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« International Contenders: Will we get a repeat Nominee? | Main | Horror Actressing: Natalie Portman in "Black Swan" »
Tuesday
Dec012020

Streaming Roulette, Dec: Sleepy Debbie, Angry Ang, and Winning Gandhi

After the jump you'll find a listing of everything that's new to streaming this month (December 2020). But first we pick two handfuls of titles and randomly freeze them with the scroll bar. Whatever comes up is what we share. Do these images make you want to see (or rewatch) the movie? (If you want to keep up with what's specifically available to stream from this film year you can read these earlier posts!)

It's me against the world. You're all I got baby.

The People vs Larry Flynt (1996) on Amazon Prime
True confession: I never understand why people thought Courtney Love was great in this (though I like Courtney Love as a musician). She's certainly raw but at least for me I can hear the lines being recited and the lack of training. But this feels due for a rewatch - perhaps for its 25th anniversary next year? How close do you think it came to a Best Picture nomination, given that it received only two nominations but they were biggies (Actor & Director)?

[music]

Susan Slept Here (1954) on HBOMax
This is a holiday movie with teenage Debbie Reynolds eloping with middle-aged screenwriter Dick Powell. Have any of you seen it? HBOMax has been wonderful about including Old Hollywood pictures in their rotation... but how long will they keep it up? They only launched months ago and streaming services have a habit of starting out strong in terms of film history but eventually dumping almost everything that's older than 10 years

I'm going to ask him to marry me. Tonight perhaps.

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) on Criterion Channel
This one is part of the Queer Fear series on Criterion Channel which they weirdly waited a month after Halloween to release. Fill in some Oscar gaps by screening this (Best Cinematography win, Best Supporting Actress nomination for Angela Lansbury making her a record holder still, and a Best Art Direction citation, which we previously discussed

The years creep slowly by Lorena
The snow is on the grass again.
The sun's low down the sky Lorena
The frost gleams where the flowers have been ♫ ♬

The Beguiled (2017) on HBOMax
Due for a rewatch? If you've never read Daniel's piece on its main set, you really should. 

[DRAMATIC MUSIC / HEAVY BREATHING]

Hulk (2003) on Hulu
I always forget how experimental and retro Ang Lee's superhero flick is from the Hitchcockian score, to the hyper saturated colors and superimposed images. The purposefully comic-panel like imagery is fun, too. It's too bad about the pacing but this one has its moments. Too bad you can probably track Ang Lee's weird dovetailing away from his strengths right to this film, the first in which he got lost in visual fx rather than storytelling (sigh) which unfortunately became the theme of his career after the incredible one two punch of Brokeback Mountain and Lust, Caution right after this monster which turned out not to be the one-off we expected!

And that's what makes America great

Bombshell (2019) on Hulu
I read a great tweet on this movie last week last week..

[Electric crackling.]

Tesla (2020) on Hulu
TFE has lately been loving on Ethan Hawke. I haven't personally seen this one but Daniel wrote up its Production Design.

I understand. The landlord is British?

Gandhi (1982) on Amazon Prime
Winner of 8 Academy Awards, none of which it deserved. This is not to say that Gandhi is a bad movie. Have I ever told you I was weirdly obsessed with it as a kid? It's just that in the 1980s the Oscars were all about sweeps and near-sweeps and giving everything to one movie per year which is an exceptionally boring way to process / reward art, especially within a film year as rich as 1982 was. It's absolutely horrifying to think this won Best Cinematography over E.T. (gulp), Best Costume Design over Victor/Victoria (yikes), Best Production Design over Blade Runner (gasp), Best Editing over Das Boot (ugh), and Best Screenplay over Tootsie (#$%*!!!) to cite just five of the jaw-dropping injustices. 

[Alarm ringing and screaming]

Gun Crazy (1950) on HBOMax
A much beloved B movie. Highly recommended if you haven't seen it. Love the chaos of its crime spree scenes. Too many movies make action too glossy and this one is all fumbling and spontaneous as if happening in real time. Peggy Cummins (Escape, Curse of the Demon) and John Dall (Rope, The Corn is Green) really sell the dangerous evil of the married killers.

Bruce Willis (just offscreen): Tell 'em!

Hard Kill (2020) on Netflix
Bruce Willis actioner. This is Willis' third consecutive film with a director named Matt Eskandari and we hadn't heard of any of these pictures until just this moment! Weird how that happens with action stars -- they tend to keep headlining movies way after the media and public pays attention but there's apparently enough of a cushion for the genre (i.e. a built-in audience -- see also horror films) that they can just do them until they drop. 

We might get really hungry.

Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog (1995) on Disney Plus
TFW you forget that Jesse Bradford was once a child star. 

ALSO STREAMING  RIGHT NOW... SEVERAL 2020 FILMS. PLUS...

newly streaming

  • "Directed by Claire Denis" (collection 7 films) 
  • "Queer Fear" (collection 12 films) 
  • The Awful Truth (1937)
  • Harold & Maude (1971)
  • King of the Hill (1993) 
  • Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) 

later this month (a selection) 

  • National Velvet (1945) -Dec 5th
  • Paris is Burning (1990) - Dec 7th
  • Sorry We Missed You (2020) - Dec 3rd
  • White God (2014) - Dec 8th
  • "Afrofuturism" (collection 12 films)  - Dec 20th
  • "Terrence Malick" (collection 3 films) - Dec 3rd
  • "The Best of Mae West" (collection 8 films) - Dec 6th
  • "Three by Barbra Streisand" (collection 3 films) - Dec 9th

 

 

newly streaming

  • Angela’s Christmas Wish — Netflix Family
  • The Holiday Movies That Made Us — Netflix Original
  • Natalie Palamides: Nate – A One Man Show — Netflix Comedy Special
  • 3 Days to Kill (2014)
  • 50 First Dates (2004)
  • A Thin Line Between Love & Hate (1996)
  • Angels & Demons (2009)
  • Are You the One?: Seasons 1-2
  • Chef (2014)
  • The Crown (season 4)
  • The Da Vinci Code (2006)
  • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
  • Effie Gray (2014)
  • Gormiti: Season 1
  • The Happytime Murders (2018)
  • Hard Kill (2020)
  • Hillbilly Elegy (2020)
  • Ink Master: Seasons 1-2
  • Jurassic Park (1993-2001) - first three movies
  • Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
  • Little Nicky (2000)
  • Loving (2015) 
  • Monster House (2006)
  • Peppermint (2018)
  • Quigley Down Under (1990)
  • Runaway Bride (1999)
  • Super Wings: Season 3
  • Stargate SG-1: Seasons 1-10
  • Transformers Rescue Bots Academy: Season 2
  • Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family (2011)
  • Why Did I Get Married? (2007)
  • Virgin River (season 2) 

Later in the month - a selection

  • Break (Russia?, 2020) - Dec 3rd
  • Big Mouth (Season 4) - Dec 4th
  • Bombay Rose (2019) - Dec 4th
  • Mank (2020) - Dec 4th
  • Selena: The Series (2020) - Dec 4th
  • Detention (Taiwan?, 2020) - Dec 5th
  • Ava (2020) - Dec 7th
  • Rose Island (Italy, 2020) - Dec 9th
  • The Prom (2020) - Dec 11th
  • Nocturnal Animals (2016) - Dec 16th
  • Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - Dec 18th
  • The Midnight Sky - Dec 23rd
  • Bridgerton (2020) - Dec 25th
  • DNA (2020) - Dec 26th
  • Cops and Robbers (2020) - Dec 28th
  • Rango (20110 - Dec 28th 

 

newly streaming

  • 30 Days of Night (2007)
  • 50 First Dates (2004)
  • 6th Day (2000)
  • About Last Night (1986)
  • Angels & Demons (2009)
  • Any Given Sunday (1999)
  • Black Dynamite (2009)
  • Body of Evidence (1993)
  • Bombshell (2019)
  • Cake (2006)
  • Charlotte’s Web (1973)
  • The Chumscrubber (2005)
  • The Client (1994)
  • Cliffhanger (1993)
  • Con Air (1997)
  • The Color of Money (1986)
  • The Da Vinci Code (2006)
  • Diary Of A Mad Black Woman (2005)
  • Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)
  • Dr. No (1962)
  • Dragonball: Evolution (2009)
  • Euphoria (2018)
  • Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
  • The Fifth Element (1997)
  • Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006)
  • Goldeneye (1995)
  • Goldfinger (1964)
  • Hemingway’s Garden of Eden (2010)
  • The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992)
  • The Hulk (2003)
  • The Hurt Locker (2008)
  • Here On Earth (1999)
  • Hot Air (2018)
  • I Am Greta (2020) 
  • Into the Blue (2005)
  • The January Man (1989)
  • The Lord Of The Rings (2001-2003) - trilogy
  • Love Potion No. 9 (1992)
  • The Mummy: Tomb of The Dragon Emperor (2008)
  • The November Man (2014)
  • Our Family Wedding (2009)
  • Run (2020) Nov 20th
  • Sands of Iwo Jima (1950)
  • Shrink (2009)
  • Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
  • Southside With You (2016)
  • The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
  • Strategic Air Command (1955)
  • Sunshine (2007)

later in the month (a selection)

  • The Hardy Boys (Season 1) - Dec 4th
  • She Dies Tomorrow (2020) - Dec 4th
  • God's Own Country (2017) - Dec 5th
  • The Secret Garden (2020) - Dec 6th
  • Out Stealing Horses (Norway, 2019) - Dec 10th
  • Endless (2020) - Dec 12th
  • Hope Gap (2020)  - Dec 28th

 

newly streaming for September - a selection. They usually offer (most) of the same films as Hulu listed above...  plus a slew of random stuff but sadly they're not any better about classics really than the other streamers. 

 

later in the month (a selection)

also newly streaming

  • Black Beauty (2020)
  • Mr Magoo (1997)
  • A Christmas Carol (2009) 
  • Marvel 616 (doc series)

later this month - a selection

  • Anastasia (1997) - Dec 4th
  • Big (1988) - Dec 4th
  • Godmothered (2020) - Dec 4th
  • Mulan (2020) - Dec 4th
  • The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018) - Dec 4th
  • Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) - Dec 11th
  • Into the Woods (2014) - Dec 18th
  • Eddie the Eagle (2015) - Dec 18th
  • Soul (2020) - Dec 25th

 

also newly streaming

  • 3 Godfathers (1949)
  • 40 Days And 40 Nights (2002) (HBO)
  • Absolute Power (1997)
  • Adam Ruins Everything (Seasons 2-3)
  • The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996)
  • Amanpour: Sex & Love Around the World (2018)
  • Amistad (1997) (HBO)
  • Annabelle: Creation (2017) (HBO)
  • The Bay (2012) (HBO)
  • Beyond Reasonable Doubt (2017)
  • The Bishop’s Wife (1947)
  • The Blind Side (2009) (HBO)
  • Blow-Up (1966)
  • The Book Of Henry (2017) (HBO)
  • Bright Young Things (2004) (HBO)
  • Bundle of Joy (1956)
  • The Call of the Wild (2020) Nov 28th
  • The Carbonaro Effect (Seasons 2-5)
  • Chasing Life with Sanjay Gupta (2019)
  • A Cinderella Story: If The Shoe Fits (2016)
  • Code 46 (2004) (HBO)
  • Comedy Knockout (2016)
  • Contraband (2012) (HBO)
  • Crimes of the Century (2013)
  • The Crow (1994 - 2005) - three movies
  • Dead Wives Club (Season 1)
  • Death Row Stories (Seasons 1-4)
  • De Blanco La Patuda (2020) (HBO)
  • Deep Blue Sea (1999)
  • Demolition Man (1993)
  • Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (2012) (HBO)
  • Fallen (1998)
  • Falling Skies (2011)
  • The Family Man (2000) (HBO)
  • Father of the Bride (1950)
  • Fifty Shades Of Black (2016) (HBO)
  • Final Destination (2000-2009) - 4 movies
  • Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact, Forgery (2015)
  • Freelancers (2012) (HBO)
  • Free Willy  (1995-2010) - 3 movies
  • The Girl With All The Gifts (2016) (HBO)
  • Gladiator (2000)
  • Harry And The Hendersons (1987) (HBO)
  • Hell in the Heartland (2019)
  • Hero (2004) (HBO)
  • The History of Comedy (2017)
  • Holiday Affair (1949)
  • Hot Fuzz (2007) (HBO)
  • How It Really Happened (Seasons 1-4)
  • The Human Stain (2003) (HBO)
  • The Hunt with John Walsh (2014)
  • Inside Evil with Chris Cuomo (2018)
  • It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)
  • Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)
  • Juice (1992)
  • Just My Luck (2006) (HBO)
  • Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
  • Laff Mobb’s Laff Tracks (2018)
  • The Last Samurai (2003)
  • La Unidad (2020)
  • Logan’s Run (1976)
  • Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
  • The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
  • Mars Attacks! (1996)
  • Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
  • Michael Clayton (2007)
  • Misery (1990) (HBO)
  • The Misery Index (2013)
  • My Dream is Yours (1949)
  • Nancy Drew (2007)
  • No Blade of Grass (1970)
  • The Omega Man (1971)
  • On Moonlight Bay (1951)
  • Outbreak (1995)
  • Paid Off with Michael Torpey (2018)
  • Phantom Thread (2017) (HBO)
  • Period of Adjustment (1962)
  • Pope: The Most Powerful Man In History (2018)
  • Project X (2012) (Extended version) (HBO)
  • Rachel Dratch’s Late Night Snack (2016)
  • The Redemption Project (2019)
  • Risky Business (1983)
  • Robots (2005) (HBO)
  • Rock Of Ages (2012) (Extended version) (HBO)
  • Romance on the High Seas (1948)
  • Room for One More (1952)
  • Sanctum (2011) (HBO)
  • The Sentinel (2006) (HBO)
  • Sex and the City (2008-2010) - both movies
  • Shaun Of The Dead (2004) (HBO)
  • The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
  • The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
  • Snakes on a Plane (2006)
  • Snow White And The Huntsman (2012) (Unrated version) (HBO)
  • Something’s Killing Me (2017)
  • Southland (Seasons 1-5)
  • Soylent Green (1973)
  • Spawn (1997)
  • Stargirl (Season 1)
  • Striptease (1996)
  • Talk Show the Game Show (2017)
  • Tea for Two (1950)
  • Those Who Can’t (2016)
  • Three Godfathers (1936)
  • THX 1138 (1971)
  • Timeline (2003) (HBO)
  • Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale (2007)
  • Tom and Jerry: Santa’s Little Helpers (2014)
  • True Grit (2010) (HBO)
  • Underwater (2020) Nov 21st
  • Unfaithful (2002) (HBO)
  • Unmasking a Killer (2018)
  • Very Scary People (Season 1)
  • The Wedding Date (2005) (HBO)
  • Westworld (1973)
  • What Bitch? (2020) (HBO)
  • Wrath of the Titans (2012) (HBO)
  • Wrecked (2019)
  • Yogi Bear (2010)
  • Young Man with a Horn (1949)

later this month - a selection 

  • Baby God (2020) - Dec 2nd
  • The Photograph (2020) - Dec 5th
  • Euphoria (special) - Dec 6th
  • Let Them All Talk (2020) - Dec 10th
  • Wendy (2020) - Dec 19th
  • Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) - Dec 25th
  • The Champ (1979) - Dec 30th

 

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Reader Comments (41)

"Ghandi" won all those Oscars because of the subject matter not the quality of the film. It is well made but rather dull epic- Atenborough is not David Lean. How could it beat "Tootsie" for Best Screenplay- I would think it was based on a biography not an original.

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterJaragon

Not to mention the most egregious theft of them all — Dustin Hoffman's Best Actor Oscar.

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterBVR

BVR - you beat me to it! Dustin Hoffman's most brilliant performance - which is saying a lot! Ben Kingsley has proven himself since, but no way did he deserve the Oscar that year.

Also, I liked Bombshell a lot more than others, apparently. Margot Robbie should have won the Oscar, and Nicole Kidman and John Lithgow deserved nominations for their exceptional work, too.

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterken s

Gandhi only deserved the oscar for Ben Kingsley, the rest is just ok.

I think Courtney Love was great in The people vs....

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterCafg

I love the 1996 Oscar season. It was the first ceremony I ever watched, back when I was 14 years old.

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterStephenM

Courtney Love is terrible far too self aware on camera and not nomination worthy and neither is Woody,i'd have preferred to see Toni Collette or Rachel Griffiths who were the first 2 choices for Althea.

Ben Kingsley has what should have been Paul Newman's first Oscar or Dustin Hoffman's second.

Tootsie is simply one of the best comedies ever made and every single character right down the cast is note perfect.

For my money Kidman is actually better than Robbie and Theron.

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered Commentermarkgordonuk

i'm more likely to forget that jesse bradford is an adult actor [when was the last time he was in anything worth seeing?]

that gif from 'susan slept here' suggests that dick being middle-aged is not the biggest problem debbie's facing in that relationship...

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterpar

I consider Courtney Love to be wonderful in TPvLF. The striptease introduction to “Hang On Sloopy” is iconic and impossible for me not to associate with that song forever more. I’d easily toss out Joan Allen’s CRUCIBLE nomination to make room for Love in the Oscar line-up.

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterFrances Bean

I really like Gandhi. It's quite good, but almost no film deserves that many Oscars. Ever.

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterCash

Also, Hulk is one of the few films that has put me to sleep. Sometimes it's just boring. Other times it's assertively bad. Huge misstep all around.

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterCash

I remember "Susan Slept Here" as okay but not great - it's a Frank Tashlin movie, but you wouldn't know it from what's on screen.

HBO just added several Doris Day movies too - "Romance on the High Seas" is excellent, one of Day's first starring roles and an uncharacteristically adult comedy role considering that she'd subsequently be cast as younger and innocent for a while after.

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterDave S. in Chicago

I liked Courtney Love in The People vs. Larry Flynt and she was good in Man on the Moon but that's all she's known for as far as being an actress unless you count those Alex Cox films she did in the 80s.

I have no interest in watching Hard Kill, Bruce Willis is sadly phoning it in for a paycheck

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterthevoid99

Dick Powell’s character is 35 in Susan Slept Here!

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterJimmy

Frances Bean-

Wasn't Courtney Love campaigning as LEAD though in this film? I think all the critics prizes she got were for Lead Actress not Supporting.

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterDAVID

I watched Uncle Frank last night and was so disappointed. (POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD) I was loving the first half but then it completely fell apart in the second half. I got whiplash from the sudden change in quality. It turned into such a horrid gay cliche tragedy and then quickly rushed towards an unbelievable silly “happy” ending. The character of Sophia also basically disappeared in the second half, or at least in terms of character development, it’s like they just didn’t care about her anymore. It was so bizarre. Paul Bettany and Peter Macdissi were great though!

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterBradley

Put me in the camp of people who like Gandhi. Kingsley’s Oscar was very deserved, IMO.

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterShmeebs

shmeebs -- i like it too. It's Oscars unfortunately turned people against it but it's definitely a good biopic.

December 1, 2020 | Registered CommenterNATHANIEL R

Susan Slept Here is a pleasant little nothing of a film IF you can get past the canyon size age disparity of Debbie's character (supposedly 17 though she was in fact 22) and Dick Powell (purportedly 35 though he was 50 and looks every day of it!).

Since Powell is miscast he's a drag on the film's premise though his performance is fine but it does have some compensating factors. Debbie is a sprightly delight as usual, there is an ultra sleek and glamorous Anne Francis as the fly in the ointment of the main story and Glenda Farrell as Powell's assistant is funny and fabulous. There is also the Oscar nominated ballad "Hold My Hand". But the film is in no way essential unless you're a completist for any of the stars.

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterjoel6

TOOTSIE is great but E.T. really is the classic that deserved to go down in history as Best Picture of that year. Of all the films that were nominated that year for Best Picture, GANDHI is the only one I've never revisited. Thought it was very good, but a one-and-done film. How did BLADE RUNNER not win Art Direction/Set Direction? How was ONE FROM THE HEART not nominated for Art Direction/Set Direction??

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterDan Humphrey

The only good thing about Bombshell is surprisingly Margot Robbie. Charlize did NOTHING in that movie.

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterRama

One of the cool things about these 50s movies is that they are so "puritanical" that what was scandalous then became laughable even for those who saw them in the 70s or 80s, and this just makes'em more fun. Not to mention the beauty of actresses like Debbie Reynolds who is a living doll. And the costumes, the sets (the decoration of the houses), the hairstyles - unbeatable. They could be the worst kind of people, but how tasteful they were then!

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterFeline Justice

Just did a rewatch of the 1982 Best Pictures and generally they were all more than decent, including Missing. But Gandhi didn’t deserve to win.

Hot take: Teri Garr should’ve won over Lange in Supporting, and Lange should’ve won over Streep for Frances.

Hot take 2: Paul Newman deserved the Oscar by a hair over Hoffman.

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterParanoid Android

The People x Larry Flynt could hardly get a Best Picture nomination because It was attacked from all sides. Conservatives because of the original poster with a strong religious reference, to begin with. Liberals because of the idea of ​​transforming a "low-level exploiting scoundrel" into a hero of free speech, to begin with.
The movie is very good. One of the best of Milos Forman.
Courtney Love is very good in It. Everybody in the cast.
In the end it wasn't the "good guy" Hugh Hefner who got a movie, It was the openly bad boy Larry Flynt who did. It's like they say, controversial figures end up giving better films, usually. Gandhi is an exception that confirms the rule.

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterRafaello

I wholly disagree about Courtney Love - I would nominate her (Leading) in a heartbeat, taking into account Jean-Baptiste’s fraudulent campaign and Tilly not being in contention, even though 1996 is one of the most competitive years in history -

Brenda Blethyn - Secrets & Lies
Emily Watson - Breaking The Waves
Marianne Jean-Baptiste - Secrets & Lies
Jennifer Tilly - Bound
Frances McDormand - Fargo

Courtney Love - The People Vs Larry Flynt
Tea Leoni - Flirting With Disaster
Fairuza Balk - The Craft
Heather Matarrazzo - Welcome To The Dollhouse
Gina Gershon - Bound

Basically, it is she and not Madonna who deserves the “how did she miss” think-pieces for a popstar giving a superlative movie performance that year...

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterkermit_the_frog

Gandhi deserved all its Oscars, very good year with no major missed but Gandhi is on a normal another level for me. Tootsie, E.T., Missing and Verdict all very good but not up to Gandhi's caliber.

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKC

I think if we all voted today, Gandhi - a great film - wouldn't make the Best Picture line up unless we counted 10 spots. Just think of the films that nowadays could easily break through as masterpieces and classic, specially genre films: Blade Runner, John Carpenter's The Thing, Poltergeist, Tron, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan... my top 5 movies of 1982...

1. John Carpenter's The Thing
2. Blade Runner
3. Missing
4. Poltergeist
5.Tootsie

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterJesus Alonso

Also, while Gandhi didn’t win Best Makeup, the fact that it got a nomination for its rather standard old age makeup over Rob Bottin’s groundbreaking, genre-defining work in The Thing strikes me as its most undeserved prize of all.

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterEdwin

Nathaniel, even Lee's FX-driven movies are still very much about the dualities of people and all the gray in-between. Hulk/Bruce, Pi/Richard Parker and Henry/Junior are not very different from Ennis/Jake, Sense/Sensibillity (Elinor/Marianne), Lust/Caution (Mrs.Mai/Mr.Yee) and Tiger/Dragon (Yu Shue Lien/Jen Yu). There's a very strong thematic unity in all of them.

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered Commentercal roth

That Gandhi paragraph deserves some kind of "well when you put it that way" prize. And yeah, how on Earth is it possible Blade Runner didn't win Art/Production Design? Oscar is odd sometimes but that's kind of horrifying. Also, love the love in the comments for One From the Heart and Teri Garr in Tootsie. And the mentions of 1982 are reminding me I need to watch Missing.

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterScottC

My 1982 ballot
Picture: Tootsie
Actor: Dustin Hoffman
Actress: Meryl Streep
S. Actor: James Mason
S. Actress: Glenn Close (this is the best Supporting Actress field ever! They should have declared a 5-way tie)
Director: Sydney Pollack
O. Screenplay Tootsie
A. Screenplay Das Boot
Foreign Film Flight of the Eagle

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterken s

Oh and Courtney Love absolutely deserved to be in the Supp Actress lineup. Methinks it was category confusion more than anything else.. she got several lead citations for what is clearly a secondary role.

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterParanoid Android

Paul Newman should have won the Best Actor Oscar in 1982. Even Ben Kingsley said he thought he would win.

HBO Max is the best of the mainstream streaming services ("mainstream" excludes Criterion Channel). Great catalog of films and terrific new releases as well. I doubt they'll drop their classic films, since they're part of a partnership with TCM (HBO and TCM are both under the WarnerMedia umbrella).

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterjules

"Tootsie" is a comedy classic that never gets old

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterJaragon

Tootsie is certainly my favorite of all of these movies, definitely an Over And Over, but I thought then and think now that Best Picture should have gone to E.T., even if it's not exactly my cup of tea.

Ben Kingsley winning is the only Oscar I don't really mind for Gandhi.

PS I have always wanted to see One From The Heart and have never seen it shown on TCM etc. Is it streaming anywhere?

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterDave in Hollywood

@Dave in Hollywood-I think it's available on YouTube, Apple, and Google but you'll have to pay a fee. It's sort of worth it. It is a flawed film due to its narrative yet the visuals are just astonishing as well as the art direction that Dean Tavoularis created. The film is also worth seeing for the supporting cast as Raul Julia, Nastassja Kinski, Harry Dean Stanton, and Lainie Kazan.

It is a film that I think people need to see as it has elements of the old musicals that was missing in Hollywood from those days in the 1980s. I enjoyed the film yet I can see why it failed initially. If you're going to fail, at least fail big. I'd rather fail on my own terms than succeed on someone else's terms.

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterthevoid99

New York, New York (1977), Hair (1979) and One From the Heart (1981) are considered by many to be the final nails in the coffin of the Hollywood (non-animated) musical, but they are three of my favorite films of that era. Even though Hair was fairly successful and currently beloved by some cinephiles (like AFI), at the time it was both a breath of fresh air and a last gasp for the genre.

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterWorking stiff

@cal roth - that is a brilliant read on ang lee movies - one of my favorite directors and I never noticed that thread.

I hope we get to see another top-tier crouching tiger/brokeback level ang lee masterpiece. Cinema and cine-me need that

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterThankful4u

In two of the best cases of "He won the Oscar for THAT?": Dustin in Kramer vs. Kramer and Rain Man. He was so much more deserving in Tootsie and Midnight Cowboy.

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterNewMoonSon

Kidman deserved a nomination for Bombshell. In my opinion she was the movie's humble MVP

December 3, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterClement.Paris

nice sharing awesome one keep posting really appreciated

January 1, 2021 | Unregistered Commenterzee
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