Category Archives: The Also Ran’s Project

Directed by Ladj Ly

Written by Ladj Ly, Giordano Gederlini, and Alexis Manenti

Starring Damien Bonnard, Alexis Manenti, and Djebril Zonga

By far the biggest story of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival was Parasite being the first Korean film to win the Palme D’or, and doing it unanimously.[1]  Part of the excitement for that film had to be what is, but also, what it is not – it is not some highbrow thing with no chance of winning awards outside the French riviera.[2]  And by that I mean at the Oscars.  Nor is it a borderline-experimental film that lots of people love, but others find impenetrable and bewildering.[3]  Nor is it something fresh and arty and cool and hip that’s a harbinger of a talent on the rise, which is instantly off-putting to older viewers.[4]  In other words, it is not the type of film destined to win lesser Oscars, at best, but nothing more. Continue reading →

Directed by Adam McKay

Written by Adam McKay

Starring Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, Amy Adams, Sam Rockwell, and Jesse Plemons

Here’s a fun game to play when you want to depress yourself about how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has no clue about what is, and is not, Oscar-worthy: Oscar winners vs. Oscar not-winners.

Continue reading →

This is a fact: everything ends.  Good, bad, or indifferent, nothing lasts forever.    So it goes in life, and so it goes with The Also-Rans Project.

I announced this project way back on March 30, 2015, and made the first actual entry on May 31 of that year, with Ruggles of Red Gap.  Even then I knew this project would come to an end, I only hoped it wouldn’t take the 6 ½ years it took to get through The Best Picture Project.  Mercifully, it has not.  Still, that first year was slow, with just three entries, the obvious result of me trying to put an end to The Best Picture Project and focusing my energies there.  As that project ended in 2016, I pushed this one forward in earnest. Continue reading →

Directed by Mike Leigh

Written by Mike Leigh

Starring Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville

Spanning four seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter), Another Year revolves around a long-married couple, Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen), as they interact with the various friends, family, and co-workers in their lives.  There is Tom’s friend, Ken (Peter Wright), his brother Ronnie (David Bradley), Gerri’s client, Janet (Imelda Staunton), and Tom and Gerri’s son, Joe (Oliver Maltman).  The most enduring of the friends, though, is Gerri’s co-worker, Mary(Lesley Manville).  Mary is a longtime friend of Gerri’s, mostly harmless, who has been sweet on Joe for years, despite the sizeable age difference between them, and the oddly incestual feel to Mary’s attentions.  Things come to a head when Joe introduces his new girlfriend, Katie (Karina Fernandez), to the family, which causes Mary to not-so-subtly break.  Offended by Mary’s behavior, Gerri basically ghosts her, though in the end Mary comes round and atones for what she’s done. Continue reading →

Directed by Henry Koster

Screenplay By Gina Kaus, Albert Maltz and Phillips Dunne, from the book of the same name by Lloyd C. Douglas

Starring Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Michael Rennie, Dean Jagger and Jay Robinson

This entry of The Also-Rans was originally reserved for Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Shakespeare adaptation, Julius Caesar.  For weeks and months, and probably more, doing an entry on that film was the plan, and seemed a good choice.  After all, the man won Best Director and Screenplay twice each, in back-to-back years, the only time that has been accomplished.  Crazier than that, is neither of those films won Best Picture.  So squeezing in a look at his take on Julius Casear was a good way to work him into this project.

Except—

Except Julius Caesar stars Marlon Brando, who I’ve ever-so-recently come to realize sucks.  And faced with he prospect of watching Brando bring the same level of ‘acting’ to Shakespeare as he brought to Sayonara, I chose to pass.

And that’s how we got here.

Continue reading →

Directed by Denys Arcand

Screenplay by Denys Arcand

Starring Remy Girard, Stephane Rousseau, Dorothee Berryman, Louise Portal, Marie-Josee Croze, and Marina Hands

The Barbarian Invasions won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for 2003, the first for a of Denys Arcand film, following two prior nominations in the same category.[1]  This makes him the most successful French-Canadian filmmaker in history.  That all said, because Academy rules bestow the award on the film, and on no specific individual,[2] the only actual nomination Arcand has to show for himself is for Best Original screenplay for The Barbarian Invasions.  Which he lost. Continue reading →

Directed and Written by Dusan Vukotic

Starring Jelena Verner and Zdravko Pavlis

Best Picture 1963 was Tony Richardson’s Tom Jones, a randy romp of a comedy that seems an anomaly amongst Best Picture winners.  The anomaly being that it’s a comedy, very few of which have won Best Picture.[1]  And also has a plot featuring lots and lots of sex.  And is also one of the rarest of Best Picture winners, which are films that explicitly acknowledged themselves as a film in the text of the film. Continue reading →

Directed by Mike Leigh

Written by Mike Leigh

Starring Brenda Blethyn, Timothy Spall, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Claire Rushbrook, and Phyllis Logan

A few entries back I wrote about Topsy-Turvy, which was just the second Mike Leigh film I’d ever seen.  Because I had such a blind spot for him, I was under the assumption he specialized in the kind of muddy, earthy, improvisational dramas I really had no interest in.  I wouldn’t say I expected to find some sort of misery porn in his work, but that’s not far off the mark.  So I was glad when Topsy-Turvy proved a rather joyous and exuberant experience, with buoyant performances, colorful and beautiful camera work, and not a fleck of mud – either literal, or emotion – in sight.  To be fair, that movie was certainly too long, and too enamored with giving everything and everybody a chance in front of the camera, but on the whole I quite enjoyed it. Continue reading →

Directed by Charles Jarrott

Screenplay by Bridget Boland, John Hale and Richard Sokolove, from the play by Maxwell Anderson

Starring Richard Burton, Genevieve Bujold, Anthony Quayle and John Colicos

Richard Burton was nominated for seven Oscars over a 25-year span, including three straight in the 1960s:

• Best Actor 1977 – Equus
• Best Actor 1969 – Anne of the Thousand Days
• Best Actor 1966 – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• Best Actor 1965 – The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
• Best Actor 1964 – Becket
• Best Actor 1953 – The Robe
• Best Supporting Actor 1952 – My Cousin Rachel

You would think the closest he came to the winning was in 1966 for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which was the year’s most nominated film with 13, and which won his then-wife Elizabeth Taylor her second.  So, an Oscar for Burton has the appeal of being a good story – matching man and wife Oscars.  Alas, Burton lost to Paul Scofield for A Man for All Seasons.[1]  In Oscar history there is just one bigger acting loser than Richard Burton: only Peter O’Toole has more Oscar noms (eight), without a win.[2] Continue reading →

Directed by Anand Tucker

Screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Starring Emily Watson, Rachel Griffiths, James Frain, David Morrissey, Charles Dance, and Celia Ermie

Emily Watson had never been in a film before her breakout role in Breaking the Waves.  Perhaps being unknown helped her intense, emotional, and sexual performance land with such a wallop.  Or, it could be she’s simply a fierce actress, capable of that sort of performance day-in and day-out, and didn’t need a longer film history behind her to show it.  And there may be the truth of Emily Watson: she was a quality actress from the jump, even if the individual film itself is not. Continue reading →