Author: Peter J Patrick
-
The DVD Report #724
New This Week Judas and the Black Messiah was nominated for six Oscars and won two. It had been nominated for Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Song, and two Supporting Actors, Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield. Kaluuya won as expected, and H.E.R., D’Mile, and Tiara Thomas pulled off a surprise win for the song “Fight…
-
Oscar Profile #547: Frances McDormand Revisited
Born June 23, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois, Frances McDormand was the adopted daughter of Canadian-born parents, Noreen Eloise (Nickleson), a nurse from Ontario, and The Rev. Vernon Weir McDormand, a Disciples of Christ minister from Nova Scotia, who raised her in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. She began her stage career after graduating from Yale in…
-
The DVD Report #723
New This Week Nomadland is the first film since 12 Years a Slave to win the Satellite, Golden Globe – Drama, Critics Choice, BAFTA, Independent Spirit, and Oscar awards for Best Picture. The film version of Jessica Bruder’s non-fiction book won just three Oscars but all three were historic ones. Chloé Zhao became the second…
-
Oscar Profile #546: Anthony Hopkins Revisited
Born December 31, 1937 in Margam, Port Talbot, Wales to Muriel and Richard Hopkins, a baker, (Philip) Anthony Hopkins was encouraged to become an actor by Richard Burton, who was also born in Port Talbot and whom Hopkins met at the age of 15. Hopkins made his professional stage debut in 1960 at the Palace…
-
The DVD Report #722
New This Week Warner Archive has released Blu-ray upgrades of Annie Get Your Gun and Broadway Melody of 1940, two musicals of completely different styles from different eras that were only ten years apart. Before Show Boat, which opened on Broadway in late 1927, only operas and operettas had songs that flowed naturally from the…
-
Oscar Profile #545: Kevin Costner
Born January 18, 1955 in Lynwood, California, Kevin Costner was the third child of Sharon and Bill Costner. His mother was a welfare worker, his father an electrician. He was raised in various parts of Southern California as his father’s career progressed within Southern California Edison. He was active in sports in high school and…
-
The DVD Report #721
New This Week Another Round is another masterpiece from Danish director Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration, The Hunt) who has achieved the rare distinction of being nominated for a Best Directing Oscar for a film also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, or as it is now called, Best International Feature Film. Vinterberg, who also directed…
-
Oscar Profile #544: Cecil B. DeMille
Born August 12, 1881 in a boarding house in Ashfield, Massachusetts where his parents had been vacationing for the summer, Cecil Blount DeMille was the son of Matilda Beatrice and Henry Churchill de Mille, a dramatist, actor and lay reader in the Episcopal Church. He was also an English teacher at Columbia, and a member…
-
The DVD Report #720
New This Week Matteo Garrone’s Pinocchio was nominated for 15 David Di Donatello awards and won 5 in Italy’s version of the Oscars. It has since been nominated for various other awards including at Oscars for achievement in Costume Design and Hair and Makeup. While the original Italian version has been available for a while,…
-
Oscar Profile #543: Albert Brooks
Born July 22, 1947 in Beverly Hills, California, Albert Lawrence Einstein, known professionally as Albert Brooks, was one of three sons of former actress Thelma Leeds and her husband, Harry Parke. Parke’s birthname was Einstein, Parke was his original stage name, but he was better known as Parkyarkarkus. Brooks suffered an early trauma when his…
-
The DVD Report #719
New This Week Films about the afterlife have provided plenty of entertainment throughout film history. There have been too many to name them all, but for a sampling, check out 1941’sHere Comes Mr. Jordan, 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life and A Matter of Life and Death, 1947’s The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, 1990’s Ghost, 1999’s…
-
Oscar Profile #542: Shirley Temple
Born April 23, 1928 in Santa Monica, California, Shirley Temple was the third child and only daughter of homemaker Grace and bank employee George Temple. When she was three, her determined stage mother enrolled her in Meglin’s Dance School where she honed her singing, dancing, and acting skills. At the same time, Mrs. Temple began…
-
The DVD Report #718
New This Week News of the World was the only major studio release of 2020 considered to have had much of a chance at securing major Oscar nominations. In the end, it only received four for Cinematography, Production Design, Score, and Sound, all of them well earned. It had also been considered a possible nominee…
-
Oscar Profile #541: Amanda Seyfried
Born December 3, 1985 in Allentown, Pennsylvania to occupational therapist Ann and pharmacist Jack, Amanda Seyfried began modeling at 11 and ventured into acting at 15 with roles in the TV soap operas, As the World Turns from 1999-2001 and All My Children in 2003. She made her film debut in Mean Girls in 2004,…
-
The DVD Report #717
New This Week Promising Young Woman is the first of this year’s eight Oscar nominees for Best Picture to be released on DVD and Blu-ray. Nominated for a total of five Oscars including Best Actress, Directing, Original Screenplay, and Film Editing, first-time writer-director-producer Emerald Fennell has her name on three of them. Best known for…
