Author: Peter J Patrick
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Home Viewing with Peter #822
Edward Berger’s 2022 German remake of Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is remarkable in many ways, not the least of which is its 4K Blu-ray release, a rare Netflix film to be released on home video and the first to be released so quickly after its Netflix release, a mere five…
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Oscar Profile #642: Brendan Gleeson
Born March 29, 1955 in Dublin, Ireland, Brendan Gleeson was an avid reader as a child, a fiddle player, and an actor/teacher since his college graduation. He was, in fact, a full-time teacher for ten years before giving up the profession to concentrate on acting. Gleeson married his wife Mary in 1982 with whom he…
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Home Viewing with Peter #821
One of last year’s most highly anticipated films, Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, opened to mixed reviews and ended up alienating as many people as it pleased. Relatively absent from major awards recognition, it did nab Oscar nominations for its production design, costume design, and score. While it may have deserved to win all three, it won…
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Oscar Profile #641: Oscar Couldabeens Revisited
Anyone who ever tried to put together a list of films that that should have been nominated for Academy Awards but weren’t, can tell you that it is an almost impossible task to sort out eligibility dates for the years 1927/28-1981 for to a number of reasons. The first awards were supposed to be for…
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Home Viewing with Peter #820
Whenever Tom Hanks makes a movie, he is in the conversation for that year’s major acting awards. 2022 was no exception thanks to A Man Called Otto, the Hollywood remake of the 2015 Swedish film (A Man Called Ove) that was nominated for 2 Oscars following its 2016 release in the U.S. This time around,…
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Oscar Profile #640: Brendan Fraser
Born December 3, 1968 in Indianapolis, Indiana to traveling Canadian parents, Brendan Fraser holds dual American-Canadian citizenship. He grew up in Ottawa, Detroit, Seattle, London, and Rome as his parents who were in the travel business, frequently moved. His early exposure to theatre, especially in London, led him to Seattle’s Cornish Institute where he perfected…
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Home Viewing with Peter #819
The 1936 film version of Camille, newly released on Blu-ray from Warner Archive, was the eighth of fourteen film versions of Alexandre Dumas’ 1848 novel to date. It is also the most famous, featuring Greta Garbo in the title role in the film for which she would be nominated for an Oscar for only the…
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Oscar Profile #639: Deborah Kerr Revisited
Born September 30, 1921, Deborah Kerr was a ballet trained dancer turned actress who made a stunning screen debut in 1941’s Major Barbara in support of Wendy Hiller and Rex Harrison. Her performance caused such a sensation that she was immediately cast in the lead in the same year’s Love on the Dole. Her career…
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Home Viewing with Peter #818
Everything Everywhere All at Once is poised to become the first Hollywood film featuring Asians in major roles both before and behind the camera to win above-the-line Oscars. It is considered the favorite to win Best Supporting Actor and a strong contender for Best Picture, Actress, Supporting Actress, Director, and Original Screenplay. Now is a…
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Oscar Profile #638 – Sally Field Revisited
Born November 6, 1946 to actress Margaret Field and her husband, an Army captain and later salesman, the doctor who delivered Sally Field allegedly told her mother “you have an actor”. Field’s parents divorced when she was five and her mother later married stunt man turned actor Jock Mahoney. She began her film career in…
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Home Viewing with Peter #817
This year’s Oscar nominations have been described as the most populist in years. That may be so, but there’s another thing that distinguishes this year’s nominees as being the “most” in years. For the first time since 2019, all the Best Picture nominees have been or soon will be released on home video. The Banshees…
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Oscar Profile #637: Colin Farrell
Born May 31, 1976 in Dublin, Ireland to Rita and Eamon Farrell, a professional athlete, Colin Farrell became interested in acting when he saw E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial at the age of six and was brought to tears by ten-year-old Henry Thomas’ performance. Encouraged by his older brother to study acting, Farrell made his screen debut…
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Home Viewing with Peter #816
Let’s talk about Steven Spielberg. Spielberg’s The Fabelmans has now been released on Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray, making its availability complete. The question is why was this film that was presumed early on to be the year’s film to beat at the Oscars was such a flop at the box office, and why has Spielberg’s…
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Oscar Profile #636: Cate Blanchett Revisited
Born May 14, 1969 in Ivanhoe, Australia, a suburb of Melbourne, Catherine Elise (Cate) Blanchett was the middle child of a property director/teacher Australian mother and an advertising executive Texas-born father. Her father died when she was ten, leaving her mother to raise the family with the help of her grandmother. Blanchett graduated from Australia’s…
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Home Viewing with Peter #815
Let’s talk about the upcoming Oscars. 11 is a magic number at the Oscars. It represents the number of most awards any film has won, which happened three times with Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2023). It also represents the most nominations received by a…
