Academy Awards Week: Best Actress (and the runner-up is Meryl)

This year marks Meryl Streep's 14th nominations in the Best Actress category, and 17th overall nomination.  The woman is widely regarded as the best living actress, and by some the best actress of all time.  Throughout the years this woman has given some amazing performances.  Her career as a perennial Oscar nominee began in 1978, with her nomination for Best Supporting Actress in the film The Deer Hunter.  One year later she earned her second nomination and her first win in the Supporting Actress category for her role in the 1979 film Kramer vs. Kramer.  Two years later in 1981 she received her first nomination in the Best Actress category for The French Lieutenant's Woman.  In 1982 she was honored with her second Best Actress nomination and first win in the category for Sophie's Choice.  At this point Meryl was 2 for for 4.  Since 1982 Meryl has received 13 more nominations and won no awards at the Oscars again giving her one of the biggest losing streaks in the shows history.

Meryl is the best actress working today and she does not need more Oscars to prove that fact; she is one of the most gracious losers I have ever seen.  This woman has had more great performances than most actresses could dream of.  Here is a list of her five performances.

5-Miranda Priestley in The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

While I would like to think Adaptation changed Meryl's career (and I think it still did) this performance took her level of stardom to a different level.  This performance was a supporting performance that stole the film, and as she spews venom I get lost in her performance; she captures this character so well!

4-Joanna Kramer in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) 

Watching Joanna walk away from her son, only to come back and fight to take him away from his father is a whole different level of evil.  Yet there is a vulnerability to her character, and you can understand why the different layers.  This performance was incredible and deserved to be Meryl's first Oscar win.  Although I liked her Manhattan as well that year.

3-Karen Silkwood in Silkwood (1983)

There is something about how ballsy she was when she played this character, and yet how she was able to show this real life woman as vulnerable in the same breath.  This performance came from one of her best films, and feels real.  There is a scene where she is on the porch with Cher, and it just is beautiful.

2-Susan Orlean in Adaptation (2002)

Another great supporting turn from Meryl that made look at her in a completely different way.  As the 80s ended and the 90s began I looked at her as a great actress, but her film choices often resembled terrible lifetime movies.  Adaptation is my second favorite performance from Meryl of all time, and I would like to see more of this performance from her, where she plays it natural.

1-Meryl Streep as Sophie Zowitophski in Sophie's Choice (1982)

There is not much to say, but that bar non this is her performance of all time.  I honestly have very few words, the film and her performance speak for themself.  Meryl's method acting of staying with the child she would have to give up and not surrounding herself with the other child was brilliant, it made her grief incredibly real.

These five performances span 27 years!  Only one other actress in Hollywood can claim having a similar career experience, and that is Katherine Hepburn.  Picking just five performances is almost an impossible  task because Streep has given so many phenomenal performances that span even longer from 1978 through the present day.  This year Streep earned her 17th nomination, and has come the closest to winning her third Academy Award.

After reading this many people may ask, why has she only won twice?  I could go year by year and explain how she lost each trophy she was nominated for, so I guess I might as well.

1981-Meryl Streep in the French Lieutenant's Wife  lost to Katherine Hepburn for her last nomination in On Golden Pond, this was Hepburn's swan song and there was no way the ingenue was going to get this over Hepburn (the only time the two were nominated in the same category).

1983-Meryl Streep in Silkwood lost to Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment.  Streep lost because she had won the year before and MacClaine haad never won an Oscar.

1985 Meryl Streep in Out of Africa lost to Geraldine Page in Trip to the bountiful.  Page was a 5 time nominee prior to this nomination and had never won, so the Academy honored her career performance.

1986 Meryl Streep in Ironweed lost to Cher in Moonstruck.  Cher was an unstoppable force in a Best Picture winner, while Streep's nomination came for a lesser film.

1987 Meryl Streep in Cry in the Dark lost to Jodie Foster in The Accused.  Foster had got her second nomination with this film proved that she was a talented young actress.  At this point my guess would be many academy members thought this was too soon for a third win.

1990 Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge lost to Kathy Bates in Misery-  Bates was a force to reckoned with and Meryl's role had no shot of giving her, her third Oscar.

1995 Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Madison County lost to Susan Sarandon in Dead Man Walking.  Sarandon had a couple of nominations with no wins.  This film also had more nominations, and Sarandon won as a career achievement.

1998 Meryl Streep in One True Thing lost to Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love.  Everyone was talking about Cate Blanchett and Paltrow this year.  Streep's performance was good but was not a blip on the radar.

1999 Meryl Streep in Music of the Heart lost to Hillary Swank in Boy's Don't Cry.  This was the year of Swank vs. Bening (round one-both went to Swank).  This is one of Streep's weakest nominations.

2002 Meryl Streep in Adaptation lost to Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago.  Meryl was back in supporting (briefly) and she should have won this year, but Jones road the Chicago train.

2006 Meryl Streep in The Devil wears Prada lost to Helen Mirren in The Queen.  Mirren was unstoppable, and there was no dethroning her. 

2008 Meryl Streep in Doubt lost to Kate Winslet in The Reader.  Meryl had some strength in the front end of awards season but Winslet was on her fifth nomination had not won; she was honored for this underwhelming performance.

2009 Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia lost to Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side.  i am still baffled at the support for The Blind Side, but people were on Bullocks side after her messy divorce, and people were getting to the point where they kept saying Meryl has an Oscar or she will get nominated again.

Now we are at the current ceremony where Meryl was honored with her 17th nomination.  Here are this year's nominees:

Glen Close-Albert Nobbs

Viola Davis:The Help

Rooney Mara-The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 

Meryl Streep-The Iron Lady

Michelle Williams-My Week with Marilyn

Will Meryl lose once again and be named the perennial runner-up?  There is a slight chance this brilliant actress will lose her 13th straight Oscar.  Mara was not a surprising nomination, but she has no shot at winning.  Close should have more of a chance because this is her sixth nomination, but no one is talking about her performance so she will join Deborah Kerr and Thelma Ritter as the queens of losing at the Academy Awards.  Each of those three women has 6 nominations with no wins.  I thought back early on Williams was going to sneak out a win, but there was enough support to get her further.  This race is between Viola Davis and Meryl Streep.

Davis and Streep each have two major precursor awards on their side.  Streep has the Globe and BAFTA, while Davis has the Broadcast Film Critics Award and the SAG.  At the moment Davis holds the trump card which is the SAG win.  SAG is voted on by the actors, and the acting branch is the largest branch of the Academy.  Many SAG voters are also Academy voters, but not all and there are differences.  At the moment many pundits are predicting Davis, and I understand why.  Davis gives a strong performance.  The Help is also a Best Picture nominee that is well liked, while Streep's film only received one other nomination in make-up.  The Help did not perform as well as thought on nomination day and only has 4 nominations (3 acting and Best Picture).  Picking the winner here is tough, logically I want to pick Davis.  Davis' win will also make history if she and Spencer win this will be the first time two Black women will win in the same year.  Yet my gut and heart keep telling me that after 13 losses this is finally Streep's year.  I love that there is still some mystery in this category.

Gutsy Prediction: Meryl Streep-The Iron Lady (Harvey will help)

Very Very Very close second: Viola Davis-The Help

Nicolas Cage: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

So I have had a little bit bloggers block the last two days, and so I asked my facebook friends to come up with the subject for today's blog.  Only two people responded, and well it was a great suggestion.  My friend and former co-worker Kelsey Stockton stated that I should do a blog on Nicolas Cage: the Good, the bad, and the ugly.  For those of you who don't know Nicolas Cage was actually born Nicolas Coppola; he is in fact the nephew of fame Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola and cousin to Sofia.  Nic Cage changed his name in order to make his own success.  Although in the first major movie he starred in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982),  Nicolas Cage was billed as Nicolas Coppola.  Regardless of his name, the man has had some career highs, some bad choices, and some huge bombs.

The Good: 

Nicolas Cage's career started pretty strong; he starred in Francis Ford Coppola's film Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) as Charley Bodell the love interest of the title character Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) who goes back to relive her high school days with full knowledge of her future.  This was not huge critical hit, but it was still a good start.

The year after Cage did the Coen Brothers film (before they were as cool as they are now) Raising Arizona (1987).  Cage starred opposite Holly Hunter, and this is a great feather in his cap.  This film is in line with all of the other Coen films, it's dark funny, and just one of those great under appreciated films in the year it was made.

 In 1988 he had another great film on his hand starring opposite Cher in Norman Jewison's Moonstruck.  Of all three of these films Moonstruck was the biggest success and gave Cage the most recognition; he would soon start to give him much more name recognition.  The recognition he wanted to gain by changing his name.

Within these three years Cage worked with great directors and started to build himself a wonderful career.  There were some not so great films for a few years (that will be in he bad), but in reality they were nothing that that would shatter someone's reputation.  In 1995 he did a film that in my mind brought him to the pinnacle of his career.  The film Leaving Las Vegas, brought Cage numerous acting nominations and awards including an Oscar for Best Actor.  Cage played an alcoholic who built an interesting relationship with a hooker (Elisabeth Shue).  This is Cage's best film and best work ever.

In 2002 Cage hit another career milestone playing Charlie and Donald Kauffman in the film Adaptation about, well about Charlie Kauffman trying to adapt the book The Orchid Thief, into a film that would be worth watching.  Cage played the the dual role with such ease and great comic timing; he earned an Oscar nomination for this role.

Cage had two other films in the 2000s that have received some critical support (and have actually been good films) The Bade Lieutenant: Port of Call-New Orleans (2009), and Kick-Ass (2010).  Cage certainly has had some great career moments, but I am not sure if they can correct the bad and the ugly

The Bad: 


In his post Moonstruck years Nicolas Cage mad some bad films.  Here is the thing some of these movies are guilty pleasures for me, I think they are bad, but can't help but watch these movies.

1994 was a busy year for Nic with bad films.; he had Guarding Tess, Trapped in Paradise, and It Could Happen to You.  Guarding Tess is just not good, It Could Happen to You is an interesting premise, but Rosie Perez steals every scene, and Trapped in Paradise is awful, but is one of my biggest pleasures because of its three leading men (which includes Cage,  Jon Lovitz, and Dana Carvey).

Then there were his action years of 1996 and 1997.  Cage starred in The Rock in 1996 where he had to enlist the help of Sean Connery to help prevent biological weapons from being used on Alcatraz.  Then in 1997 he played a convict on hijacked plane  transporting prisoners in Con-Air (he was the good convict who fought against the bad guys).  The he starred opposite John Travolta in the absurdly bad Face/Off, which was just a mess.

The Family Man (2000) and City of Angels (1998) were his attempt in trying to handle love stories (fail).

 His second attempt at the action/adventure genre happened with with National Treasure (2004) was a less intelligent version of the Dan Brown books.

I would put many of these films in the category of bad, but not unwatchable.  A lot of these films did well at the box office, and had mass audience appeal.  They lacked the quality, but you could tell that Cage was still trying to pick things that interested him.

The Ugly:


With this group of films I don't even want to waster my mind thinking about them, but here is the list of what I would describe as some of the worst films ever (which happened to star Nicolas Cage).

Honeymoon in Vegas (1992)
8 mm (1999)
Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001)
Lord of War (2005)
World Trade Center (2006)
The Wicker Man (2006)
Ghost Rider (2007)
Next (2007)
National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)
Knowing 
The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)
Season of the Witch (2011)
Drive Angry (2011)


14 films that are terrible and poorly made.  Cage has potential to be a great actor with two Academy Award nominations (1 win) to his name and a slew of other well made films he could have a better acting legacy.  Cage has picked some terrible films in the last decade, and has become what I like to call a paycheck actor.  Most of the jobs seem to be for a paycheck, and not to be more successful.  The only problem is many of these films did so poor at the box office, so why are people still casting him in films? I hope Mr. Cage has an agent who surfs the blogs and sees this, realizes that it's time to take a look back at his career and weigh what films to take in the future.