Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.
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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Oscar Winners Edition: Best Actor and Best Actress
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This post is coming quite late so I'll be keeping it short. Here are my favourites:
BEST ACTOR
Whitaker put in a good and terrifying performance as Idi Amin.
Russell Crowe in Gladiator (2000)
The late 90s and early 2000s was the height of Crowe's acting career, he was nominated back to back Best Actor for three years and won for Gladiator. I don't remember much of The Insider but I didn't much like A Beautiful Mind. Gladiator I like a lot.
Peter Finch in Network (1976)
Finch was great as the anchorman who has a meltdown on air, the first of what would be his many rants. Paul Scofield in A Man for All Seasons (1966)
I've picked this before for Best Picture and Scofield puts in a terrific performance as Thomas More.
BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine (2013)
Blanchett is great here as a former socialite who is trying hard to hold on to her former life and losing her mind in the process. The story reminds me of A Streetcar Named Desire, but I prefer Blue Jasmine and Blanchett's performance.Natalie Portman in Black Swan (2010)
I thought Portman was really good in this as the ballet dancer spiraling towards insanity.Faye Dunaway in Network (1976)
There's just a lot of outstanding performances in this one including Dunaway's who plays the ambitious TV executive.
Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins (1964)
Mary Poppins is one of my childhood favourites and Andrews was just great in it
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I haven't seen most of these films but I absolutely loved both Portman and Blanchett's performances.
ReplyDeleteWe share Black Swan this week. I agree about Network - all of the performances the cast gives were worth of nomnations/wins.
ReplyDeleteGreat picks! I love The Last King of Scotland and Black Swan in particular. Those were great films.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you picked Russell Crowe in Gladiator, though I think his best performance is in The Insider.
ReplyDeleteThe only things I remember about The Insider was that Pacino is in it and Crowe put on weight for his role.
DeleteI love all the man picks. Forrest Whitaker was so good as the tyrant Idi Amin and did deserve that Oscar although I have to look a5 the other nominees. Russell Crowe was great in this movie and Peter Finch played the fed up anchorman so well with that now famous scene. Paul Scholfield gave a great acting tour de farce in a Man For All Seasons. The best actress..well, I was not one for Cate Blanchett in a Streetcar Named Desire, um, I mean, Blue Jasmine and I hated Psycho Swan. Faye Dunaway was quite good in Network as the gal who will do anything to get ahead. She played that role well. Julie Andrews was the best Mary Poppins but I almost think they gave this to her because she lost out I. Gett8ng the role of Eliza Doolittle which she made famous on Broadway.
ReplyDeleteSo happy to find someone else who loves A Man for All Seasons and Paul Scofield in it! It is a very deliberately paced film but rewarding if you stick with it.
ReplyDeleteI love Russell Crowe in Gladiator but I’m sure his previous nomination played a part in his win.
I didn’t love either Last King of Scotland or Network but there is no question both Whitaker and Finch are brilliant in their respective roles.
I LOVE Julie Andrews and Mary Poppins and I’m glad she has an Oscar but the year she won I would have given it to Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater.
As I said I didn’t care for Network, but Faye is fierce in it though I would have rather seen her win for Chinatown.
Black Swan is nothing I feel any pull to watch again but Natalie Portman’s textured work was sensational.
Blue Jasmine is very much a reworked Streetcar, but Blanchett pulls off her version of Blanche beautifully.
I didn’t choose favorites, though I like all three of my picks, instead tying them all together through my Best Actress pick.
Mrs. Miniver (Greer Garson-Best Actress) (1942)-Kay Miniver (Greer), her architect husband Clem (Walter Pidgeon-also Oscar nominated) and their three children are living a comfortable life in a small village outside of London until war is declared. Eldest son Vin (Richard Ney-who shortly after the film’s completion married Greer!) leaves college to join the Royal Air Force while also falling for and marrying local girl Carol Beldon (Teresa Wright-winner for Best Supporting Actress). As the war arrives on their doorstep they must endure bombing raids and many other hardships and tragedies meeting them with perseverance and fortitude.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Robert Donat-Best Actor) (1939)-1n 1870 schoolteacher Charles Chipping “Mr. Chips” (Donat) fresh from university is a strict disciplinarian to his young students at his new public-school post making him unpopular. However, on holiday he meets and impulsively marries the feisty suffragette Katherine Ellis (Greer Garson-Oscar nominated) whose love softens and humanizes Chips until he becomes a beloved institution on campus and a source of inspiration through the tough years of World War I onward into the 20th Century.
A Double Life (Ronald Colman-Best Actor) (1947)-Legendary stage star Anthony John’s (Colman) method is to totally immerse himself in the parts he plays. This is fine when he appears in comedic roles but with more serious roles, he becomes unpredictably volatile as his real-life self slowly ebbs away leading to the end of his marriage to Brita (Signe Hasso) his frequent costar. Now despite all warning signs he has undertaken Othello partnered again with Brita, though having a young mistress, Pat Kroll (an incredibly young, very thin Shelley Winters in her first important role), and as the part overtakes him, he descends into madness. Though Greer isn’t in this film she and Colman costarred (the year she won for Mrs. Miniver) in another big success for both “Random Harvest” where Colman was again nominated for Best Actor.
I have seen two of the performances you mention.. sad really. I think I became more of an Oscar movie watcher in the past years so I'm quite unfamiliar with the previous award favourites. Who knows when I'll change that.
ReplyDeleteI'm not an Oscar movie watcher at all...I haven't seen a lot of the newer movies. I would say I've seen more of the older movies because they are older and therefore been around longer.
DeleteOh, I forgot that Julie Andrews had won for Mary Poppins! She's such a delight in this film.
ReplyDeleteGood choices, Wanderer. I watched The Last King of Scotland years ago and remember being impressed. It's high time for a rewatch.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to watch Blue Jasmine; I'll add it to my watchlist.
Agree with you about Natalie Portman, although I haven't watched Black Swan since I saw it at the cinema and don't really intend to watch it again.