Author: Peter J Patrick
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The DVD Report #664
New This Week Bombshell is a highly entertaining take on the Fox News scandal that evolved when Gretchen Carlson, one of the network’s star news anchors, sued network news honcho Roger Ailes for sexual harassment when she was fired by the network. Although the film is classified as a drama, much of it is played…
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Oscar Profile #487: Margot Robbie
Born July 2, 1990 in Dalby, Queensland, Australia to Scottish parents, Margot Robbie was one of four children of Sarie Kessler, a physiotherapist, and Doug Robbie, a former farm owner. She and her three siblings, two brothers and a sister, were raised by her single mother with minimal contact with her father. After graduating from…
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The DVD Report #663
New This Week Dark Waters may not be at the top of anyone’s list of the best films of 2019, but it may be the most important. Directed by Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven, Carol, Wonderstruck), the film is about Rob Bilott, the corporate defense attorney who successfully sued DuPont on behalf of its Parkersburg,…
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Oscar Profile #486: William Goldman
Born August 12, 1931 in Chicago, Illinois, William Goldman was the son of Marion and businessman Maurice Goldman. He was the younger brother of fellow writer James Goldman (1927-1998), best known as the Oscar winning writer of The Lion in Winter. Goldman, received a B.A. degree from Oberlin College in 1952, and was drafted into…
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The DVD Report #662
New This Week Knives Out is a film that has grossed $164 million to date and has received considerable award recognition including an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. While I can understand the film’s popularity given the moviegoing public’s hunger for a great murder mystery, even if this isn’t that, it’s the film’s awards…
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Oscar Profile #485: William Powell
Born July 29, 1892 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, William (Horatio) Powell was the only child of Nettie and Horatio Powell. He moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri in 1907 where he graduated from Central High School in 1911. He then moved to New York where he entered the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in…
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The DVD Report #661
New This Week Jojo Rabbit is the seventh of the nine films nominated for Best Picture at the 2019 Academy Awards to be released for home viewing. The Irishman and Marriage Story are available for screening through Netflix. Ford v Ferrari, Joker, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, and the winner, Parasite, have previously been released…
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Oscar Profile #484: Joaquin Phoenix Revisited
Born Joaquin Rafael Bottom in Puerto Rico on October 28, 1974, the middle child of five of a New York Jewish mother and California father of mostly English heritage, his parents who were then members of the Children of God missionaries changed the family name to Phoenix. With older siblings named River and Rain and…
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The DVD Report #660
New This Week Ford v Ferrari was nominated for four 2019 Oscars and won two for Film Editing and Sound Editing. It was also nominated for Best Picture and Sound Mixing. As such, it falls behind 1966’s Grand Prix, which was only nominated for just three Oscars for Film Editing, Sound, and Sound Effects, but…
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Oscar Profile #483: Renée Zellweger
Born April 25, 1969 in Katy, Texas, Renée Zellweger was a cheerleader, gymnast, speech team member and drama club member in Katy High School. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1991. She received her Screen Actors Guild Card for doing a Coors Light commercial. Zellweger made her screen debut in an…
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The DVD Report #659
New This Week Grand Illusion was the first foreign language film honored with a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. We know that all the Oscar winners for Best Picture through 2018 have been released on DVD and/or Blu-ray, but what about the winners for International Film, previously known as Best Foreign Film or Best…
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Oscar Profile #482: Scarlett Johansson
Born November 22, 1984 in New York, New York, Scarlett Johansson was one of four children of a Danish-born architect and his wife. She has a sister and two brothers, one of whom is her twin. The budding actress practiced singing and dancing as a child in front a mirror pretending to be Judy Garland…
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The DVD Report #658
New This Week Parasite, which has been winning the lion’s share the foreign language film awards doled out by the various critics’ groups and organizations for films released in 2019, is the latest from director Bong Joon Ho, best known in the U.S. for his 2013 debut American film, Snowpiercer. Nominated for six Oscars, the…
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Oscar Profile #481: Brad Pitt
Born December 18, 1963 in Shawnee, Oklahoma, William Bradley Pitt’s father was the owner of a trucking company and his mother was a school counselor. The family soon moved to Springfield, Missouri where he was raised along with his younger brother and sister. He attended the University of Missouri, majoring in journalism with a focus…
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The DVD Report #657
New This Week Pain and Glory is Pedro Almodovar’s third film to be nominated for an Oscar for Best International Film (previously known as Best Foreign Language Film) following 1988’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and 1999’s All About My Mother. Almodovar was himself nominated for his direction and screenplay of 2002’s…
