ICYMI, A Smackdown Addendum
Saturday, April 26, 2014 at 1:58PM 
Busy busy week but that was mostly the team running around catching Tribeca Screenings. (We'll finish the write-ups very soon). But other than the film festival, I hope you didn't miss these five key posts from the week that was.
A Year With Kate reaches the Spencer Tracy years
Podcast Gets Under the Skin the gang's all back to discuss Noah and Under the Skin
Looking Back at Pocahontas Disney's ambitious epic
April Showers: The Piano Holly Hunter was the surprise star of the week because we also finally got to...
2003 Supporting Actress Smackdown Renée vs. Shohreh vs Holly vs Patty vs. Marcia Marcia Marcia. (What a strange Oscar year that was)
Film Bitch Addendum
For those of you wondering which actresses I voted for back in 2003 (many of you weren't around these parts in those early early days), here was my ballot which only had a little Oscar overlap. FWIW, David Cronenberg's Spider got a one week qualifier in 2002 but back then I went only by NYC release since I wasn't privvy to Academy screeners. Of course AMPAS ignored it as they do most one week qualifiers but Miranda Richardson was all kinds of haunting in it x 3. Curiously my finalists list suggests that I thought The Lovely Laura Linney was equal to Marcia back then within the confines of Mystic River. No more. The only part of the movie that's aged well for me at all is Harden's performance.
Today's Retro Watch
Given the 2003 Smackdown discussion, it's a great time to look back at this classic Cold Mountain sketch from French & Saunders as they poke fun at Nicole Kidman's whispering & posing and the Zeéeeee's overacting in the Cold Turkey DVD commentary track
Reader Comments (21)
Great picks for 2003! Nice call on Sarah Paulson too, you were clearly ahead of the curve. Any chance you could at some point post all of your FB picks over the years? Have only been reading you since 2009, so I'm very curious.
Curiously, Samanha Morton is a rare case of a performance that Oscar placed in leading and you in supporting.
"I HATE THAT FECKING ROOSTER!"
Totally agree re: The Lovely Laura Linney in Mystic River. She fell victim to the script - I did not buy her character's "big scene" at all. That whole movie tried way too hard to be The Great Modern Tragedy.
Ugh. "Mystic River" was, is, and will continue to be a mess. Laura Linney's big scene is laughable, but that's not really her fault. I remember telling fans of the movie that Gay Harden's character was the only one for whom I felt a twinge of sympathy, and that was mainly due to her performance, which was the only thing I could stomach.
"Laurel Canyon" and "In America" -- I honestly had forgotten that those films exist.
I'm Shy... flutters lashes lol
I'm disappointed! I thought you were going to revise what the nominees & finalists would have been if you re-did it today. I was reading and was getting excited for the additional chart showing the revised nominees - and then was very disappointed.
Also Hunter & Morton should be leads.
Frances McDormand was excellent and surprisingly sexy in Laurel Canyon. Good choice!
I'm so glad you enjoy "Cold Turkey" as much as I do, "I can sit on a fence but I can't build one" is so perfect. Btw, I would have loved to have seen Catherine O'hara get a nomination, what a pity they overlook comedies so often. Please feel free to do more of these smackdowns, they are very insightful and thought provoking.
I LOVE THE FILM EXPERIENCE!(dot net). You know I've never been a Kate Hepburn fan but I'm enjoying the series and It's making me appreciate her. I just bought a bio on Amazon and will continue watching the film's I haven't seen. Also I always wish Hope Davis had gotten invited to the party for American Splendor(fuck American Beauty). I've seen her on stage a couple times and she is enchanting. She was very funny in Synecdoche as well. The end.
Hmmmm I'm real curious as to what your best actress nominees were back then...
Jennifer Saunders rules. The back pack was priceless.
So, where can we see the other film bitch awards nominess and winners like this? For instance, i would be very happy if i'm able to see 2007 best actress chart.
philip h & brandon --- they aren't online anymore but i'm working with a coding guy to rejigger certain aspects of the site so i'm hoping to make huge improvements in the summer. It's expensive though. (sigh).
so everyone should donate and subscribe so i can improve everything :)
Oh Cold Turkey! Hilarious!
"Oh she is overacting"
Laurel Canyon. Alessandro Nivola's bare ass. That is all.
Hello Nathaniel. This means that if it was possible to reverse the FB Awards 2003 in this category the nominees would be Marcia Gay Harden, Catherine O'Hara, Patricia Clarkson, Holly Hunter and Miranda Richardson? Gold=Holly, Silver=Marcia, Bronze=Miranda? Amazing how beautiful, precise and compelling seems Marcia's performance in retrospect, excellent actress"
Philip, I remember that Nathaniel's choices in the best leading actress 2003 category were: Uma Thurman for Kill Bill Vol.1 (GOLD), Evan Rachel Wood for Thirteen (SILVER), Jamie Lee Curtis for Freaky Friday (BRONZE), Diane Keaton for Something's Gotta Give and Scarlett Johansson for Lost in Translation.
Luigi -- yeah that was my lineup. I should probably revisit Theron. That performance arrived in the heighth of my disdain for "deglamming" so it's possible I just wasn't thinking too clearly (she was in 6th place for me but others tend to treat it like it's the best performance of all time so who knows)
i dont retroactively change the film bitch awards so they'll always be what they were (i think it's a time capsule, like the Oscars) and it's weird to demote Shohreh who i love in that movie but i guess the smackdown suggested as much
I understand the capsule thing. That edition of the FB Awards was really special for me because it was the first one I ever read. Thank you very much for sharing your passion with us in such an entertaining way!, really
That French and Saunders clip is giving me LIFE! It's killing me whenever the OSCAR pops up after one of "Renee"'s monologues! And that shit is practically word for word from the film. Oh goodness, people are looking at me cuz I'm laughing so hard. I better stop now hahaha!
"Oh god... so obvious, that's the problem, isn't it? I'm so thin, I should've gotten it."