I for one would love to see James rank and talk about Splash, Big, The 'Burbs, A League of Their Own, The Green Mile, the entire Toy Story saga (again), his Meg Ryan collaboration trilogy (Joe Versus the Volcano, Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail), Elvis and many others all in the same video.
Actors like Tom Hanks and Robin Williams who were well known for their many silly funny movies didn't seem to have much of a problem getting recognized by the Academy for their more dramatic work. (Though Hanks is an interesting case, 'cause his first nomination for Best Actor was for one of his silly funny movies, that being Big (1988).)
But then when other actors best known for their whacky comedies play against type in legit. critically acclaimed dramas like Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler, the Academy doesn't seem to notice or care.
How come some funny guys have better luck with the Academy than others?
These days we're all in agreement that this performance should've gotten her a win.
But she was never a threat in the Best Actress race at the time. She didn't win a single major precursor, and most insulting of all, she was left off the Oscar lineup entirely. ('Cause why include the lead of this Best Picture nominee we clearly like, when we can instead show just how far up Meryl Streep's ass we are by nominating her for the 20th fucking time?!)
Why? Why was Adams never in the conversation to win at the time?
Poor Amy Adams was teased by the Academy for most of her six nominations.
There was a slight chance of her winning for Junebug, but the overwhelming favorite that season who won the Golden Globe and SAG before taking the Oscar was Rachel Weisz in The Constant Gardener. In hindsight since Amy didn't win, even though she probably should've, her Junebug nomination was more of a "Welcome to the A-list" moment where the nomination was the win, kinda like Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson the following year.
Her performance in American Hustle may have been a distant second to Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine. But emphasis on DISTANT, because yeah, I don't think Cate was ever at even the slightest risk of losing at any point that season.
And her other four nods? Forget it, she was just happy to be there for Doubt, The Fighter, The Master and Vice. She was never win-competitive at any point for any of them. I can admittedly understand her not being win-competitive for The Master or Vice, those were weak nods, but the other two? Come on now.
Charlie Wilson's War was pretty damn boring, I did not like it at all.
But with that said, Philip Seymour Hoffman was a highlight who did salvage that absolute slog a little bit every time he was on screen. I think his Supporting Actor nomination for it is more than fair.
Seeing as my post asking for your picks for the biggest fashion faux pauxs at past ceremonies did as well as it did, I decided "Let's do that again!" But a lot more positive this time.
What is some Oscar drip that you can get behind?
Jeff Bridges, 2000 Supporting Actor nominee for The Contender, went on to win in Lead Actor for Crazy Heart (2009).
Joaquin Phoenix, 2000 Supporting Actor nominee for Gladiator, went on to win Lead Actor for Joker (2019).
Javier Bardem, 2000 Lead Actor nominee for Before Night Falls, went on to win Supporting Actor for No Country for Old Men (2007).
Two clear lead/co-lead performances nominated, with one winning?
It should've gone to Rachel McAdams. Or we could've given Kate Winslet a second and made her a lead AND supporting winner.
At least it would've gone to an actual supporting performance if either of them won.
Whether it be:
Stage 1: James gets an idea.
Stage 2: James watches/plays the media associated with the idea.
Stage 3: James writes the script.
Stage 4: James records himself reading the script.
Stage 5: James and his team edit footage and background music to go with the recorded audio.
Stage 6: Final touches are applied, its ran through copyright reviews, filters to obscure the copyrighted footage are applied if necessary, and then it's uploaded.
These images are from the Steven Spielberg ranking by the way.
Time to discuss something a little different today. What is some Oscar drip that you really don't like?
I'll start with Juliette Lewis at the 64th Oscars.
Holy shit, who told her that fuck-ugly hairstyle was a good idea? It looks absolutely hideous on her. As much as I like her performance in Cape Fear, I'm kinda glad she didn't win because that would've meant everyone else in the audience would've had to look at that absolute eyesore. Forget Geena Davis's dress, THIS was the worst look at that ceremony.
He watched the first two today for the Guillermo del Toro ranking, the first to familiarize himself with the series and then the second because del Toro did direct that one.
Why not finish the set while you're at it?
He's one of only three directors to win consecutively, after John Ford and Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
Did he deserve both?
Did he deserve one but not the other?
Or did he deserve neither?
Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler (2014) or Amy Adams in Arrival (2016)?
They're both great performances that made all four major precursors only to miss the Oscars, and their snubs only look worse the more time passes. Especially when you consider that there are painfully obvious 5th place weak links in those lineups that had absolutely zero business getting in over them. (Cooper in American Sniper and Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins respectively.)
If I personally had to pick which snub was worse, I'd probably say Adams.
Gyllenhaal clears every single 2014 Best Actor nominee except Michael Keaton, but the Academy clearly wasn't that high on Nightcrawler seeing as it only got into Original Screenplay and nothing else, so I guess his snub makes sense even if it still sucks that he got snubbed.
Adams not getting nominated for Arrival considering that it showed up in eight other categories including Director and Picture, though, was absolutely baffling then and is even more baffling now. Especially when, like Gyllenhaal, she was better than most if not all of the nominees in that lineup.
I've seen comments say that Judi Dench could've done her six minutes in Shakespeare in Love in her sleep.
And yeah, I have to agree. She is good in those six minutes, but at the same time, this was not a very challenging or difficult role for the great Judi Dench to pull off at all. (Y'all really gave her an Oscar for THIS and not Mrs. Brown or Notes on a Scandal?)
Obviously some wins with bad raps because of who they beat are ALSO because the performance just wasn't good or impressive enough to warrant winning an Oscar regardless of the competition. (Coughs in Art Carney, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Caine 1999, Rami Malek and Jamie Lee Curtis.)
But what wins aren't like that? What performances that won are great and worthy of winning in a vacuum and only look like bad wins at a glance because of the arguably better competition they beat?
Exhibit A: Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club gets a lot of flack for beating Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, and Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave to a lesser extent, but most of those people that give that win shit seem to neglect to mention that Matthew is still great in his movie and that it's arguably one of the better Best Actor wins of the 2010s. Plus, I think Matthew McConaughey having an Oscar is very much a good thing.
Exhibit B: No, Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive shouldn't have won over Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List, and an argument could be made for Leonardo DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape as well. But with that said, he's still really good and very entertaining in The Fugitive. And like Matthew, I think him having a win makes perfect sense, I'm glad he has one.
If The Fugitive came out two years earlier and TLJ was nominated for that instead of JFK and won over Jack Palance in City Slickers in the rather weak 1991 Supporting Actor lineup, I don't think his win would get dissed nearly as often as it does.
Our boy was roughly 29.94 (29 years and 343 days) when he won Best Actor for The Pianist back at the 75th Oscars in 2003.
Should someone 29.93 or younger at the time of a future ceremony have won in this category since then?
And not one of them is for John Cusack.
Why did she just stand there and watch while Eleven was standing (or not) in the gateway to the Upside Down for over a minute before the bomb went off?
You have the rest of the party held back! Point the hedgehogs at El and then snatch her! Shoot her in the foot so she can't run away and then snatch her! Or if she really isn't there, as one or both of the first two things would reveal, threaten to kill all her friends if she doesn't step forward and surrender!
I DON'T KNOW! DO SOMETHING!
DO YOU WANT THIS GIRL YOU'VE BEEN CHASING THE ENTIRE FUCKING SEASON OR NOT YOU STUPID BORING-ASS WASTE OF A CHARACTER?!