Directed by Guillermo Del Toro
Screenplay by Guillermo Del Toro and Vanessa Taylor, story by Guillermo Del Toro
Starring Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg and Doug Jones
Firsts are everything in life – first steps, first words, first kiss. The same is true for the Oscars. Here are some important firsts for Oscar wins: Continue reading
Filed under The Best Picture Project
If you are a long-time reader of this blog, you are aware of my years-long series, The Best Picture Project. You’re also probably aware that in late-2016 I compiled that series together, edited the entries, and put it out in both paperback and ebook formats. It was called The Best Picture Project. Like this blog, I didn’t put the book out with any hope it would sell or make me money — and it hasn’t. I put it out because I like to write, and like it when people read my stuff. Continue reading
Filed under The Best Picture Project
So, a little more than a year ago the complete, collected, and re-edited Best Picture Project appeared in book form. It sold like gangbusters, which is to say, it barely sold at all. But, I don’t necessarily write to be paid, I write to give me joy, and so if anybody bought it and enjoyed it, great!
And then…
And then I was notified of a comment on a post on this site — to the post regarding The Sound of Music, a Best Picture Project entry. The comment? Apparantly I forgot to include The Sound of Music in the book. It took about two minutes for me to confirm that, yes, I did forget it.
Well, you’ll be pleased to know that everything should be fixed now. I revised the Kindle version of the book right quick and you should be able to get that one now. The paperback version has also been corrected but that might take a couple days for all the kinks to work out between the old version and the new.
Nevertheless, feel free to purchase now and, as before — if you find an error in it, let me know, because I fix that shit.
Thanks!
Filed under The Best Picture Project, What I'm Writing
Ah, here we are at the time of year when the good people of the world start throwing around shitloads of money on gifts to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Or, because we grew up in a culture that values yearly gift giving. So if you are one of those people, but don’t quite know what to get for that special someone, maybe tried spending your hard-earned cash on something I wrote.
Filed under The Best Picture Project, What I'm Writing
Directed by Nicholas Hytner
Screenplay by Alan Bennett, based upon his play
Starring Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, Ian Holm, Amanda Donohoe, and Rupert Everett
The year 1994 belonged to box office juggernaut, and improbable awards darling, Forrest Gump. It’s domestic gross, thanks to Box Office Mojo, was $329 million,[1] on top of its seven Oscar wins from 13 nominations, which included taking the trophies for Picture, Director, Actor and Adapted Screenplay. And somewhat rare among Best Picture winners, it’s actually fairly enjoyable. It’s not great – certainly not Best Picture worthy – but it’s not bad, either. And that’s how we would remember the film today if not for it having one Best Picture over a true classic, Pulp Fiction.
Just as Crash would be forever tainted by beating Brokeback Mountain and could never be a movie judged on its own merits again, Forrest Gump is derided for having bested Pulp Fiction. The win doesn’t change the quality of either movie, only the perception of them, and opens them up to harsher criticism than they might otherwise face. As Pulp Fiction’s faults are overlooked because it didn’t win Best Picture, Forrest Gump’s are magnified because it won. Continue reading
Filed under The Best Picture Project
Available in both ebook and paperback — buy one of each!
The original idea for this blog was there was no idea – I had no grand unified vision, only wanted some place to dump out the various non-fiction thoughts rolling around in my head. Primarily those thoughts would be about movies, but they might very well be about anything. I did not envision having columns, or features, or even having readers. I just wrote what I felt like, when I felt like writing it, and chose this place to deposit it whether or not somebody was there to get it.
In a way, this blog was meant as a peek into my id. Continue reading
Directed By Barry Jenkins 2016)
Screenplay by Barry Jenkins, Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney, based upon the unproduced play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue.”
Starring Trevante Rhodes, Andre Holland, Janelle Monae, Ashton Sanders, Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali.
In 1993 Marissa Tomei was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her broad, yet smart, take on a goomba’s-girlfriend in My Cousin Vinny. It was a bit of a left-field nom, to be sure, given the film was basically comedy built on cliché, a type of film the Academy rarely has time for,[1] and she didn’t even manage a Golden Globe nom for the role. Plus, her opposition was the type of nominees, in the types of films, that normally got academy affection – Judy Davis in Husbands and Wives, Joan Plowright in Enchanted April, Vanessa Redgrave in Howard’s End and Miranda Richardson in Damage. No surprise that the race shaped up with Davis and Redgrave as front-runners. Come Oscar night, though, when Jack Palance opened the envelope and read Tomei’s name as the winner, it was a literal twist-ending. Continue reading
Filed under The Best Picture Project
I know you only have one week remaining to get your pre-order in for The Best Picture Project book, but that doesn’t mean you actually have to wait until the last minute — get it now!
Filed under The Best Picture Project, What I'm Writing
Hello, cherished readers. As followers of this blog, you are no doubt aware of the long-running The Best Picture Project, a semi-regular series exploring every Best Picture winner at the Academy Awards from the beginning, through today. Well, if you were wondering if there was a way you could have The Best Picture Project in book form — well, you can! Set for release on November 17, 2017, will be The Best Picture Project. Featuring complete re-edited content, and together for the first time ever in one place, you can pre-order the book now for the Kindle, for the low-low price of $3.99. What a steal! And if you’re a member of Amazon Prime or Unlimited, you won’t even have to pay that!
And wait — if you’re one who prefers their media to take physical form, there will be a paperback version available as well. Unfortunately, that version cannot be pre-ordered, for reasons completely unknown to me. But never fear, come November 17, 2016, you will be able to order your own copy.
Per-order now!
Filed under The Best Picture Project, What I'm Writing
So, as you know, I’m doing the Best Picture Project, where I watch all 88 Oscar winners for best picture and honestly, life just isn’t fun without rankings, so follows are my rankings of the Best Picture winners, from 1 to 76, complete with links to all previous posts, with 10 being shuttled over into their own special circle of hell, The Bottom Ten. Two others were unranked, for reasons apparent in their initial reviews.
Best Picture Rankings Continue reading
Filed under The Best Picture Project
