Top 25 Films of 2011: Numbers 25-11

OK so those who haven't got sick of me here we are again with my Top 25 films of 2011. Some notes before we get started I'm doing this in two segments (25-11 and the Top Ten) both of which will be in alphabetical order. If the film was released in 2011 but nominated for this year's Best Picture Oscar then it won't feature here so no Black Swan, 127 Hours, True Grit, The Fighter of The King's Speech on this list. So without further ado here are the films that did make the list:

13 Assassins 

We kick off this year's Top 25 with one of the year's most engaging action films released this year and  another engrossing Samurai film from director Takashi Miike. In this re-make of the 1963 film of the same name, Miike brings the action into full colour and assembles a great cast to take on the roles of the assassins tasked with bringing down the rule of the sadistic Lord Naritsugu whose dominant rule is oppressing the people of Japan. Although I found this incredibly talky in the early going it improved as it went on and the last hour which features the majority of the battle scenes are just spectacular. In the lead role Koji Yakusho was very good indeed but I also enjoyed Yusuke Iseya as the sort of comic relief of the piece. The film obviously draws comparisons with one of the greatest films of all time, The Seven Samurai, while its nowhere near as great as that it is still good to see films like 13 Assassins are still being made.

Arrietty 

It's fair to say that this hasn't been a great year for animated films with Pixar releasing a disappointing sequel to Cars and Dreamworks giving us an only alright second instalment of the Kung Fu Panda franchise. Thankfully Studio Ghibli are still producing beautifully animated pieces for the whole family this year adapting Mary Norton's timeless tale The Borrowers and retitling it after the name of its diminutive heroine. The story of the little people who live under the floorboards seems like a perfect fit for the studio behind such family favourites as Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. While Hiromasa Yonebayashi directed the piece, Hayao Miyazaki was still heavily involved co-adapting the source novel to make it fit for his style of film. The results were spectacular with the animation being predictably splendid and the story flowing nicely with a focus almost solely on Arrietty and her world as well as the obsessed Haru who is convinced of The Borrowers existence who is a great source of humour for the film. The themes of family and acceptance which run throughout a lot of Miyazaki's films are present in Arrietty and at the end of the day it is just a great hand-drawn animated film that is very uncomplicated but at the same time a great film.


Attack the Block 

As a big fan of Adam and Joe I think I went into Attack the Block, the debut feature from Joe Cornish, already wanting to like it and although it's a far from perfect film it still has plenty of qualities that lands it a place in my Top 25. Instead of making this a comedy in the mould of Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead this is a well-observed piece of social commentary about youths who live in council estates and their flippant nature to the world around them. When a gang of kids from the block of flats kill off an alien the rest of the race descends on the block and a war ensues between the humans and the aliens. Most of the humour within the film comes naturally as references to Fifa videogames and pay-as-you-go mobile phones make this a very British film. Though the aliens are furry creatures they are certainly still scary and Cornish isn't afraid of killing off some of his cast members. Talking of the cast there are assured performances from the majority of newcomers headed up by John Boyega as gang leader Moses while Jodie Whittaker is also great as nurse Sam someone who is mugged by the gang at the beginning of the film but is forced into helping them as the film goes on. It is rare to see a sci-fi film so intrinsically British which shows a real love and appreciation of the genre and this is certainly an assured debut for Cornish who is already making waves in Hollywood thanks to his writing on various projects.



Bridesmaids

I know this all-female comedy film divided audiences but I was in the camp who really enjoyed it and thought it was one of the funniest films of the year. Kristen Wiig, who I've always been a big fan of, wrote and takes the lead as Annie a failed baker who is asked to be maid of honour to her best friend Lilian when she announces her engagement. The film deals with themes of being stuck in a rut as Annie finds herself in a dead end job and sharing an apartment with an incestuous brother and sister pair. She also finds a rival in Lilian's new friend Helen who seemingly has the perfect life and is jealous that she may lose her old friend to a new life. What I really liked about Bridesmaids is that all of the six central characters all felt real even Melissa McCarthy who could've become the funny fat girl is afforded a scene in which she explains why she is so confident in her life. Even the love story between Annie and Chris O'Dowd's cop feels realistic and never slips into sickly sweet territory. More than anything though this is a very funny film with the scenes on the plane and at the wedding shower being my personal favourites. My only fear is that Bridesmaids will usher in a slew of new all women comedies which will be poor replicates of this brilliant original. 


The Guard 

For anyone who saw Martin McDonagh's In Bruges they know that probably the best thing about it was Brendan Gleeson's multi-layered performance that landed him a Golden Globe. So it seems that when McDonagh's brother John Michael was casting the lead for his second feature The Guard he had only one actor in mind to play the unorthodox policeman Boyle and once again it is Gleason's performance that is the jewel in the crown of this amiable comedy crime caper. When rumours of a drug-smuggling ring in Boyle's patch circulate Don Cheadle's FBI agent Everett comes over to lead the investigation. Boyle and Everett's double act is this year's funniest as the two clash but become friends throughout the film as they attempt to bring down the criminals who include Mark Strong's slightly psychopathic Clive Cornell. What I liked about The Guard more than anything was that it was a charming film with a protagonist who drunk, did drugs and used young prostitutes but was still completely likeable and relatable. To me Gleason was even better in The Guard than he was in In Bruges and deserves another award for playing one of 2011's most memorable characters.



Hugo 

I don't think any of us expected Martin Scorsese to follow-up such dark films as The Departed and Shutter Island with a 3D kids film but that's exactly what he did with the stunning Hugo. Centring around a Parisian train station Asa Butterfield stars as Hugo a boy who is secretly controlling the station's clock and is constantly trying to avoid being caught by the station guard who sends waifs and strays off to the orphanage. What I really like about Hugo is that Scorsese instantly transports you into Hugo's world of stealing croissants from cafes and going among the various stalls throughout the station. It also offers up a history lesson about early cinema from the Lumiere brothers to George Melies and how some of the early films were received by their audiences. Mixing both humour and warmth with some well-crafted scenery and a great cast which includes Sir Ben Kingsley, Helen McCrory, Christopher Lee and Sacha Baron Cohen dressed as the policeman from 'Allo 'Allo but doing a Peter Sellers impression. More than anything else Hugo is the type of film that you don't really see any more a proper film for the whole family that has engaging story and themes about family life and redemption. 


The Interrupters 

The first of three documentary films on the list, The Interrupters takes you on a ride through the gang culture in Chicago and focuses on the titular group of people who are trying to protect their streets from crime and violence. The interesting thing about The Interrupters is that many of them were part of the gang culture themselves when they were younger and they then are able to use this to relate to today's youngsters. For me I was taken with Ameena Matthews the daughter of legendary gang leader Jeff Fort who takes it upon herself to console the family and friends of murdered high school student Derrrion Albert whose death made news when it was captured on camera. Another startling scene involves another of The Interrupters convincing a young offender to go back to the barbershop which he and a group of friends previously robbed and heard from his victims their shock and fear at having guns pointed at their heads. It was the realistic nature of Steve James' film that really took me and he really made you support this group of people who were trying to rid their city of its crime element in the best way they knew how. 


Julia's Eyes 

In 2008, The Orphanage was one of my favourite films of that year a genuinely creepy Spanish horror film starring Belen Rueda and produced by Guillermo Del Toro. Producer and star reunited this year for the equally creepy if a little more predictable horror yarn Julia's Eyes. Rueda stars as Julia a woman who is inflicted with a degenerative disease which means she will go slowly blind and the beginning of the film sees the death of her sister Sara, who has already lost her sight, at the hands of a mystery assailant who then makes it look like suicide. As Julia starts to go blind she wants to investigate the death of her sister who she rightly believed was killed despite the instance of everyone that it was just suicide. Though I worked whodunnit straight away I still enjoyed the ride and there were still a few twists that caught me unawares. The best thing about it though was the concentration on sight and how vital it is to us as our heroine's vision is thwarted throughout the film the sense of peril is heightened. Director Guillem Morales makes the most of his brilliant leading lady who is by far the best thing about this film and like The Orphanage this film does not have a very happy ending but I won't spoil it for you because I would encourage everybody to go out and watch this superb chiller.



Kill List 

At the start of last year I watched Ben Wheatley's interesting debut film Down Terrace an odd family crime film which genuinely showed promise and then very recently I watched his brilliant second film Kill List which played with the genre of the crime film. Kill List is a film that can be split into three equal parts the first is very much a domestic drama about a couple with a young son trying to cope with the father's post-traumatic stress disorder following the war. The second sees the father, Neil Maskell's Jay, team up with Michael Smiley's intimidating Gal to finish off three individuals for a shadowy client. Their kill list is made up of three people who have done very wrong things usually to small children therefore the two contract killers can rightly justify their actions. The best thing about Kill List though was its final third because just as I thought I knew where it was going it turned into a horror film and evoked memories of both Rosemary's Baby and The Wicker Man. While Maskell was great playing the conflicted everyman for me Michael Smiley, best known to most people from Spaced, as the sort of big brother character who could both be charming and very sinister in equal measure. Kill List is by far not an easy watch but its combinations of three different genres and its small cast makes this a great British horror-thriller and one that I would greatly recommend. 


Life in a Day 

The second documentary on the list is Kevin MacDonald's very brave attempt to capture life around the planet on one day, July 24th 2010, by carefully editing together a numerous amount of the 80,000 clips posted on a YouTube channel by people from 192 nations across the globe. In the film we saw birth, marriage and coming-of-age tales we also saw the sad tale of the man who told his best friend how he really felt about her just to see her reject him. As anybody who saw Touching the Void knows, MacDonald is an assured documentary film-maker and the clever editing here perfectly captured the human spirit and all manner of emotions from different countries. Obviously MacDonald wanted to capture some big events, including the guy who was attempting to cycle the entire globe, but littered the film with smaller events such as people having breakfast, shaving, going to work and going to bed. One bit of the film that stuck with me was one of the final segments with a woman saying that nothing really major happened to her on that day and I think that's true of most of us because while some do experience big events on a regular basis most of us are just getting by. This was a film that really stuck with me and was a really massive project that definitely had a satisfying end result. 


Rise of the Planet of the Apes 

It has been an interesting year for blockbusters with the next chapters in the Pirates of the Caribbean and Transformers franchises being predictably crap it was the films that rebooted certain series that seemed to be better. While I did enjoy X-Men: First Class for me it was Rupert Wyatt's take on the Planet of the Apes saga that I found really engaging. Wyatt supposed that the original ape became super-intelligent due to James Franco's young scientist injecting him with a drug he was developing to combat Alzheimer's disease a condition which his father played by the brilliant John Lithgow was suffering from. Though Lithgow and Franco were both great the film was bought to life by Andy Serkis' motion-capture performance as Caesar the Ape who was really the central focus of the story. After the first half of the film explored the family unit, the second half was all about the mistreatment of apes from humans and the brilliant moment in which they finally rose up against Brian Cox and Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter. The final scenes with the battles between apes and humans were truly spectacular but this was a blockbuster that had both realistic characters and great action sequences and neither outshone the other. The only thing that ROTPOTA lacked was a decent female lead with Freida Pinto only existing to look pretty and smile occasionally but apart from that this was a great film and I'm excited to see what Wyatt does next with Caesar and the rest of his ape brethren. 


Snowtown

It is fair to say that it has been a good year for Australian cinema with the Western film Red Hill almost making the list and another Australian film making the top ten here we find the gripping and harrowing Snowtown in the bottom half of the 2011 list. Snowtown focuses on the story of how charismatic drifter John Bunting charmed his way into the hearts and homes of the people of the titular Australian town only to reveal himself to be a psychopath and a serial killer. The main focus on the film is the relationship between Bunting and young Jamie Vlassakis who was in search of a father figure and was taken under the wing of the man who began a relationship with his mother. The first half of the film showed how a mass-murderer could easily become a member of a small society while the second half concentrated on the brutal killings in which Bunting and his associates hid their victim's bodies in barrels. Overall a gripping drama with a tense lead performance from Daniel Henshall as the unremorseful Bunting the man who committed one of the most famous atrocities in Australian history.

Source Code 

Another interesting film which could be given the tag of blockbuster was the second film from Moon director and son of David Bowie, Duncan Jones. Source Code was a time-bending film starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a wounded soldier who is enlisted to try out a new military endeavour whose aim is to track down terrorists before they strike and arrest them before they are able to carry out any mass killings of civilians. In this case it was a bomb on a train and Gyllenhaal's Colter has to prevent the
bomb from going off something he isn't succesful with on multiple occassions meaning we see the same scene over and over again. What Jones' film is great at though is making this scene different every time as Colter falls for the attractive Christina the love interest of Sean Fentress the man who Colter has taken the body of. As well as the interesting story there are great performances from Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga, Michelle Monaghan and a slightly creepy Jeffrey Wright as the Source Code inventor. While it isn't as inventive as Moon it's good to see an intelligent blockbuster with plenty of excitement and twists as well as a cute little romantic edge and some interesting themes about what it means to exist and how we as humans can find redemption. I have to say though I'm still puzzled about that whole end scene. 


Submarine 

We end this half with two films from debut directors who are better known as actors firstly The IT Crowd's Richard Ayoade who helmed the likeable coming-of-age film Submarine. Set in the Welsh city of Swansea it follows Craig Roberts' teenage oddball seeking the love of kooky pretty classmate Jordana. For me the film perfectly captured the awkwardness of teenage affection and having to deal with both love and heartache in equal measure. Some found the character of Oliver quite annoying but personally I found him fairly endearing and his first person narrative was very well-handled. I think that Ayoade's direction perfectly suited this quirky little tale and the subplot involving Craig's mum, played by Sally Hawkins, being tempted by an ex-boyfriend was also fairly amusing. Submarine could be put into the same category as other films with strange adolescent males such as Rushmore or Harold and Maude and while it's not a patch on either of these I can definitely say that it is the best Welsh film of the year and Paddy Considine's arrogant psychic is a work of utter genius.



Tyrannosaur 

Talking of Considine his directorial debut is the final film on the list and again it isn't the easiest watch but it is a great study of the human condition. Peter Mullan puts in another assured performance as Joseph a drunk and a widower who is often getting into fights and alienates most of those around him. He forms an odd bond with charity shop worker Hannah played by the fantastic Olivia Colman who herself is the victim of abuse at the hands of her paranoid husband. With scenes of extreme violence, animal cruelty and rape, Tyrannosaur was never going to be hailed as the feel-good film of the year but what it is is the latest in a long line of great British realist films. I can't praise Colman's performance enough as the frightened and abused Hannah she owns most of the film but that's not taking anything away from the brilliant Mullan. Like with the other performers turned directors on this list it is clear that Considine is a student of the craft of film-making and displays his knowledge in full force in this gripping and compelling film.


Next time we'll get onto the Top Ten films of 2011.

Next Years Oscar Nominees

So with Eddie Murphy announced as host and Brett Ratner is the producer of the event what of the films that will be competing for the big prize come next year? Although it is only September I've decided to give my initial thoughts on what the Best Picture Nominees will be although I may revise it come December. I'm going on the presumption that there will be ten nominees however there are rumblings that there will be between five and ten which will just confuse the bejsus out of everyone. Without further ado here we go...

The Artist

Michel Hazanvicus' almost silent movie has been gaining awards buzz ever since lead actor Jean Dujardin won the Best Actor award in Cannes. It is certainly different and will appeal to the older members of the Academy who like a film that hark back to the silent movie days in Hollywood. I can see the main reason preventing the film's rise will be its lack of star power and its lack of a relevant theme. However the plus points count out the negative ones and I reckon this will definitely get a spot in the final nomination list.


The Descendants 

Alexander Payne has recently specialised in comedy drama films about sad looking men going on life defining journeys and both About Schmidt and Sidways have been nominated and won Oscars. Couple this with the fact that Academy favourite George Clooney is once again a favourite to feature in the Best Actor category. The only problem I have with the film featuring here is that there are several indie life affirming films coming out around the same time and this spot could easily be taken by We Bought a Zoo or Young Adult however the odds seem to be in the favour of Payne's film, at least for now.


Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 

Stephen Daldry, Tom Hanks, 9/11 and an acclaimed source material should definitely add up to Oscar gold. Daldry's last two features - The Hours and The Reader have both been nominated for Best Picture and Hanks has had five Oscar nominations and two wins. Then there's the story of a young boy searching for the lock that fits the key that his father, who died in 9/11, left to him. In fact this may be a little too saccahrine for the Academy's taste but it definitely seems to me that this one appeals to the patriotic academy voters.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 

Blockbusters don't tend to fare well at the Oscars especially if they're part of a franchise. However occasionally an Inception or a Lord of the Rings slips through the net and goes on to get a nomination. It is no secret that the Warner Bros. team are mounting a campaign to get the final film in the Potter series to be recognised at the Oscars presumably as a way of honouring the Potter films as one. The obvious disadvantages are that this isn't a 'serious' film and more than that it is seen as a film aimed predominantdly at children. For me it just depends how strong the campaign is and more importantly how many films will be in the running for Best Picture this year.

The Ides of March 

George Clooney's fourth film as director is picking up as much buzz as his second, Good Night and Good Luck, a film for which he recieved a Best Director and Best Picture nomination. With a cast featuring the red-hot Ryan Gosling and dependable supporting men Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti this looks set to be one of the major favourites for the Best Picture category. Clooney is an expert at politicking and if one of his films gets in this year I think it will be The Ides of The Descendants however the main problem here could be the split of votes between this and another predominantly male drama on the list. 

The Iron Lady 

Harvey Weinstein strikes again. The man behind some of the bigges Oscar campaigns of the last fifteen years has bought the US distrbution rights to this Margaret Thatcher biopic. This sees the second teaming up star Meryl Streep and director Phyllida Law after their frivolity in Mamma Mia this is much more of a serious subject. What worries me here is that the yanks love a monarch but do they love a prime minister and one that wasn't particularly likeable. I'm sure Weinstein will weave his magic once more and Meryl will definitely be in that Best Actress pool but then there's no surprise there. 

J. Edgar 

Of the two biopics jostling for Oscar contention, Eastwood's film about former law enforcement chief J. Edgar Hoover may just have the edge over Meryl and Thatcher. The main reason for this is the film is said to have a stunning lead performance by Leonardo DiCaprio which could finally bag him the Best Actor Oscar. Although it is true that one biopic may cancel out the other and neither will feature in this year's list it is much more likely that Clint might pick up a third Oscar for a film that he has directed.

Midnight in Paris 

Like with Harry Potter, the people behind Woody Allen's latest film are really pushing for this to be his first film nominated for Best Picture since Hannah and Her Sisters in 1986. To its credit Midnight in Paris is a perfectly made and is full of while questioning the love of nostalgia. While other Allen films have netted awards and nominations for its stars such as Dianne West, Mira Sorvino and Penelope Cruz, Midnight in Paris is much more of an ensemble piece. However at the same time will the Academy see Allen as past it now? I'm not sure how big the push will be for the award but with no real life issues to tackle or major names attached to it I fear that Midnight in Paris may just miss out on a nod.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 

Tomas Alfredson's adaptation of the classic cold war thriller has gained critical accolades and also might be the dark horse entry this year with the academy favouring old school stories like this. Gary Oldman's performance has been earmarked for an Oscar nod also and the fine supporting cast and Alfredson's superb direction also may be up for a few statuettes. However the film's main obstacle might be the split in votes between it and The Ides of March which both feature a majorly male cast talking a lot in rooms.

War Horse

War? What is it good for? Well for Steven Spielberg it usually means a Best Director Oscar having previously picked up them for Schindler's List and Saving Privae Ryan. It might also be good for seeing one of his films get in the nominated shortlisted for the first time since Munich in 2005. War Horse combines a popular story, with a  World War I Setting, a cute kid and an even cuter animal and some fine supporting players. Like with Harry Potter this could fine academy snobbery laundered upon it but I feel that Spielberg's film might just clinch it at the ceremony.

However I could be wrong and may well post an updated list at the beginning of next year along with some of the possible acting contenders.


I'm taking a bit of a break from the film blog at the moment but will be back at the end of the year with my Top 25 of 2011.

Matt's Big Oscar Chalenge Day 148: More from Monty

As we've seen in our trip through the 1950s we've had a lot of stars straddle films I've done retrospectives of the fifites films of both Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando in the former's collection we found A Place in The Sun. That gently links into this next section as we look into the work of the male lead of that film, Montgomery Clift's, other work.

We kick off with just what I need, another play adaptation, this time thankfully there's enough exterior shots to counteract the scenes of people talking in rooms. That film is The Heiress and once again we find the lead actress Olivia De Havilland once again winning the Best Actress award for her tremendous performance as Catherine Sloper the titular woman of the title. The story has a simple premise would a charming young man who mishandles his money be interested in a dowdy heiress for anything more than her cash. That's the situation that Catheirne finds herself in after being charmed by Clift's Morris Townend who visits her house various times and eventually proposed much to the horror of her father played by Ralph Richardson. Richardson's character firstly quizzes Morris' family members before taking his daughter off to Europe, these scenes are especially bought alive by the film medium, realising he can't change her mind he decides to disinherit her therefore only giving her a small amount of money and when Morris finds this out he leaves her on the evening that the couple were meant to elope. It is here that De Havilland comes into her own as she becomes bitter not allowing her father to speak to her and spurning Morris' advances when he returns despite realising he now loves her she wants to humiliate him the way he did her and therefore ends up sad and alone. I did enjoy The Heiress it didn't outstay its welcome and all the leads acted their parts well. De Havilland's performance in the latter scenes were truly spectacular and she did more than earn her Oscar. Montgomery Clift does as he's told playing charming but sinister and playing on his screen idol persona to try and trick the audience into thinking that he really does love Catherine while Ralph Richardson's stoic routine lends itself well to the father. William Wyler brings the play to life and shoots outside as much as possible to give the film a life of its own all in all a good actors film but nothing spectacular.

We come now to another Best Picture winner from the 1954 ceremony starring Clift alongside Burt Lancaster and Oscar winners Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed that film is From Here to Eternity. Covering the same sort of time as 1940s nominee Wake Island, From Here to Eternity looks at army-life in Hawaii just in the run-up to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Clift plays Private Pruitt a soldier who has been transferred to his new unit for his boxing prowess however when he refuses to box his Captain gets the other officers to bully him and put him doing manual labour his only friend being Sinatra's Private Maggio. Meanwhile Lancaster's Sergeant Ward is romancing the Captain's wife played by Deborah Kerr their romance includes the famous beach sex scene which is the iconic plateau of the film but which had to be toned down for the censors so it wasn't implicit that the sexual act actually took place. Kerr and Lancaster's romance is thwarted by the fact that she hates it on Hawaii and he vows to earn his Captain's stripes so they can return to the States. Pruitt also falls in love with a girl he meets in a club named Lorene, later revealled to be named Alma, at first he is frustrated with the fact that her work comes first but eventually the two move in together. When Maggio goes AWOL to get drunk he is court martialled and beaten by the warden he eventually escapes but dies from his wounds this causes Pruitt to attack and kill this officer and get wounded himself and going AWOL at Alma's house. It is at this time that the Pearl Harbor attacks take place and Ward takes charge with the Captain being sacked for giving preferential treatment to his boxers. Realising that he will always put the army first Kerr leaves him and returns to America alone meanwhile Pruitt dies trying to make it back to base having been shot by one of the other soldiers. Kerr and Reed's Lorene meet in the film's final scene each realising who the other is as they throw their lays out to sea meaning that neither will ever return.

Ocassionally when doing this blog I bemoan the choices of Best Picture but thankfully in 1954 the academy got it spot on with this film. There are no less than five stunning performances with Sinatra stunning me the most as the jovial Maggio who is suddenly brutally attacked and dies a tragic death. Clift is also good here playing a little against type as the stubborn Pruitt but his love scenes with Reed were obviously there for his fans to woo over him. Lancaster is particularly good holding everything together as he's the likeable man torn between love and duty. The almost completely exterior shooting means that this film also boasts great scenery and realistic backdrops and I have to say I was caught off guard by the Pearl Harbor attacks as I'd obviously left my sense of history at the door. Overall a great film and a worthy Best Picture winner and as we've seen here Montgomery Clift definitely made his mark on 1950s film by being both suave and vunerable in both of these classics.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 147: Happy Hollidays

Its not hard to make links between The Country Girl and the next film on the list - Born Yesterday. Both are based on plays and so mainly feature people talking in rooms, both star William Holden and both have the winner of that year's Best Actress award in them and in this instance it was Judy Holliday. More surprising is the fact that Holliday beat both All About Eve's Anne Baxter and Bette Davies as well as Sunset Boulevard's Gloria Swanson. Holliday's character is Billie Dawn a former chorus girl who is the girlfriend of dodgy uncouth tycoon Harry Brock and is forced to go to a Washington hotel so Harry can do a deal with a few politicians. While meeting with the upper-classes Harry realises that Billie won't be able to mix with the people that he'll be doing business with so he organises her to have some lessons with Holden's journalist Paul Verrell. Obviously as this is a screwball comedy Paul and Billie soon become romantically entwined as she learns more about the country she lives in and is able to understand more than Harry wants her to. As soon as Billie becomes more aware of some of the documents that Harry is having her sign she refuses to do his dirty work so he hits her. Eventually she gets her revenge as she and Paul leak documents of his underground shennanigans to the press before they leave together.

There was much debate on the YouTube comments if Holliday should've won the Best Actress Award at the 1951 ceremony. I have to say its certainly a memorable performance as she makes Billie the sterotypical gangster's moll with a high-pitched voice and a funny walk. But she is captivating as the character grows and learns to stand up for herself and her final scenes where she gets one over on Harry is a fist punch in the air moment. Holliday is ably supported by William Holden as the straight man and by Broderick Crawford, himself just coming off a Best Actor Oscar win, as the brutish Harry. The main problem with the film is that again it is a play adaptation and therefore there are many scenes in Harry's hotel suite in which he welcomes his guests and has meetings with his dodgy lawyer. Obviously the medium of film allows for exterior scenes so we see Paul and Billie exploring Washington landmarks but this almost seems a little forced like the director needed to differentiate the film and the play however it all still fits together. I did enjoy Born Yesterday and found Holliday's performance extremely funny and likeable and I laughed a lot. While Davis, Baxter and Swanson all gave memorbale dramatic turns and at points chewed the scenery I have to say that we all like a laugh once in a while and its good to see a comic actress pick up the prize something that hardly ever happens these days.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 146: Amazing Grace

Imagine you're Judy Garland, I know its an odd way to start this blog but stick with me, you've just given birth to your son and the Oscars have sent cameras to the hospital where you are about to recieve your Best Actress Award at the 1955 ceremony for her role in a A Star is Born and then the winner is... Grace Kelly and you're left with a bunch of flowers from Groucho Marx describing the decision as the biggest robbery since Brinks Which I think is doing Kelly a diservice as her role in The Country Girl, the next film on the Oscar list, is probably her best. Kelly was possibly one of the first glamorous actresses who learnt that if you want to win an Academy Award its best to go a bit dowdy and a play a brow-beaten character since then the method has been used as by Charlize Theron, Holly Hunter and Nicole Kidman among others. Kelly plays Georgie Elgin the wife of once great actor Frank who has become an alcholic since the death of their young son an incident for which he blames himself. Frank is given a second chance at a career by William Holden's Bernie Dodd who was a fan of his earlier work but has to fight the show's producers and financial backers. Dodd believes that Georgie is holding back Frank and affecting his performance especially since Frank tells him stories about her sucide attempts and drunkeness stories which are actually about him. After Frank causes an incident in a bar and is arrested Dodd then realises that all of his hatred for Georgie comes from both Frank's lies and the fact that he is has feelings for her. Frank pulls himself together and becomes a star and realises that Dodd and Georgie both have feelings for each other he gives her permission to begin a relationship with him but in the final scene she decides to stay with her husband.

I hadn't really read anything about The Country Girl before watching it, which is sometimes the best way, but after viewing I was convinced it was based on a play and it turns out I was right. I had this inkling as the majority of the scenes feature characters in rooms talking to each other but because those characters are played by Crosby, Kelly and Holden you don't really care. Obviously since you've got a talented singer like Crosby you may as well use him but the context here sees him playing a man haunted by the fact that he let his son's hand go to take a promotional picture the song he sung that day is used a reason for him to start drinking again. In fact of all the films I've seen him in I feel that this is Crosby's best performance its so much more gritty than all of the others in which he essentially plays himself and a lot better than Going My Way for which he won his Best Actor Oscar for. I feel The Country Girl was unfortunate to come up against On The Waterfront so Crosby lost to Brando but any other year I reckon he would've won the award. Kelly is also great having to play the doting wife with the alcholic husband with her hair up and glasses on she doesn't look like Grace Kelly which is why you can really feel for Georgie and William Holden is also great basically playing another member of the audience trying to guess which of the couple is telling the truth. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that Dodd finally decided he was in love with Georgie I could see it coming but didn't think it fit with the rest of the film. Also winning an Oscar for its brilliant adapted screenplay, The Country Girl is a great film from beginning to end featuring three fine performances from a trio of the time's top stars and I would highly recommend it.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 145: Going Stir Crazy

Basically all of the films on this list are coming from either LoveFilm or various YouTube sources so if I can't reference a movie on either of those then I probably won't get to watch it. A nominee from the 1956 ceremony, Mister Roberts, was one such film which I had already banished to the unwatchable pile so imagine my surprise when it suddenly appeared on the T.V. listings for a Channel Five Saturday afternnon. Thanks to that I was able to watch the film whcih it turned out was a comedy-drama set during the final days of World War 2 on a naval Cargo Ship. To me it reminded me of The Caine Mutiny which I recently watched as it was about mundane life on a ship featuring a quartet of impressive performance from big names - Henry Fonda as Mister Roberts, James Cagney in his final MGM performance as the tyriannical Captain, William Powell in his final performance as the world-weary ship Doctor and Jack Lemmon winning the Supporting Actor Oscar here as the jovial ensign in charge of morale and laundry. For me this was one of Henry Fonda's best turns, apart of course from 12 Angry Men, playing a man who is desperate to serve properly and writes weekly letters to be let off the ship however Cageny's Captain sees him as an asset so keeps him around and he is well liked by his crew members whom he doesn't impose strict rules on. As time goes on the Captain is frustrated by Roberts and feels he isn't respecting him so he grants the crew their leave as long as Roberts tows the line and agrees with his orders. When the crew finally find out about this they decide to forge a letter from the Captain and get him transferred from the ship and he finally gets to serve in Japan the film tragically ends with the news that Roberts died when a suicide bomber killed all the crew of his new ship. While the death of your main character would usually be a downer in the case of Mister Roberts it was slightly more poignant and uplifting as he died getting what he always wanted to do and that was serve properly during the war.

I have to say I really enjoyed Mister Roberts mainly how easily it was able to demonstrate how not all men had heroic jobs during the war some of them just were their to ship cargo from one port to another and weren't happy about it. There are a lot of comic segments throughout the film demonstrating this including one where the men try and spy nurses on a nearby island while they are in the shower while one long scenes sees Fonda, Powell and Lemmon try and knock up some home made scotch. These segments are transposed with some truly heart-wrenching moments such as Cagney opening up to Fonda about his life before he became a captain which was fairly reminicent of Bogart's speech to his crew in The Caine Mutiny and also the scene in which Fonda goes crazy after he realises that he might not serve when peace in Europe is announced. Lemmon's performance is indeed great combining his comic timing with more dramatic moments of clarity personally his ways of getting revenge over a captain he's scared of are particularly memorable. All in all a great quartet of performances coupled with John Ford's skilled direction and a great script means that Mister Roberts is one of the better Oscar nominees never to take home the prize.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 143-144: A Song and Dance in France

Some of you may've noticed that to get through as many of these films as possible I am trying to group them into different categories and I noticed that two of the winning films from the 1950s were both set in France, featured song and dance and both starred Leslie Caron. However there was also a third nominee set in France which featured a small amount of merriment so that got included as well so lets kick off with the winner from the 1952 ceremony.

That being Vincent Minnelli's An American in Paris an all singing/all dancing spectacular featuring Gene Kelly and the afformentioned Ms. Caron. The film features on two down-and-out Americans living and trying to survive in Paris, Kelly's painter Jerry Mulligan and Oscar Levant's pianist Adam Cook. Muligan's artwork gets noticed by a wealthy American woman named Milo who agrees to sponsor Jerry and also falls in love with him while Mulligan meets Caron's enchanting Lisa and falls for her unaware that she is already seeing singer Henri Baurel an acquaitance of Jerry's through Adam. As time goes on Lisa and Jerry become more and more attached then Henri is offered a job in America and he and Lisa plan to marry but at the last moment Henri realises that Jerry and Lisa are in love and lets them be together. An American in Paris is a great old school musical but whether it deserved to win Best Picture is another debate altogether however it deserve to win Oscars for its cinematgoraphy, score, costumes and set (not sure about the screenplay award though). I enjoyed the interplay between Caron and Kelly but for me the best performances came from Nina Foch as Milo and Levant whose scene where he imagines he is conducting and playing in a concert hall was one of my favourite scenes alongside the last fifteen minutes of the film in which Jerry imagines his life alongside Lisa before she returns to him. A bright, colourful extravaganza An American in Paris has memorable songs like I've Got Rhythm and S'Wonderful and is an enjoyable ride however I don't think it is truly a classic film.

A nominee from the 1953 ceremony is Moulin Rouge, a film title most of us attribute to a 2001 film which was also nominated for Best Picture. The 1953 film does have some singing and dancing but most of it features the story of Tolouse LaTrec potrayed in the modern film by John Leguizamo and here by Jose Ferrer. The first 20 minutes or so are probably the most entertaining and vibrant showing life in the Moulin Rouge full of drinking, can-can girls and Zsa Zsa Gabor's lead singer. However LaTrec's story is one of heartbreak in flashback we learn that he left his family home to pursue a career as a painter after he found out no girl would love him because he's a cripple. In the modern day his life doesn't go much better he enters into a relationship with a prostitute which ends when he becomes suspicious of her and she keeps taking money from him. He finds solace in his offbeat paintings off the Moulin Rouge and other famous Parisian landmarks and gains a reputation for his work. He also starts a new relationship with Myriamme a lovely girl who loves him but once again he feels that she just keeps him around for amusement and leaves it too late to save her from marrying someone else. The film ends with the announcement that he will be the first living artist to have painting displayed in The Louvre and then we see him visited by images of his paitings before popping his clogs. Moulin Rouge is thematically quite a bleak film with Jose Ferrer's Tolouse being a very dour personality and one who at times I found fairly allienating. The best thing about the film is its colour cinematography, which bizzarely didn't even get an Oscar nomination, which brings the Moulin Rouge to life and the best performances in my opinion come from those who work there. The way Tolouse's pictures are transposed into the film and how they meet him as he dies are also quite splendidly done. Overall a good biopic which is often bleak and saved by the colour and oppulance of its titular establishment.

Finally we have Leslie Caron on winning form yet again here as the eponymous heroine in Gigi, the winner of the final Oscar ceremony in the 1950s. The film is light and full of humourous performances which is odd giving the dark subject matter of young girls being groomed to be cortesans for wealthy Parisian men. However Gigi's training isn't going at all well as she doesn't really want to be in her lessons and instead likes spending time with Gaston who visits her and her grandmother. Throughout the film Gaston realises that Gigi is no longer a child and falls in love with her. Her great aunt then trains her up to be Gaston's cortesan but she realises she doesn't want this sort of life for herself and through a sequence of events it suddenly dawns of both of them that they want to be together and at the end of the film are happily man and wife. Narrating events for part of the film is Maurice Chevalier's Honore Lachaille after watching several of his 1930s films for this project its odd now to see him playing the supporting role of the experienced older man but in 1958 he had aged somewhat he still gets to sing the most memorable song 'Thank Heaven for Little Girls' though and did recieve the Lifetime Achievement award the night Gigi swept the board. And it did indeed breaking the record for Oscar wins but only holding that record for one year before Ben Hur came along. The film itself is OK again its fairly entertaining and Caron has improved as an actress from her time on An American in Paris here being possibly the most likeable character of the bunch. The song and dance sequences are a joy but at times I felt the pace lagged a bit especially when Caron and her female relatives were offscreen and instead we had to deal with Gaston's woes which I didn't really care about. Overall an entertaining piece of musical cinema which had some lovely costumes but wasn't a spectacular picture and again didn't feel to me like a Best Picture Winner.

That's your lot from France and as your captain I hope you enjoyed your journey.