Academy Awards Best Picture Revisited: Erin Brockovich (2000)

Well just a few short days after I wrote about a Best Picture nominee 2001, it's time to write about the
year 2000 the week before the Academy Awards take place. While I did not go as far back as I wanted, it was fun to re-visit the 2000s and the films that were nominated for Best Picture, and the films that should have been nominated for the prize, or won.

There were years when I would say the Academy did pretty well like 2007, 2009, 2010.  Ironically two of those years there were more than 5 nominees so it makes sense that most of the quality films were included.  There were also years the Academy just had brain farts and left off brilliant films like in 2008 when they nominated the boring film The Reader over The Dark Knight, or 2004 when they nominated the over rated bio-pic Ray over my favorite film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  There may be a few here in 2000 as well, or well three.

When I was looking at the first year of this decade i realized I only owned one of the five films nominated for Best Picture, Erin Brockovich.  This says two things to me.  The first this says is that this year was filled with weak Best Picture nominees, and the second is that I probably own the films I think should have been nominated.  The first statement in partially true, and the second statement is true.  Erin Brockovich was directed by a double nominee for Best Director that year, Steven Soderbergh.

Steven Soderbergh was a king of the indie scene in the mid 80's/early 90's.  His most acclaimed film during this time period was the film was the 1989 film sex, lies, and videotape.  Videotape was an audacious look at the world of sex, voyeurism, and fetish, and was one of the best films of that year.  Soderbergh's next big film did not come until about ten years later in 1998, and it was called Out of Sight.  Sight was the first pairing with Clooney and Soderbergh.  Soderbergh and Clooney would go on to work with each other in the Ocean's movies.  2000 has and will be known as the year of Soderbergh; he accomplished a tremendous feat, he was nominated for Best Director for two different films in one year.  The first film was Erinc Brockovich, and the second his vastly superior Traffic.  Soderbergh ended up not splitting the votes and won for Traffic.  After 2000 Soderbergh has not been nominated for the trophy again.  While Soderbergh saw financial success with the three Ocean's films his films have received poor to middling reception since.  I am most excited for the film he has coming out this summer about a bunch of male strippers called Magic Mike.

Back to 2000 though and year of some big hits and misses.  The Best Picture nominees for this year were Chocolat, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Erin Brockovich, Gladiator, and Traffic.  While I enjoy and respect Erin Brockovich, the story of the women who helps a town put together a law suit against big bad corporate America, I would not have nominated it for Best Picture that year.  The film is solid, and Roberts gives one of the performances of her career.  After watching this film this morning I can say with good authority that Julia Roberts and Albert Finney have amazing chemistry and provide two of the best acting performances for the year.  Roberts is not just playing herself as she often does; she actually has some acting chops in this film.  Finney is just plain great as he usually is in everything he does.

Of the the other nominees the two that belong here without question are Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and Traffic.  These two films are film are some of the best work I have seen.  Chocolat had America and Hollywood with its charm, but charm fades, and this movie fades away to become one of the many forgettable Best Picture nominees.  While I respect many things about Gladiator, I must say this film (which won Best Picture) felt the same as many other prior Best Picture winners, including Ben-Hur, and Braveheart. So what was the Academy missing?

Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous is a sharp poignant, witty tale about a young boy who wants to be a writer, loves music and goes on tour with a band for Rolling Stone.  Crowe used his own life experiences to create the characters, which shows that there is so much heart.  2000 was the year of the movies about drugs.  Darren Aronofsky's film Requiem for a Dream is a dark talk about use and abuse of a variety of different drugs from diet pills to cocaine.  This film is one of the most haunting films I have ever seen.  Requiem garnered a nomination for its star Ellen Burstyn, but was snubbed across the board for its dark tone.  What gets the fifth spot?    There is Curtis Hanson's Wonderboys, about drug addict college professor.  Kenneth Lonnergan's You Can Count on Me, which is about a dysfunctional brother and sister.  Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy about a failed play by Gilbert and Sullivan.  Then there is always the great mockumentary Best in Show by Christopher Guest, which makes fun of the world of dog shows.  Of this list I would have to pick Wonderboys.

My 2000 Best Picture nominations would be as follows:
Almost Famous, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Requiem for a Dream, Traffic, and Wonderboys

While I love Erin Brockovich and the message behind the film, it would not have made it into my top five of the year.  With one week until the Academy Awards I will be retiring this until next year when I will look at the Best Actress category.  In one week we will be adding a new winner to the Best Picture crowd, and we will see how The Artist stands the test of time.

Star Making Roles Part 1: Gary Marshall Edition

Ironically the night before I return back home to Boston after coming home for Christmas I am watching Pretty Woman with my family.  If you follow me on here, I watched this movie with my family the night before I went home on Thanksgiving.  This made me think about something different this time, while Pretty Woman was not Roberts first film but this movie made her a huge star. Everyone starts somewhere, sometimes some one's first film rockets them to super stardom while with other actors/actresses it takes one, two and sometimes many more films to make it big.  Gary Marshall's film had the magic with Robert's career.

Julia Roberts-Pretty Woman (1990) In the 80s Julia Roberts was the younger sister of the much more famous Eric Roberts; she had a few acting gigs on television shows like Crime Story and Miami Vice.  In 1988 Robert's landed her first major film role in the small film about a pizza place called Mystic Pizza.  One year later she scored a prime role in with an all-star cast in the film Steel Magnolias.  This film starred three academy award winners,Sally Field, Shirley McClaine, and Olympia Dukakis, the film also had the acclaimed Dolly Parton, and another ingenue Daryl Hannah.  Robert's role Shelby was the only Oscar nomination for the film; she landed a nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category.  While landing an Academy Award nomination pushed her in the right direction it was her lead role opposite Richard Gere  made Roberts a huge star.  Gary Marshall's film utilized her smile, charm, and great comedic timing in order to make her one of the biggest stars of all time.  Roberts was nominated for her second Academy Award for this film, but did not win until 2000 with her film Erin Brockovich.

Marshall seems to have been the master of catapulting leading ladies in the limelight.  I have rarely seen a man help stars become massive stars so quickly.  Not only did Marshall direct Roberts in her star making role in Pretty Woman, but he also directed Anne Hathaway in her first major film, The Princess Diaries (2001).  Anne's career took a lightening bolt ride making her sought after by many directors.

Anne Hathaway-The Princess Diaries (2001) In 2001 a young girl awkwardly turned from an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan before our eyes, in the film The Princess Diaries.  Hathaway had the grace, presence, charm and wonderful comedic timing that launched Julia Roberts into being a major star.  Hathaway has gone on to star in numerous films with many major stars.  At the beginning of her career Hathaway was on the path to be pigeon holed into the similar roles; she was going to always play the innocent young leading lady.  Hathaway's next two films proved this trend, they were Ella Enchanted, and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.  Ann broke her good girl routine by baring it all and taking an incredibly dramatic turn in the Oscar winning film Brokeback Mountain.  Since then she has had a versatile resume which included The Devil wears Prada, Get Smart, Alice in Wonderland, Love and Other Drugs, and landed a Best Actress nomination for her performance in Rachel Getting Married.  In 2012 Ann will kick but as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises, and will prove what a wonderful singer she is in the musical film version of Les Miserables.

I love watching actors/actresses becoming stars, and it has been fun to watch these two women's careers grow blossom (they have hit sour notes of course), but these women are legends.

Movies that Put Life into Perspective: Pretty Woman Edition

This past week was my first time at home since I moved to Boston.  I go into town on Wednesday, and celebrated Thanksgiving with my family on Thursday.  On Friday at Midnight I went Black Friday shopping with my sister at Target.  Then on Saturday my mom made Thanksgiving part two to celebrate my favorite meal for my birthday.  My family and I spent the rest of Saturday watching movies and spending time together.  My parents fell asleep (as usual) but woke up and ended up watching Pretty Woman with my sister and I.

Pretty Woman (1990) is the story of the millionaire/billionaire Richard Lewis (Richard Gere) who picks up a hooker named Vivian (Julia Roberts) on Hollywood Blvd..  Richard has sex with Vivian and ends up paying her to accompany throughout the week as his date.  This was the film that launched Julia Roberts into super stardom; he performance in this film earned her her second Oscar nomination, and her first in the lead actress category.  Roberts and Gere had such amazing chemistry, and made this one of the best romantic comedies of all time.  Gary Marshall knows how to launch women into stardom; he has done the same thing with Ann Hathaway and The Princess Diaries.  While Marshall is not the best director this film has so much charm, and he has great loyalty to a few recurring actors.  Marshall has always cast Hector Elizondo and Larry Miller in most of his films.  Elizondo usually plays a much bigger supporting role, while Miller usually plays a small role.  This film is a fairytale come true, and was one of  my favorite movies growing up.

This was one of the movies that I watched with my family all the time when I was younger.  Do not scoff at the fact that I watched a movie about a hooker while I was younger.  Movies brought my family together and this is one the films that I remember always watching when I was a young kid.  I always remember my mom, dad, and I watching this film.  When we watch Pretty Woman we always say that our favorite part was when Vivian goes back to Rodeo Driver and she has her hands filled with bags and tells the women who pushed her away from shopping when she looked like a hooker.  Sitting with my family and remembering the old days was great.  While home for the holidays I sometimes get annoyed as there is arguing, but its times like these when my family sits down around the TV and watches a movie, I remember how nice being around them can be.