Year in Review: 1987

To me, 1987 has always been missing one thing – that one film that stands above the rest as clearly the best film of the year. There are a lot of great films released in 1987 – as you can see for the higher than normal number of films in the Just Missed the Top 10 section, and yet I do not think the year has any true masterpieces – try as I might to find one. Some years are like that. I will say that I find it odd that three great directors took a look back at their own childhoods in the 1940s this year – and all three pulled off wonderful films.

10. Au Revoir Les Enfants (Louis Malle)
Based on his own memories, Louis Malle’s Au Revoir, Les Enfants is about life for an 11 year old boy in his Catholic boarding school in 1943. The benevolent head master introduces three new students at the beginning of the semester, and the main character, looks at them strangely. He can tell there is something different about them, but since no one else is saying anything, neither does he. He becomes friends with one of the boys, and quickly discovers the truth – the boy is Jewish, and the headmaster is hiding him, and the other two students, from the Gestapo. Things, of course, do not work out for them. Au Revoir, Les Enfants avoids the traps of many of the films about the Holocaust that involve children – The Boy with the Stripped Pajamas being the most recent example – because it does romanticize the situation, it doesn’t turn it into a ridiculous cliché, and portrays the children not as simpletons, nor as little adults, but as people who do not fully understand what is happening, but still feel outrage. The main character in the movie remains haunted by what happened – and his role in it – for the rest of his life, even if he really didn’t do anything wrong. Much like Malle’s previous film, Lacome, Lucien, Au Revoir Les Enfants is an intelligent look at the role the French played in the Holocaust – it neither forgives them their sins, nor condemns, but simply watches in horror as it plays out.

9. The Dead (John Huston)
The Dead was John Huston’s last film – a film he directed while being confined to a wheelchair and on an oxygen tank. As a result, death hangs in the air all throughout this adaptation of the infamous James Joyce short story that was thought to be unfilmable. Somehow, Huston manages to capture the tone and spirit of Joyce’s story, and keep the film cinematic, instead of merely literal. The film is about a Christmas party in 1904 Ireland. The party is being hosted by the Moran sisters, and gradually the guests arrive, participate in small talk and then head to the dining room for dinner, where the talk continues. An awful lot is said, but gradually our attention turns to Gabriel (Donal McCann), a pretentious man who holds himself above the rest of the guests, and his wife Gretta (Anjelica Huston). As the night dwindles, Gabriel notices a change in his wife after hearing a song performed. When they arrive back at their hotel room, she tells him the story of the true love of her life. The Dead is about many things – yes, it is about death and mortality, but it is also about the impossibility of anyone really knowing anyone else. Gabriel is a pathetic man who thinks he knows everything – only to realize that he doesn’t even know his own wife. Somehow this feels like a film that Huston simply had to make before he died. That he took on such an ambitious project – and pulled it off – is almost astounding.

8. Hope and Glory (John Boorman)
John Boorman’s Hope and Glory is a look back at his own life as a young boy at the outbreak of WWII in London. His father, although aging, enlists in the war, and leaves his mother, Sarah Myles, to raise three children by herself. The family huddles together beneath the stairs during air raids that terrify the mother, but excites the only son. He loves going out every day into the houses destroyed by bombs and discovering shrapnel with his friends. To him, the war is a fun and exciting thing because he doesn’t fully understand it. His older sister has discovered sex with a soldier, and her life is torn apart when he is shipped out. Occasionally their father comes home on leave – but these visits are far too infrequent, and although he is a loving father, he spends much of his time drinking. Hope and Glory captures the time period perfectly, and the mixture of excitement and confusion felt by the boy at the center of the movie, who is after all only a kid and doesn’t truly understand what is going on, but understands enough. It is meticulously detailed, with great period production design and cinematography, and is a lot more emotional (one could say sentimental) than the usually tough as nails Boorman gets. A wonderful, unique film.

7. Wall Street (Oliver Stone)
For better or for worse, Oliver Stone’s Wall Street pretty much came to define business in the 1980s. Stone thought he was making a film about a horrible man named Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas) – a man who cares more about the game of making money, than about morals, ethics or even the money itself – and how his greed is contagious, and essentially ruins the innocent Charlie Sheen. But over the years, Gecko has become a hero to many on Wall Street – young brokers tell both Stone and Douglas on a regular basis that they idolized the man, and have modeled their careers after his. Perhaps that’s one of the reason we are in the financial crisis that we are in. As a film, Wall Street has its flaws – the Daryl Hannah character can pretty much be eliminated, and at times he lays it on a little thick (this is Oliver Stone don’t forget). Yet, it also has the power to grip you in its narrative, and Douglas’s Gecko can still seduce you with his slippery lies, his easy charm and a chance at all that money. It’s sad to think that some people listened to Gecko’s infamous Greed is Good speech, and came away agreeing with him. But for that very reason, Wall Street remains a timely film – one whose influence still hangs over the business community. I eagerly await the sequel later this year, to see what Gecko is up to now.

6. Broadcast News (James L. Brooks)
Broadcast News is, for me anyway, the best film that James L. Brooks has ever directed. It is an intelligent look at the world on television news – where being good looking and photogenic are more important than being good at your job. The film revolves around a producer (Holly Hunter) who has worked with her best friend (Albert Brooks) for years. He is in love with her, and hurt by her constant rejection of his affections. However, they respect each other, and continue to work well together. That is when William Hurt arrives. He is a local news anchor, who got his start being a sports broadcaster. He is good looking, and projects warmth on screen, but he just isn’t very smart – something he knows all too well. But he is attracted to Hunter as well, and sees her intelligence as something he can exploit. Against her better judgment, Hunter becomes involved with him. He may not be smart like Brooks, but he’s good looking. Broadcast News is intelligent, well written, well directed and especially well acted by its three principal characters (and in a hilarious cameo by Jack Nicholson as the network anchor). It is also a tough minded movie that looks at television news, warts and all. This is a world where being talented comes in second to being good looking. We expect that in certain fields, but shouldn’t we expect more from the people who bring the world into our homes every day? The only thing dated about this movie is the clothing – it is just as relevant today as it was back then.

5. Radio Days (Woody Allen)
Woody Allen’s Radio Days is his nostalgic look back at his own childhood, growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940s, with a family who listened the radio constantly. For a filmmaker who has admired Fellini, the film brought to mind that master’s Amarcord, which may not have painted things how they actually happened, but instead how the director remembers them. The film is essentially split into two parts – though Allen jumps effortlessly from one to other. One is about the kid Allen was (played by Seth Green) is 1940s Brooklyn, growing up in his eccentric family in a working class neighborhood, and living out his fantasies through the people he hears on the radio. The other part is the stories of those heroes themselves in Manhattan – all the glitz and glamour of the era on full display for the audience. By its very nature Radio Days is the most episodic of Allen films – he isn’t concerned with telling a clear narrative, but rather in evoking an era. On that level, Allen has succeeded brilliantly, and that is why Radio Days belongs on any list of the best films Allen has ever made.

4. House of Games (David Mamet)
David Mamet’s House of Games is a movie that continually twists it plot, and yet never seems to confuse us. Watching the film, I never fail to be drawn into the story of con men, their tricks, and the tricks used against them, as the film gradually ups the ante more and more with each passing scene. The film is almost all talk, and yet it is never for a second boring – even the most seemingly innocent exchanges are fraught with dramatic tension, because we know something is going on beneath the surface. Only after the movie is over do we fully understand who conned who and why – and more importantly, how Mamet has conned us, the audience. The movie is about a psychologist (Lindsay Crouse) whose patient is being threatened by a gambler (Joe Mantegna) because he owes him money. She tries to threaten him, but it doesn’t work. He sees through her, knowing that she is getting an aroused by acting tough, and he gradually includes her in a con of his own – and she becomes even more aroused. What follows is like a dance between these two people, who are always on guard, always watching each other to see if they can discover the others tell – their weak spot. House of Games was Mamet’s first film – and it remains his best film as a director. It is the one where everything fit together perfectly – the performances, the dialogue, and the direction. It is one of the best con games ever put on film.

3. Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick)
The first time I watched Full Metal Jacket, I was let down by the films second half. The first half of the film ranks among the best that Stanley Kubrick ever directed, by the second half seemed like an afterthought – something to fill out the rest of the film. And while I still think the second half does not live up to the first, I have gradually changed my mind about it. I have never wavered in my love for the film’s first half. The portrayal of basic training, where a tough as nails drill sergeant (R. Lee Ermy, who in his first role, delivered the best performance of his career) breaks down the new recruits with a non-stop barrage of swearing and yelling, turning them from young men into killing machines. Vincent D’Onofrio is perhaps even better as the recruit who cannot withstand the pressure put upon him and eventually snaps. This part of the film is masterful – and had the rest been this good, it easily would have been my choice for the year’s best. The second half, about two of the recruits from the first during the Tet offensive in 1968, is not as good. In a way, after all the Vietnam war films we have seen, it at first struck me as not quite good enough. The fact that Kubrick refused to leave England to shoot it, meaning that he had to recreate the jungle of Vietnam in England, also gave this part a kind of unrealistic feel – it almost felt more like a WWII movie than a Vietnam one. But as I watched the film again and again, this part of the film continually gets better. Perhaps knowing that it wouldn’t live up to the first half helps. What does stand out is Kubrick’s direction – how he litters the background with so much information and how he pushes the point made in the first half of the film even further. I still don’t think it represents Kubrick at his best – but having said that, it is way better than most directors in their finest hour.

2. The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci)
Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor is a grand, glorious epic about a wasted life. Pu Yi was in fact the last emperor of China, who become so at the age of 3, and then abdicated his throne at the age of 7. He never had control over anything in his life at all. He is constantly told where to go and what to do. For a man who supposed to have so much power, he actually had none. He is tutored in the ways of the West by Peter O’Toole, but can never set foot outside his own house – The Forbidden City (where, miraculously, the Chinese let Bertolucci shoot). He was thrown out of there, used by the Japanese and captured by the Russians near the dawning of WWII. He expects death, but instead goes through a 10 year “reeducation” where the emperor is trained how to be a gardener. Even then, he has no control of his life. Pu Yi is a man who lived his entire life as a symbol – a different symbol at different times, to different people, but never got to be who he really was – even he doesn’t really know what that is. Bertolucci’s film is long and lacking in any real action or even evil plots. It doesn’t need to be, because that isn’t what this story is about. It is the story of a man who was never allowed to be anything other than what others told him to be. What a shame. What a waste.

1. River’s Edge (Tim Hunter)
I am fascinated by movies about teenagers who kill. This past decade has seen a lot of them from the films of Gus Van Sant (particularly Elephant and Paranoid Park) to Mean Creek about a prank that goes horribly wrong, to pretty much Larry Clark’s entire body of work – particularly the criminally neglected Bully. But for me, all these film owe a debt in one way or another to Tim Hunter’s River’s Edge, a pretty much forgotten film. The movie is about a teenager who kills his girlfriend, and leaves the body out in the woods. For days after, he took his friends to see the body, who brought their friends, and gradually a whole hell of lot of teenagers knew there was a dead girl in the woods, and yet no one reported the crime. The film offers no explanation for that, no reason why these kids didn’t report it; expect that they don’t seem much to care. The movie does not center itself on the murderer (Daniel Roebuck), who is dim bulb if I have ever seen one, but rather of Crispin Glover – who seems perpetually strung out on drugs, who takes it upon himself to hide the crime. Why? I doubt even he knows, but he thinks that Roebuck had his reasons, so they know owe it him to help out. Dennis Hopper gives one of the best performances of his career as the local drug dealer who doesn’t seem to have much more maturity then the teenagers, but is a hell of a lot scarier than them. Even the portrayal of the two good kids – Keanu Reeves and Ione Skye – who are the ones who eventually report the crime (days after they found out about it) is sad. They may eventually feel bad enough to report the crime – but not before they stop off in the park to have sex under the stars. River’s Edge is a film about moral bankruptcy. The kids in the movie are already long past the point of caring about other people, for they are too caught up in their own lives. It is a haunting film about crime, based on facts though fictionalized here, that deserves comparison to films like In Cold Blood. Directed by Tim Hunter, who for some reason has pretty much been stuck making television ever since (although he has directed for some of the best shows in the last two decades – Twin Peaks, Homicide: Life on the Street, House, Mad Men and Dexter among them), River’s Edge is a film that deserves to be seen by far more people than have actually watched it.

Special Mention: Superstar: The Story of Karen Carpenter (Todd Haynes). This is one of my favorite little films made by a genius director for no money. It is a short, and since it was never released, I really couldn’t put in on the list. However, this story, told with Barbie dolls, which marks the slow decline of Karen Carpenter is pure movie genius – something that Haynes wouldn’t top until Far From Heaven in 2002.

Just Missed the Top 10: Angel Heart (Alan Parker), Barfly (Barbet Schoreder), The Big Easy (Jim McBride), Dark Eyes (Nikita Mikhalkov), Empire of the Sun (Steven Spielberg), Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn (Sam Raimi), Good Morning Vietnam (Barry Levinson), Lethal Weapon (Richard Donner), Matewan (John Sayles), Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (John Hughes), Prick Up Your Ears (Stephen Frears), The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner), Raising Arizona (Joel & Ethan Coen), Robocop (Paul Verhoeven), The Untouchables (Brian DePalma).

Notable Films Missed: Hotel Terminus (Marcel Ophlus), Law of Desire (Pedro Almodovar), Red Sorghum (Zhang Yimou), Where is the Friend’s Home (Abbas Kiarostami), Yeelen (Souleymane Cissé).

Oscar Winner – Best Picture & Director: The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci).
The Last Emperor is the kind of huge historical epic that the Academy always seems to give the big prize to – but not entirely. This isn’t a war movie, or a love story or even a movie with a lot action or suspense. Instead, it is a look at a wasted life, so on that level, it is actually a rather refreshing choice for the Academy to make. They nominated some great films that year – Hope and Glory and Broadcast News – to go along with some weaker choices – Fatal Attraction and Moonstruck – and I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised that they went with Bertolucci’s film. Not only because a great filmmaker, who rarely makes Academy friendly movies, won the Oscar for Director, but also because they picked the best of the lot – and the most difficult film. It would have been easier to go for one of the other films – all of which make you leave the theater feeling better than this one, but they choose wisely this year. Good for them.

Oscar Winner – Best Actor: Michael Douglas, Wall Street
I have admitted that Wall Street has some flaws – but none of them involve Michael Douglas. Douglas is fantastic in the role of Gordon Gecko – so much so that this largely supporting performance (he disappears for large chunks of time) was elevated to lead status, and has since become one of the most iconic performances of the 1980s. Douglas has gone on to play the wealthy business man many times since Wall Street, but he has never done it with so much style, so much venom dripping off his fangs. Gecko is a villain just as evil as anything put on screen before – he just hides it better. A truly great performance, and easily the best of the year.

Oscar Winner – Best Actress: Cher, Moonstruck.
I feel like I am the only person in the world who didn’t like Norman Jewison’s Moonstruck. The film was a huge box office hit in 1987, and was nominated for tons of awards, and yet when I watched the film I was left completely cold by the film – and by Cher’s Oscar winning performance. I don’t think that Cher is necessarily bad in the movie – but like the rest of the film, I find it to be too far over the top to be believable. Part of it maybe that she played many of her scenes with a young Nicolas Cage, who seems to be one drugs, and not in a good way like in Bad Lieutenant, but in a very bad one (the scene where he talks about losing his hand is especially egregious). I understand that Jewison was trying for a larger than life comedy – and Cher simply did what she was told – but for me the movie, and the performance just didn’t work. If they wanted over the top, and great, they could have gone for Glenn Close’s maniacal villain from Fatal Attraction – if they wanted truly great, they should have gone with Holly Hunter in Broadcast News.

Oscar Winner – Best Supporting Actor: Sean Connery, The Untouchables
I like Sean Connery a great deal. He remains the best James Bond, and he has kept that charm with him throughout his entire career and has rarely been downright awful in a film, no matter how bad the movie is. Still though, I have to wonder what it was that the Academy saw in his performance in The Untouchables. This was his only nomination for his entire career, and I don’t think it’s that much better than most of his work. Yes, he is excellent in the role – especially in that speech he gives about sending them to the morgue, but I can’t help but think that this was the Academy giving an award to a veteran they liked but ignored before. Fellow nominees Albert Brooks and Morgan Freeman, in Street Smart playing a viscous pimp, were much better – and the Academy overlooked two great performances from Full Metal Jacket (Vincent D’Onofrio and R. Lee Ermey) and one of Dennis Hopper’s great performance in River’s Edge as well. I don’t think this is an awful choice by any means – just one I don’t think was really deserving.

Oscar Winner – Best Supporting Actress: Olympia Dukakis, Moonstruck
This was, it must be said, a very weak year for this category. Out of the nominees, who exactly should I have won? I don’t have a clue. Personally, I didn’t think too much one way or another about Olympia Dukaksis’ performance in this movie. I found the entire subplot featuring her and Vincent Gardenia as Cher’s parents to be rather dull, and not a very accurate depiction of an old married couple – one of whom has decided to step out on the other. I suppose it was supposed to be a kind of offshoot of the main plot, showing that no matter what the age, people still cheat, still love, still hurt, but like the movie it didn’t work for me. A rather uninspired choice if you ask me.

Movie Review: Splice

Splice ***
Directed By: Vincenzo Natali.
Written By: Vincenzo Natali & Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor.
Starring: Adrien Brody (Clive Nicoli), Sarah Polley (Elsa Kast), Delphine Chanéac (Dren), Brandon McGibbon (Gavin Nicoli), Simona Maicanescu (Joan Chorot), David Hewlett (William Barlow), Abigail Chu (Child Dren).

Watching Splice, I could tell is was a Canadian film, and not an American one. No major American science fiction film would be able to get away with what writer/director Vincenzo Natali does in this film – who takes a basic premise, and turns it into the most warped, sexually twisted sci-fi film of the year – in fact of the last few years. I kept thinking of David Cronenberg when I was watching this film, as it reminded me of something he would have done early in his career.

Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley play two scientists who have just had a major breakthrough. They have been working for years at combining the DNA of different animals to create a new creature – one that may hold out hope for curing diseases, and they have finally cracked it. They have created Fred and Ginger, two blobs of tissue (that look kind of like the video controllers in Cronenberg’s eXistenZ). The creatures look disgusting, have no legs, no eyes that I could see, and little else. They are essentially giant slugs, but they seem to love each other. Not only that, but they produce a protein that can help cure disease in cattle. To Brody and Polley, the breakthrough is huge – and a sign that they should introduce human DNA into the next creature, and hopefully this could help cure numerous diseases. But they are told not to. It is technically illegal, as it would constitute cloning humans, although they do not see it that way. What they are told to do instead is extract the protein from Fred and Ginger, and get a product ready for the market. After that – a process that could take years – they’ll see what the next step should be.

They are both disappointed, but Polley especially. She wants to push forward, and convinces Brody, who is not just her partner but her husband, to do so in secret. First, they just want to see if they can actually merge the human DNA with the animal to create the “semen” of the new creature. They do. Then they want to see if they can actually inseminate the false uterus. They do that too. They never meant to bring the creature full term – but it grows at a remarkable rate, so course, soon they have a creature born, and are trying to hide it in their lab without anyone finding out. The creature at first looks kind of like that horrible baby in David Lynch’s Eraserhead, but grows at a remarkable rate until it almost likes like a human with a horrible, poisonous spiked tail. Brody is at first horrified by what they have done and wants to kill it, but Polley grows attached to it.

Splice is like a modern day Frankenstein tale. It is about two people who play God, and wreck the consequences of their actions. The films first two acts are intelligently written, directed and performed. I assume that this was a fairly low budget production (it is Canadian after all), but the special effects are remarkable on the budget they have. The problems arise in the third act – which is the film’s most ambitious, and separates it from most movies of its ilk, but also the most problematic. I will not reveal what happens, but needless to say, it involves a lot of sex, that morphs into violence. I admired the film for following its instincts, and pushing things as far as it did – which is much farther than I thought it would. At the same time however, I could not help but think that the film’s final act was slightly ridiculous. And there were too many needless “action” sequences – chases and fights, and things going bump in the night, that frankly, were beneath the film that preceded it.


I admired Splice a great deal. It is certainly one of the most ambitious sci-fi films in recent years. It doesn’t back away from its subject matter, but rather confronts it head on. It is also a disturbing film that has stuck with me every since I have seen it, and shows no signs of going away. The film is a problematic one to be sure, but it is still one that I admire and recommend for fans of sci-fi, who want something a little deeper, a little darker, and a little more disturbing than they usually get.

Movie Review: Get Him to the Greek

Get Him to the Greek *** ½
Directed By: Nicholas Stoller.

Written By: Nicholas Stoller based on characters created by Jason Segal.

Starring: Russell Brand (Aldous Snow), Jonah Hill (Aaron Green), Elisabeth Moss (Daphne Binks), Rose Byrne (Jackie Q.), Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs (Sergio Roma), Colm Meaney (Jonathan Snow), Lino Facioli (Naples), Lars Ulrich (Himself).

Get Him to the Greek is one of the most pleasant surprises of the year. The previews made this film look horribly unfunny and strained – so much so that I wondered why Jonah Hill and Russell Brand had agreed to reprise their supporting roles in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and become the leads this time. But the film itself is nothing like the preview – which made the film look like a never ending stream of shit and dick jokes. Yes, they have those in the final film as well, but there is also a lot more in Get Him to the Greek. The two leads are wonderful together, and more than that, they are actually playing real characters. There is something going on beneath the surface of the film.

The film stars Brand as Aldous Snow, Britain’s most infamous rock star whose career is in freefall. His ex-wife, Jackie Q. (Rose Bryne), has become a pop sensation, while his last album, African Child, was described as the worst thing to happen to Africa since Apartheid. He is so far gone on drugs and alcohol that he doesn’t care about anything else in his life. Jonah Hill is Aaron Green, a low level employee at a record label run by Sergio Roma (Sean “P. Diddy” Combs), who has an idea. The following month will be the 10 year anniversary of Snow’s legendary performance at the Greek theater in L.A. – which inspired one of the best selling live albums of all time. His idea is to put on a show there again. Sergio agrees, and sends Aaron off to London to collector Snow, bring him to New York for an appearance on the Today Show, and then out to L.A. for the concert. What should be simple turns out to be horribly complicated.

The film has the Apatow stamp of approval on it, but somewhat refreshingly, this is not another story of an overgrown man child, who is saved by the love of a beautiful woman, who is reality, would never look at him. True, Aaron has a girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss), who is training to be a doctor, but her in no way saves Aaron. They are already in a committed, normal relationship when the movie opens – but of course a fight right before he is to go away puts their relationship in doubt. On Aldous’ part, he still thinks he is in love with Jackie, but in reality, he is so far gone on drugs that he doesn’t love anything except drugs. But in a strange way, these two save each other.

The movie stars off with a bang – an Entertainment Tonight segment on the set of Snow’s African Child video, which struck me, and apparently everyone in the movie as well, as horribly offensive and racist – but is also hilarious. The key to this song, as with all the other songs in the movie, is that they sound close enough to reality that we can accept them as real songs, by real artists, but they are made ridiculous by the lyrics, which are over the top and hilarious. The film then details Snow’s break up with his wife, and his years of hard living through a series of magazine covers and video clips (in which people as varied as Pink and Christina Aguilera poke fun of themselves wonderfully). I loved this opening segment, and the fun never really stopped from then on. The wonderfully awkward first meeting between Snow and Aaron, the wild night of partying in London, which doesn’t seem all that fun. The horrible appearance on the Today Show. In these early scenes, the jokes come fast and furious (there is actually a great 2 Fast 2 Furious joke when they get to Vegas now that I think about it), but writer/director Nicholas Stoller is actually doing something a little more complex here. He is building the characters through these early scenes, so that as the movie progresses, you actually grow to care about these two guys and their problems. Yes, the movie is littered with ridiculous situations, but Snow is a rock star, who to steal a line from the upcoming The A-Team, specializes in the ridiculous. You believe that these two would actually be everywhere they are.

The key to the movie is the performances. In Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Brand proved that he could be hilarious in a supporting role. There was no depth to Snow in that film – he was a caricature of the over the top rock star, and Brand played it remarkably well. Here, asked to take that caricature and make a real person out of him, Brand succeeds marvelously. I have no doubt now that if they do actually go ahead with the planned Arthur remake with him in the lead role, that he can match Dudley Moore. Not to be outdone, Jonah Hill is given what is easily the best role of his career so far. In films like Superbad, Hill has proven that he can be funny, and belt out one liners with the best of them. But here, like Brand, his character is deeper and more mature. He acts very much like a guy who thinks his girlfriend just dumped him would act. He idolizes Snow, but soon begins to see the reality of his situation as well. Along with the one liners, and the puke jokes, there is some real self loathing going on in this movie.

Director Nicholas Stoller is still developing. This is his second film after Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and he still doesn’t quite have the chops of Apatow himself, or the best of the directors associated with him. But he’s getting better, and there are fewer missed opportunities here than there were in the first film. Get Him to the Greek is perhaps the funniest movie of the year so far.

Year in Review: 1948

Perhaps I should have watched a film more of the Notable Films missed before doing this top ten list. Don’t get me wrong, I think that every film I have on this list is worthy of high praise – but the bottom two films on it are relatively minor works by major directors. Overall though, 1948 was a decent year for movies – not stunning as some years perhaps, but great nonetheless. Perhaps I will change my mind when I see a few of the films I missed.

10. Drunken Angel (Akira Kurosawa)
Akira Kurosawa clearly meant Drunken Angel to be a portrait of post WWII Tokyo, and a condemnation of the American occupiers, and their influence in the city. Yet, because of American censors (who were able to control what Japanese filmmakers put in their films) only part of this comes across in the final movie. The story focuses on an alcoholic doctor (Kurosawa regular Takashi Shimura) who gets a visit for a young Yakuza member (Toshiro Mifune, the actor most closely related to Kurosawa) and tells him that he has TB. Angered, Mifune calls him a liar, but soon, is worn down by Shimura constantly tracking him down and telling him to get treatment. Meanwhile, another Yakuza member (Reisaburo Yamamoto) is released from prison, and tries to track down his ex-girlfriend, who is now Shimura’s nurse. The film does get much of what Kurosawa wanted in it – the depiction of prostitutes, the references to VD, and subtle jabs at American influence in Japan (most notably, Yamamoto slowly becomes more brutal during the course of the film, and at the same time, his dress becomes more and more Westernized). There are also a few moments however that ring false – and most of these were done at the behest of the censors. While Drunken Angel is not one of Kurosawa’s masterpieces, I do think that it is a fascinating early movie by the director – and well directed, acted and written to boot. Kurosawa would go onto to direct greater films, but Drunken Angel is still a wonderful little film.

9. Rope (Alfred Hitchcock)
Alfred Hitchcock liked to experiment with different filmmaking techniques. While almost all of his films are thrillers, they differ in the way that he shot them. Rope, while not being one of his very best films, is one of his most stylistically daring. Not only was this Hitchcock’s first Technicolor film, he also shot the movie in “real time”. The result is a movie that is made to look like one continuous shot from beginning to end – although it isn’t. Two college students (John Dall and Farley Granger) murder a classmate to prove their superior intelligence and that they can get away with murder. They then host a dinner party where they invite the victim’s father, aunt, fiancée and former best friend, using the chest where they hid the body as buffet table. They also invite their former prep school teacher (James Stewart) who once lectured them on Nietzsche, and who they think will approve of what they have done. The story itself is well handled – but is a little derivative (how many different versions of the Leopold & Loeb story do we really need?), but the visuals make this one a must for Hitchcock’s fans. He boldly experiments when so many directors never dare to. This is a wonderful little film.

8. The Fallen Idol (Carol Reed)
Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol is told entirely from the point of view of a child. The son of a wealthy diplomat idolizes their butler (Ralph Richardson) who tells him stories of all his adventures and the glamorous places he has been. In fact, Richardson is miserable – stuck in a loveless marriage, and in love with a much younger woman (Michelle Morgan) who he lies about to the child. An argument between Richardson and his wife ensues, and the wife falls down the stairs and dies. Or was she pushed by the butler? The child sees what happened but is confused by what it all means. Reed’s film is masterfully directed, and places us in the shoes of the child. We know what is happening, but it is all confusing for him who doesn’t want his friend put away for murder, but who in trying to cover up for him could do more harm. The middle film in what was a three peat for Reed at the BAFTAs (his Odd Man Out won the award for Best British film in 1947, as did this one in 1948 and The Third Man in 1949) The Fallen Idol is one of Reed’s best achievements – a thriller that goes well beyond its genre into something truly unique.

7. The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles)
Had Orson Welles not miscast himself in The Lady from Shanghai (he is too smart to play this dumb), the movie would probably rank among his best films. Visually, the film is as stunning as anything Welles has ever made. Welles is a seaman who meets the beautiful Rita Hayworth, and is persuaded to join the crew of his yacht – that is about to sail to San Francisco via the Panama Canal. Once on board, Welles and Hayworth start a romantic relationship, and he is so enamored with her, he agrees to help her husband’s law partner to fake his own death and collecting $5,000 in the process. What he doesn’t realize is that Hayworth and the partner are setting him up to take the fall for their own planned murder of Hayworth’s husband. Hayworth is one of the best femme fatales in screen history in this movie – a beautiful woman, known for her long, red hair, Welles insisted on cutting it short and dying it blonde – and yet her beauty comes through in every scene. Welles and Hayworth were married at the time, although going through difficulties, and the camera seems both enamored by her beauty, but also lashes at her at several points. The hall of mirrors climax is one of the greatest visual scenes in cinema history. But because Welles miscast himself, and we have trouble believing that he could be as dumb as his character is, the film has a major flaw, which knocks it down a few pegs. But the end result is still a visually dazzling film, with some great performances. And at the end of the day, when a film has this much great stuff in it, does it really matter that it’s not perfect?

6. Key Largo (John Huston)
The first of two great films by John Huston released this year was this excellent thriller. Humphrey Bogart plays a war hero who goes to see the father (Lionel Barrymore) and wife (Lauren Bacall) of his friend from the War who was killed in action. However, the visit does not go as planned when gangster Edward G. Robinson shows up with his girlfriend (Oscar winner Claire Trevor) and his gang. They want to hide out at the hotel Barrymore owns until a hurricane passes, and then move on. Key Largo works as an excellent thriller, with Bogart in his Casablanca role (initially, he doesn’t care about Robinson, but reluctantly gets drawn in because of his hateful treatment of Trevor – he also downplays his wartime heroism, describing his dead friend as the real hero). Robinson was always great playing a gangster, and Key Largo is no exception. Bacall is young and sexy here, but also a little sadder than in her previous outing with Bogart. And Trevor is excellent in her Oscar winning role. But the film is more than a thriller – it also looks into the darkness of post WWII America, and the men who came back changed from the war. No it isn’t the masterwork that Huston’s other 1948 film was – but it is a great film.

5. Naked City (Jules Dassin)
Jules Dassin’s Naked City is an expertly made crime thriller. Something of a rarity in the 1940s, the film was actually shot on the streets of New York in pseudo-documentary style, giving the film a realistic look and feel, that some films of the era lack. Barry Fitzgerald gives an excellent performance as a veteran police officer assigned, along with his rookie partner, to the murder of former model. The film is an excellent police procedural – inspiring a television series in the 1950s, and in many ways, all the cop shows since – and is perfectly brought to the screen by director Jules Dassin who keeps the movie moving at a brisk pace. We are gradually drawn into the mystery, but perhaps even more into the city itself which is a dark, rough place. The film also contains a breathless, intense climax. This is a very influential film – and more than that, a wonderfully entertaining one.

4. Red River (Howard Hawks)
Marred only by its horrible final scene (which costs this a higher spot on this list), Howard Hawks’ Red River is one of the best Westerns of the 1940s – a dark tale that for the first time required John Wayne to give an actual, intense performance – something he pulls off brilliantly (John Ford, who by that time had made something like 10 films with Wayne apparently said after seeing this film “I didn’t know the big lug could act”). Loosely based on Mutiny on the Bounty, Wayne is in the Captain Bligh role – a tyrannical man who decides to herd his cattle from Texas to Missouri, where he can get a better price. Montgomery Clift is excellent in the Fletcher Christen role – Wayne’s adopted son, who starts to doubt Wayne when he becomes increasingly irrational. The film is magnificently shot by Hawks – rivaling the visuals in any John Ford film – and acted by its entire cast. Famed for not only this, but also the homoerotic subtext (involving Clift – the scene where he and another hand discuss their “guns” being the most famous example), Red River is much more complex than many Westerns. The only problem is the silly final scene where the ever annoying Joanne Dru tongue lashes Wayne and Clift and get them to laugh off their differences, robbing us of the climax the movie deserves. Everything up until then though is brilliant.

3. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
You couldn’t pay to actually attend a ballet performance, but Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes is about much more than ballet. Anton Walbrook gives an excellent performance as the tyrannical head of his own ballet company. Infuriated when his star dancer decides to get married, he fires her and promotes Moira Shearer to the lead dancer. She becomes a sensation with her brilliant performance in the ballet The Red Shoes, based on a fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson, about a young woman who wishes she can dance, and is given a pair of red shoes which allows her to do so – the catch being that she cannot stop. But Shearer falls in love with Walbrook’s composer (Marius Goring), and when they decide to marry, it infuriates Walbrook all over again. The film is brilliantly well made – expertly shot in gorgeous, lush color. Unlike many musicals that would follow its lead, when the films stops its narrative for 17 minutes and shows the ballet of The Red Shoes itself, the film doesn’t slow down. It is all linked thematically to what is going on. The tragic end of the movie is brilliant – the only ending that would fit. Powell & Pressburger are among the best teams in movie history, and The Red Shoes is one of their masterpieces.

2. Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (or The Bicycle Thief as it was incorrectly known for years) is one of the most emotionally devastating movies ever made. It is such a simple story that it sneaks up on us, and builds it subtle power as we are watching it – completely unaware of the hold it is generating on us. The story is simple – an unemployed man in post WWII Italy finally finds a job – hanging movie posters up all over Rome. For this job, he needs a bicycle – which he has – and he happily takes the menial job. He has a wife and two kids to support after all. But on his first day, his bike is stolen. Along with his son he searches all over for his bike – following up leads – and ending up getting nowhere. Then in a fit of desperation he decides that he could steal a bike himself – it would only be fair, since he got his bike stolen. From this simple story, DeSica is able to create an entire film world that is devastating in its simplicity. The key relationship in the film is between father and son – most heavily brought out in the dining room scene – and at the end of the film. While I would argue that Umberto D. is DeSica’s true masterpiece, the power of Bicycle Thieves cannot be denied. It is one of the most important, most influential films of all time – and should be seen by everyone.

1. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston)
John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is one of the best films ever made about greed. Humphrey Bogart may just give his finest performances as Dobbs, who along with two other Americans (Walter Huston and Tim Holt) head into the Sierra Madre mountains in search of gold. They have to dodge bandits to even reach the mountains, but when they do, they quickly strike it rich. They find lots of unrefined gold dust – enough for each of them to become insanely rich. But Dobbs grows paranoid, and eventually starts slipping into insanity, thinking that his partners are going to kill him. It was often said that Bogart did little but play himself – or at the very least his screen persona – in all of his films. But Sierra Madre proves different, as he is excellent as the paranoid Dobbs. Walter Huston, in his Oscar winning role, is also good as the grizzled old timer who joins Dobbs and tries to maintain the deal between them but Dobbs’ paranoia is too much. John Huston wrote and directed the movie and it perhaps his finest accomplishment – an intelligent, well written, well acted and well directed movie, shot almost entirely on location that still remains thrilling and relevant today. One of the best films of the studio era.

Just Missed The Top 10: Call Northside 777 (Henry Hathaway), Fort Apache (John Ford), The Snake Pit (Anatole Litvak), Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophuls).

Notable Films Missed: Johnny Belinda (Jean Negulusco), Oliver Twist (David Lean), Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterle), Spring in a Small Town (Mu Fei), They Live By Night (Nicholas Ray), Unfaithfully Yours (Preston Sturges).

Oscar Winner – Picture: Hamlet.
Hamlet is my favorite Shakespeare play, but I was somewhat disappointed in this version. Even more than many of Olivier’s Shakespeare adaptations, this one feels very stage bound and not very cinematic. There are some nice touches, but as a director Oliver failed to capitalize on the best moments in the play – having all of Hamlet’s speeches to himself be internalized, and simply showing himself starring blankly off into space. It is still a good film, but a great one? I don’t think so.

Oscar Winner – Director: John Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre should have won Best Picture to go along with Huston’s win for Best Director for the film, but I supposed we should feel lucky that they at least got one of them right. Huston also won an Oscar for his adapted screenplay for this film. It is clearly the best film of the year, so I for one am in full support of this win.

Oscar Winner – Actor: Laurence Olivier, Hamlet
Oliver, the actor, is fine in Hamlet but it so somewhat let down by Oliver the director. I mean why would he make the decision to have the iconic “To be or not to be…:” speech be all in his head, and instead of dramatically delivering the speech – which is how it should be done – have it play in voiceover as he simply stares off into space? Never mind that Olivier was too old for the role, he robbed himself of a chance at true greatness. Considering this is his only Oscar win, I won’t complain too loudly – the man certainly did deserve an Oscar (even if, I have always felt that Olivier was probably a made stage actor than a film actor) – but this is not his best work.

Oscar Winner – Actress: Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda
Okay, confession time. I have never seen Johnny Belinda. To be honest, it kind of annoys me that the Academy always gives Oscars to people playing handicapped people, and Jane Wyman playing deaf certainly qualifies as that. Also, the film didn’t come out on DVD until last year. I’m sure I’ll catch up with it sooner or later – but not yet. The movie does sound very interesting though, but the fact that I do not think that highly of the director, has put this one of the backburner.

Oscar Winner – Supporting Actor: Walter Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Not only did Walter Huston deserve to win this Oscar for his performance as the conscience of the film, it is also a great story since the film was directed by his son John (who would go onto to direct, nearly 40 years later, Prizzi’s Honor in which his daughter, Anjelica, won an Oscar). Huston was a great actor in his own right, and delivered several great performances – but this was his best one, and I am happy he won his Oscar for it.

Oscar Winner – Supporting Actress: Claire Trevor, Key Largo
Like Walter Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, I think Trevor deserved to win this Oscar for her excellent performance in a John Huston movie. As Edward G. Robinson’s half terrified, drunken girlfriend, Trevor is excellent in her role in this film – miles better than any of her competition this year. The Academy it seems made some decent choices this year.

Year in Review: 1995

1995 was one of the best years of the 1990s for movies. All you need to do is look at the films that didn’t make this list to see that – I cannot believe just how many great films came out this year. As you will see in the Oscar section however, they did a poor job at getting the best films into the Best Picture line-up. This is one of the only years I can recall where not one Best Picture Nominee made it to my top ten list. Pity.

10. The American President (Rob Reiner)
I know I am often accused of being rather pretentious in my movie tastes – many years in this series contain any number of foreign films by master filmmakers that most audiences have never heard of, let alone seen their films – but a great romantic comedy can still find a place on any of these lists. For proof, I offer Rob Reiner’s The American President, one of those films that I have seen countless times on TV, and will most likely countless more times. Michael Douglas is intelligent, funny and charming as the widowed American President, who meets and falls in love with a lobbyist played by the radiant Annette Benning. Aaron Sorkin’s intelligent, witty screenplay set the stage for his groundbreaking television work on The West Wing. Surprisingly, the film doesn’t back away from political questions, but addresses them head on. But mainly, this is a romantic comedy set at the White House, with the two leads in top form. That final speech Douglas gives, where he goes on the attack finally, is one of the best speeches of the 1990s – and never fails to bring a tear to my eye. A great entertainment.

9. Dead Man Walking (Tim Robbins)
I find it slightly amazing that three of the biggest liberals in Hollywood – director Tim Robbins and his stars Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn – could make a movie this fair and balanced about the death penalty. This is not a movie that preaches for one side or the other, but presents the issues with all of the facts on full display and lets the audience make up their own mind – if you walk in pro-death penalty, you may leave with second thoughts, and if you walk in against, the same thing may happen to you. Sean Penn gives a brilliant performance as a convicted rapist and murderer in the final gasps of appeals as he awaits to die by lethal injection. Susan Sarandon is the nun who becomes his spiritual adviser in those final weeks, day and finally hours. He had no use for God before she enters his life, but for some reason, he grows to trust her, and confides his true feelings to her. The ending of the movie is powerful for a multitude of reasons – and that is regardless of whether you think Penn deserves his ultimate fate or not.

8. To Die For (Gus Van Sant)
Gus Van Sant’s To Die For is a movie for our celebrity obsessed times. Nicole Kidman gives what could be her finest performance as Susan Stone, a small town weather girl who dreams of being the next Dianne Sawyer or Barbara Walters, but feels that her lovable lunk of a husband (Matt Dillon) is holding her back. Under the guise of making a documentary about high school students, she meets three outcasts – played by Joaquin Phoenix, Allison Folland and Casey Affleck – and thinks she can use them to get what she wants – her husband dead, thus generating sympathy for her and propelling her to stardom. She seduces both Phoenix and Folland – Phoenix through sex, where she can manipulate him into doing anything for her, and Folland through her glamorous lifestyle – a beautiful woman paying attention to her, and caring about her is something she never had before. Van Sant’s movie is darkly comic – the style is clearly satire – and the movie weaves its spell over us. This is the movie that propelled Kidman to stardom, and it’s easy to see why – she is brilliant in the lead role.

7. Seven (David Fincher)
In the wake of the success of The Silence of the Lambs, there were a lot of movies that tried to capture the same magic as that film did with their dark stories about serial killers. While many of these films are good, only David Fincher’s Seven really comes close to matching the intensity of the previous film. Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt give excellent performances as top Detectives – one a week away from retirement, the other just promoted to the big job in the big city. A serial killer pretty much falls into their lap as two bodies are discovered – one an grossly obese man who seems to have literally eaten himself to death and the word gluttony written on the wall, the other a high priced lawyer who has had a pound of flesh extracted with the word Greed written on the wall. Freeman correctly deduces that this is part of a series where the victims will be killed one by one – punished by someone for committing one of the seven deadly sins. The film is dark all the way, and tremendously well directed by Fincher, making us think we see a lot more violence then we actually do. The film is anchored by the performances of Freeman and Pitt, but contains fine supporting work by Gwyneth Paltrow, and finally Kevin Spacey who is amazing in his few short scenes as the killer. Seven is intelligent, disturbing and brilliant.

6. The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer)
Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects is one of those movies that I can watch over and over again and never get tired of it. That is saying something because normally movies with this sort of twist ending – one of the best in screen history – get boring after one viewing. But The Usual Suspects offers such amazing detail – such great performances and dialogue – that it never gets old. The film is about a group of criminals who were brought in for a lineup after a robbery of gun parts. Played by Gabriel Bryne, Stephen Baldwin, Benicio Del Toro, Kevin Pollock and Kevin Spacey, they get together to pull off several crimes. Now, in the aftermath of a massacre, Spacey is the only survivor and he is telling his story to a skeptical Chazz Palmeterri who wants to know the real story. One of the fascinating things about The Usual Suspects is how it holds you in the grip of its story – both Spacey and Singer are excellent storytellers – and how when it is all over we cannot tell how much of what we just saw was truth, and how much was fiction. The film has become a cult favorite in the years since its release – and with good reason. It’s one of the best crime films of the 1990s.

5. Casino (Martin Scorsese)
To some, Martin Scorsese’s Casino was simply a repeat of his earlier masterwork GoodFellas. But while I do certainly see the similarities between the two films, this film certainly holds up as a work unto itself. Scorsese sets his eyes on Las Vegas and the mob world there. Focusing on Ace (Robert DeNiro), a Jewish bookmaker who moves out to Vegas from New York, and quickly turns the casinos into cash machines for the mob, Scorsese’s film shows just how the mob got away with it all. I love movies that give you an insiders view on how scams are pulled off, and this is just one of the many things Scorsese does brilliantly well in this film. It is also a portrait of sexual jealously – as Ace falls in love with a sometime con artist, sometime prostitute (Sharon Stone – in the best performance of her career) and marries her, even though he knows she remains loyal to her pimp (James Woods – deliciously slimy). Joe Pesci is also on hand as Ace’s hotheaded childhood friend, who sees Vegas in a whole different light – and soon the childhood friends are at each other’s throats over Stone. Scorsese’s film is tremendously entertaining, and also insightful, bloody, violent and disturbing. No, it is not as good as GoodFellas – but if that was the standard for being a great film, then nothing this year would surpass it.

4. Heat (Michael Mann)
Michael Mann’s Heat has to go down as the best heist movie of the 1990s – and perhaps the best pure action movie period. His complex, epic bank robbery movie logs in at close to three hours, but is never slow, never boring. He contrasts the lives of robber Robert DeNiro, and his crew, to that of cop Al Pacino, and the his men who try and bring him down. It finds the time to explore the personal lives of the men involved – all of whom have troubled relationships with their wives. There are several great action sequences in the movie – the great first robbery of an armored car and the now legendary bank robbery that leads to a shootout on the streets of L.A. But the scene that the film – and perhaps Mann himself – will always be remembered for comes in the middle of the film, as DeNiro and Pacino sit down at opposite sides of booth in dingy coffee shop to size each other up, and try and intimidate the other. The film is elevated by these two great actors at the absolute height of their game, and they are at the heart of one of the great heist movies ever made – and perhaps Michael Mann’s finest film as a director.

3. Crumb (Terry Zwigoff)
Terry Zwigoff’s Crumb is one of the most fascinating documentaries I have ever seen. Robert Crumb is one of the most influential comic book artists of all time – his underground work on things like Fritz the Cat have made him a hero to outsiders everywhere. Crumb has remained a private man, but worried that his friend Zwigoff might commit suicide, he agreed to let him make this movie, and gave him pretty much unlimited access. Zwigoff looks unflinchingly at the work of Crumb – which is disgusting, sexist, racist, shocking, satirical, brilliant and hilarious – in short, it is the art of man who is a troubled genius who needs to get all his ugly feelings out of him somehow, or else go insane. It is rare for a documentary about an artist to have such inside access to an artist and his family – and rarer still that they would be so open and honest (once Crumb admits that he masturbated to Bugs Bunny cartoons as a kid, you have to assume that he is not lying about anything). Crumb is a brilliant journey into the mind of a troubled genius artist – a rare and terrific documentary.

2. Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis)
There are most likely hundreds of movies in history about alcoholics – actors love to play drunk, and their stories are often fascinating. But out all of the movies I have seen about the subject, Leaving Las Vegas is far and away the best. Nicolas Cage gives his best performance as a former Hollywood screenwriter who has failed at everything he has attempted, and has decided to come to Las Vegas and drink himself to death. There he meets Elisabeth Shue, who works as a prostitute, and a bond between the two of them begins. This is not a relationship based on sex, but on mutual need. They are both alone in the world, and having someone near them, that expects nothing from you, helps them. The performances by the two leads are the best of the year – they play off of each other brilliantly – and the movie becomes more tragic as it moves towards its shattering climax. A brilliant movie about addiction, dependence and eventually, love.

1. Nixon (Oliver Stone)
Oliver Stone’s Nixon is perhaps the most underrated film of the director’s career. At more than three hours long, Stone looks at Nixon, not just as the President, but as a man. Included in the film are flashbacks to Nixon’s childhood, where he is surrounded by death, and that marks him for life. But the film mainly focuses on Nixon from the time he first decided to run for President, right up until he has to resign. Anthony Hopkins is a marvelous performance as Nixon. He doesn’t much look like the man, but he captures his voice, his mannerisms, his paranoia, his profanity, and surprisingly, makes us feel sympathy for the man. Nixon is caught up in a game that he cannot win. His massive inferiority complex mars him for life, and feeds into that paranoia that will eventually be his downfall. The film contains a ton of excellent performances – James Woods and JT Walsh as Haldeman and Ehrlichman, his right hand men, Paul Sorvino as Kissinger, Bob Hoskins as Hoover, Powers Booth as Alexander Haig, Ed Harris as E. Howard Hunt, E.G. Marshall as John Mitchell and David Hyde Pierce as John Dean are just a few of the men who deliver excellent supporting turns. No one is better however than Joan Allen as Pat Nixon. Normally portrayed as little more than the background, Allen makes Pat into a real person – angry with Nixon for what he does to her family. It also portrays their relationship as one based on mutual need, and makes Nixon look rather pathetic at times. But what impresses me most about the movie – aside for its masterful storytelling that crams as much information into its running time as possible – is how this is not just a demonic portrayal of Nixon. As good as Robert Altman’s Secret Honor and Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon were, neither one of them were interested in Nixon as a person. Stone finds surprising sympathy for the man who would become the most hated President in American history. A masterpiece.

Just Missed The Top 10: Heidi Fliess: Hollywood Madam, Kids, Twelve Monkeys, Apollo 13, Clean Shaven, Toy Story, Clockers, Once Were Warriors, Mighty Aphrodite, Rob Roy, Devil in a Blue Dress, Braveheart, Georgia, Dolores Claiborne, Safe, Clueless, Dead Presidents, Sense and Sensibilty, Before Sunrise, Babe, Get Shorty.

Notable Films Missed: A Moment of Innocence, Underground, The Bridges of Madison County, Fallen Angels, The Pillow Book

Oscar Winner – Best Picture & Director: Braveheart (Mel Gibson)
1995 had a wealth of great films to choose from when it came time for the Academy awards – and in the best picture line-up they ignored them all. The winner, Braveheart, is a respectable, old school Hollywood epic with a big star – Mel Gibson – doing an adequate job in the lead role and behind the camera. The battle sequences are truly intense, bloody and brilliant. But the rest of the film is nowhere close to it. The film is mounted on phony dramatics, homophobia and romance that goes nowhere. In light of what came after in Gibson’s career, it also shows just how much he relishes torture, blood and violence. Of the other nominees – Sense and Sensibility, Apollo 13 and even Babe are vastly superior overall movies, but even they fall short of true greatness. I guess it could have been worse – they could have given it to Il Postino, whose off screen story was so much better than its onscreen one.

Oscar Winner – Best Actor: Nicolas Cage, Leaving Las Vegas
This is the best performances of Cage’s career – and considering how brilliant he can be, I think that is saying a lot. He captures this guy who wants nothing more than to kill himself by drinking. Yes, he stumbles and slurs like many movie drunks before him (Ray Milland, Jack Lemmon, Charles Laughton, William Powell, Richard Burton, etc), but there is much more to his performance than that. He taps into the self loathing of this character, and yet his need to connect with someone – if for no other reason than to have someone witness his death. Despite how great fellow nominees Anthony Hopkins and Sean Penn were, this was in a class by itself.

Oscar Winner – Best Actress: Susan Sarandon, Dead Man Walking
The Academy really wanted to give Sarandon an Oscar at this point. She had been a great actress for nearly two decades at this point, and this was her fifth Oscar nomination (and fourth in five years), so they finally rewarded her. I am relieved to report though that for once, a seeming career achievement award went to a worthy performance. Sarandon is sympathetic and yet forceful in her role as a nun comforting a prisoner who is about to die by lethal injection. She doesn’t tell him, or us, precisely what we want to hear, but instead what we need to hear. This could well be Sarandon’s best performance, and so she earned this Oscar – even if I think Elisabeth Shue (who never really got a decent role ever again) was even better.

Oscar Winner – Best Supporting Actor: Kevin Spacey, The Usual Suspects
Kevin Spacey is excellent in this movie, as the storyteller who pulls the wool over everyone’s eyes. Spacey was, at this point in his career, a solid, steady character actor in such films as Glengarry Glen Ross among other. But 1995 was his breakout year – first as the psychopath in David Fincher’s Seven, and then hear as the seemingly pathetic Verbal Kint who spins one of the greatest yarns in cinema history. Yes, the twist ending is probably what put this victory over the top – but Spacey’s entire performance is wonderful from beginning to end.

Oscar Winner – Best Supporting Actress: Mira Sorvino, Mighty Aphrodite
Mira Sorvino is delightful as the blonde bimbo prostitute that Woody Allen tracks down because he wants to know who the mother of his adopted baby is. She plays a role that is somewhat unlike most Allen women – she isn’t demanding, she’s just brilliantly dumb. Personally, I don’t think that Mighty Aphrodite ranks among the best films of Allen’s career – and Sorvino certainly does not rank with the other Oscar winning performances from his films (Diane Keaton, Michael Caine and Diane Wiest times 2), but it’s an enjoyable performance nonetheless, and she was a beautiful, young newcomer which the Academy likes in this category. It’s too bad that Sorvino has never been anywhere near this good for the rest of her career. And by the way, Joan Allen in Nixon is far and away the best this category had to offer this year.