In Character: Catherine O’Hara

Is there a veteran actress who does improvisation better than Catherine O’Hara? She’s been in the film game for more than 30 years, consistently causing us to gasp for breath due to her bouts of maniacal comedy and rapid timing. There’s never a false step in her wit – never a beat missed nor a word dropped. The roles below showcase O’Hara’s full range of comedic skills, from her more honed in performances in zany films, to her outrageous work in reserved films. I grew up admiring O’Hara’s charm, and I love the fact that it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.

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Favorite Movie Titles Blogathon

Brittani from Rambling Film has cooked up her first blogathon, in which she’s asked fellow bloggers to list their favorite movie title of each letter of the alphabet. I had a blast putting this post together because, per Brittani’s instructions, you don’t have to necessarily like the movie, you just have to appreciate the title. Hope you enjoy my picks, and do head over to Brittani’s site to see a collection of all the entries!

A Visual Tribute to Cinematographer Gordon Willis

Gordon Willis shot it like it is. We hear this term a lot: he tells it like it is, usually applied to people who speak their minds and have the audacity and impressive vernacular to back it up. But Willis didn’t need to talk. Instead, he shot. As one of film’s greatest cinematographers, Willis bucked convention with each passing frame, consistently changing the game.

Palo Alto

A funny thing happened during my screening of Palo Alto. As I watched the film with many other adult attendees, our screening was occasionally interrupted by inappropriate laughter from a handful of young women watching the movie with us. These four women (a term I’m using loosely, as they appeared to be not a day over 16) laughed during a few of Palo Alto’s most intense moments. Moments of proclaimed love, lost desire, and carnal frustration. It seemed so odd to me that the people who were closest in age to the characters in the film found the desperate acts by those characters to be funny. Palo Alto doesn’t make light of these events, so why did these young women perceive it that why? And then it hit me: If I saw this movie when I was their age, I might be laughing too.

Top 10 Uses of Split-Screen

The concept of split-screen is simple, but no less dangerous. Typically, a line cuts through the middle of the screen to convey simultaneous action. But like all gimmicky narrative devices, split-screen is frequently abused and over stylized. At its most lazy, the technique is used as a fallback for sports or music montages. At its most effective, filmmakers implore the device to tell various stories at the same time, create tension from multiple points of view, show the effect the past has on the present, and so on. Perhaps what’s most interesting about the split-screen technique is that it forces the viewer to become the editor. We choose which story we watch, and for how long. That level of interactivity can be dangerous (by taking the viewer out of the film), but, as the examples below prove, it can also be thrilling.

In Character: Jeremy Davies

Mystery is an odd thing. You can’t ask for it, nor can you will it. It can’t be an act, it simply has to be. Joaquin Phoenix is, perhaps, the current leader of self-imposed oddity, taking over for the King of All Strange Kings, Christopher Walken. Casey Affleck is in there, as is Tilda Swinton. And lest we forget the Crispin Glover and Tim Curry’s of the world. I could go on, but you get the point. And when having a conversation about odd yet talented performers, Jeremy Davies deserves to be listed chief among them. The man moves to his own beat, rarely delivering a role that isn’t directly spawned from his own unique sensibilities. There’s no phoning it in for Jeremy Davies, the man goes all in, using his peculiarity to reel us, before flooring us with his quiet power.

Neighbors

There are certain things you can expect from a movie like Neighbors. A movie helmed by the director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, co-written by the producer of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, produced by the creator of This Is the End, and starring the face of the contemporary Brat Pack stoner comedy genre. These things include: excessive drug use, obscure-to-painfully-lame pop culture references, gratuitous-ish female nudity, gratuitous-ish male nudity, dick jokes, fart jokes, gay jokes, black jokes, and riffs that often run too long. To complain about the usage of such things in a film of this kind is fruitless. Expect them to be there, because they will be.

Blue Ruin

Blue Ruin is the type of film we don’t see anymore. It’s an American-made, American-set revenge thriller in which the cause for revenge is opaque, and the thrills are earned with patience. It’s a film that makes room for time. It rests, it observes. It studies a single subject, but always through an objective lens. It moves swiftly, capitalizing on every one of its 90 minutes by feeding us just the right amount of information. It’s a film that says as much through dialogue as it does through imagery. Focused, visceral, persistent. Genuinely, the only negative thing about Blue Ruin is that it acts as a stark reminder of the absence of more films of its kind.

Top 10 Actresses Never Nominated for an Oscar

Yesterday, when I posted my list of the top 10 actors who have never been nominated for an Oscar, many people shared in my amazement at the Academy’s neglect. But honestly, I think today’s list is even more shocking. There are so many cinematic legends on here, and I can’t believe none of them have been nominated. Hope you enjoy my picks, and do please feel free to share yours as well.

Top 10 Actors Never Nominated for an Oscar

Every year, we marvel at the performers who have been nominated for Oscars. We rave about the ones we love, jeer at the names we don’t think deserve it, and, most notably, cry afoul at who is missing. Below are a handful of actors who, despite having illustrious film careers, have never garnered a competitive acting Oscar nomination. Today, we look at the men, tomorrow, the ladies. And believe me, I know there are plenty performers who didn’t make the cut here (sorry, Jim), so do pleasure share your favorites.

Top 10 Criterion Films

My good friend John, from the insanely inventive site, the droid you’re looking for, has been running a great Criterion Collection-inspired series for the past week. The concept: list your Top 10 Criterion films and explain why they’re your favorite. The concept, while simple by design, was easily one of the most challenging lists I’ve ever created. I had I blast thinking this one up, so I hope you’ll jump over to John’s site and take a look at my picks!

View my list here

View all posts within John’s Criterion Top 10 Series here

In Character: Bob Hoskins

When Bob Hoskins retired from acting two years ago after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, the world lost a damn fine actor. When news broke that he passed away yesterday morning from pneumonia, we lost a damn fine man. Hoskins was a steady bruiser, often playing characters of thick head and heavy fist. But there was far more to him than just physical threat. Occasionally, in films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Hoskins deceived us by capitalizing on his tough guy persona, only to pleasantly evolve into a character of true sympathy.

According to CNN, Hoskins appeared in at least one film or television production from his first film, in 1972, to the year of his retirement. That’s astonishing. And while I certainly haven’t seen them all, below are a handful of my favorite Hoskins performances. As always, please feel free to share your favorite Hoskins roles as well. If anything, I’m hoping we can discover some of Hoskins’ work together.

the Directors: Tim Burton

To this day, it’s damn difficult to compare Tim Burton’s films to any other films but his own. Burton is rare in that way; he’s created such a unique body of work, all rooted in his macabre sensibilities. At their best, Burton’s films are genre defining explorations into the odd. They brilliantly capture the isolation of man through a juxtaposition of American Goth and suburban boredom. At their worst, they are dull, self-reflective exercises that carry little weight.

Burton has had it rough in the 21^st century, delivering an occasional minor hit, accompanied by many misses. This year, he returns to isolated drama with Big Eyes, a biopic about Margaret Keane starring Amy Adams. While I eagerly await that film, I thought I’d take a look back through Burton’s career. Here’s what worked and what didn’t, all within the confines of Burton’s distinctively obscure area of the sandbox.

Top 37 Things I Love About As Good as It Gets (that no one talks about)

James L. Brooks’ As Good as it Gets is one of my go-to films. I can go to it anytime, for any reason. If I’m down, it brings me up. If I’m up, it makes me feel even better. I watch it at least once a year, marveling at its perfect acting, tight script, and fluid narrative. It’s just a damn entertaining film; certainly one of the best romantic comedies ever made. Here are only a few reasons why.

Poetry in the Movies Blogathon: The Basketball Diaries

April is National Poetry Month, and while I’ve procrastinated commemorating it until the very end, Wendell at Dell on Movies has been celebrating poetry all month via his Poetry in the Movies Blogathon. Throughout April, Wendell asked fellow bloggers to “post a review of a movie that either has a poet as a major character, is inspired by/based on a poem, or uses poetry as an important part of the film.”

Below is my contribution, which highlights the raw teenage angst film, The Basketball Diaries. I hope you enjoy my thoughts on the film, and the flawless lead performance that anchors it. Props to Wendell for cooking up such a cool idea!