1999 Oscar Watch

I remember Entertainment Weekly had a cover story in 1999 called "1999: The Year That Changed Movies".  They were talking specifically about movies like The Matrix, a game changer in visual effects and big budget science fiction films, The Blair Witch Project, a game changer in independent horror and viral marketing and some of the more visually imaginative films of the year like Magnolia, Being John Malkovich and Fight Club.   My top 10 list for 1999 rivals almost any other year, films like Three Kings, Election, Dogma, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Galaxy Quest, The Iron Giant and Run Lola Run.  It was an incredible year, all these great films and The Cider House Rules gets 7 Oscar nominations?  Boo, I say to the Academy, Boo Sir.
You can see my GABBY winners and nominees HERE

BEST PICTURE

 

5. The Cider House Rules - It's undoubtedly the Miramax-iness of it all as to why I don't like this movie.  It's perfectly fine, nothing great but nothing bad and if this were 1985 wouldn't look out of place in the Best Picture lineup.  Homer grows up in an orphanage where a doctor performs illegal abortions, Homer is morally opposed to abortions but when he leaves the orphanage he finds himself in a situation where an abortion is the right thing to do.  Even with all the abortions in this film it's saccharine and sanitized.  It feels like a movie that would be made in 1969.  Like I said, perfectly fine but nothing special and knowing how hard Harvey Weinstein campaigned for nominations leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  Which isn't the only time Harvey Weinstein and "bad taste in my mouth" have been in the same sentence.

4. The Green Mile - Frank Darabont directs this film set in a prison based on a Stephen King story.  A win for this movie would be retribution for The Shawshank Redemption not winning but that's a perfect film whereas this is 3 hours of filler.  There's way too many stories here.  Tom Hanks is a prison guard with a bladder infection, a big giant black man with magical healing powers is an inmate, there's an entitled and sadistic younger guard, there's a mouse that roams the halls, there's a few other inmates, one a nihilistic madman named Billy The Kid.  Everything ties together but it feels like a miniseries more than a film.  If this won and Shawshank didn't it would be like if Scorsese won for The Age Of Innocence.

3. The Sixth Sense - "I see dead people".  This is probably tied with The Blair Witch Project and The Matrix for movie from 1999 that was parodied or referenced the most in other movies, TV shows and pop culture in general.  A young boy confides to his psychiatrist that he sees ghosts, the kid starts helping the spirits rather than be afraid of them and it has a twist ending that has probably already been spoiled for you.  It's a pretty good movie, I loved it at the time but watching it a second time forces you to look for clues rather than just enjoy it.  The performances by Bruce Willis, Toni Collette and, especially, Haley Joel Osment hold it together.

2. The Insider - Michael Mann directs this film inspired by true events.  A producer for 60 Minutes is doing a story about the tobacco industry and how executives knew and hid the fact that cigarettes were addictive.  They interview a guy who used to work for Brown And Williams who blows the whistle on them and things get complicated.  CBS fears a lawsuit so they refuse to air the piece, the tobacco company threatens the whistle blower and tries to discredit him and Al Pacino yells on the phone a lot.  Mann adds tension into every scene and makes what should be a rather dull film entertaining through editing, music, the performances and cinematography.  The result is a movie that's good, not great.  It's unnecessarily long and has a lot of filler that gets in the way of the central story.  It would be a really great nominee in most years but in this weak year almost becomes the movie to beat.

1. American Beauty - This is a beautiful, voyeuristic look into modern suburbia.  Just as the social outcast Ricky is peering into the Burnham's house with his handheld camera, we as the audience are peeking as well, watching their every move.  It starts with Kevin Spacey as a put upon patriarch, his family sees him as a barnacle, his job has no respect for him, his life is pretty much meaningless until one day he has an awakening while watching a high school cheerleader.  It's a little creepy watching the movie today, knowing what we now know about Spacey, but it's still an incredible film with beautiful cinematography, a weirdly hypnotic score, fantastic performances all around.  Things are not always what they appear to be on the surface.

I was fully prepared to vote differently from the Academy.  I thought for sure that American Beauty wasn't as good as I remembered it and something would take it's place.  There were certainly better movies that came out in 1999, it just missed my top 5, but in this category it is really the only choice.  Cider House and Green Mile don't really deserve to be here, The Insider is needlessly long and The Sixth Sense was a surprise nominee that was really only there because it was also a surprise hit.  American Beauty is not the strongest Best Picture winner ever but it's certainly better than anything else nominated this year.

Oscar Winner: American Beauty

My Vote: American Beauty

GABBY Winner: Being John Malkovich

BEST ACTOR

 

5. Sean Penn - Sweet And Lowdown - First off, I'm not a Sean Penn fan.  I don't care for his acting style and this is incredibly un-PC to say but I always see a little bit of I Am Sam in every performance.  It's to the point where I think he may have a learning disability.  This is a Woody Allen film, he makes one every year and critics either really love them or completely ignore them.  This is one they really liked about the second greatest jazz guitarist.  Penn plays Emmett Ray, he's a gambler, a pimp, a bit mentally unstable but a genius at playing guitar.  He meets a mute woman and starts a romance.  Penn is fine in the role, the scenes of him playing the guitar are impressive.  If he was actually playing I commend him for it but there's not much else here that leaps out as worthy of accolades.

4. Russell Crowe - The Insider - Crowe plays Jeffrey Wigand, he was fired from a tobacco company and gives an interview to 60 Minutes blowing the whistle on shady business practices.  Crowe was lauded for this performance at the time, he gained weight, shaved his head to appear to have thinning hair, wore makeup to appear older and listened to a tape of the real guy talking as to mimic his voice.  This all adds up to a big bunch of "who cares?".  Why go through all that trouble to accurately impersonate a man we don't know?  Pacino doesn't do that and his performance looks effortless.  Look at Christopher Plummer in the movie, he plays Mike Wallace, a man we are familiar with but instead of doing an impression he just creates a character.  So Crowe was miscast, despite the fact that they could have hired an age appropriate actor, why not just be Russell Crowe?  I'll believe you as the character, you know, because it's a movie.  Anyway, despite the theatrics, Crowe is good but I think Pacino should have gotten the nomination instead.

3. Denzel Washington - The Hurricane - Washington plays Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer who was put in jail for 20 years for a crime he didn't commit.  He was finally freed years later by some Canadian lawyers who looked into the case.  There was a negative backlash against the movie because it fudged some facts and made Carter look better than he was.  I don't have a problem with that, it's a movie and it's a biopic, you wouldn't show Nelson Mandela whoring it up in his biopic.  I have a problem with the movie being 2 1/2 hours and dull.  Washington is definitely better than the material here, he chews every piece of scenery he can get his hands on and it elevates the film.  The movie has a framing device that I didn't care for and I thought way too much time was spent on the lawyers trying to free him than was necessary.  Denzel is really good though and had earned a Best Actor Oscar by this point in his career so he at least deserves consideration.

2. Kevin Spacey - American Beauty - Remember, this is 1999 Kevin Spacey, when we all loved him.  Spacey plays a put upon dad who becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's friend.  He starts working out, smoking pot and not taking any shit from anybody.  It's an incredibly fun performance.  Spacey has a way of putting meaning behind every word, there's something in his delivery that forces you to pay attention to what he's saying.  The transformation this character goes through is funny, heartfelt, sad, empowering and also a little off-putting.  He's not a perfect man by any means but still makes him somebody to root for.

1. Richard Farnsworth - The Straight Story - I adore this movie.  This is based on a true story about an elderly man who drove his John Deere lawnmower 240 miles to visit his ill brother.  It's also directed by David Lynch and while there are no surrealist elements to the film there's still a weird 'Lynchian' undertone to the movie that makes it fit in perfectly with his other films.  Farnsworth plays Alvin Straight, the old man on his lawnmower.  Farnsworth was a sweet old man with a kind voice that works perfectly for this character.  We follow him on his journey as he meets locals in the towns he stops in and that's the film.  It's a wonderful slice of life mixed with a redemptive story mixed with an underdog tale about a man facing adversity and Farnsworth is at the center.

So much rides on this category historically.  If Russell Crowe wins then he doesn't win for Gladiator, a far lesser performance than the one he gave this year.  If Denzel Washington wins then he doesn't win for Training Day, another lesser performance.  Voting for either one of them would right those future wrongs but based on performance alone I liked Kevin Spacey better than either of them.  Problem there is that Spacey just won an Oscar 4 years before this.  So do you give Spacey 2 Oscars in 5 years, give Denzel a 2nd Oscar or give Crowe his first?  Taking that into account I would have preferred a Crowe victory.  None of that matters anyway because I'm voting for Farnsworth.  At 79 he became the oldest person ever nominated in this category and it's hard for me to watch this film and not get choked up by his performance.  Maybe it's because I know how much physical pain he was in.  He recently had a hip replacement which made sitting that long extremely difficult, he also suffered from prostate cancer which spread to his bones.  He took his life not long after this film due to how much pain he was in.  There are no frills or gimmicks in Farnsworth's performance, he doesn't need to do anything flashy, he's just a man inhabiting a character and that's why he's my vote.

Oscar Winner: Kevin Spacey

My Vote: Richard Farnsworth

GABBY Winner: Richard Farnsworth

BEST ACTRESS

 

5. Meryl Streep - Music Of The Heart - Meryl plays violin.

4. Julianne Moore - The End Of The Affair - Boy, did I not like this movie.  Ralph Fiennes starts having an affair with Julianne Moore, she's married, they have sex, like a lot, every other scene, she's naked all over this movie.  That's pretty much it.  This was based on a book, so I can only imagine that it existed before porn and was salacious at the time.  Today it's just a movie of two people getting it on a lot.  Moore started getting the reputation as being an overlooked actress where she would get nomination after nomination and eventually won in 2014.  Here she's filler, but I'll accept it because she was terrific in Magnolia and should have been nominated in the supporting category.

3. Janet McTeer - Tumbleweeds - This is a mother/daughter road movie.  McTeer plays a single mother who goes from man to man and is quick to pack up her belongings and her daughter and move out of town when things get tough.  This was a really weak year for lead female performances and in a better year McTeer wouldn't have gotten a nomination, the movie is just too small.  She is really funny in the role though and in this weak category moves up to number 3.

2. Annette Bening - American Beauty - Bening plays Carolyn Burnham, she's a serial overachiever and a bit neurotic.  She's married to Lester, a shell that used to house a man, and is the mother to a teenage girl that wants nothing to do with her.  She is either oblivious to the fact that her family isn't as ideal as she thinks it is or never shows it on her face.  Bening is perfect in the role and her losing this year started her on the path of perpetual also ran where she will eventually win for a lesser performance.  She has several terrific moments in the film, like when she breaks down after not being able to sell a house, the scene where she slaps her daughter and, my favorite, where she refuses sex with her husband because she is more worried about getting stains on the expensive soda.

1. Hilary Swank - Boys Don't Cry - Swank plays Brandon Teena, a woman posing as a man.  Today she would be referred to as a trans man but I don't think that term was around back then.  She gets into trouble a lot because she lives her life as a man and when people find out she's a girl they get upset.  She lives in the south so her life is doubly difficult.  One day after a drunken night in a bar she ends up in a new town with Peter Sarsgaard, she starts dating a girl there and when they find out that she's not really a boy they rape and murder her.  Hilary Swank has never been this good before or since, now to be fair her highest profile film before this was The Next Karate Kid.  It's a brutal film and was actually pretty daring for its time, I don't think it would have had the same impact today.  What am I saying, of course it would, I am emotionally drained after watching it again.

Now historically if Bening wins here then Swank can still win for Million Dollar Baby and they would both have Oscars.  Swank won her 2nd Oscar in 2004 beating out none other than Annette Bening.  Knowing that Swank is going to win again makes me want to vote Bening here but the better performance is the better performance and that's Swank.  She's pretty incredible in Boys Don't Cry and is the true lead of her film where Bening could be considered supporting.

Oscar Winner: Hilary Swank

My Vote: Hilary Swank

GABBY Winner: Reese Witherspoon for Election

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

 

5. Michael Caine - The Cider House Rules - You know you're a great actor when you can have an accent this ridiculous, narrate the movie and still turn in a heartfelt performance that wins an Oscar.  Caine plays Dr. Larch, Homer's mentor at the orphanage.  He is addicted to ether and performs illegal abortions because he believes it is the right thing to do sometimes and if he doesn't do it then women will get them done somewhere else and potentially do harm to themselves.  Caine is good in the film because he's Michael Caine and has never turned in a bad performance, see Mr. Destiny, The Swarm or Jaws 4 if you want proof.  What the hell is with that accent though?  Caine is British trying to do a New England accent and it comes out as something foreign and awkward.  I noticed on this viewing that he's the only one doing an accent, Tobey Maguire just sounds like Tobey Maguire.  Is it better to try and fail or not try at all?  Would anyone have really complained if he sounded like Michael Caine?

4. Jude Law - The Talented Mr. Ripley - Matt Damon is sent to Rome to find his boss's son.  Law plays the son, Dickie Greenleaf, a carefree and narcissistic playboy.  He's an entitled piece of shit that only cares about himself and having a good time on his father's dime.  When Damon gets there he starts to idolize him and fall in love with him.  An accident happens and Dickie is no more and you kind of forget about him as the movie turns into Damon covering up the disappearance and assuming his identity.  Law is good here.  He's charismatic enough that you don't despise him while also being a likable douche bag where you can see someone falling for his charms.  It's a good first nomination but not something you can vote for.

3. Michael Clarke Duncan - The Green Mile - Well this is just perfect casting.  John Coffey is a gentle giant with magical healing powers and he is played by Michael Clarke Duncan, a 6'5" tall behemoth with a sweet demeanor.  I like that he got nominated, and since his life was tragically short I'm considering voting for him.  My two complaints with this nomination are one, the movie has a really great ensemble featuring Doug Hutchison, Sam Rockwell, David Morse, James Cromwell, Harry Dean Stanton and Michael Jeter to name a few, I would nominate 2 of those guys over Duncan.  2, this isn't Duncan's fault but more a fault of the movie and the character, but the character is something that seems like that way black characters were written in the 1940s.  I'm not a fan of how "yes sir, boss" the character is, it's historically accurate, sure, but I wish he had more of an arc than he does.

2. Haley Joel Osment - The Sixth Sense - Osment plays Cole, a young boy who sees dead people.  They walk around like normal people, not knowing they are dead and scaring the crap out of him.  Osment is so good in this movie that he raised the bar for any child actor after him.  This was a game changer, kids aren't allowed to suck anymore.  You can't just have a precocious cute kid anymore, they have to act.  Look at performances today like Jacob Tremblay in Room or any of the kids in It and then look at performances from before and you see a drastic increase in quality.  It all started with Osment.  He's terrific in the film, I can't vote for him because I have a phobia of voting for people in their first film role, that's how you get Oscar winners like Jennifer Hudson.

1. Tom Cruise - Magnolia - I think Paul F. Tompkins described the plot of Magnolia best as everybody in the phone book starts talking to each other.  I'm not a fan of PT Anderson's work but this is a masterpiece.  It's 3 hours of a gripping character study.  Cruise plays Frank Mackey, a menimest self help guru that teaches men how to seduce and destroy the opposite sex.  We see him in action, then getting interviewed about his family and finally visiting his father who is dying.  Cruise is really great here in an ensemble film where he stands out but gets lost at the same time.  The movie is so big and broad that it's hard to pick one story line to pick as your favorite.  Magnolia features great performances from Cruise, Jason Robards, John C. Reilly, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Baker Hall, William H. Macy, Julianne Moore and others that it feels like a cheat to give a win to Cruise, but on the other hand, someone from Magnolia should have gotten nominated and he's the only one here so...

I hate this category.  Only Cruise and Osment have any right being here and this was one of my favorite years for supporting actors.  Here's a brief list of people who aren't here, Christopher Plummer for The Insider, John Malkovich and Orson Bean for Being John Malkovich, Alan Rickman for Dogma or Galaxy Quest, Any other performance from Magnolia, Any other performance from The Green Mile, Chris Cooper for American Beauty, Eddie Murphy for Bowfinger, Brad Pitt for Fight Club, even Eugene Levy in American Pie.  So I think Cruise deserved it more than anyone else but I'm not completely upset that he lost, what more does he need?  Osment would have been a fun winner despite his age, Duncan would have also been poignant seeing as how his life was cut short and Law would have been a worthy winner in retrospect.  Instead they gave Michael Caine a 2nd Oscar for a performance that didn't merit it.  The worst part is, I can't argue with the results.  I still remember Caine's acceptance speech from 1999 and the dude is a class act that always delivers in every movie he's in, unfortunately the performance itself is barely worthy of a nomination, much less a 2nd Oscar.

Oscar Winner: Michael Caine

My Vote: Tom Cruise

GABBY Winner: John Malkovich for Being John Malkovich

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

 

5. Samantha Morton - Sweet And Lowdown - Woody Allen told Morton to play her character like Harpo Marx and you can really see the influence.  She is so expressive in her face and especially her eyes, communicating everything without saying a word.  Morton plays a mute who starts a relationship with Sean Penn's jazz guitarist.  There's many reasons not to vote for her, it's her first major film and she doesn't speak so it's hard to gauge how good of an actress she is, but in hindsight, knowing that she is a tremendous actress she could have won here and it would have been just fine.

4. Angelina Jolie - Girl, Interrupted - A beautiful woman, who is also the daughter of an Oscar winner, in her breakout role playing a crazy lady, Oscars don't come much easier than that.  Jolie is good, if a little over the top, and is really the only reason to watch this film.

3. Toni Collette - The Sixth Sense - This is a true supporting performance.  She makes the most of her scenes without ever stealing focus.  You may forget about her after the film is over but when you look back at the film you remember just how good she was.  She plays Cole's mother who is at the same time supportive and fearful of her son's behavior.  She has a terrific moment in a car with her son as he acts as a medium between her and her mother.  The camera stays on her face as she reacts which makes the scene all the more effective.

2. Chloe Sevigny - Boys Don't Cry - This film is about Brandon Teena, a trans man living as a boy in the south.  While in a town where nobody knows his true identity he meets Lana, played by Sevigny and they start a relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend.  Lana doesn't know that Brandon is a girl and falls in love with him to the point that when she finds out she doesn't care.  Sevigny is incredible here, you first think she's a small town naive girl but then realize that she's just following her heart.  She would easily win this category if it weren't for me wanting to honor my favorite film of the year.

1. Catherine Keener - Being John Malkovich - This is one of the craziest and most original movies ever made.  A puppeteer who works on the 7 1/2 floor finds a tiny door in his office that leads him into the mind of John Malkovich.  It gets weirder from there.  Keener plays Maxine, a woman who works in the office that the puppeteer has a crush on.  She sees the portal as a money making oppurtunity but ends up falling in love with the puppeteer's wife when she is in Malkovich's head.  It's a weird movie but so good.  Keener is so sexy and cool in the film and she's paired with Cameron Diaz and John Cusack who are playing very unattractive characters.  Even though I liked Keener more, I'm a little surprised Diaz didn't get the nomination based on her star power.

All things even I may have voted for Chloe Sevigny but all things are not even as Being John Malkovich was criminally overlooked this year, scoring 3 nominations and this being the only acting nod.  I gotta vote for Catherine Keener as a vote for both my favorite film of the year and as a vote for my favorite actress in the lineup.

Oscar Winner: Angelina Jolie

My Vote: Catherine Keener

GABBY Winner: Cameron Diaz for Being John Malkovich

Best Director

Tough call as Sam Mendes does an incredible job with American Beauty but Spike Jonze grounds the madness of Being John Malkovich to make one of the most incredibly interesting movies of the decade.  What I love about Jonze's work is how he never calls attention to the insanity of the world his movie lives in.  Nothing is played for a laugh, the characters all act as real people would if they stumbled upon a portal that puts you in the head of an actor.

Best Original Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay

Emphasis on the "original" in the Original Screenplay category American Beauty beats out Being John Malkovich, Magnolia and The Sixth Sense.  Mike Leigh got the last spot for his mostly improved Gilbert & Sullivan biopic Topsy-Turvy.  No doubt in my mind that Being John Malkovich is the most original screenplay ever written.  John Irving wins in the adapted category for adapting his own book The Cider House Rules.  The win only makes sense because they wanted to give John Irving an Oscar, his entire competition is better written films, Election, The Green Mile, The Insider and The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Best Original Score/Original Song

All the love for American Beauty but no win for it's hypnotic and instantly recognizable Thomas Newman score.  Instead The Red Violin wins which I've never seen.  I'm sure it had a lot of music in it but play a few bars from American Beauty's soundtrack and it transports you right into the film.  In the Original Song category Phil Collins wins for his Tarzan ballad You'll Be In My Heart over more worthy tunes by Aimee Mann, Randy Newman and the creators of South Park.  I remember watching the Oscars this year and thinking it was a done deal as soon as Robin Williams got into a kick line while performing Blame Canada.  It's not the best song from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut but seeing as how Trey Parker and Matt Stone created the greatest movie musical of the past 2 decades I think they deserved some recognition.

Best Sound/Sound Effects Editing

The Matrix rightfully wins both categories.  Prequel backlash was not in full effect yet as The Phantom Menace score nominations in both categories.

Best Art Direction

Sleepy Hollow is the best in the category and wins.  I don't really know why American Beauty was left off the list.  They instead included Anna And The King, anyone remember that movie?

Best Cinematography

Conrad Hall wins only his 2nd Oscar for American Beauty.  Best choice in the category, although Sleepy Hollow and The Insider are really great nominees.

Best Makeup

A good rule of thumb in this category if you're trying to win your Oscar pool.  If three comedies with not the greatest reviews are nominated against one classy Oscar-type movie, pick the classy film.  Topsy-Turvy wins over Fat Bastard in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, old age make-up on Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence in Life and making Robin Williams a robot in one of the worst films of this or any other year, Bicentennial Man.

Best Costume Design

Topsy-Turvy wins in a pretty competitive category beating out Anna And The King Of Siam, Sleepy Hollow, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Titus.  Any one of them would have been a good winner.

Best Film Editing

Fight Club, Go, The Limey, Run Lola Run and Three Kings were not nominated so the Academy went with The Matrix over run of the mill fare like The Cider House Rules and The Sixth Sense.

Best Visual Effects

The Matrix rightfully wins over Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace and Stuart Little.  Seeing as how many movies, commercials and TV shows parodied its revolutionary bullet time effects makes me wonder how hard those special effects were to accomplish.

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