Category Archives: 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 →

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 →

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 →