What's Her Name? - Melinda Dillon

I'm planning to start a new weekly series on character actors and other underrated actors. For the most part they will be faces you recognize but are unable to attach a name to. Others are more recognizable but are often under-appreciated. The first of this series is devoted to Melinda Dillon better known as the mom from A Christmas Story.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Close Encounters garnered Dillion the first of two Oscar nominations (the other being in Absence of Malice.  Playing the mother of the abducted boy in Spielberg's classic Dillion brings a level of honesty and desperation of a mother desperate to be reunited with her son.  Much a parallel to Richard Dreyfus' character, Dillion believes that hope exists beyond the known cosmos.  Dillon used her role here to help nail down her role later in A Christmas Story.

A Christmas Story (1983)
One of the most beloved Christmas movies all time, Dillion leaves an indelible mark as the loving mother of Ralphie.  Dillion imbues sweetness, toughness and commitment as the matriarch of her family.  Dillion's performance rises her character above the stereotype of the 40's and 50's housewife and makes her an independent woman.  Whether it be washing her son's mouth at with soap or demanding he try on a horrible Christmas present Dillion scores.

Magnolia (1999)
Her last major movie role, Dillion is one of the more forgotten members of Magnolia's sprawling ensemble cast.  Not as central to the story as Julianne Moore, Tom Cruise or Melora Walters; Dillion's character still represents one of the overarching themes of a wife or child being neglected or forgotten by a man.  In her limited screen-time Dillion achieves a sense of loneliness and anger.

Other notable movies:
Bound For Glory (1976)
Slap Shot (1977)
Absence of Malice (1981)

The Hurt Locker wins in England and a Few Other Weekend Thoughts

In somewhat of a surprise The Hurt Locker won today at the BAFTA's beating out An Education. Given the critical success and its British pedigree, I expected An Education to take a win on its home soil. The Aviator was the last film helmed by an American director to win here, this and the six other wins show large support for this American war drama over in England. Only three films this decade have translated a BAFTA win into an Oscar win. Hopefully the American Academy follows the British Academy's lead once more.

This weekend also showed another strong weekend for Avatar as it inched closer to $700 million, and climbed past The Sting on the all-time adjusted gross box office list for fifteenth place. Looking over the list I realized that only two of these films have been released in my lifetime, the other of course being Titanic. Despite what some cynics downplaying the movie's inflated gross due to 3-D sales, this is still an impressive performance. The first memory of a large box office performer was seeing Jurassic Park on Father's Day in 1993, the theatre I went to with my family day had a large dinosaur in the lobby, and I remember standing in line for what felt like hours to get in. Today with bigger theatres and larger screen counts those long lines are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

BAFTA's

The BAFTA's are today, winners as they come in

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker
Best Actress: Carey Mulligan - An Education
Best Actor: Colin Firth - A Single Man - (not really an upset here)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
Film Not in English Language: Un Prophete
Animated Film: Up
Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air
Rising Star: Kristen Stewart
Production Design: The Hurt Locker
Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker
Outstanding British Film: Fish Tank
Supporting Actress: Mo’nique - Precious
Makeup and Hair: The Young Victoria
Costume Design: The Young Victoria
Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds
Visual Effects – Avatar
Cinematography – The Hurt Locker
Editing – The Hurt Locker
Sound – The Hurt Locker
Music – Michael Giacchino for Up
Outstanding British Debut: Duncan Jones - Moon
Short Film – I Do Air
Short Animation – Mother Of Many

Alan Rickman

To most of the younger crowd Alan Rickman is Professor Snape, but for me and those who remember when action movies didn't have to be loud and dumb, Rickman will always be Hans Gruber. Rickman turns 64 today allowing me to lament a bit about he has never been nominated for an Oscar. Rickman's Gruber is the villain that all other action villains are compared to. He's sophistacated, smart, cunning with a touch of charm as well, a perfect foil for the everyman of Bruce Willis. In many ways Gruber epiotmized the more modern or 80's version of man with his fancy suit, with Willis symbolizing the mythos of the western man. Die Hard hardly gets credited for mirroring a Western, but it has a robbery, a damsel in distress, the unknown hero and hey it even takes place in the West. I could go on and on about the masculine symbolism in this movie (the really really tall building), but instead I'll just finish with a lament regarding how this movie spawned mostly thankless rip-offs. A few action movies of the 90's work, but none could equal Die Hard.

Hello Clarice

Last weekend was the nineteenth birthday of The Silence of the Lambs, a great movie to be released right after Valentine's Day.  I'll be watching this Oscar weekend in my celebration of Oscar winners - until then heres a clip

Shutter Island and Who's That Knocking at My Door

Scorsese had a good weekend as Shutter Island easily took number one at the box office at this weekend.  All the fuss over this being a genre flick confuses me somewhat considering Scorsese has made more mainstream fare like Cape Fear and The Color of Money.  I also caught his first feature Who's That Knocking at My Door tonight, a mixed-bag of a movie.  The end result clearly exhibits Scorsese's progression of the film from a student movie to feature film, creating an effort that isn't as strong as other debut features.  However, given the ardent following Scorsese has, I'm a little shocked to how little seen this small movie is.  Two things stick out watching this movie, (Scorsese's love of movies and his love of music).  As has become standard Scorsese uses a bold soundtrack to bolster his story. Any fan of Scorsese should check this out.

Jeff Bridges Will Be a Deserved Winner - Crazy Heart Review

Crazy Heart                                                                                          
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall
Director: Scott Cooper
Runtime: 112 minutes

Critiquing movies like Crazy Heart can be a little difficult, when the movie is dominated by the presence of its lead actor. Jeff Bridges inhabits Bad Blake so completely the performance really does become the movie.

The story is very familiar, a washed up singer struggling with his aging body and his loss of relevance in the world. The most direct performance to compare Bridges here is to Robert Duvall's turn Oscar winning turn in Tender Mercies. Duvall and Bridges both nail their roles of drunken country singers lured into romance with a middle-aged woman with a young son. Despite Crazy Heart's familiar storyline, also similar to last year's The Wrestler, Bridge's performance along with Maggie Gyllenhaal make us care enough to watch for two hours.

Bridge's relationship with Gyllenhaal gets the most screen time, and Gyleenhaal does a fine job with a simply written character. It might be a stretch to consider her work one of the year's best, but given the simple nature of the screenplay and character she does a fine job of making her three-dimensonal. She never makes it difficult to understand what she finds appealing in Blake, she's a writer that has never seen much success. A chance to interview a once successful country singer is a great oppurtinity to gain some notice. Blake has considerable charm and sees someone who isn't interested in who he was but rather who he is. The relationship the two embark on takes up a majority of the movie's screentime and is the central event that changes Blake.

However, the real reason to see Crazy Heart is Jeff Bridges in one of his finest performances. Bridge doesn't play Blake as a caricature but rather as a man that is trying to stay relevant in an industry that has passed him by. Yes, the booze is important to him but so Jean (Gyllenhaal), and he struggles to find the balance between whiskey and the younger woman and son that show him great affection. Blake is a man determined to do things his own way, he reluctantly agrees to open at a large concert for his protege, but in agreeing to he opens up more possibilites. Bridges performance is made stronger by his own singing, which adds more to the realism of the performance, it's not difficult to see Blake having written these songs based on his life experience (much credit goes to T-Bone Burnett for providing original music for the movie).

Supporting work from Colin Farrel and Robert Duvall helps to round out the cast. Crazy Heart may not break any new ground in an too familiar story, but Bridge's winning performance makes Crazy Heart worth seeing.

B

Five Favorite Oscar Winners

Not really a list of what consider the greatest Oscar winners, but a small listing of a few of my favorites listed chronologically.

On the Waterfront (1954)

Featuring Marlon Brando's greatest performance and the won for which he won his first Oscar, On the Waterfront is highly deserving of the many accolades it has received in the last 55 years. Brando's embodiment of Terry Malloy fuels this great drama of a dockworker taking a stand against the mob control of the docks. Also featuring an award winning performance from Eva Marie Saint and a terrific supporting cast, On the Waterfront is required viewing.

Patton (1970)

Patton's success hinges on George C. Scott's towering portrayal of World War II's infamous general. From the opening monologue Scott and director Franklin Schaffner hook the audience into Patton's world. Scott nails down the dominant figure of Patton, while never forgetting that he was still just a man. Patton remains one of the greatest biopics, but also works effectively well as a war film.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

One of the few Best Picture winners known just as well for its source material, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a shining example of 70's cinema. Jack Nicholson's winning performance helped to mold as the crazy persona for which he is now famous for. Louise Fletcher is also terrific as the oppressive nurse, emasculating the men she treats. The theme of male identity is fully fleshed out by the supporting cast of patients. Ken Kesey never liked this adaptation, which skipped over several key themes of his novel. Regardless of Kesey's opinion, the movie succeeds through its terrific performances, a great script and assured direction.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Like the Cuckoo's Nest, Silence of the Lambs dominated the Oscars in its respective year, by winning both lead acting categories, Best Director and Screenplay to sweep the five major awards. Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster both fit comfortably in their roles and have terrific chemistry despite being separated by glass and bars. Hopkins manages to frighten us, but at the same time appreciate Lecter's intellect, while Foster stands strong as a woman standing out in a world dominated by men. The movie never fully receives its proper due for exploring themes of gender identity and personal identity, but Ted Tally's writing fleshes out this context for Thomas Harris' novel. Lastly Jonathon Demme's direction prevents the film from becoming a simple procedural drama.

American Beauty (1999)
Some have claimed this movie hasn't aged as well over the past decade, and admittedly 1999 had better movies that could have taken the Oscar. However, after intially being on the fence with it, American Beauty has grown into a favorite movie of mine. Kevin Spacey leads a terrific cast of people trapped in conventions of surbibia. What has led them down this path is not important, what is important is how they respond when they realize that happiness has eluded them for years. The movie isn't as anti-family as it might appear, but rather demonstrates how easily we can get trapped by those conventions. Aside from the cheesiness of the dancing bag, American Beauty reminds us not get too caught up in commercialism or success at the expense of our soul.

Other Favorites: It Happened One Night (1934), Rebecca (1940), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Marty (1955), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The Apartment (1960), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The French Connection (1971), The Godfather I,II (1972,74), Annie Hall (1977), The Deer Hunter (1978), Amadeus (1984), The Last Emperor (1987), Unforgiven (1992), Braveheart (1995), Return of the King (2003), The Departed (2006), No Country For Old Men (2007)

Jeremy Irons - Reversal of Fortune

My latest addition of Best Actor Oscar Winners

Year: 1990
Actor: Jeremy Irons
Movie: Reversal of Fortune
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Role: Claus von Bulow

Other Nominees:
Robert DeNiro - Awakenings
Gerard Depardieu - Cyrano de Bergerac
Kevin Costner - Dances With Wolves
Richard Harris - The Field


I always approach Courtroom Dramas with some trepidation, a genre that usually follows a strict formula and rarely delivers on suspense or even compelling character to root for or against. Thankfully while Reversal of Fortune isn't much more compelling than most movies in the genre, Jeremy Irons' performance allows the movie to succeed.

Irons character Claus von Bulow is a character we never quite understand, he is part of an elite class and he does well to hides behind his quiet eccentricity. To his lawyer and the lawyer's students he is odd and somewhat disconnected, he is part of an aristocracy they don't understand. It's difficult to tell when Claus is being honest, and he rarely gives insight into his character. Irons play this perfectly by not allowing the audience to understand his character but to wrap in some mystery, while also playing up his elitism and his disconcerting attitude. The film's success hinges on us not knowing the truth regarding Claus's wife's death, and Irons does a wonderful job of keeping that hidden. Iron's performance doesn't rely on the histrionics, scene-chewing or deep insight that we associate with some of the great performances and lacks any one scene that one might point towards as brilliant. However, with Iron's mannerisms (the way he smokes his cigarettes and even the way he slips on his robe and slippers) and the mystery he wraps his character around makes this as one of the shining and more underrated performances of the 90's.

By the way it was a travesty Robert DeNiro was overlooked for his performance in Goodfellas.

Other Wins and Nominations:
Best Actor: Boston Film Critics
Best Actor: Chicago Film Critics
Best Foreign Actor: David di Donatello
Best Actor Drama: Golden Globes
Best Actor: Kansas City Film Critics
Best Actor: Los Angeles Film Critics
Best Actor: National Society of Film Critics

Worst Best Picture Winners

The last two days I took a look at overrated and some under-appreciated Best Pictures. Today I look at some of the worst movies to win the big prize. Many of the titles considered were from the early days of the prize, which have not aged particularly well. I've narrowed the list to five, but could've included several more. Once such example was Elia Kazan's Gentleman's Agreement which is simply a dated movie about anti-Semitism in America. A good movie for its time no doubt, but the emotional impact has been mooted over the last several decades. Other movies just prove to be rather ordinary (In the Heat of the Night, Chariots of Fire, Kramer vs. Kramer, A Beautiful Mind). Look tomorrow for a list of five of my favorite Oscar winners.

5. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

Cecil B. DeMille's lone Oscar winner is a bloated epic, that was a box office smash of 1952. A prime example of a movie owing its success to large cast of stars, The Greatest Show on Earth lacked a story then and nothing memorable for modern audiences to care about.

4. Out of Africa (1985)

Out of Africa has beautiful cinematography and little else going for it. One of Meryl Streep's least impressive performances and a less than compelling romance make for one of the Academy's larger bores. There is nothing inherently terrible about this movie, but neither does is it compelling. To care about someone's affair you must first care about the character, and the movie doesn't portray that effectively. However, the movie had little competition and easily won the Oscar.


3. Cimarron (1931)

An early Western that takes place over several decades, but fails to engage the audience in any meaningful way. Cimarron is a rather difficult movie to sit through and to keep your attention on. The story lacks any connective tissue to scenes and time frames, and its racial stereotypes have shown how we have progressed.

2. Shakespeare in Love (1998)

If you read my column Wednesday you know why

1. Gigi (1958)
I hated this movie, from its arranged marriage of a 14 year old to the disturbing opening number Thank Heaven For Little Girls. Gigi continually asserts that young girls exist only to be shaped by other women to marry men and little else, yet argues that our title character somehow falls in love with the douchebag Gaston. Containing not one catchy song or a character to care about along with its horrible story and disgusting themes Gigi easily takes the crown as my least favorite Best Picture.