2002 Oscar Watch

I'm not a fan of this year at all.  It's all Miramax and Oscar bait.  Miramax was behind 3 of the Best Picture nominees, was originally attached to The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and the other movie is about the holocaust.  I'm tempted to vote for The Pianist because it's the only film not touched by Harvey Weinstein's hands but that would be a vote for Roman Polanski so do I vote for the most evil man in America or the most evil man not allowed in America?  Really I'm not tempted to vote for anything this year.
You can see my GABBY winners and nominees HERE

BEST PICTURE

 

5. The Hours - You ever watch a movie and think to yourself, "I don't like this but I can see why it got nominated for a bunch of Oscars."?  The movie isn't bad it's just such an "Oscar Movie".  3 women in 3 different time periods are interconnected by the novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.  Meryl Streep is in 2001 and she's a book editor throwing a party for a poet with AIDS.  Julianne Moore is a depressed housewife in the 1950s.  Then there's Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf herself, suicidal and depressed.  Everyone and everything in this movie is depressing.  The movie jumps between all 3 stories in a way where as I start to focus on one story I forget about the others, then I start to focus on that story and by the time I get interested again it jumps back to another story and I lose all interest.

4. Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers - You either love The Lord Of The Rings or you're me.  I don't hate these films I just find them way too long.  This is the middle one and we're gonna give every Oscar to The Return Of The King next year so there is no reason to consider voting for this, unless the only other choice was The Hours.

3. Gangs Of New York - Martin Scorsese finally creates his epic that has been his passion project for years.  I respect the artistry, I commend the effort, that's all the praise I can heap on this film.  Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz are horribly miscast, Daniel Day-Lewis chews every piece of scenery he can get his hand on, Scorsese directs the hell out of it but it never quite came together for me.

2. The Pianist - Adrien Brody plays a piano player during the holocaust.  This movie has some stark visual imagery of atrocities but I never connected with the plot.  I'll talk more about this when we get to Best Director but it is so weird watching this movie in 2018 in the midst of the Time's Up movement and think that not too long ago we were totally cool with giving an Oscar to a man who raped an underage girl in a hot tub.

1. Chicago - Bob Fosse's musical is given the big screen treatment.  This movie is fun, enjoyable, fast paced, inventive and all around terrific entertainment.  It's nothing I would normally vote for Best Picture but this is one of the weakest Best Picture lineups ever.

All of these movies seem like movies you're supposed to enjoy.  They're all "Oscar movies".  You have The Pianist which is about the holocaust, Gangs Of New York which is a big sprawling epic by an acclaimed director, The Hours which is a movie that spans several decades and tries to bring meaning to this thing we call life.  It looks great on paper but when I watched all 5 of these movies none of them left me wanting to cast my vote for them.  I was bored more often than I was enthralled.  The only movie that didn't bore me was Chicago.  It's not one of the strongest Best Picture winners but everything else here would be a horrible decision.  If The Two Towers wins then they either couldn't reward Return Of The King next year meaning the 2nd movie of the trilogy wins or they reward both and the last two installments win, neither scenario makes much sense.  If The Hours wins then The Hours would be a Best Picture winner which would be terrible.  If Gangs Of New York wins then Scorsese gets his Oscar (good) but he gets it for this movie and not Taxi Driver, Raging Bull or Goodfellas (not as good).  If The Pianist wins then that pederast Roman Polanski wins an Oscar.  Chicago wins by default.

Oscar Winner: Chicago

My Vote: Chicago

GABBY Winner: Bowling For Columbine

BEST ACTOR

 

5. Michael Caine - The Quiet American - Here's my rule.  If you win an Oscar for a role that you shouldn't have then you have to be the best in the category to win again.  Michael Caine won for The Cider House Rules just 3 years ago, there's no way I can consider him here.  He campaigned hard for this, saying that this was the role he wanted to be remembered for.  Too late, the Academy already gave you two Oscars.  Caine is one of my favorite actors, never phoning in a performance even in movies that are atrocious but he will have to wait a long while before I could consider voting for him.

4. Adrien Brody - The Pianist - The Pianist is only powerful because of Roman Polanski's direction.  Much like Schindler's List he puts you right next to the horrible atrocities of the holocaust.  We see Jews getting thrown from windows and shot in the head and Adrien Brody...just kind of reacts to it all.  He's the least interesting part of the movie he stars in.  He did a good job with the weight loss and the crying but I didn't find anything here worthy of a win.

3. Jack Nicholson - About Schmidt - It's weird how you can forget an actor is great.  Jack Nicholson has been so good for so long playing Jack Nicholson type roles and then late in his career he plays Warren Schmidt, a character completely unlike himself and it reminds you that he's not only a great movie star but a great actor as well.  About Schmidt is about a guy retiring from the job he's had for years and he suddenly realizes that he's got nowhere to go.  So often in movies old people are either comically befuddled or overtly sweet and here's an old guy dealing with real old people problems.  Just 5 years ago Jack won an Oscar for playing a guy romantically involved with Helen Hunt, here he is married to June Squibb and hates his life.  Jack the actor almost seems disgusted that he's living this life and that influences the character of Warren Schmidt.  If he won here this would be his 4th Oscar in 4 decades so there is really no urgency to vote for him but this is probably my favorite performance of the 5.

2. Daniel Day-Lewis - Gangs Of New York - The more movies I see starring Daniel Day-Lewis the more I tend to notice that he is one of the hammiest actors ever.  Day-Lewis plays Bill The Butcher and he seems to exist in another movie.  He's in a cartoon while everyone else is in a Scorsese movie they have no business being in.  I know some people like this but I found it to be a complete mess.  Day-Lewis is definitely the best thing about it (or at least the one thing you notice because he won't lower his voice long enough for you to stop listening to him).

1. Nicolas Cage - Adaptation - This movie never had a chance to live up to my expectations.  Being John Malkovich was the first movie I ever saw in a theater that wowed me enough to sit through the end credits.  I sat in my seat with my mouth agape still pondering what I just saw.  3 years later I rushed to the theater to see Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, Human Nature and Adaptation, all 3 written by Charlie Kaufman.  None of them gave me that same feeling, not that they are bad at all, I just had my expectations too high.  In this film Cage plays Charlie Kaufman who is hired to adapt the book The Orchid Thief into a screenplay, he is plagued by self doubt and the fact that the book doesn't have a story.  He is also living with his twin brother who has no problems selling his screenplay.  Cage plays the twin brother as well.  Every time I watch this movie my opinion of it dips a little bit.  It's so original and unique that it loses something on repeat viewing.  My opinion of Cage's performance ranks higher and higher though on each viewing.  He is fantastic here.  He gives Charlie and Donald the same tics but also give each of them unique characteristics so they are both cut from the same cloth but are different people.  There is a scene where Donald pretends to be Charlie and there's not a second where I saw Charlie.  It's an amazing performance.

The only reason I can fathom that Adrien Brody won is because of vote splitting.  Caine won twice, Nicholson won 3 times, Cage and Day-Lewis have one Oscar on their mantle.  Brody wins because he's the only one without an Oscar and everybody else split the vote.  Based on performance alone my vote is between Nicholson and Cage and since Jack already has 3 I gotta vote Cage.  To me, this is a big Oscar mistake but since everyone here now has an Oscar I can't really be mad about it.  I can't be angry that Nicolas Cage doesn't have 2 Oscars or Jack doesn't have 4.  It is what it is.  For no other reason than pure luck Adrien Brody is an Oscar winning actor.

Oscar Winner: Adrien Brody

My Vote: Nicolas Cage

GABBY Winner: Hugh Grant for About A Boy

BEST ACTRESS

5. Salma Hayek - Frida - This is a performance I really wanted to like but didn't.  Salma Hayek plays Frida Kahlo, it's a part that seems tailor made for her.  The problem is that this movie is a stylish biopic with no central story.  The movie just runs through the beats of Kahlo's life and Hayek is just okay.  I never hated her in the movie but I never really liked her either.  I love her generally and I'm happy she got an Oscar nomination but this is not something I could ever vote for.

4. Nicole Kidman - The Hours - Kidman puts on a fake nose to play suicidal poet Virginia Woolf.  So often in Oscar history the academy seems to confuse wearing makeup with good acting.  Kidman is perfectly fine in this movie but calling her the lead is a bit of a stretch.  This is an ensemble drama and no single character ever takes central focus.  I'm sure I'm upset about the publicity machine that got her the Oscar more than anything.  I remember seeing Kidman and that fake nose everywhere and only hearing how incredible her performance was.  Then I watch the movie and think, well there was nothing extraordinary about that.  It almost seems like Harvey Weinstein was trying to create an Oscar winner out of nothing.  That couldn't possibly be the case, every Oscar win for Miramax was based on quality and not money thrown at the academy, right?

3. Renee Zellweger - Chicago - I'm always surprised when a Hollywood actor shows up in a musical and everybody loses their shit because they were so shocked that an actor could sing.  Do they not realize that most actors start off doing musicals?  It seems to me that most actors would probably be able to carry a tune.  Anyway, Renee Zellweger is perfect as Roxie Hart, the wannabe star who gets thrust into the spotlight after her murder trial.

2. Julianne Moore - Far From Heaven - I shouldn't like this movie.  Everything about this movie is predisposed for me to hate it.  It's an homage to Douglas Sirk melodramas.  I don't like those movies to begin with, so why would I like a movie that pays tribute to them?  Well, this movie goes where those movies couldn't.  Julianne Moore plays a housewife who seems to have the perfect life until she realizes that her husband is gay.  He goes to conversion therapy, she starts a relationship with her black gardener (and of course it's the 50s so that opens up a can of worms) and it's all presented in that Douglas Sirk style.  The cinematography and music is perfect and director Todd Haynes perfectly crafts this movie to fit that style.  Moore is also perfect in her performance.  She's a terrific actress but she is acting as if she was Lana Turner in a movie from the 50s.  There are so many different levels at play here and Moore is perfect.

1. Diane Lane - Unfaithful - Never before have I wanted someone to win for a movie this awful.  This is an erotic thriller directed by Adrian Lyne so if you liked movies like Fatal Attraction, 9 1/2 Weeks and Indecent Proposal then you'll probably like this.  I hated all of those movies so this movie was not for me.  That being said, Diane Lane is fantastic here.  She plays a happily married woman who has a chance encounter with a man on the street and starts having an affair.  Her husband finds out, kills the dude and then they decide whether he should turn himself in or not.  What sets this movie apart from others in the same genre is the fact that Diane seems to have the perfect life.  She cheats not because her husband is dull or unfaithful himself, she does it because it's exciting.

At the time Miramax spun this to get us thinking that Nicole Kidman was overdue.  She was great in Moulin Rouge! the year before this, lost the Oscar and now it's her time.  Oscar history is full of actors getting awards for the wrong performance and this is one of those cases.  I feel that anyone else in this category would be a better decision.  Julianne Moore walked away empty handed this year despite two nominations, having her win here would right that wrong and avoid the makeup Oscar for Still Alice.  Renee Zellweger would have been a good winner and avoided her winning for Cold Mountain.  Salma Hayek winning would have been...okay too.  Why am I voting for Diane Lane?  I have no idea honestly.  I hate her movie, but I think she's just the actress I like the most.  My 3 favorite performances here are Lane, Moore and Zellweger and seeing as how Zellweger's gonna win next year and Moore is gonna win in 2014 I'm giving an Oscar to an actress I adore.

Oscar Winner: Nicole Kidman

My Vote: Diane Lane

GABBY Winner: Julianne Moore

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

5. Ed Harris - The Hours - Ugh.  The more I think about this movie the more I dislike it.  I'm not sure which story line I dislike the most but it might just be Meryl Streep's.  She's throwing a party for a writer who is getting an award.  He's played by Ed Harris and he's dying of AIDS.  He's only in 2 scenes of the film I think.  He's depressed in the first scene and in the second scene he takes a bunch of pills and jumps out a window.  I like Ed Harris, I want him to win an Oscar, I voted for him in 2000, I hate this movie.

4. John C. Reilly - Chicago - John C. Reilly was in 4 movies released in 2004, Chicago, Gangs Of New York, The Hours and The Good Girl.  Do you notice a pattern there?  3 of those were nominated for Best Picture.  I'm pretty sure he was also a hobbit in The Two Towers and tuned the piano for The Pianist.  This guy has a good strong case for being the supporting actor of the year.  We're just talking about his performance in Chicago here though and he's good but he doesn't do a whole lot.  In fact, his part requires you to not notice him.  His big number in the show is 'Mr. Cellophane' where he laments the fact that everybody walks right by him without seeing that he's there.  He's very memorable in the film but he only has the one big scene so it's a nice nomination but doesn't factor in for a vote.

3. Christopher Walken - Catch Me If You Can - This movie is about Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Abagnale Jr. who is a young con artist going through life stealing identities, cashing fake checks and getting jobs he is not qualified for, all the while the FBI is hot on his trail.  Walken plays Frank Sr. and he is shown at the beginning of the movie as a successful business man and then later we see him broken down but still optimistic.  It's an interesting character as he's not a success but displays the confidence of a successful man, which influences his son to do the same and become a con man.  Much like John C. Reilly, he contends for supporting actor of the year as he was also in The Country Bears this year.

2. Paul Newman - Road To Perdition - Aside from Cars and a few TV movies this was Paul Newman's last film appearance.  It's an incredible role to end an almost flawless film career.  Newman plays John Rooney, an Irish mob boss.  He has two sons but the one person he truly thinks of as a son is Tom Hanks.  Hanks is one of Newman's enforcers, his son witnesses a hit gone wrong and now Hanks and his son are on the run.  Newman is in a tough situation because he has to order a hit on the person he loves.  Newman is great in the role, most of the heavy lifting is done because he is Paul Newman but he's still great.

1. Chris Cooper - Adaptation - This is one of those performances where my mind was made up as soon as I saw the film that he would be my winner.  Cooper plays John LaRoche the titular Orchid Thief in Susan Orlean's novel.  He's an eccentric character with delusions of grandeur.  He steals orchids from protected wetlands so he can care for them himself.  In Charlie Kaufman's versions of the events he also introduces Orlean to drugs, has an affair with her and posts pictures of him on his porn website.  The reason why Cooper is so good here is because he plays this character so real.  A lot of actors would take a crazy character like this and play him crazy with tics and twitches.  LaRoche doesn't think anything is wrong with him so Cooper plays him like a crazy man who thinks he's sane.

Like I said, Cooper was the only person I considered giving this win too.  I almost see this Oscar as a makeup win Being John Malkovich and a win for the film itself.  If it weren't for Cooper I actually would have been fine with anyone else winning this category.  Newman and Walken are both really great in their films and are both good enough to win a 2nd Oscar.  John C. Reilly would have been a win for a great year, much like how Jim Broadbent won for Iris the same year he was in Moulin Rouge! and Bridget Jones's Diary.  Ed Harris would have been a complete career achievement win that wouldn't hold up but at least he would have an Oscar.  No doubt that Cooper deserved this all the way though.

Oscar Winner: Chris Cooper

My Vote: Chris Cooper

GABBY Winner: Chris Cooper

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

5. Queen Latifah - Chicago - Much like John C. Reilly, Queen Latifah really only has one big scene in Chicago.  She plays the warden of the women's prison that both girls are sent to.  Her sole musical number is 'When You're Good To Mama' where she sings about how she can be bribed and will return favors for favors.  It's a solid scene, Latifah is perfectly fine but the part just isn't that substantial or memorable.

4. Julianne Moore - The Hours - Oh wait, maybe Julianne Moore's section of The Hours is my least favorite.  It's weird, right after watching this movie I was thinking, "That's fine", the more I have to write about the more I truly dislike the picture completely.  Moore plays a housewife in the 1950s, she's depressed and reading Virginia Woolf's book.  She goes to a hotel to take a bunch of pills but doesn't go through with it.  She's fine in the film, she's Julianne Moore, she's always great, I just hate this movie.  She was nominated twice this year so giving her the win here would give her something but I'd rather her win for Far From Heaven or nothing over this film.

3. Catherine Zeta-Jones - Chicago - Zeta-Jones plays Velma, the nightclub singer who goes to jail for shooting her lover and becomes a tabloid sensation only to get overshadowed by Roxie when she kills her lover.  She is a firecracker of energy and she sings and dances like a Broadway vet.  Much like Zellweger and Richard Gere this is a case of people thinking, "I knew she was talented but I didn't know she could do that".

2. Kathy Bates - About Schmidt - A lot of attention was paid to one particular scene in About Schmidt where Kathy Bates takes off her robe and gets into a hot tub naked.  Some people were saying that was the reason she got nominated because she was brave to be an older woman of average shape who would do a nude scene.  In all honestly that scene is jarring when you first watch the movie just because it's not often that a nude scene is played so casually.  There is much more to her performance than that though.  For most of the movie Warren Schmidt is by himself and we hear his voice through his letters to his pen pal.  We get to a point where we want to see him interact with someone and that's where Bates steps in.  She plays the mother of the guy Schmidt's daughter is marrying and they are a poor white trash family that Warren doesn't respect at all.  Bates is an honest and opinionated and carefree woman who has no issues speaking her mind.  She's really funny in the role.

1. Meryl Streep - Adaptation - Streep plays Susan Orlean the writer of the book that is being adapted by Charlie Kaufman.  At first she is just a reporter gathering information from her subject for an article.  Then comes the third act twist where we find out who she really is, a drugged out sex fiend who doesn't have an issue with casual murder.  Streep is so good here it makes me wish she hadn't already won 2 Oscars.  Meryl Streep is a powerful weapon because she's always great but you can't nominate her for everything.  Since she almost literally gets an Oscar nomination every year now you kind of take her for granted.  This is one she could have won for though.

I have no problem with Catherine Zeta-Jones winning this category.  My favorites were Streep and Bates and they already won so Zeta-Jones is my 3rd choice but a solid choice.  I'm voting for Streep for 2 reasons, 1. I'm voting for Adaptation in every category it's nominated because it's my favorite film.  2. It had been 20 years since her last win so enough time has passed for Streep to win again.  She eventually won her 3rd Oscar for The Iron Lady which is a decision I don't like.  I think they just really wanted to give her an Oscar and that wasn't based solely on strength of performance.  This performance holds up.

Oscar Winner: Catherine Zeta-Jones

My Vote: Meryl Streep

GABBY Winner: Meryl Streep

Best Director
Even though most people were picking Chicago to win Best Picture, not many people were putting money on Rob Marshall to win here.  Most people thought that this was the year they finally honored Martin Scorsese for Gangs Of New York.  Some people saw Pedro Almodovar as an outside shot for Talk To Her.  Instead the academy gave the win to the guy not allowed on American soil because he raped an underage girl.  Roman Polanski wins for The Pianist which is a highly questionable decision when you think about today's politics.  In 2017 James Franco was positioned to get a Best Actor nomination but rumors circulated that he was inappropriate to women and most people say that's why he was passed over.  Polanski raped a girl and fled to France and got an Oscar.

Best Original Screenplay

Pedro Almodovar wins Original Screenplay for Talk To Her which is a very trippy movie.  It's not something I would vote for but it just so happens to be the best in the category this year.  The scripts to Gangs Of New York and Far From Heaven are far from the best part of their movies.  Y Tu Mama Tambien is a good film but I'd rather have Pedro win.  The 5th nominee was, for some reason, My Big Fat Greek Wedding which was a surprise hit this year.  It made so much money on a tiny budget.  I have no idea why.  It's not a bad movie but I could never see the reason for its runaway success.  The Pianist wins in the Adapted category which is a joke when you see that it was up against About A Boy and Adaptation.  Charlie Kaufman's script for Adaptation did the impossible, it took a book with no story and made it into a movie with heart and conflict.

Best Animated Feature

Spirited Away wins.  If anything else won it would be a travesty.  Not only was Spirited Away the best in the category but it was up against some extremely forgettable films like Ice Age, Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron and Treasure Planet.  I though Lilo & Stitch was cute but nowhere near the same league as Spirited Away.

Best Documentary Feature

Michael Moore wins for Bowling For Columbine which caused some controversy when he used his acceptance speech to call out George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.  It's very sad that this movie about America's fascination with guns is almost more timely today than it was 15 years ago.

Best Original Score/Original Song

John Williams doesn't need any more Oscars but I felt that his jazzy score for Catch Me If You Can was a career high in a career that includes some of the most memorable film scores of all time.  They instead went with Frida which is an all right choice, at least the overbearing and obtrusive score for The Hours didn't win.  One of my favorite Oscar moments was when Barbra Streisand announced that Eminem had won an Oscar for his song Lose Yourself from 8 Mile.  Eminem didn't show up to the awards and a guy in a basketball jersey accepted in his absence.  So they didn't perform the song on the show and after hearing U2, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Paul Simon sing forgettable standard Oscar fare it was refreshing to have a cool song win.

Best Sound/Sound Editing

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if a musical is nominated for Best Sound it is most assuredly going to win and Chicago took home the award this year.  The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers wins Sound Editing.  I have absolutely nothing positive or negative to say about that.

Best Art Direction/Costumes/Film Editing

Chicago sweeps these 3 technical categories and was a good choice for all of them.  Art Direction could have gone to Road To Perdition or Gangs Of New York but they made the right choice.  I wish there was something more inventive in the Editing category but the nominees included standard fare like Gangs Of New York, The Two Towers, The Hours and The Pianist.  My two favorite edited films of the year were Adaptation which took two Nicolas Cage performances and combined them seamlessly so they appear to be in the same room and About A Boy which wonderfully jumps back and forth between Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult's perspective.

Best Cinematography

Conrad Hall wins a posthumous Oscar for his incredible work on Road To Perdition.  Even if this hadn't been his final work it would have been a strong winner but combine it with the sentimentality and this had no chance to lose.  Far From Heaven is also great work as it perfectly copies the style of a Douglas Sirk melodrama.

Best Makeup

A whole bunch of monsters in The Time Machine loses to one unibrow from Frida.  This win only makes sense if you're voting for the better film.  You see that a lot in this category when something like Norbit or Bad Grandpa is nominated.  Do you really want those films to win Oscars?

Best Visual Effects

The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers wins, no surprise there.  It was up against Spider-Man and Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones.  Now I'm not a huge Star Wars fan but I'm also not a prequel hater.  I watched this movie recently and it is one of the worst films I've ever seen and definitely the weakest of the trilogy.

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