My favorite best actress nominees

Since Sage Slowdive and Twister gave their lists of their favorite Supporting actress nominees, I've decided to post my favorite nominees in the leading actress category. They are: Bette Davis in All About Eve, Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth, Julianne Moore in Far From Heaven, Holly Hunter in Broadcast News, Debra Winger in Terms Of Endearment, Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Judi Dench in Notes On A Scandal, Ellen Page in Juno, Laura Linney in You Can Count On Me and The Savages, and Diane Lane in Unfaithful. Please comment and tell me what your favorites are!

Performances (and films) robbed of oscars in no order

1. Kate Winslet as Clementine Kruczynski in Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind: One of my all time favorite actresses gives her best performance to date in this amazing movie. True, she had played roles with the same outline as this before, but never had she done it with so many layers and she had never mesmerized the screen like she does here. She lost to Hilary Swank's good, if hardly spectacular work in Million Dollar Baby. 2. Julianne Moore as Cathy Whitaker in Far From Heaven: A heartbreaking, beautifully developed portrayal of a woman whose world slowly crumbles around her. The fact that she lost is incredibly saddening. 3.Jack Nicholson as Warren Schmdit in About Schmidt: Adrien Brody was good, but Nicholson was superb. 4. Holly Hunter as Melanie Freeland in Thirteen: A powerful, totally realistic performance. Renee Zellweger won instead as consolation for her loss's for Chicago and Bridget Jones's Diary. 5. In The Bedroom: A richly nuanced film about a family being ripped apart by a tragedy. It lost to AWFUL A Beautiful Mind. I'll post more soon. Please comment!

Aterthoughts on last post

In my opinion, Basinger is one of the worst winners ever in this category. I mean, L.A Confidential is a great movie but this performance left a bad taste in my mouth. She never delves deep enough into her character, nor does she make it special enough to warrant that "true supporting performance title". I don't understand why she even got a nomination. Even Driver (whose work was occasionally inspired but annoying and two-dimensioal) was better then her. My Ranking (I have not seen Moore's performance yet): 1. Joan Cusack 2. Gloria Stuart 3. Minnie Driver 4. Kim Basinger

Did Kim Basinger dseserve her oscar?

12 years ago, Kim basinger was awarded the oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of a mysterious prostitute in L.A Confidential. She had managed to win a Golden Globe and an SAG award (tied with Gloria Stuart) and after some odd career choices Hollywood was happy to welcome her back with open arms. Her strongest competion came from Gloria Stuart who had tied with Basinger for the SAG award and was starring in the biggest box office hit and Best Picture frontrunner Titantic and was an actress from the first golden age of Hollywood. But voters probably didn't feel the need to give her the oscar since Titantic was bound to get it's moment in other categories . Julianne Moore (whose performance I haven't seen) had gotten a lot of acclaim for her performance as a porn star in Boogie Nights, but the film was most likely too dark and controversial for the Academy. Joan Cusack delivered a great comic performance in In & 0ut and had won the critic's choice choice award but oscar's bias against comic performances kept her from a win. And Minnie Driver had to be happy for a nomination since the nomination itself was probably a result of miramax's heated campaign for Good Will Hunting. So readers, do you feel Basinger still deserves her oscar over Cusack, Driver, Moore, and Stuart?

The 74th Academy Awards

The 74th academy Awards were a major disappointment in my opinion. Sure, I don't remember watching them, but the Academy's choices were terrible. A Beautiful Mind won Best Picture, Ron Howard won Best Director, Halle Berry won Best Actress, Jim Broadbent won Best Supporting Actor, Jennifer Connelly won Best Supporting Actress, and A Beautiful Mind won Best Adapted screenplay. The simple fact that A Beautiful Mind was even nominated for any oscars at all is an absolute travesty. This boring, dumb, uneven, and stupid film is one of the very worst Best Picture winners in HISTORY. As for Jennifer Connelly, she is, in my opinion, the worst winner of the oscar for Best Supporting Actress in HISTORY. Her bland, pathetic, shallow work is incredibly cringe-worthy and the other nominees, especially Tomei and Winslet, were far more award-worthy. Jim Broadbent tried, but couldn't add enough depth to break away from his film's depiction of him as a bumbling baffoon. As for Halle Berry, well, don't even let me start on her. Absolutely AWFUL. The only deserving winner in the top 8 categories was Gosford Park's win for Best Original Screenplay. But tell me readers, what do YOU think of these choices?

My 2002 oscar choices

Here are my choices for who should have won the top 8 categories in 2002. Best picture:Chicago Best director:Rob Marshall for Chicago Best actor: Jack Nicholson in About Schmit Best actress: Julianne Moore in Far From Heaven Best supporting actor: Chris Cooper in Adaptation (Not the amazing performance that people say it is, but much better then Walken,Reily,and Harris who were good,not great. Did not see Paul Newman's performance) Best supporting actress:Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago Best original screenplay:Far From Heaven (by a hair over Talk To Her) Best adapted screenplay: Adaptation.

Aterthoughts on last post

Most people think that Kidman did not deserve her oscar and feel that she was horrible. Although I don't feel that Nicole was the best, I thought she was quite good and certainly deserved her nomination. That said, my vote would have gone to Julianne Moore. Her heartbreaking, deeply layered performance gets better every time I see Far From Heaven and it's sad that her flawed, lesser work in The Hours caused her to split her votes with this great performance. Diane Lane is my second choice for her magnetic,passionate work in Unfaithful and Zellweger ranks third for a terrific performance in a great movie. Note: I plan on seeing Salma's performance soon,but not right away.

Did Nicole Kidman deserve her oscar?

Seven (or technicaly six,but whatever) years ago, Nicole Kidman won her first oscar for her performance as mentally troubled author Virginia Wolf in The Hours. Kidman had all the factors for a victory. 1. She plays a real person 2. She's a beautiful actress turned ugly (that nose!) 3. She had a previous nomination and loss for Moulin Rouge a year previously 4. she had won a number of key precusor awards,including the golden globe and the bafta and 5. The film was a highly respected best picture nominee that was unlikely to triumph anywhere else (it's other best shot at a victory was in the screenplay category but it lost). Kidman was in a neck and neck race with Chicago's Renee Zellweger who also won a globe award (but In the musical or comedy category) and mangaged to win the Sag Award over Kidman. However,voters probably felt that Chicago would get its due in other categories and that Zellweger's time would come. (It did. She would go win best supporting actress for cold mountain a year later). Before Kidman won the globe, the early frontrunner was Julianne Moore, who had won a staggering 16 critics prizes for her devastating portrayal of Cathy Whitaker, a 50's housewife who finds out that her husband is gay and falls in love with her black gardener in Far From Heaven. But Moore was also nominated in the supporting category for The Hours which caused her to split her votes,leaving her empty handed. She still had a chance to win, but it faded sadly. As for the other nominees, Diane Lane was both erotic and vulnerable as a woman who has an affair for no reason in Unfaithful, but the film was lukewarm with critics and recieved no other nominations. And Salma Hayek (whose performance I haven't seen) had be content with a nomination and had no shot at a victory. So, do you think that Nicole Kidman still deserved her oscar over Hayek, Lane, Moore, and Zellweger?

recall the gold introduction

When I read the "Recall The Gold" article that entertainment weekly, Iwas immediately intrigued by the idea of revoting the oscars several years later. So I've decided to post, every once in a while, A recall (Or more of a review) of a certain oscar race. So let's begin.

Talk to her review

Pedro Almodovar's Talk To Her is a beautiful,eccentric,and fascinating movie that is one of my favorite films of 2002. It really captivated me in ways that all great movies should do. It certainly deserved it's oscar nomination for best director and while I would have been happier to see Todd Haynes win the best original screenplay oscar for Far From Heaven(more on that later), I'm pleased that Almodovar got it. Highly reccomended.

introduction

Hi,my name is joe burns (that's not my real name. I didn't use my real one because I'm not comforatable with using it) and this is my first blog. I'm a HUGE fan of the oscars and most of the posts on here will be about them or film in general. Hope you'll enjoy.