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Thursday, February 19, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #32: Oscar Winning Movies (from pool of Winners of Best Picture/Best Animated Film/Best Foreign Film)




Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share three movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each.For further details visit the series main page here.
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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Oscar Winning Movies (from pool of Winners of Best Picture/Best Animated Film/Best Foreign Film)

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The Oscars are upon us! Are you a fan of the Oscars? Do you watch the ceremony? I use to really follow all these various award shows, but now I really don't follow who wins what or who got snubbed because there are just so many good stuff out there that just doesn't have the marketing machine behind it to help it get seen and nominated. That said I still watch the Oscars because it's still a pretty entertaining show: I enjoy the opening jokes by the host, the funny thank you speeches and the performances for best song. So because it is Oscar Week, picks this week have to be one of the movies that have won a best film award. For my picks I'm going with some of my favourites:

This movie was my introduction to the world of dark comedies back in 1999. Dysfunctional family movies are kind of the norm now, but then (at least to me) it was just so new going beneath the surface of the perfect-from-the-outside family. I still catch this movie sometimes when it's aired on TV and it still draws me in with its interesting messy characters and the sardonic narration of Kevin Spacey's Lester Burnham

Gladiator (2000)
I wasn't at all interested to see Gladiator because I though all it had to offer was people battling in the Colosseum. Eventually I did see it when it aired on TV and I pretty much love it. It was the sweeping music, the sweeping shots. the epic story and especially the acting that won me. Russell Crowe was of course superb as Maximus, who can ever forget his iconic lines, and Joaquin Phoenix was just hateful as Commodus.

Rebecca (1940)
I've talked about Rebecca here before. Joan Fontaine is just perfect as the Second Mrs. de Winter with the right blend of youth, innocence and naivety who is just trying so very hard to be as elegant as Rebecca. The movie itself is haunting, suspenseful, also surprisingly funny in the 1st third and I'd consider (except for the bit at the end) a very faithful adaptation of the book.  

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 So that's it...my three picks. What three movies made your list today?


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22 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 19, 2015 at 12:58 AM

    Great picks! Gladiator is probably my 'favorite' movie, in that I will gladly watch it anytime ever. Like, that's pretty much my perfect afternoon...Gladiator, a pizza and some beer.

    My picks will be up at midnight!

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  2. RuthFebruary 19, 2015 at 1:12 AM

    I LOVE LOVE LOVE Gladiator, it's in my all time favorite film list. This is gonna be extremely tough to pick just three, but surely Gladiator will make my top 3 as well :D

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    1. WandererFebruary 19, 2015 at 1:18 PM

      It was tough to pick just three, a few of my favourite movies are best films...some of the older ones like Rebecca I didn't even know won it until much later.

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  3. Paul SFebruary 19, 2015 at 1:50 AM

    There are so many great movies to choose from, but if pushed I'd narrow my three down to On the Waterfront, In the Heat of the Night and No Country for Old Men.

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    1. WandererFebruary 19, 2015 at 1:21 PM

      Haven't seen your first two. No Country for Old Men I didn't like as much as most people did.

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  4. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 19, 2015 at 2:27 AM

    I picked American Beauty too, but it's my all time favorite movie so no surprise there. Gladiator was great as well, but I never saw Rebecca.

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    1. WandererFebruary 19, 2015 at 1:32 PM

      Glad you picked it too. It just seemed that American Beauty's popularity dipped a little after it won...don't know why, I still think it's a good movie.

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  5. DellFebruary 19, 2015 at 4:57 AM

    Love American Beauty. Spacek is amazing, here. I'm a fan of Gladiator, too, but not as much as everyone else it seems. Been meaning to revisit it for awhile since I've only seen it once. Haven't seen Rebecca, at all. Good picks.

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  6. joel65913February 19, 2015 at 1:07 PM

    I love Gladiator. The spectacle of it is entertaining but it's the performances that really make it stand out. Crowe and Phoenix are great but Connie Nielsen's work as Lucilla is equally strong and never as acknowledged. Rebecca is a fine film and Judith Anderson rocks it as Mrs. Danvers but there are many Hitchcock's I like better, still it has a wonderfully suppressed atmosphere. American Beauty is a film I enjoyed when I saw it in the theatre but haven't revisited it very often.

    Since the choices were vast I tried to find three that had a connective thread that ran through them. My first is prewar WWII, the second takes place during wartime and the third immediately after the war's conclusion.

    From Here to Eternity (1953)-Classic image of lovers entwined in the surf aside this is a vigorous drama of soldiers and their lives in the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Richly deserving of all eight of its Oscars it's strongly directed and amazingly well acted by all. Both Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed won in the supporting categories and the film should have won two more for Montgomery Clift as best actor and Deborah Kerr as best actress, both giving career best performances. Very involving and quite moving.

    Mrs. Miniver (1942)-Set in England just as war is breaking out this predates Eternity by two years. It starts out all charming country life, kindly old station masters and country club dances but by the end the nation is in the full grip of war with air raids bringing great destruction and tragedy aplenty. The film is old style Hollywood film making near its peak and designed to raise awareness of the ever rising threat Hitler posed. It ended up being released shortly after Pearl Harbor, a huge morale booster and the top earning film of the year. Beside the Best Picture Oscar it won 5 others, out of 12 nominations, including best actress and best supporting actress for Greer Garson and Teresa Wright respectively. The nominated Dame May Whitty as Lady Beldon, a real pistol, is a delightful highlight of the film. It's blatant propaganda but also highly enjoyable.

    The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)-Brilliant examination of three soldiers, one of them disabled, from different stratas in the same town who met as they are returning from war and their problems adjusting to peace time and civilian life. Emotionally resonant, make sure to have the tissues handy because there are scenes that will just rip your heart out, this is full of humor, heartbreak, joy and pathos with a cast that even down to the smallest roles could not possibly be better. In addition to it's prize for best picture this won six others, all deserved and should have won more. Fredric March and Harold Russell won acting awards but this features career best or nearly so performances from Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Virginia Mayo and Teresa Wright none of whom incredibly were acknowledged. A great film.

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    1. WandererFebruary 19, 2015 at 1:52 PM

      I haven't seen your 3 picks. I haven't seen many of the older popular films and war films are especially not my thing. I think I'd probably check out From Here to Eternity...The image of the characters on the beach is pretty iconic.

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  7. AnonymousFebruary 19, 2015 at 2:24 PM

    American Beauty is a great Best Picture pick! I watched it not so long time ago but it keeps dazzling me till now. Perhaps, I love it for my tendency to love black comedy.
    However, Gladiator is perhaps my most love-hate best picture winner. I love it as a piece of art, but wasn't it too cliche?

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  8. krhhFebruary 19, 2015 at 4:20 PM

    Can I pick one film for each category?

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  9. MyerlaFebruary 19, 2015 at 7:15 PM

    Great picks, seen all three and like all three, particularly American Beauty. I love the scene where Lester catches his wife in the act...absolute comic gold. Gladiator has grown on me overtime, it's a good film but not Scott's best. You can also clearly seen the influence Spartacus had on it. Rebecca, only Hitchcock film to win an Oscar, and it's one of my Mum's favorite films.

    I did my first Thursday Picks myself, decided to jump on the bandwagon.

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    1. MyerlaFebruary 19, 2015 at 7:16 PM

      Best Picture Oscar I should say.

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    2. WandererFebruary 20, 2015 at 3:35 PM

      I like that scene too, I think most of the comedic scenes were with Lester.

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  10. DanielFebruary 19, 2015 at 10:08 PM

    American Beauty has gotten unfairly criticized over the years. I kind of agree with the criticism that some of the character arcs don't quite track, but I don't care because each individual scene is so well-constructed and entertaining.

    It's weird now to think that Rebecca is the only one of Hitchcock's films to win Best Picture, but thrillers win so rarely that we shouldn't be surprised. Plus, it's superb.

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    1. WandererFebruary 20, 2015 at 3:41 PM

      American Beauty - In what way were the character arcs did not track?

      Rebecca - Which was why I didn't think Rebecca was a Best Picture winner until much later after I've seen the movie...thrillers are just not the genre that usually get the award.

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  11. MikeFebruary 20, 2015 at 3:55 AM

    Great picks this week. Gladiator is probably one of my favorite movies of the 2000s.

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  12. Kevin PowersFebruary 20, 2015 at 4:06 AM

    Awesome picks! I love American Beauty and Gladiator. Have never seen Rebecca, which is a shame.

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  13. .February 20, 2015 at 5:10 AM

    I choose American Beauty, too! It's such a great film.

    I've never been the biggest fan of Gladiator, but my brother used to watch it all of the time. So I do have a special place for it because it reminds me of chill Sunday afternoons with Dominions Pizza. :p

    I just Googled Rebecca, and it sounds great! The plot sort of sounds like Jane Eyre in a few ways.

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    1. WandererFebruary 20, 2015 at 3:44 PM

      Rebecca - Definitely, I think the author was inspired by Jane Eyre...and Jane Fontaine who plays the lead in Rebecca would later star as Jane in Jane Eyre 3 years later.

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