Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Director 1996

The Contenders:
Anthony Minghella: The English Patient (winner)
Joel Coen: Fargo
Milos Forman: The People vs. Larry Flynt
Mike Leigh: Secrets & Lies
Scott Hicks: Shine

Shore Leave

Film: Anchors Aweigh
Format: DVD from NetFlix on laptop.

So here’s one of those moments where I find myself conflicted as a critic. Anchors Aweigh is a musical, and it’s a classical musical in the sense that the characters spend their time singing about their feelings to each other. I’ve started getting used to this, believe it or not. I’d still not frequently choose to watch a musical, but there are enough of them that I’ve genuinely enjoyed that I’m much more willing to give them a chance. Since Anchors Aweigh is not merely a musical but a Gene Kelly musical, I’m even more interested.

I like Kelly. I’ve always liked Kelly. Sure, there are other actors from this era of Hollywood that could dance and plenty of them could carry a tune better than Kelly, but I remain convinced that no one could do the things that Kelly could do on a dance floor. Astaire may have been more elegant, O’Connor more willing to play the terpsichorean fool, but for pure athleticism, no one could do the things that Gene Kelly could. The man had the strength and build of a linebacker and the grace of a bullfighter. There’s simply no one else like him.

The Magic Before Mike

Film: The Full Monty
Format: DVD from Rockford Public Library on laptop.

I’ve watched a number of movies I haven’t been completely keen on lately. I needed to watch something that I knew I was going to like. That means watching something I’ve seen before. In this case, The Full Monty was at hand, and so into the spinner it goes. For those uninitiated, this is the male stripper movie before Magic Mike.

Our protagonists are a group of unemployed factory workers in Yorkshire. They’re unemployed because the steel mill they worked at has been shut down. Gary “Gaz” Schofield (Robert Carlyle) and his friend Dave (Mark Addy) are reduced to breaking into the closed factory and stealing metal for scrap to get along. For Gaz, things have become extremely difficult. His ex-wife is on the verge of suing him for back child support. Failing to pay means being separated from his son Nathan (William Snape).

It's Not Porn

Film: Two Girls and a Sailor
Format: Turner Classic Movies on rockin’ flatscreen.

There are times when going back multiple decades into film history pays off, but it’s always a crapshoot. I understand when people complain about old movies. There are plenty of them that have significantly different sensibilities than more modern movies. One such movie that is very much in the mode of morale-boosting propaganda film is Two Girls and a Sailor, which honestly sounds like a porn title. Anyway, this is a musical very much in the classical vein, which will please a number of people and tends to leave me flat.

Like many a classic musical, this is essentially a romance with a whisper-thin plot. Seriously, this plot would fall apart with a sneeze. Two sisters, Patsy (June Allyson) and Jean Deyo (Gloria DeHaven) grow up in the vaudeville business. Eventually, they become pretty successful and start working at a club in New York. After work, they essentially operate something like a USO club out of their apartment, bringing up lonely soldiers, sailors, and marines and feeding them.

Home Front

Film: Hope and Glory
Format: DVD from NetFlix on laptop.

I’ve said before that of all of the many possible topics covered in film, nothing has been done more than war. It’s not difficult to find a film on pretty much any war topic you can think of, and for a war like World War II, you can find all of those areas of the war you can think of and more. There are prison movies, movies that concentrate on Europe, Africa, the Pacific, the air war, the war on and under the waves, invasions, defenses against invasions, sieges, concentration camps, and just about anything else. One of the most interesting aspects of the war to me is the home front. I’m interested in the desert war, too, but the home front is fascinating to me. So I was pleased when Hope and Glory showed up.

What makes Hope and Glory interesting to me is that it comes from the perspective of a child. Billy Roman (Sebastian Rice-Edwards, in his only film role) is about 10 when the war starts and his father (David Hayman) joins up. His mother (Sarah Miles) attempts to send him and his younger sister Sue (Geraldine Muir) to Australia, but relents at the last minute and keeps him home along with young Sue and older sister Dawn (Sammi Davis).

Fox in the Henhouse

Film: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Format: DVD from Rockford Public Library on laptop.

When it comes to the films of Wes Anderson, I always wonder how much is the real Wes Anderson and how much is simply affectation. His style is so distinctive that it’s impossible not to recognize his work immediately. So when it comes to his animated feature debut, Fantastic Mr. Fox, I was curious as to whether or not that style would carry over into stop motion. It does. Let’s get that out of the way right away.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is based on a book by Roald Dahl, which means it will be both whimsical and quite dark in places. The meet the eponymous Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) and his wife Felicity (Meryl Streep) as they are one their way home. They decide to raid a chicken far and are captured, at which point Felicity reveals she is pregnant. Flash forward a few years and Mr. Fox is now reformed (kind of), and writes a newspaper column. His son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) feels like a typical Wes Anderson misfit and is complet with quirks and OCD habits like all of Anderson’s characters. Soon, Ash’s cousin Kristofferson (Eric Anderson, the director’s brother) arrives and appears to upstage Ash in every aspect of life, including stealing the girl Ash is interested in.

Pawn Shop

Film: None but the Lonely Heart
Format: Turner Classic Movies on rockin’ flatscreen.

I’ve never been shy about the fact that I like Cary Grant. If you list out the actors from the golden age of Hollywood, there are plenty more accomplished, many with more awards, and some who were more talented actors than Cary Grant. But none of them had Grant’s style or raw personal magnetism. I’m always pleased to watch anything featuring him, even if it turns out I don’t love the film itself.

This is a simple story that gets convoluted pretty quickly. Ernie Mott (Grant) is the sort of guy who doesn’t spend too long in any one place. He’s shown up at home after a long period of wandering from place to place, earning a living as he finds it. Ernie has a basic mechanical knowledge, allowing him to repair watches and perfect pitch, which allows him to tune pianos. His mother (Ethel Barrymore) runs something akin to a pawn shop. What she wants more than anything is for her son to return home and take over the shop for here, something he is uninterested in doing. She offers an ultimatum: stay and work at the shop or leave and never return.