Discussing the 1997 Oscar Race (Again)

Ben & Matt win "Best Original Screenplay" at the Oscars

Remember how much fun the Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1997 was? Well, we had an opportunity to revisit that year much earlier than we were expecting to revisit it via our friends at the Cooler Than Ecto Podcast...

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ICYMI - 1997 Smackdown Podcast

by Nathaniel R

We'll be releasing as short "outtakes" podcast from the latest Smackdown featuring the films and supporting actresses of 1997. But before we do, listen to the "official" podcast, won'cha? It's one of our best episodes, so we sincerely hope you enjoy. 

1 hour and 24 minutes
00:00 Panel Intros and Titanic's four-quadrant success
08:00 In & Out. Paul Rudnick's jokes, the physical comedy, the Joan Cusack
23:30 L.A. Confidential and Kim Basinger as both actress and celebrity
37:30 Good Will Hunting 'Ben & Matt' mania, and Minnie Driver's focus-pulling charisma
46:50 The brilliance of Boogie Nights and Julianne Moore's career-making genius
1:01:35 Gloria Stuart's 'old Rose' and the winning corniness of Titanic
1:16:00 Awards for everyone plus our re-casting game.
1:19:00 Goodbyes and final movie/performance recommendations for '97 

Smackdown '97: Joan, Minnie, Gloria, Julianne Moore, and Kim Basinger

Welcome back to the Supporting Actress Smackdown. 

In this monthly series we pick an Oscar vintage to explore through the lens of actressing at the edges. This episode takes us back 25 years to the landmark year of 1997 when Titanic and "Matt & Ben" were all rage.

THE NOMINEES  

Aside from an encore showing for comedic genius Joan Cusack, a surprise nominee in 1988 for Working Girl, the Academy went with all first-timers for 1997's Supporting Actress roster. Not that the actresses were "new" to the scene. There were two "comeback" narratives: Kim Basinger had been a leading lady for over a decade before LA Confidential but she'd taken a three year break from the movies (amidst multiple financial and legal troubles). Meanwhile Gloria Stuart who began in the early days of sound cinema was being celebrated in a way she hadn't been since 1932. The "breakthrough" nominations, were also two-fold. One went to Minnie Driver (who had two films out, In & Out  and Grosse Point Blank). The other went to ubiqutious Julianne Moore who kicked off '97 with a Sundance hit (The Myth of Fingerprints), and continued making news with a blockbuster (Lost World Jurassic Park) before her career-elevating role arrived in the fall in the unlikely package of an epic ensemble drama about the 1970s porn industry from a filmmaker barely anyone had heard of.

THE PANELISTS 

 Here to talk about these five films and performances are (in alpha order) author and entertainment jourmalist Kyle Buchanan (The New York Times, "Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road"), podcaster Chelsea Eichholz (Cinema Gals), and comedian / podcaster Louis Virtel (Keep It!, Jimmy Kimmel Live). The Smackdown is hosted by the founder and editor of The Film Experience, Nathaniel Rogers.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN + PODCAST  

LET'S BEGIN...

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Ranking the Men of "L.A. Confidential"

We're revisiting the 1997 film year in the lead up to the next Supporting Actress Smackdown.  Here's Ben Miller on L.A Confidential

For my money, Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential is a bonafide masterpiece. Despite nine Oscar nominations and a Best Supporting Actress victory for Kim Basinger, the ample group of fine male actors missed any sort of accolades. It doesn't mean some of them didn't deserve it.

Here are my picks for the 10 best male performances from that film...

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The New Classics: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

By Michael Cusumano 

The best genre parodies are so full of affection for their targets that they can’t help but make a superior example of the very thing they aim to satirize. It can be fun to throw tomatoes at a genre’s contrivances and cliches from the outside, but titles such as Young Frankenstein or Down With Love circumvent your ironic detachment to provide the far more satisfying experience of playing with these tropes from inside a story you care about. 

This kind of rare pleasure is one of the reasons Shane Black’s crime caper comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang has amassed the following it has since it underperformed in theaters back in 2005. Black’s film actually does double satirical duty, lampooning both the world of Raymond Chandler-esque noir and the world of the hyper-masculine, wise-ass body cop action movies of the 80’s and 90’s, a subcategory Black helped to inflate to absurd levels as the big gun screenwriter behind films like Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout...

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