100 Not Nominated For Oscars – Part 7

So I’m going to go out on my own this one time only, and want to just salute the year of 2007 for Part 7. Apt. This was very much more like it regarding the quality of movies on offer at the Academy Awards. It’s like they were waking up, finally. An Oscar race is not really an Oscar race without a swing in direction however. Early on it looked like Atonement was the one to beat, a film ticking all the right boxes, and it was certainly impressive. There was also talk of quirky Juno sweeping the rug from under everything else – even as the actual show drew closer there was this feeling about Juno. Could this actually win Best Picture? Before long it got much darker, not in the gloomy sense we usually recognize, no, it was apparent that Coen brothers were in fact going head to head with Paul Thomas Anderson. Their nomination tallies of eight apiece and the overwhelming praise they received when they arrived made them the ones to chase after all.

Director — Joe Wright (Atonement)

Joe Wright’s rather disappointing omission from Best Director was the final nail in Atonement’s, even if by then the movie’s buzz had gone south somewhat. His vision and execution seem well-drilled and solid, and he brings out terrific performances from his cast. Wright’s direction is tight, masterful, and demonstrates a great understanding of the craft of film-making, bringing the book Atonement to vivid life with great visual skill, patience, and excellence. The Dunkirk tracking shot alone was enough to warrant a mention. He, of course, returns to the Oscar race right now under similar circumstances.

Leading Actress – Keri Russell (Waitress)

Believe it or not but people were talking about the excellent Keri Russell in Waitress as an outside bet for a Best Actress slot. It was always going to be a dark horse, but you can’t help but wonder, watching this performance now, had she got in would we be mentioning Russell’s name as someone who did not deserve the nomination. I think not. Billed as a comedy I guess, Waitress has a pretty dramatic and adult premise, and Russell takes on the lead mantel with emotional ease and has a commanding presence as a character trying not to bounce off the the lifestyle choices around her during a pregnancy. Under-rated, but overwhelming.

Supporting Actor — Tommy Lee Jones (No Country For Old Men)

As No Country For Old Men touched upon, in with the new ways and out with the old might be the logical step. True, Joel and Ethan were overdue, but this was surely more about the sheer knack they have for creating brilliance after brilliance – eventually it would have to stick. Although Javier Bardem took the Supporting Actor Oscar (quite easily) and was possibly the most memorable villain in this or many a movie for years, the heart and soul was Tommy Lee Jones as the sheriff. Here is an actor so built for this role, both physically and in his acting ability, I cannot imagine anyone else would have even been allowed to play this part. His bemusement, but not quite admitting to defeat, on how the times are changing is sympathetic, and you long to support him and his cause. There is a lot of debate about the movie’s grounded, post-dramatic final scenes, but the more I watch that final dream recounting monologue by Jones I can’t think of a better way to close such a layered movie. It certainly would have been a great nomination clip had he even been nominated here. Wonderful.

Picture — Zodiac

David Fincher’s movies have been involved in varying degrees of Oscar snubbery over the years. And in 2007, as good a year as it turned out to be, we can look back now and see a black hole were Fincher’s Zodiac could have been. You will find that many Fincher fans unsurprisingly have this paced serial killer chase in their top three movies by the director. It does not have the satisfactory good guys prevail ending, and it has few scenes of great horror or intensity – though it does have a couple. What it does have is an absolute precise attention to moving the jigsaw pieces around to solve the puzzle – that is if all the pieces are actually found in the first place. Zodiac shows Fincher at his methodical best.

Original Score — Jonny Greenwood (There Will Be Blood)

I was deeply perturbed when the Academy did not nominate the score for There Will Be Blood by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. I am not going to start blabbering about the ridiculous rule that made this music ineligible, but I will say that they need to change it. It is reminiscent of great classic film music, and gives the impression the composer is a master of his craft. It also perfectly met with Paul Thomas Anderson’s change of tone with his choice of material from which to create a movie. Anyway, have a listen for yourself:

Comment away. Surely you can’t argue with these absentees?

Genre Blast: Dear Old Dad – Fathers on Film

Fathers’ Day calls for recognition of fatherhood as it is portrayed in the cinema, and that is as varied as the number of film writers and their respective relationships with “dear old Dad.” Relationships with the old man are directly influenced by the type of man the father happens to be. Nurturing or combative, empowering or controlling, a child’s vision of their father is a direct result of how that man approached child-rearing and, later in life, how the inevitable reconciliation that follows the rebellious childhood years progresses. The range of emotion goes from regret to pride, sometimes including both extremes in our feelings for the man who, like or not, shaped who we are and who we will become.

Here, I’ll give respectful nods to The Godfather and The Empire Strikes Back where fatherhood played important peripheral roles, but these five made dear old Dad the center of attention. Pivotal to the plot to the point of overpowering it in some cases, these are the top five fathers, imo, in cinema. If you find the essence of each and put them together, I would imagine that you would have the characteristics of 90% of typical Dads out there in the world.

So here goes…

Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves)   Vittorio De Sica   (1948)

Post-WWII Italy is the setting for De Sica’s drama of a family struggling to scrabble out a living where being able to work and provide for the family relies entirely on owning a bicycle. Antonio is a good man – the perfect role model for son, Bruno – until his precious, newly acquired bicycle is stolen. Desperation presents options that Antonio would probably not entertain under normal circumstances, the situation calls for action, and Bruno quickly gets schooled in ethics, community and, most important, just how decent a man his father really is. An un-reproachable classic that should be seen by everyone.

Field of Dreams   Phil Alden Robinson   (1989)

Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) was a typical boomer kid who rebelled against his father most of his youth before settling down and starting a family of his own. His regrets are typical – not playing that game of catch, which is so symbolic of every young man rejecting the father’s ways to go down his own life path. Robinson’s film also features the unique concept of generational adolescent idol worship (Shoeless Joe Jackson of the 1919 baseball scandal and anti-establishment writer Terrance Mann – actually JD Salinger in the original novel). Robinson reminds us that unrealized dreams are the staple for the 90% who fail to become a more glamorous, more successful, and a more together person than our father could ever be. When Ray realizes in the cornfield just exactly for whom he built his baseball diamond, risking everything, and meets the young man face-to-face, there is not a dry eye in the house.

There Will be Blood   Paul Thomas Anderson   (2007)

Daniel Plainview likely started out focused and ambitious, but by the time his young son is able to travel with him on his quest for oil and life’s golden egg, he has become ruthless and obsessive. Considered one of the best films – if not the best – of the 21^st Century so far, the film is anchored in Daniel Day Lewis masterful performance. The hunger for wealth must have been overwhelming when it was possible for a man with a shovel and some elbow grease to locate his fortune without any cynicism to cloud his path. It’s right there; go get it, and knock whoever tries to interfere on their ass, even if it’s your own offspring trying to temper the way. I’ve always found the finale in the bowling alley a bit grand guignol. but the film is a wonder – top marks for writing, directing, and performances, as well as score and cinematography. Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the least predictable film directors working today. Let it be said that even though we have no idea where he’ll take us next, we are sure that it will be somewhere we have never gone before and we will not forget it.

To Kill a Mockingbird     Robert Mulligan   (1962)

If integrity and honor were ever to be mystically trans morphed into a human being, you can bet that human would bear a strong resemblance to Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck), the exact polar opposite of Daniel Plainview (above). Principled and moral with a strong-as-steel sense of fairness and social justice, the character of the widowed Atticus Finch and his relationship with Scout, his daughter, develops by way of a racially motivated trial where Atticus is the defense attorney. By watching her father, Scout learns that it’s more important to win the war than just the battle, especially if that war represents a threat to your own beliefs.

East of Eden    Elia Kazan (1955)

James Dean’s first film – and the only one of his three films to be released in his lifetime – is an interesting take on the Cain and Abel story from Genesis. Of course, the “Adam” figure is the fiery, bible-thumping father (Raymond Massey), who naturally favors brother Aron over Cal (Dean), no matter to what lengths Cal goes to please him and make him proud. It’s a potboiler of a father-son conflict that pulls into the action the estranged mother (Oscar winner Jo Van Fleet) and Abra (Julie Harris), whose attention both brothers are vying for. Reconciliation comes, eventually, but at a huge cost. This is a great film that represents well the ideals of the innocent 50s when one didn’t normally question lofty notions of “goodness” or unforgiving morality.

It would be difficult to come up with five stronger versions of fatherhood than these dudes, but I dare you to try.  When they are not prominently featured in the action, they are ever-present in the psyches of their offspring. That’s the power fathers have – they may not physically give birth, but they are the hands in the clay during the time we take to reach adulthood. With that, Happy Father’s Day to all dads. And I’ll touch a finger to my lips and point to the sky in memory of my own.