31 Days of Oscar: The Films of 1987

hope and glory7-07-gBy Jack Deth

Greetings all and sundry!
Having taken advantage of the much-hyped East Coast Snow Storm, and watched from my 23rd floor balcony as the surface dwellers dug themselves out, I’ve had time to contemplate the films of 1987 and their standing with the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

A year sadly near void of the earlier risk takers and “All In!” gamblers of the previous decade, with many of the Academy choices leading toward less controversial, more palatable fare. So, keeping that in mind, allow me a few moments of your time to explore, excavate, and investigate the confusing, sometimes annoying choices of…

The 60th Academy Awards: Playing It Safe!

According to Box Office Mojo, a neat little reference source which proves useful in this treatise, 1987 was a rather prosperous year for film. With 238 entrants through the year, from the sublime (The Princess Bride) to the ridiculous (Ishtar, Real Men, Death Wish 4: The Crackdown), lots of diversions and variants in-between, and a surprising number of films in its Top 25 films nominated for Oscars.

For those uninitiated, I’ll be laying out this amalgam in the same way I’ve presented earlier critiques of the Academy’s decisions, entailing “The Top Six” categories, taking a “Top Down” perspective, plus a few personal bones to pick in the lower tiers.

So, without further ado, let’s start with the contenders for….
Continue reading “31 Days of Oscar: The Films of 1987” →

31 Days of Oscar- THE CRAFTS: Costume Designer Sandy Powell

oscar-nominees-luncheon-2016-crop02While scrutinizing this year’s official Academy Award class photo, my eye was immediately drawn to red…not just those few actresses wearing scarlet-hued dresses, but also the neon crimson hair of costume designer Sandy Powell. It’s appropriate that color would draw the eye to her, as she used it to create some of this year’s most stunning and effective costume designs, including the instant classic Cinderella gown made up of many layers of painstakingly dyed blue fabrics. She is pitted against herself with two 2015 nominations, one for Carol, the other for Cinderella. Not so coincidentally, in both she dressed Cate Blanchett. The last time the two worked together, for 2004’s The Aviator, both took home Oscars (Blanchett for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn).

Continue reading “31 Days of Oscar- THE CRAFTS: Costume Designer Sandy Powell” →

31 Days of Oscar, Week 3: THE CRAFTS

bonnie-sketch-small-500wWe’re now just past the halfway point of both Turner Classic Movies channel’s Academy Awards tribute, 31 DAYS OF OSCAR, and the 31 DAYS OF OSCAR Blogathon, hosted annually by myself here at Paula’s Cinema Club, Kellee of Outspoken and Freckled, and Aurora at Once Upon A Screen.

31-Days-2016-02This week we salute the less renowned, but nonetheless essential, disciplines of movie-making…THE CRAFTS. Those who practice them are below the title in billing yet are decidedly indispensable to the overall effect of a film. Check out the fabulous Week 3 posts after the jump!

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#31DaysOfOscar Blogathon THE ACTORS!

31 Days of Oscar Actors Week, hosted by Aurora at Once Upon A Screen…check out all the fabulous posts….

Aurora's avatarOnce upon a screen...

Once Upon a Screen is honored to host the inaugural entry for this year’s 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon with tributes to THE ACTORS!

Actors

To review the complete roster and topic details for the 2016 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon be sure to visit the original announcement.  There is a lot to look forward to as the 31 Days heat up so stay tuned to Outspoken & Freckled, Paula’s Cinema Club as well as this blog as we commemorate bloggers who honor Oscar through the years.  And since this event was inspired by TCM’s 31 Days of Oscar festival I must insist you tune in and watch Oscar-winning movies scheduled by actor connections through March 2nd.

Blog roll call:

– we’re starting this year’s event with a short list of distinction so I’ll get right to it.

The nominees for Best Submission by a Blogger dedicated to THE ACTORS! are…

Old Hollywood Films with a delicious look…

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Announcing the 31 Days of Oscar 2016 Blogathon

“I’m very enthusiastic about the Academy Awards because if there were no Oscars, we wouldn’t have as many good movies as we do have.” – Robert Osborne
Rbt_O_13907965-mmmainThe Oscars — both maligned and praised — are always cause for celebration and we’re here to do just that.

For the fourth consecutive year Paula’s Cinema Club (my Twitter handle @Paula_Guthat) joins forces with Kellee (@IrishJayHawk66) of Outspoken & Freckled and Aurora (@CitizenScreen) of Once Upon A Screen for the 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon, running February 6-27, 2016.  We started this event to coincide with Turner Classic Movie’s 31 Days of Oscar marathon, during which the network shines the spotlight on the storied history of the Academy Awards. All the deets, including participating blogs & their chosen topics, after the jump…

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Top 30 (more or less) tunes of 2015

I totally ran out of time for a year-end music post in 2014 (the last one was published in 2013), but they are just too much fun to put together, so here’s the 2015 edition. The cutoff is 50 or more plays (as in previous years, the source here is my iTunes). These are songs that I loved this year; though some were released before 2015, but almost all of these reached triple-digit plays. I don’t do a lot of description of these, they are in no particular order, and linking instead of embedding is not indicative of preference (it just means I couldn’t get it to embed). I feel like if you actually take a chance by clicking and listening to the songs, you’ll hear why they made the list. There’s a WTF factor to some of my choices, so go ahead…read on and judge away after the jump. You can also check out the 2012 list.

Continue reading “Top 30 (more or less) tunes of 2015” →

Follow the 2015-16 Awards Season with my downloadable schedule

While speculation about possible Oscar nominations has been going on for months, the 2015-16 Awards Season officially kicked off this past Monday (Nov. 30) when the Gotham Awards for the best films and performances of 2015 were announced. Then yesterday, the National Board of Review chimed in with somewhat surprising trophies of their own.

As someone who loves movies, and has perhaps taken that love a little too far, I follow the industry’s proceedings with the same zeal as a fantasy league player going for a million dollar pool. This is the second year in a row that I’ve put together this schedule of important awards dates. Having done that, I figured why not gussy it up a bit and share it with the world. So here is my downloadable, printable, hyperlinked PDF. Some of the more important days are indicated with dark red and link to the relevant URL; the dates that awards are actually bestowed are in bolder type. That’s right, they’re clickable! If there’s a broken or incorrect link, of course let me know.

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Last Day of the 2015 WHAT A CHARACTER! Blogathon

The What A Character Blogathon concludes with Day 3, including posts on everyone from Louise Beavers to Eli Wallach…check it out!

kelleepratt's avatarOutspoken & Freckled

Elsa-Lanchester

Elsa is beside herself and so are we. It is bittersweet to see the last day arrive for our 4th annual WHAT A CHARACTER! Blogathon. We’ve come to realize you love this blogathon as much as we do. With good reason- why not celebrate those fun, quirky character actors that take those small roles and steal every scene? So here we have arrived to the third and final day to honor character actors of new and old.

Let’s kick it off with…

LOUISE BEAVERS, who according to GIRLS DO FILM, “imbued each role with subtlety and a certain dignity, forcing audiences to acknowledge her characters despite the stereotype.” A must-read on that character actor you may not know the name, but you undoubtedly know her.

MOVIE CLASSICS unravels the mystery behind the allusive “unnamed old woman” who starred on stage and over 70 films, ZEFFIE TILBURY. A fascinating…

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WHAT A CHARACTER! 2015 – Day Two!

Our tribute to the names below the title continues with Day 2 of the WHAT A CHARACTER! Blogathon, hosted by Aurora at Once Upon A Screen

Aurora's avatarOnce upon a screen...

This is so exciting Edward Everett Horton is biting his nails!

I’m thrilled to be hosting Day Two of the 2015 What A Character! Blogathon, the fourth installment of an event during which we put aside the stars and focus our efforts on the Hortons of the world.  Paula’s Cinema Club kicked things off yesterday with a terrific list of submissions and I know you can’t wait to read today’s entries, which encompass as fine a lot as I’ve ever hosted. But before you get to them we’d like to thank all the participants for their understanding as we re-scheduled the blogathon from last weekend due to disturbing world events. We really appreciate your patience.

If you want a refresher on the back story for the What a Character! blogathon take a look at the Announcement post, which includes the entire list of participants and chosen actors. Otherwise there’s no need to delay any further…except…to pause…

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