In our third pass of the Oscar nominees from 1997 through 2016, we take a look at the nominees for Best Actress. Each week, we’ll present a list of contenders from which you can select five to make up the Best Actress slate. There will be an “Other” option, but you can only use this once and you’ll have to specify your other in the comments. Now on to the game: Best Actress.
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(June 17, 2018) Original
August 3, 2018
From IMDb: “After his 16-year-old daughter goes missing, a desperate father breaks into her laptop to look for clues to find her.”
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Review: I would be most fascinated by this design the letters were on the keys where they belong rather than haphazardly placed to spell out the title. It could have been so much more than nothing.
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Review: One of two films trying to use a gimmick to great effect and this one appears like it might almost succeed. That is if there weren’t small issues as the trailer progresses that makes it feel more and more conventional rather than more and more unique.
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Born February 11, 1909 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Joseph Leo Mankiewicz was the younger brother of Herman J. Mankiewicz (1897-1953), the Oscar-winning co-writer of Citizen Kane.
Young Joe Mankiewicz received a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 1928 at the age of 19. His college professor father sent him to Berlin to study German drama at the University of Berlin. Instead, he went to work for UFA film studios translating German intertitles into English for distribution by Paramount in the U.S. His brother Herman, then head of Paramount’s scenario department, hired him to write for Paramount in Hollywood where he quickly established himself, earning an Oscar nomination for co-writing 1931’s Skippy.
Mankiewicz moved to MGM in 1934 where he first worked on the screenplay for Manhattan Melodrama. That same year he married first wife actress Elizabeth Young. The marriage would produce one child but was over by 1937. In 1939 he would marry actress Rose Stradner with whom he would have two children.
New Trailer (#2) / New Poster (#1)
Preview Link: CLICK HERE for all of the new content as well as the original.
Here we look at the upcoming month’s offerings.
Premise: From IMDb: “In the aftermath of ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ Scott Lang grapples with the consequences of his choices as both a Super Hero and a father. As he struggles to re-balance his home life with his responsibilities as Ant-Man, he’s confronted by Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym with an urgent new mission. Scott must once again put on the suit and learn to fight alongside The Wasp as the team works together to uncover secrets from their past.”
Box Office Prospects: $200 M
Expectations: Good. The prior film made $180 million at the box office. This sequel is a one of only two films between now and the Infinity War sequel, so it has the potential to draw attention to look for clues as to what will happen next. However, I suspect it will remain one of the lower-grossing franchise films.
Oscar Prospects: Uncertain. The effects look more diverse this time around, which could put it into competition for Visual Effects. It will probably make the shortlist, but not the Oscars.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.
Opening to the tune of $208 million three years ago, Jurassic World proved there is plenty of life left in the Jurassic Park franchise. While the $231 million it would have made in 2018 dollars is a staggering figure, it’s not an insurmountable one. While the film is unlikely to top its predecessor, which couldn’t even top the original in inflation-adjusted currency, the second film will do well and will definitely top the second film in the series, which made $457 million adjusted for inflation. That said, I suspect the opening weekend, with the competition of Incredibles 2 is probably going to top out around $200 million even if it opens in more theaters than the prior film.
Our Highest Rated Films: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Our Best Awards Ratings: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Oscars)
The King
Spiral
(June 17, 2018) Original
July 20, 2018
From IMDb: “A teen comes into possession of a new laptop and soon discovers that the previous owner is not only watching him, but will also do anything to get it back.”
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Review: While I believe they are trying to tie this film into the prior, it also seems like they are trying to conjure up images of the Paranormal Activity series, which isn’t a good idea.
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Review: There have been a few films that have tried to infuse modern technological elements into the plot such that it looked like it took place entirely via chat interface, but few have succeeded. This trailer does a surprisingly good job of putting that concept forward, which is surprising considering the film took far too long to release its first trailer.
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Journey’s End, adapted from R.C. Sherriff’s autobiographical novel and play, has been filmed for the big screen three times, in 1930 by James Whale, in 1976 (as Aces High) by Jack Gold, and in 2017 by Saul Dibb. The play has itself been performed numerous times on stage and TV since its original success in the late 1920s.
Although the current version purports to go back to the novel, rather than the play, it is nevertheless quite faithful to Whale’s acclaimed screen debut which had been memorably referenced in flashbacks in Bill Condon’s 1998’s Oscar winner Gods and Monsters.
The 1930 version not only made a major filmmaker of its director, but stars of its lead actors, Colin Clive and David Manners, both of whom are best remembered for their roles in classic horror films. Clive was Henry Frankenstein in Whale’s 1931 version of Frankenstein, while Manners was John Harker in Tod Browning’s 1931 version of Dracula. Manners, who was a year younger than Clive, had his last film released in 1936, Clive in 1937, the year of his death at 37. Manners lived another sixty-one years, dying in 1998 at 97.
In Whale’s Journey’s End, Clive is Stanhope, the British officer in charge of a company of infantrymen assigned to six weeks in the trenches at the front in early 1918 as the Great War is escalating. Manners is his newly assigned junior officer, Raleigh, who had asked to be assigned to Stanhope’s company as he was Stanhope’s three years younger friend growing up. His older sister is, in fact, engaged to Stanhope. Raleigh finds Stanhope much changed as the horrors of war have made him cynical, tough, and paranoid. In the new version, Stanhope is played by Sam Claflin and Raleigh is played by a still baby-faced Asa Butterfield (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Hugo), who is ten years his junior. Although both actors acquit themselves well, the disparity in their ages stretches the credulity of their having grown up together.
(June 17, 2018) Original
March 29, 2019
From IMDb: “Plot TBA”
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Review: It’s an interesting design that conjures up memories of run down circuses of a long-past era, but only in the minds of those who might recall Dumbo with anything more than a passing familiarity.
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Review: If you have any memory of the Disney classic Dumbo, the song alone should be enough to engage your memories, but there’s plenty here to be interested by even without that familiar tune.
It could be a major player in the creative categories, but Disney has never had luck with the upper categories, so don’t expect it to move beyond Production Design, Costume Design, and effects categories.
We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations.
Fourteen years ago, The Incredibles entered Oscar history with four nominations. Winning awards for Animated Feature and Sound Editing, the film also picked up nominations for Original Screenplay and Sound Mixing. While that’s two shy of all-time animation record-holder Beauty and the Beast, it’s no less an impressive performance for an animated film.
Best Animated Feature has been around as an Oscar category since 2001. In that 16-year history, Shrek 2 (2004), Toy Story 3 (2010), Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), Puss in Boots (2011), Despicable Me 2 (2013), and How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) are the only sequels, prequels, or spin-offs every nominated. That’s six films out of sixty-nine nominees in the category’s history. Even highly popular sequels like Finding Dory, Shrek the Third, Minions, and Monsters University couldn’t make the cut. What’s even more noticeable is that of the sequels nominated, only one of them, Toy Story 2 was a Pixar film. Those statistics hurt Incredibles 2‘s chances of a repeat showing at the Oscars.
That said, with an all-time high opening weekend for an animated film, an A+ CinemaScore, and solid reviews, Incredibles 2 has more in common with Toy Story 3 than it does with Cars 2, Monsters University, or Finding Dory. It’s certainly possible that Incredibles 2 makes it into the Animated Feature race, especially with a somewhat lackluster year so far for animated films; however, the other categories the original was nominated in will be more challenging. Although Original Score would not be unwarranted, the score might be considered derivative. It’s what kept The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers out of the Oscar race. Of course, the third film in that series pulled in the nomination and won, so it’s no unheard of.
For Sound Mixing and Sound Editing, the problem lies with so much more competition now than there was 14 years ago. It could still make a go of it, but it’s been eight years since the last animated film was nominated in Sound Editing (Toy Story 3 in 2010); and it was even longer, 10 years, since an animated film was even nominated for Sound Mixing (WALL-E in 2008), which was only the second such nomination after Incredibles. Those statistics are hard to overcome, though it’s possible that Pixar starts up a new streak; however, if the incredibly inventive Inside Out couldn’t even manage a nomination in either category, Incredibles 2 faces an even stiffer climb.
A.M.P.A.S. (The Oscars Feed)
