The Usual Choices
Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier)
The English Patient (Anthony Minghella)
Fargo (Joel & Ethan Coen)
Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh)
Trainspotting (Danny Boyle)
But how about...
Phenomenon (Jon Turteltaub)
Another one of those films which is about nice, likeable people who deal with an unlikely situation. You just want it to all work out...er...nice. No depth of character here; no dark pasts or sinister intentions. You are lulled into a comfort zone where everybody is good-natured and only fleetingly emotionally fragile. A lovely place to visit. John Travolta oozes simple charm; Kyra Sedgwick is the date-wary tough girl with a heart of gold; Forest Whitaker is the lapdog best friend of John's who just goes with the flow; and Robert Duvall is the eccentric smalltown doctor who is everybody's surrogate father. Throw in a bolt from the blue, telekinesis, secret agents, a lost child and a terminal diagnosis, and you've got heartwarming mixed with incredulity. However, suspend belief and just enjoy meeting the people. There's nothing wrong with nice.
...and what about...
Manny & Lo (Lisa Krueger)
A sleeper that will continue to be stirred from its slumber as long as Scarlett Johansson is famous. Made when she was 11 years old, it is the all-fem-tale of two sisters who are on the run after the older girl becomes pregnant. Deciding to kidnap a maternity-expert who they come across, they all hide out in a ski-cabin during the summer, awaiting the big event. Scarlett is the brains, Aleksa is the scared tough mum-to-be, and Mary Kay Place is the childless spinster. All get what they need after some tribulations. No schmaltz, but reassuringly obvious. A little one.
...not to mention...
Harriet the Spy (Bronwen Hughes)
Having read a very large number of children's books as part of my training and my subsequent job, I can tell you that our kids read a lot of crap which well-meaning adults think would be good for them. "Harriet the Spy", published in 1964, is a rare thing: wholly original and believable main character; eccentric and believable side characters; subversive-style morality ("It's okay to tell lies sometimes"; "Privacy is less important than Truth"); hints of child neglect, family dysfunction and false love. Great book...
...which became a pretty good film. Holding true to the original, the movie is endearing and quirky. While the kids are of the usual American every-child-is-cute-or-funny variety, they fit the roles snugly and Rosie O'Donnell and Eartha Kitt are great in support. Watch it with the kids, after you have all read the book first, of course.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Jude (Michael Winterbottom)
Severe Health Warning: Do not watch this movie if you are inclined to self-harm. Stay away from both sharp and blunt objects, the medicine cabinet and (especially) rope. While author Thomas Hardy (of "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" fame) never wrote anything which would be called a bundle of laughs, nothing could prepare you for this cosmic downer of a story. The bleakest film I have ever seen (and that includes anything Russian), this is a celluloid version of lonely-overdose-in-a-dive. Have Little Richard's Greatest Hits handy for immediate playing afterwards. Phone a friend.
My Top 10 Films of 1996
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| With every passing year, John tries the Saturday Night Fever stance, but just can't lift his arm up as high as he used to. |
#02 A Lone Star (Sayles)
#03 A- Sling Blade (Thornton)
#04 A- Jerry Maguire (Crowe)
#05 A- Hard Eight (Anderson)
#06 A- Citizen Ruth (Payne)
#07 A- Mother Night (Gordon)
#08 A- Mulholland Falls (Tamahori)
#09 A- Phenomenon (Turteltaub)
#10 B+ Harriet the Spy (Hughes)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 B+ The People vs. Larry Flynt (Forman)
#12 B+ Star Trek: First Contact (Frakes)
#13 B+ Manny & Lo (Krueger)
#14 B+ The Crucible (Hytner)
#15 B+ City Hall (Becker)
#16 B+ Mary Reilly (Frears)
#17 B+ Bottle Rocket (Anderson)
#18 B+ Emma (McGrath)
#19 B+ Fly Away Home (Ballard)
#20 B+ Big Night (Scott & Tucci)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B Michael [too-cute fantasy]
> B Brassed Off [too-cute reality]
> B Shine [the growing-up version is great; the grown-up version is merely okay]
> B Twister [a flying cow, a scene at a drive-in and Wizard of Oz references... and it still is merely okay]
> B Primal Fear [could've been a good one, but takes its time]
> B Everyone Says I Love You [it needs more people who can really dance and really sing]
> B Michael Collins [good story but pace is slack]
> B Matilda [the book is infinitely darker...and better]
> B Sleepers [nobody really wins, so you go through the whole ordeal for nothing]
> B White Squall [aka Dead Poets' Society Goes to Sea]
> B Portrait of a Lady [needs oxygen at times]
> B Secrets & Lies [a modern Brit kitchen-sinker]
> B Mother [pleasant, but it needs to have its pulse checked]
> B That Thing You Do! [pleasant but immediately forgettable]
> B Trainspotting [as soon as I was made to see the inside of that toilet...]
> B- The Chamber [only Gene makes it worth the watch]
> B- The English Patient ["Quit telling your stupid story about the stupid desert and just die already!"]
> B- Broken Arrow [so this is what John Woo can do with a big Hollywood budget...meh]
> B- Mars Attacks! [just not as funny as the 1950's sci-fi movies it kicks-off from]
> B- The First Wives Club [should've been better]
> B- Mission: Impossible [my belief can only be suspended for so long...]
> B- Independence Day [big dumb fun for people who are...]
> C Flipper [AKA Underwater Lassie]
> C The Birdcage [Nathan Lane is OTT and sinks the movie as a result]
> C Jude [A Personal Unmentionable]
> D Breaking the Waves [S&M Art...or do I mean Shite?]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1996 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
American Buffalo (Corrente); The Arrival (Twohy); August (Hopkins); Beautiful Girls (Demme); Blood and Wine (Rafelson); Bound (Wachowski); The Boy from Mercury (Duffy); Children of the Revolution (Duncan); Courage Under Fire (Zwick); Crash (Cronenberg); The Daytrippers (Mottola); Extreme Measures (Apted); Flirting With Disaster (Russell); Freeway (Bright); The Frighteners (Jackson); Ghosts of Mississippi (Reiner); Hamlet (Branagh); Kissed (Stopkewich); Love and Other Catastrophes (Crogan); Marvin’s Room (Zaks); My Fellow Americans (Segal); Normal Life (McNaughton); The Nutty Professor (Shadyac); The Quiet Room (de Heer); Ransom (Howard); Small Faces (MacKinnon); The Substance of Fire (Sullivan); SubUrbia (Linklater); A Time to Kill (Schumacher); Tin Cup (Shelton); Trees Lounge (Buscemi); Trojan Eddie (MacKinnon); The Truth About Cats & Dogs (Lehmann); Twelfth Night (Nunn); 2 Days in the Valley (Herzfeld); The Whole Wide World (Ireland)
Best Performances of 1996
Juliette Binoche in The English Patient
Cuba Gooding Jr in Jerry Maguire
William H. Macy in Fargo
Frances McDormand in Fargo
Geoffrey Rush in Shine
Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade
Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves
But how about...
Gene Hackman in The Birdcage
A pretty crappy American remake of a pretty crappy French-Italian film of a pretty crappy French play which became a pretty crappy musical accompanied by a pretty crappy book (okay, I haven't seen the last three, but admitting that would ruin my sentential monotony), The Birdcage is only worth seeing for the hilarious performance of the mighty Gene. A comedy master-turn, Gene goes from Serious-as-Stone to Stunned-Mullet-Stunner without even pausing for the gear shift. The expression on his face as he is re-costumed and ushered out of the nightclub is pure Buster Keaton. If only Gene had replaced most of his macho action films with comedies...
...and what about...
Philip Baker Hall in Hard Eight
The man is in charge. Being smart is not the same as being wise. Wisdom comes from experience, and experience comes from taking risks. Then you become so wise that you no longer have to even take risks: you have choices.
Philip Baker Thomas in Hard Eight is THE MAN: risk, experience and wisdom are gouged into his face, each furrow deep enough to hold lifetime secrets. He talks slowly and calmly; he does whatever needs to be done to solve the problem; he is aware that his own past is going to slowly consume him, so redemption is the only way he can save his soul. It's an acting tour de force.
...not to mention...
Noah Taylor in Shine
Geoffrey Rush scored all the accolades for Shine, but I always thought that Noah, playing the teenage / jutting Adam's Apple version of David Helgott, outshone him. To me, Geoffrey was all tic and no pathos. The sad fragility of the pianist which we carry right through the film was entirely due to Noah's beautiful portrayal. Instead of building from this younger persona, Geoffrey seems to just invent another character entirely. Entertaining for sure, but after we have embraced Noah, Geoffrey is a stranger to us.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Brenda Blethyn in Secrets & Lies
I know that everybody raves about Brenda's performance in this movie (she won at least six Best Actress gongs from all over the world, and was nominated for a minimum of another seven) and it has been called one of the greatest comedic performances of all time.
Well, it shits me. As soon as she opened her mouth and started that whining bleat which is pitched at maximum-annoyance level, I just knew I wouldn't be able to stand too much of it. On and on and on the one-note characterisation goes, not coping, begging for forgiveness and understanding, grovelling, useless and guilt-ridden. Not very funny. The woman is in desperate need of someone not as cultured and pacifistic as myself to slap her one. Thank you...I needed that.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1996
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| "Hello, Lifeline? I am a 43 year old woman who still puts her hair in ponytails. HELP ME!!" |
#02 Steve Buscemi & Peter Stormare (Fargo)
#03 Frances McDormand (Fargo)
#04 Gene Hackman (The Birdcage)
#05 Philip Baker Hall (Hard Eight)
#06 Timothy Spall (Secrets & Lies)
#07 Noah Taylor (Shine)
#08 Billy Bob Thornton & Lucas Black (Sling Blade)
#09 Chris Cooper (Lone Star)
#10 Laura Dern (Citizen Ruth)
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Tom Cruise (Jerry Maguire)
#12 Stephen Tompkinson (Brassed Off)
#13 Nick Nolte (Mother Night)
#14 Edward Norton (Primal Fear)
#15 Gene Hackman (The Chamber)
#16 Courtney Love (The People vs. Larry Flynt)
#17 Chazz Palminteri (Mulholland Falls)
#18 Debbie Reynolds (Mother)
#19 Scarlett Johansson (Manny & Lo)
#20 Kris Kristofferson (Lone Star)
#21 Alice Krige (Star Trek: First Contact)
#22 Joan Allen (The Crucible)
#23 Michelle Trachtenberg (Harriet the Spy)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves [that poor girl]
> Cuba Gooding Jr in Jerry Maguire [all ego and volume; no charm]
> Woody Harrelson in The People vs. Larry Flynt [does a weird vocal thing in the second half like he's chewing a plug of tobacco with his tonsils]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1996 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: Fargo (Ethan & Joel Coen)
SILVER: Lone Star (John Sayles)
BRONZE: Sling Blade (Billy Bob Thornton)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Philip Baker Hall (Hard Eight)
SILVER: Timothy Spall (Secrets & Lies)
BRONZE: Chris Cooper (Lone Star)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Frances McDormand (Fargo)
SILVER: Laura Dern (Citizen Ruth)
BRONZE: Debbie Reynolds (Mother)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: William H. Macy (Fargo)
SILVER: Gene Hackman (The Birdcage)
BRONZE: Noah Taylor (Shine)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Marianne Jean Baptiste (Secrets & Lies)
SILVER: Courtney Love (The People vs. Larry Flynt)
BRONZE: Alice Krige (Star Trek: First Contact)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Steve Buscemi & Peter Stormare (Fargo)
SILVER: Billy Bob Thornton & Lucas Black (Sling Blade)
BRONZE: Ewan McGregor & Ewen Bremner & Jonny Lee Miller & Robert Carlyle & Kevin McKidd (Trainspotting)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Scarlett Johansson (Manny & Lo)
SILVER: Michelle Trachtenberg (Harriet the Spy)
BRONZE: Mara Wilson (Matilda)
The Alternate Razzies for 1996 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Paul Hogan (Flipper)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Brenda Blethyn (Secrets & Lies)
