Tuesday, at age 104, Oscar's first back to back Oscar winner passed away.
Luise Rainer was one of the most revered and respected actresses of the golden age of Hollywood. Her early success actually brought her acting career to a halt shortly after the 1930s, only to be resumed on a few occasions.
She was the first performer to win multiple acting Oscars, the first in 1936's The Great Ziegfeld, which also won Best Picture. As a relative newcomer, she beat out Hollywood starlet Norma Shearer in Romeo and Juliet, who was actually expected to win her second Oscar based on sympathy votes for the loss of her Husband, Hollywood super-producer Irving Thalberg.
Shortly before she won, she appeared in the release of The Good Earth, which was actually Thalberg's last film. The film adaptation of the great novel by Pearl S. Buck stands as one of the great films of the mid-1930s and helped her not only earn press for her Great Ziegfeld nomination, but actually earned her another Oscar the following year as well.
So, the movies page is underway. Check it out. Now.
Other than that, the Critics Choice Nominations were released. Here's a quick look at Best Picture:
What's in: Birdman Boyhood Gone Girl The Grand Budapest Hotel The Imitation Game Nightcrawler Selma The Theory of Everything Unbroken Whiplash
What's out: Foxcatcher A Most Violent Year Inherent Vice Into the Woods American Sniper St. Vincent
Only surprise is the shutout of Foxcatcher. Other than that pick nine of those films and those will probably be the Oscar nominees.
The CCA's have six acting nominees, so they encompassed pretty much everyone that the Globes and SAG awards have already touched upon.
It's also important to note that this is the first major award show that nominates for technical categories as well, so we get a glimpse into categories like Editing and Cinematography, before the guilds put out their nominations. You can see the whole list of noms in the Critics Awards section.
So, for a couple weeks, I'll be signing off to watch an abhorrent amount of movies. Hope you're doing the same. Happy viewing!!
What's in: American Sniper Birdman Boyhood Foxcatcher The Imitation Game Interstellar Into the Woods Nightcrawler Selma Unbroken Whiplash
What was left out: The Grand Budapest Hotel A Most Violent Year Inherent Vice
And also, The Theory of Everything seems to be DOA Even with the expansion to 11 movies, The Grand Budapest Hotel was still left out just a day after finishing runner up in pretty much everything at the LA film critics awards (to Boyhood).
Next up are the SAG nominations, and not a moment too soon because all of the acting races seem wide open. The only clear contender is Julianne Moore competing for Best Actress for her work in Still Alice, but even at this stage, a dark horse can enter the field, and SAG picks ALL the dark horses.
Best Film- A Most Violent Year
Best Director- American Sniper (Clint Eastwood)
Best Actor- A Most Violent Year (Oscar Issac) and Birdman (Michael Keaton)
Best Actress- Still Alice (Julianne Moore)
Best Supporting Actor- Birdman (Edward Norton)
Best Supporting Actress- A Most Violent Year (Jessica Chastain)
Best Original Screenplay- The Lego Movie
Best Adapted Screenplay- Inherent Vice
Best Animated Film- How to Train Your Dragon 2
Best Documentary- Life Itself
Best Foreign Film- Wild Tales
Best Ensemble- Fury
Best Directoral Debut- Obvious Child (Gillian Robespierre)
Breakthrough Performance- Jack O'Connell (from Starred Up and Unbroken)
Top 10 Films of the Year: A Most Violent Year American Sniper Birdman Boyhood Fury Gone Girl The Imitation Game Inherent Vice The Lego Movie Nightcrawler Unbroken
Top 5 Foreign Language Movies: Force Majeure Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem Leviathan Two Days, One Night We Are the Best!
Top 5 Documentaries: Art and Craft Jodorowsky's Dune Keep on Keepin' On The Kill Team Last Days in Vietnam
Reaction: Please don't ask me how a movie can win best Documentary and not be on the documentary shortlist. Or how the LegoMovie lost Animated Film but was on the top 10 films of the year, and the winner was not.
The truth is, there are somethings that may never be answered.
It was always a guess as to what the NBR would pick. A Most Violent Year was a little outside the box, however, it's current meteoritic rating is only rivaled by Birdman and Boyhood. The only real surprise was the lack of Whiplash on the top 10 films of the year.
Also a push for P.T. Anderson's Inherent Vice, which, only with a recent theatrical trailer release, has it been getting any press at all. Fury, Nightcrawler, Unbroken and The Lego Movie will most likely end their run of recognition here, save Lego in animated categories. It's characteristic of the NBR to promote films that don't have any chances with any of the major award ceremonies (i.e. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty last year).
Today, all film fans who have been saving their extra cash
for the rush of films at the end of the year can begin to relinquish their
disposable income at the box office, unless you’re a torrent-er, in which case,
you can start marking your calendar for the December release dates of movies
you won’t be taking any dates too!
Award season 2014 has kicked off with the announcement of
the New York Film Critics Circle Awards Monday.Uncharacteristic, as usually the first awards to be announced come from
the National Board of Review, who announce their best of 2014 tomorrow.In the meantime, if you are worried about
prematurely making picks for this season, the NYFCC always gives us a glimpse
at potential contenders.
Up until a few years ago, the NYFCC were among the last
critics awards announced.
Along with the NBR, they are the oldest, and arguably most
prestigious critics awards.Unlike the
NBR, they more often align with other critics awards, and the Oscars.The NBR has always prided themselves on being
different from the AMPAS and the Oscars, so expect tomorrows winners to be
different.
Anyway, getting down to business, we did learn that the most
powerful force going into the season is Boyhood.It’s promise validated by the first major win
of the season.
For all of you don’t know the Richard Linklater’s coming of
age of a millennial boy, filmed over the course of twelve years, you can watch
the trailer here:
Boyhood’s
Linklater also took home Best Director and Patricia Arquette took home Best
Supporting Actress.Neither have ever
been nominated for an Oscar in those categories, however Linklater has been
nominated twice for Screenplay.Both
were getting the most press leading up to the December critics awards.
Other major awards included:
Best Actor- Timothy Spall for Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh’s latest film which earned Spall Best Actor
at Cannes earlier this year.)
Best Actress- Marion Cotillard for The Immigrant and Two Days,
One Night (The former premiered at Cannes in 2013 and is eligible for this Oscars,
but is not expected to be up for anything, and the later premiered at Cannes
this year and won the Sydney Prize at the Sydney Film Festival.)
Best Supporting Actor- J.K. Simmons for Whiplash (watch out for this film this Oscar season, and this performance.)
BestScreenplay- The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson’s
latest film is already out on home video, it may have come out to early to be
considered a heavy contender.)
Best Cinematography- The
Immigrant
Best Nonfiction Film- Citizenfour
Best Foreign Film- Ida
Best Animated Film- The
Lego Movie
My guess is this- If Boyhood
wins tomorrow at the National Board of Review, it will be a forced to be
reckoned with this season.Also, the NBR
posts their top ten films of the year as well, which is pretty all encompassing
of movies you can hit in the theaters, no matter where you are in America.
