous look at love and the obsession of attaining it even despite the dangers that it proposes is something I cannot deny.
Missing Piece: I've actually seen most of Fiennes' work-he's one of those actors I've given a free pass to for over a decade and rarely miss anything that he puts out.  I'd probably go with something very early in his career then, like Wuthering Heights or Quiz Show, as ones that I'm missing but I've seen over 50% of his filmography, which is something that as a general rule is hard to achieve without trying.

Cary Grant (1904-1986)


Oscar History: 2 nominations (Grant never won a competitive Oscar, but he did pick up an Honorary one in 1969)
First Impressions: Weirdly my first interaction with Grant was with one of his last films, in Father Goose.  I was visiting my aunt with my family, and my mom/aunt both were wildly excited while flipping the channels when they saw the film was just starting on a cable channel.  I remember being underwhelmed, mostly because I was very young and didn't actually get what was going on onscreen.
Why the Love: Grant eventually became a taste I couldn't get enough of, though, after that initial screening.  He may not have been a great actor in the sense of Brando or de Niro, constantly transforming himself onscreen but he was a man who knew exactly how to pick elegant and charming scripts over-and-over again, giving us decades of marvelously charming roles.  It's hard to deny that Grant, whenever he's onscreen, was a bubbly delight to view, and he seemingly did the impossible, finding ways to have chemistry with performers as diverse as Mae West, Kate Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Sophia Loren.
My Favorite Performance: Like I said, Grant's best performance seemed to be playing the same role over-and-over again, the public's persona of himself.  However, if I had to nail down one specific role it'd be The Philadelphia Story, which is my favorite of his movies and where he even outdoes eventual Oscar winner Jimmy Stewart, the rare time where the Best Actor winner wasn't better than one of his male coleads in the same picture (perhaps the only time?  Share another if you can think of it in the comments)
Missing Piece: I've seen almost every Cary Grant film of note, quite frankly, save one-somehow, in all of my years of watching movies, I've never watched His Girl Friday despite every intention of doing so.  I feel guiltier about this one than any other missing piece on this list-perhaps I'll make a point of it this week?

Heath Ledger (1979-2008)


Oscar History: 2 nominations/1 win (The Dark Knight)
First Impressions: My first impression of Heath Ledger was that he was the most beautiful man I'd ever laid eyes upon in The Patriot.  He was gloriously handsome in the film, making it one of the first times where I actually noticed someone who wasn't the star of a picture and pinpointed him to be a major player-I was right, though considering 10 Things I Hate About You had come out the year before I was beaten by a number of other people in this regard.
Why the Love: Ledger is the person on this list with the scantest filmography, but honestly-he was fast-emerging prior to his death as the quintessential actor of his generation, in my opinion, and even the body-of-work that he left behind was challenging and fascinating.  He was one of the first actors that I became obsessed with while they were working-I would go to whatever film that he made, even as young as a teenager, just because it featured Ledger.  To this day, he is one of only two cinematic images that adorn the walls of my apartment (the plane sequence in Casablanca being the other), showing how much he still means to me, nearly ten years after his death.
My Favorite Performance: Ennis is too good to ignore, a challenging look at the ways that our lusts and our loves haunt us, even as we grow old or must deny that they happened just to move on with our lives.  I still can't believe that a movie so exquisite exists
Missing Piece: Like Fiennes, I've seen well over 50% of Ledger's filmography and most of the biggest hits.  I suspect, though, because I have such a continuing fascination with him that I'll eventually see them all.  The one I'm looking most forward to is Casanova, as it was always fun to see Ledger let out his playful side.

Paul Newman (1928-2008)


Oscar History: 10 nominations/1 win (for The Color of Money, though it's worth noting that Newman is that extremely rare actor who has not one but two Honorary statues, for lifetime achievement in 1985 and the Hersholt in 1993).
First Impressions: It was The Sting, a film that I have actually not seen since I first saw it some twenty years ago (I'll surely have to revisit it for the OVP).  I remember loving it, particularly the ending, but considering my taste in films as I've gotten older I'm not confident that that would hold.
Why the Love: Paul Newman is perhaps what Heath Ledger could have aspired to become-a proper thespian in the body of a matinee idol, Newman is the quintessential guy who could act, but you couldn't get past that mug of his.  That's a shame if you think of him as just a pretty face, because Newman consistently stole most of his films, almost all of which he played the lead, and frequently brought a movie star's panache along with some genuine depth-of-character.  He's intensely watchable, outside and in.
My Favorite Performance: This is actually tricky for me, because while I love most of his work, I've never seen the performance that stands out as "this is my Paul Newman" in the way that Brando or Fiennes has for me.  I think I'm going to go with Hud, if only because that's a wonderful movie, one that combines his flare for danger with his intense sexuality, and he has a marvelous screen partner in Patricia Neal to accentuate what he's doing in the film.  I could be convinced it should be others though.
Missing Piece: I have never seen The Hustler.  I'm aware of the shame this brings to my name.

Jack Nicholson (1937-Present)

Oscar History: 12 nominations/3 wins (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Terms of Endearment, As Good As It Gets)
First Impressions: "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"  For those who get that reference, you'll know why Jack Nicholson is a lifelong affair, something challenging that also is constantly electric, a headliner with the razor-sharp focus of a persistent player on the boards.  For those that don't know the reference, they started making superhero movies before 2005-please investigate.
Why the Love: Who doesn't love Jack?  Honestly-the man is one of the most consistently watchable presences in the history of cinema, and unlike de Niro/Pacino, he actually kept challenging himself for most of the latter half of his career, scoring that third Oscar that alluded Bob (and severely alluded Al).  Nicholson may occasionally over-indulge in his reputation as a batshit crazy screen presence, but he had the bonafides from early in his career (that he occasionally brought out just to prove he still had it in places like About Schmidt) to be both a caricature and a great actor.  Also, he usually made really good movies-taste in scripts should not be discounted here.
My Favorite Performance: It feels weird not to go with something like The Shining or Cuckoo's Nest, since those are the roles that are kind of hallmarks of Nicholson's career, but I can't pick anything other than Jake Gittes in Chinatown.  This is Jack when he's still proving himself as one of the great screen presences, so he holds back in moments he later would have partook in some scenery, and that restraint adds to the menace of one of the truly perfect films.
Missing Piece: I've seen most of Nicholson's most important roles, but I am missing Five Easy Pieces, which I'm actually confident is toward the top of my Netflix queue so that's coming up pretty quickly.  After that, maybe Prizzi's Honor?

Brad Pitt (1963-Present)


Oscar History: 3 nominations (As an actor, though Pitt is 3/1 with producing, as he won for 12 Years a Slave, and had the Academy not changed the rules he should have been included as a nominee for producing The Tree of Life as well)
First Impressions: Joe.  I always pronounce that name the way that Anthony Hopkins did in Meet Joe Black. I remember being struck while watching it that Pitt was both one of the most beautiful men I'd ever seen and how much more I was enjoying this film than all of my classmates, who found it dull and listless while I found it terribly romantic and moving.  I haven't revisited it in many years, but I do believe it was one of the first times I realized it was okay to have an opinion different than the popular one, a critical moment in an appreciation for the movies.
Why the Love: Pitt, more than any other actor, gets the free pass when it comes to me seeing his movies-with two exceptions (at least one of which is on my Netflix queue), I've seen every film he's done for over fifteen years, and have just been in awe of his Adonis-like determination.  Pitt is, like Newman, an actor that perhaps is too beautiful for him to initially be taken seriously but he is also a consummate performer, finding challenging, subdued ways into all of his characters-he's the rare guy that can headline an action film and add an actor's sensibilities to the role, giving us more for our ticket price.  I'm forever in love with him.
My Favorite Performance: A few actors on this list I hadn't actually thought before about what my "favorite" performance is of theirs, and Pitt is one of them.  Argh-it's such a tossup between Assassination of Jesse James and The Tree of Life (both his peak for different reasons) that I'm not going to choose-if you force me to in the comments, I might relent in hopes of getting more interaction on the blog.
Missing Piece: I've seen, as I mentioned, almost every film of Pitt's for the past fifteen years.  However, a bit of his earlier work still alludes me (though even there it's not much), and one of those that I'm thrilled to eventually get to see is 12 Monkeys, his first Oscar-nominated turn.

James Stewart (1908-1997)


Oscar History: 5 nominations/1 win (The Philadelphia Story, though he also won an Honorary Oscar in 1984 for his general contributions to the movies)
First Impressions: Like so many of us, my initial introduction to Jimmy Stewart was as George Bailey, a worthy first chapter for pretty much anyone as Stewart was an actor I instantly fell in love with, the way he distinctly pronounced every sentence (I've said "Mary, Mary" like him for so many years that I can't even remember when it started) and found his heart at the end of the picture.  How could you not fall in love?
Why the Love: Stewart long has received comparisons to another actor that I fell in love with in my youth, though he was current at the time, Tom Hanks, but let's face facts here (with all due respect to Tom): Stewart is a more interesting performer and better actor.  While Hanks frequently traded on his nice-guy persona, Stewart found a balance between maintaining it and occasionally making us uncomfortable in it.  Look at, say, the way that he abandons all hope in It's a Wonderful Life despite him being a genuinely good guy or how he looks back with anguish on his failures in Liberty Valance.  He found a way to challenge the audience while still remaining Jimmy Stewart.
My Favorite Performance: Like Nicholson, it feels somewhat like cheating to go with Stewart's most atypical classic role, but how can you turn down Scottie in Vertigo, the film where Stewart completely abandons his nice guy image (something he likely could only do once quite effectively), but does so in such a way as to make a cinematic masterpiece.
Missing Piece: Anatomy of a Murder is the final major film of Stewart's filmography I've never seen, and was his final Best Actor nomination so the OVP will eventually steer me there.

Orson Welles (1915-1985)

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Citizen Kane, though he was also nominated for writing and directing the movie, and would win an Honorary Oscar in 1970)
First Impressions: It would be Rosebud herself as my first impression of Welles, an actor who loomed very large early on for me, but also quite small, in the same way as Vivien Leigh since his most famous role so overshadowed everything else in his filmography.
Why the Love: Welles is a champion of the screen, a truly great thespian who occasionally indulged his reputation more than he should have (remember those wine commercials, not to mention Transformers?), but when he was on (which was most of the time), he was stupendous, a consummate actor whether or not he was behind the screen directing himself.  To limit yourself to Charlie Kane might be understandable, but would deprive you of one of the great screen icons.
My Favorite Performance: I mean, it's the greatest film of all-time for a reason, so I think I have to put Citizen Kane, but it's worth noting that Oscar could have had a Swanson/Davis style match of acting master classes in 1958 had they simply nominated Stewart for Vertigo and Orson Welles for his "wilderness period" opus Touch of Evil.  Throw in Harry Lime in The Third Man, and Welles arguably should have had three acting Oscars, even though he never got one.
Missing Piece: Perhaps Chimes at Midnight, which actually just came out on Netflix disc and so this might actually happen after years of trying to track it down.

There you have it-my dozen favorite actors.  There's a lot to go over here, so head to the comments and let me know what you think-did I make the right calls in performances, missing pieces, and especially in the twelve men I listed?  Who would you have found room for?  Share below!