Emma Thompson is so talented she could take a book I find unreadable and write a script I would call the best of the year.
My Top 20:
- Sense and Sensibility
- The Usual Suspects
- Richard III
- 12 Monkeys
- To Die For
- Les Miserables
- Toy Story
- Leaving Las Vegas
- Clockers
- Mina Tannenbaum
- Shanghai Triad
- Il Postino
- Heat
- Smoke
- Hyenas
- Kids
- An Awfully Big Adventure
- Jeffrey
- Burnt by the Sun
- Apollo 13
It is not a great year for film. It is the weakest Top 5 since 1982 and the weakest Top 20 of the last 20 years. Mina Tannenbaum, the #10 film of the year would have trouble making the Top 20 in a lot of other years.
Consensus Awards:
- Best Picture: Sense and Sensibility
- Best Director: Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility)
- Best Actor: Nicholas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas)
- Best Actress: Elizabeth Shue (Leaving Las Vegas)
- Best Supporting Actor: Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects / Se7en)
- Best Supporting Actress: Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite)
- Best Adapted Screenplay: Sense and Sensibility
- Best Original Screenplay: The Usual Suspects
- Best Cinematography: Braveheart
- Best Animated Film: Toy Story
- Best Foreign Film: Wild Reeds
Academy Awards:
- Best Picture: Braveheart
- Best Director: Mel Gibson (Braveheart)
- Best Actor: Nicholas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas)
- Best Actress: Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking)
- Best Supporting Actor: Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects)
- Best Supporting Actress: Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite)
- Best Adapted Screenplay: Sense and Sensibility
- Best Original Screenplay: The Usual Suspects
- Best Cinematography: Braveheart
- Best Foreign Film: Antonia’s Line
I had to go see Heat twice because I kept throwing up the first time. I don't miss being 21.
Top 10 Films (Top 1000):
- Heat - #381
- Toy Story - #483
- The Usual Suspects - #644
- Safe - #669
- Casino - #698
Top 5 Films (1995 Best Picture Awards):
- Sense and Sensibility
- Leaving Las Vegas
- Apollo 13
- Babe
- Braveheart
note: Leaving Las Vegas sets a record for highest point total without an Oscar nomination.
Top 10 Films (Awards Points):
- Sense and Sensibility - 2052
- Leaving Las Vegas - 1628
- Apollo 13 - 1143
- Braveheart - 1129
- The Usual Suspects - 774
- Il Postino - 656
- Nixon - 641
- Babe - 627
- Mighty Aphrodite - 391
- Dead Man Walking - 388
note: Braveheart‘s fourth place finish is the worst for an Oscar winner since 1981. It also has the highest point total since 1969 for a film with no points from the critics awards. It has the lowest point total for an Oscar winner since 1989 and no winner since has been lower.
Pixar hits the jackpot with their first feature film: Toy Story
Top 10 Films (Domestic Box Office Gross):
- Toy Story - $191.79 mil
- Batman Forever - $184.03 mil
- Apollo 13 - $172.07 mil
- Pocahontas - $141.57 mil
- Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls - $108.38 mil
- GoldenEye - $106.42 mil
- Jumanji - $100.47 mil
- Casper - $100.32 mil
- Se7en - $100.12 mil
- Die Hard: With a Vengeance - $100.01 mil
note: GoldenEye becomes the first James Bond film to gross $100 million in the U.S., tripling the gross for the previous Bond film, Licence to Kill. This is also the last year when no film broke $200 million.
Top 10 Films (International Box Office Gross):
- Die Hard: With a Vengeance - $366.1 mil
- Toy Story - $362.0 mil
- Apollo 13 - $353.5 mil
- GoldenEye - $352.2 mil
- Pocahontas - $346.1 mil
- Batman Forever - $336.5 mil
- Se7en - $327.3 mil
- Casper - $287.9 mil
- Waterworld - $264.2 mil
- Jumanji - $262.8 mil
note: Does it a say a good or bad thing that the worldwide list has Waterworld on it instead of Ace Ventura? Die Hard got the biggest boost internationally (72.7%), with Babe ending up #11 on the list, with 75% of its box office coming internationally. Batman does the least percentage internationally (45%), but superhero films never have traveled as well. This is also the only year since 1990 where no film broke $500 million.
AFI Top 100 Films:
- Toy Story - #99 (2007)
Ebert Great Films:
- Leaving Las Vegas
Nighthawk Golden Globes:
Drama:
- Best Picture: Sense and Sensibility
- Best Director: Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility)
- Best Actor: Nicholas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas)
- Best Actress: Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility)
- Best Supporting Actor: Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects)
- Best Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet (Sense and Sensibility)
- Best Adapted Screenplay: Sense and Sensibility
- Best Original Screenplay: The Usual Suspects
Comedy:
- Best Picture: To Die For
- Best Director: Gus Van Sant (To Die For)
- Best Actor: Hugh Grant (An Awfully Big Adventure)
- Best Actress: Nicole Kidman (To Die For)
- Best Supporting Actor: Patrick Stewart (Jeffrey)
- Best Supporting Actress: Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite)
- Best Adapted Screenplay: To Die For
- Best Original Screenplay: Toy Story
Two award worthy performances to fall in love with: Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet as sisters in Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Nighthawk Awards:
- Best Picture: Sense and Sensibility
- Best Director: Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility)
- Best Actor: Nicholas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas)
- Best Actress: Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility)
- Best Supporting Actor: Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects)
- Best Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet (Sense and Sensibility)
- Best Adapted Screenplay: Sense and Sensibility
- Best Original Screenplay: The Usual Suspects
- Best Editing: The Usual Suspects
- Best Cinematography: Sense and Sensibility
- Best Original Score: Sense and Sensibility
- Best Sound: Apollo 13
- Best Art Direction: Sense and Sensibility
- Best Visual Effects: Babe
- Best Sound Editing: Apollo 13
- Best Costume Design: Sense and Sensibility
- Best Makeup: An Awfully Big Adventure
- Best Original Song: “Cancion del Mariachi” from Desperado
- Best Animated Film: Toy Story
- Best Foreign Film: Les Miserables
The sexy but deadly Nicole Kidman in To Die For (1995)
Nighthawk Notables:
- Best Film to Watch Over and Over: Toy Story
- Best Line (dramatic): “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects
- Best Line (comedic): “Yoko Ono.” Patrick Stewart in Jeffrey
- Best Opening: Richard III
- Best Ending: The Usual Suspects
- Best Scene: the end of The Usual Suspects
- Best Use of a Song (dramatic): “Sweet Home Alabama” in To Die For
- Best Use of a Song (comedic): “All By Myself” in To Die For
- Best Ensemble: The Usual Suspects
- Funniest Film: Jeffrey
- Most Over-Rated Film: Se7en
- Worst Film: Showgirls
- Worst Sequel: Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh
- Sexiest Performance: Nicole Kidman in To Die For
- Performance to Fall in Love With: Emma Thompson in Sense and Sensibility
- Highest Attractiveness / Acting Ability Ratio: Julia Ormond in Sabrina
- Best Guilty Pleasure: Mallrats
- Best Soundtrack: Dead Man Walking
- Best Original Song from a Bad Film: “Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me” from Batman Forever
- Watch the Film SKIP the Book: Sense and Sensibility
- Coolest Performance: John Travolta in Get Shorty
- Star of the Year: Kevin Spacey
- Best Cameo (male): Nathan Lane in Jeffrey
- Best Cameo (female): Sigourney Weaver in Jeffrey
- Best Animated Character Performance: John Ratzenberger in Toy Story
Film History: Toy Story, the first Pixar feature film and first computer-animated feature length film, is released and becomes the biggest box office hit of the year. Michael Ovitz leaves CAA to head Disney. Showtime, in partnership with Robert Redford, creates the Sundance Channel. Studio accounting comes under fire when Winston Groom, author of the novel Forrest Gump, challenges Paramount’s claim that they lost $62 million on the film. Waterworld sets a new record with a budget of $175 million. Underground wins the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Rupert Murdoch announces plans to open Fox Studios Australia. Greer Garson and Ginger Rogers die in April and Lana Turner dies in June. Louis Malle dies on 23 November. Controversy arises when Nicole Kidman and John Travolta, both well-known Scientologists, win lead Comedy acting awards at the Golden Globes but neither earns an Oscar nomination. The Brothers McMullen and Crumb win the Grand Jury Prizes at Sundance. Leaving Las Vegas wins Best Picture, Director and Actress at the Indie Spirits, but Nicholas Cage fails to win Best Actor, just about the only award he doesn’t win. Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg launch the Dogme 95 movement. Pierce Brosnan becomes the new James Bond and his debut, GoldenEye becomes the highest grossing James Bond film.
Academy Awards: Braveheart wins Best Picture without having won any other Best Picture awards – the only film other than The Godfather Part II to do that since 1943. Only one film released after Labor Day is nominated for Best Picture (Sense and Sensibility), the only time since the seventies there have been less than two and the only time since 1985 there have been less than three. Sense and Sensibility becomes the last Columbia film nominated for Best Picture until 2010. Leaving Las Vegas becomes the fourth film ever nominated for Director, Screenplay, Actor and Actress but not Picture, joining My Man Godfrey, Hud and Sunday Bloody Sunday. For the third year in a row, France fails to get a Best Foreign Film nomination – the longest streak in the history of the category. Brazil, on the other hand, gets its first nomination in 33 years with O Quatrilho. For the first time since 1988 all five Best Picture nominees win at least one Oscar; 12 films altogether win an Oscar – the most since 1988. Braveheart is nominated for Original Screenplay but loses to The Usual Suspects – the first Best Picture winner to ever lose the Screenplay award to a film not nominated for Best Picture. Braveheart is the first Best Picture winner to ever win an Oscar for Sound Effects Editing; it is also the first Best Picture winner to not earn any acting nominations since 1987. It is also the lowest grossing Best Picture winner since 1987.
It’s the worst year for Best Picture nominees since 1970 and Braveheart is the worst winner since The Greatest Show on Earth. And let’s get this straight. To Die For, Les Miserables, 12 Monkeys and Richard III combined for four nominations – or one fewer nominations than Braveheart won Oscars. It’s true, the Academy had no idea at the time that Mel Gibson would turn out to be completely batshit nuts. But they could have passed him over because his film was complete crap. At least the writers had some sense – giving the Oscar to The Usual Suspects, which should have been in the Best Picture race. And clearly Leaving Las Vegas was too much of a bummer, given its four major nominations but nothing for Best Picture (or even Cinematography). And the Editing of Braveheart and Crimson Tide was better than the way The Usual Suspects was constructed through its brilliant editing? And going with Richard Dreyfuss and Sharon Stone over Ian McKellen and Nicole Kidman? But the most inexplicable thing might be the nomination of Nixon as an Original Screenplay, when it the published script is full of all the notes and sources. It is clearly adapted and even Stone himself was confused. Oh, and apparently the sound in Waterworld and the Sound Effects Editing in Batman Forever were worthy of Oscar nominations but not Heat in either category.
- Worst Oscar: Best Picture for Braveheart
- Worst Oscar Nomination: Best Picture for Braveheart
- Worst Oscar Omission: Best Director for Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility)
- Worst Oscar-Nominated Film: Restoration
- Best Eligible Film with No Oscar Nominations: Les Miserables
- Best Eligible English Language Film with No Oscar Nominations: Clockers
- Best Foreign Film Submitted But Not Nominated: Underground (Yugoslavia)
- Worst Oscar Category: Best Editing
- Best Oscar Category: Best Actress
- Oscar / Nighthawk Award Agreements: Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, Actor, Supporting Actor, Sound, Visual Effects
Golden Globes: Babe becomes the first film since 1954 to win a Best Picture award without any other nominations. The American President becomes the first film since 1989, the second since 1977 and only the third film since 1962 to get nominated for Best Picture – Comedy and Best Director but lose Picture to a film without a Director nomination (1962 – Chapman Report loses to That Touch of Mink, 1977 – Annie Hall loses to The Goodbye Girl, 1989 – When Harry Met Sally loses to Driving Miss Daisy). The American President is nominated for all big five awards (Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, Actress) and becomes the only comedy other than When Harry Met Sally to lose them all. It is also the first film since Glory in 1989 to get nominated for Picture, Director and Screenplay at the Globes, but none of them at the Oscars. Sense and Sensibility is the biggest film, getting winning Picture – Drama and Screenplay and getting 6 nominations, including Director, Actress and Supporting Actress. Braveheart and Leaving Las Vegas each get 4 nominations, including Picture – Drama, and each win one with Braveheart winning Director and Vegas winning Actor – Drama. Apollo 13 also earns 4 nominations, including Picture – Drama and Director but wins nothing. Scandal erupts when the two Comedy winners, John Travolta for Get Shorty and Nicole Kidman for To Die For, both fail to earn Oscar nominations, with speculation being that it is backlash because they are both prominent Scientologists.
Awards: Braveheart becomes the first film since 1988 to win the Oscar without winning a critics award for Best Picture. But that doesn’t mean there is one particular favorite. While Leaving Las Vegas is by far the biggest winner, it only wins two Best Picture awards (New York and LA). For the first time since 1989, no film wins more than two Best Picture awards and also, for the first time since 1989, the film with the most points doesn’t get an Oscar nomination for Best Picture (in 1989 it was Do the Right Thing). Vegas does sweep all six Best Actor awards and wins Actress and Director from the National Society of Film Critics and in LA. Next up is Sense and Sensibility, which wins Picture from the NBR and Boston, Director from NBR, LA and Boston, Screenplay in New York, LA and Boston and actress in LA. The final two Best Picture awards go to Babe (NSFC) and Apollo 13 (Chicago), but neither film wins any other awards from any of the critics groups. Kevin Spacey and Joan Allen win four critics awards each for supporting while Oliver Stone takes the last Director award (Chicago) for Nixon. Wild Reeds is the big Foreign Film winner, taking home NY, LA and NSFC.
Braveheart becomes the only film to win the Oscar without a PGA nomination. Leaving Las Vegas becomes the third film (after When Harry Met Sally and Avalon) to earn PGA, DGA and WGA noms but not an Oscar nom for Best Picture. Apollo 13 becomes the first film (and until 2006 the only film) to win the PGA and SAG Cast Award but fail to win Best Picture at the Oscars. It also becomes only the second film (after The Color Purple) and last to date to win the DGA but fail to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Director and the first film since Born on the Fourth of July in 1989 to have the most guild points but not go on to win Best Picture at the Oscars. Apollo 13 wins 5 guild awards (PGA, SAG Ensemble, SAG Supporting Actor, DGA, Cinema Audio Society) and earns 3 other noms (WGA, American Cinema Editors, American Society of Cinematographers). Braveheart is next, winning the WGA, ACE, ASC and a Motion Picture Sound Editors award and also earning DGA and CAS noms. Sense and Sensibility earns SAG ensemble, Actress and DGA noms and wins Supporting Actress and the WGA. The PGA has the lowest crossover with Oscar in its history – only two (Apollo 13, Il Postino) of its six nominees earn Oscar noms (Bridges of Madison County, Dead Man Walking, Leaving Las Vegas and American President are the others). SAG agrees with Oscar on both leads but neither supporting and only 5 of the eventual supporting Oscar nominees earn SAG nominations.
Braveheart becomes the first film since 1988 to win the Oscar without getting a Best Picture nomination at the BAFTAs. The Usual Suspects and Sense and Sensibility tie for Best Picture. The Usual Suspects becomes the first American film to win Best Picture at the BAFTAs without getting an Oscar nomination for Best Picture since Manhattan in 1979. The Usual Suspects becomes the first film to win Best Picture without a Director nomination since Educating Rita in 1983 while Sense and Sensibility joins Howards End as the second Emma Thompson film in four years to win Best Picture but not Director or Screenplay. The Madness of King George ties A Room with a View with the second most nominations all-time (14) but only wins British Film, Actor and Makeup. Sense and Sensibility is second with 12 nominations, but only wins Picture, Actress and Supporting Actress. Five films tie for the most wins with 3: The Madness of King George, Sense and Sensibility, The Usual Suspects (winning all 3 of its nominations – Picture, Original Screenplay and Editing), Il Postino (the first film in six years to win Best Director without a Best Picture nomination) and Braveheart.
In the initial Broadcast Film Critics Awards, there are no nominees – only winners. Many of them are the same as the Oscar winners would be (Braveheart wins Director, Sense and Sensibility wins Screenplay, Mira Sorvino and Kevin Spacey win Supporting, though Spacey gets his for three films). But Sense and Sensibility wins Best Picture and non-Oscar nominees Kevin Bacon (Murder in the First) and Nicole Kidman (To Die For) win the lead awards. Between Ed Harris (Apollo 13 and Nixon) and Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects, Se7en, Swimming with Sharks), five films share the Supporting Actor award. Braveheart sets the trend that every Oscar winner would win at least 1 major BFCA award; the only ones not to win Best Picture either win Screenplay (Shakespeare in Love, Crash, The King’s Speech) or Actress (Million Dollar Baby).
Best Director: With 3 critics wins, DGA, Globe and BAFTA noms and a Nighthawk and Consensus win there is no directorial effort that makes the Academy look like idiots more than Ang Lee’s work on Sense and Sensibility. Their idiocy in not nominating him might have cost the film Best Picture and just makes the Academy look like they don’t know great directing. He’s followed on the consensus list by Mike Figgis for Leaving Las Vegas (LAFC, NSFC, Indie Spirit wins, DGA, Oscar, Globe noms). Mel Gibson, the actual Oscar winner comes in third, having also won the Globe and the initial BFCA as well as earning DGA and BAFTA noms. Then comes Michael Radford for Il Postino (BAFTA wins, Oscar and DGA noms) and Ron Howard for Apollo 13 (Globe nom and only the second DGA winner to fail to earn an Oscar nom). My own list is Lee, Bryan Singer (Usual Suspects), Terry Gilliam (12 Monkeys), Richard Loncraine (Richard III) and Figgis. That’s followed by Claude Lelouch (Les Miserables), Spike Lee (Clockers), Gus Van Sant (To Die For), Zhang Yimou (Shanghai Triad) and Michael Mann (Heat).
Best Adapted Screenplay: Sense and Sensibility breaks all records for Adapted Screenplay awards (though they would all be broken, first by L.A. Confidential, then by Sideways). It would win 7 different awards and absolutely crush all the competition. Emma Thompson wins the Oscar, WGA, Globe, the initial Broadcast Film Critics Award and critics awards in New York, L.A. and Boston. She does lose the BAFTA to Trainspotting, which wouldn’t be Oscar eligible until the next year, and of course, she wins the Nighthawk. She’s followed in the consensus awards by Leaving Las Vegas and Babe (Oscar, WGA, BAFTA noms), Apollo 13 (Oscar and WGA noms) and Il Postino (Oscar and BAFTA noms). My nominees are To Die For, Il Postino, Leaving Las Vegas and An Awfully Big Adventure. That’s followed by 12 Monkeys, Richard III (BAFTA nominee), Get Shorty (WGA, Globe nominee), Clockers and Jeffrey.
Best Original Screenplay: For the second year in a row, the Writers Guild becomes irrelevant to the consensus awards as the winner is ineligible. So, The Usual Suspects, like Pulp Fiction, wins the consensus award without even a WGA nomination by winning the Oscar, BAFTA and Chicago Film Critics Award. The actual WGA winner, Braveheart (which shows how screwed up the WGA is this year) comes in second, with Oscar and Globe noms. The other three consensus nominees are Clueless (WGA nom, National Society of Film Critics Award), Mighty Aphrodite (Oscar, WGA noms) and Muriel’s Wedding (WGA, BAFTA noms). My winner is The Usual Suspects, with the rest of my nominees being Toy Story (Oscar nominee), Les Miserables (I consider it original because it is inspired by but not adapted from the novel, the same way Clueless is inspired by Emma), Smoke and Mina Tannenbaum. It’s just a weaker year with some rather unorthodox scripts as the best. My 6 through 10 are Burnt by the Sun, Kids, Don Juan DeMarco, Muriel’s Wedding and Before the Rain.
Best Actor: Nicholas Cage is only kept from a sweep by losing the BAFTA (to Nigel Hawthorne for the previous year’s Madness of King George), though the BFCA simply skips him rather than nominate him like the BAFTAs. But he wins all six critics, the SAG, Oscar and Globe, as well as the consensus and the Nighthawk. In a very, very distant second is Massimo Troisi for Il Postino, with SAG, Oscar and BAFTA noms, followed with a tie between Anthony Hopkins for Nixon and Sean Penn for Dead Man Walking, who both earn SAG, Oscar and Globe noms. In fifth is Kevin Bacon, who wins the BFCA and earns a SAG nom (though in supporting) for Murder in the First. My own list, after Cage, are Ian McKellen, who is BAFTA and Globe nominated for Richard III, Hopkins, Troisi and Jean-Paul Belmondo, with the best performance of his career in Les Miserables. My 6 through 10 are the under-appreciated and barely seen Hugh Grant in An Awfully Big Adventure, the rock solid Clint Eastwood in Bridges of Madison County, Penn, Golden Globe – Comedy winner John Travolta in Get Shorty and Gabriel Byrne leading the gang in The Usual Suspects.
Best Actress: Elisabeth Shue (Leaving Las Vegas) becomes the first actress to lose the Oscar, Globe, SAG and BAFTA but still wins the consensus thanks to her three critics wins (LA, National Society, Chicago). Then comes Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility), who also loses at the Globes, SAG and Oscars, but wins at the BAFTA and wins the NBR. Nicole Kidman (To Die For) wins in Boston, the Globe – Comedy and the new BFCA, but only earns a BAFTA nom, getting shut out at the Oscars and SAG, but it’s good enough for third place, over the actual Oscar winner, Susan Sarandon (who also wins SAG and gets a Globe nom for Dead Man Walking). Meryl Streep comes in fifth place for The Bridges of Madison County by earning SAG, Oscar and Globe noms. These are also, amazingly, my five nominees, though in a different order (I go Thompson, Kidman, Shue, Streep, Sarandon). My 6 through 10 are very different: Romane Bohringer for Mina Tannenbaum, Georgina Cates for An Awfully Big Adventure, Emma Thompson for Carrington, Globe winner and Oscar nominee Sharon Stone for Casino and Globe – Comedy nominee Toni Collette for Muriel’s Wedding.
Best Supporting Actor: Kevin Spacey runs away with the consensus award, winning the Oscar, BFCA, NYFC, BSFC, CFC and NBR, as well as earning SAG and Globe noms. Most of them just mention his performance in The Usual Suspects, but some also mention Se7en and Swimming with Sharks. Ed Harris comes next, tying with Spacey at the BFCA, winning the SAG and earning Oscar and Globe noms for Apollo 13. Don Cheadle wins the other two critics awards and earns a SAG nomination but is ignored by the Oscars for his performance in Devil in a Blue Dress. The final two consensus nominations go to Tim Roth for Rob Roy (BAFTA win, Oscar and Globe noms) and Brad Pitt for 12 Monkeys (Globe win, Oscar nom). Spacey also tops my list and Pitt comes in third, but my second place is the magnificent performance by Patrick Stewart in Jeffrey. My final two spots go to Kenneth Branagh for his devious Iago in Othello (SAG nom) and Alan Rickman in Sense and Sensibility (BAFTA nom). My 6 through 10 are Harvey Keitel in Clockers, Alan Rickman (this time in An Awfully Big Adventure), Ed Harris, Forest Whitaker in Smoke and Oscar nominee James Cromwell from Babe.
Best Supporting Actress: Mira Sorvino wins the Oscar, Globe, NBR and NYFC, as well as the consensus award for Mighty Aphrodite (and also earns SAG and BAFTA nominations). Joan Allen wins the other four critics awards but loses at SAG (where she is nominated as a lead), Oscar and BAFTA for her great performance as Pat Nixon. Kate Winslet, the big new star in Sense and Sensibility, wins the SAG and BAFTA and earns Oscar and Globe noms to come in third. Mare Winningham comes in fourth with SAG and Oscar nominations for Georgia while Kathleen Quinlan (Apollo 13) and Anjelica Huston (The Crossing Guard) tie for fifth with Globe noms and an Oscar nom for Quinlan and SAG for Huston. My own list is Winslet, Allen, Sorvino, Huston and Ileana Douglas as the vicious sister-in-law in To Die For. My next five are Sigourney Weaver with her amazing small role in Jeffrey, Quinlan, Chloe Sevigny in her breakthrough role in Kids, Winningham and Cynthia Stevenson as a more beleagured sister-in-law in Home for the Holidays.
Jeffrey (1995) succeeds where it's difficult - as a comedy about AIDS.
Under-appreciated Film of 1995:
Jeffrey (dir. Christopher Ashley)
So what is it that makes Jeffrey a progressive success in the lines of Longtime Companion and Angels in America while Philadelphia can be deemed a retrograde failure? It is obviously not connected to financial success. Philadelphia, after all, in one weekened outgrossed the complete theatrical runs of Longtime Companion and Jeffrey combined. Instead, it lies in the cores of the films themselves, in the way they choose to make their approach to the modern day plague and how their final moments set the stage for what will come next.
I have said this before, here and here, both of them coming from a paper I wrote in grad school, but it’s important enough to repeat it here. There is a poetry in what these three works do. Instead of a moment like the ending of Philadelphia where we look back at the young boy who would grow up to die the horrible death and try to fight the bigotry, we get a look forward, a look with hope, a look that would have Harvey Milk proud. All three of these films end with the idea that there is a shared community here, that this is not something to be suffered in silence, dying in back rooms and failing to make the obituary page with any honesty.
Jeffrey is all about the sense of humor at the heart of the gay community. They get lambasted and ridiculed and lampooned, but they know that and they can embrace it and even run with it. They cruise at funerals, they laugh at the thought of the oncoming sense of death, they can enjoy the stereotypes (“We’re here. We’re queer. And we’re on tv!”). But they embrace life, not just their own lives and the community around them (“There are no car alarms. No potholes.” Jeffrey says at one point when he is thinking of moving back to Wisconsin. “No parades.” is the response that he gets.), but the very notion of life. When Jeffrey, torn apart at the thought of trying to love someone who is HIV-positive, who he knows he will have to watch get sick and die, goes to seek help from a priest, he gets some very useful advice (in a bring-the-house down performance from Nathan Lane): “Of course life sucks; it always will – so why not make the most of it? How dare you not lunge for any shred of happiness?” Which then allows for the great punchline from an elderly woman in church: “How dare you turn down sex when there are children in Western Europe who can’t get a date.”
Jeffrey is part of a larger community and the film looks at the whole community and modern life itself with a wink and a nod and some of the best scenes and funniest lines of the year. Sigourney Weaver has a hilarious cameo as Deborah, the nation’s hottest post-modern evangelist. When they appear on a game-show called “It’s Just Sex,” Sterling, played in a career best performance from Patrick Stewart, when asked for his favorite sexual fantasy, answers “Yoko Ono.” When the flamboyantly gay Sterling is pressed on it, he replies, rolling his eyes “To see the apartment.” (It’s a brilliant change from the original play when he answered Jackie O, but she had died between the play and the film, so the answer was perfectly changed).
So, with AIDS in the background, Jeffrey chickening out of his life and his friends dying and the film a great example of morbid self-mocking humor, how can this film connect with the serious critically acclaimed films Longtime Companion and Angels in America? It comes down to those final moments. Of course, in Longtime, we get that amazing moment when those who are gone come back and Campbell Scott’s sad refrain: “I just want to be there. When they do find a cure.” In Angels in America, we get one of the great ending speeches to any film: “We won’t die secret deaths anymore. The world only spins forward. We will be citizens. The time has come. Bye now. You are fabulous creatures, each and every one. And I bless you: More Life. The Great Work Begins.” Both of them are following to advice of Harvey, who knew they key: “You’ve got to give them hope.” So how can Jeffrey measure up? How is it that two men moving around each other in a ballroom booping a balloon back up into the air anything like that? Because of something else that Father Dan says, while desperately trying to get some action from Jeffrey: “Have you ever been to a picnic? And someone blows up a balloon, and everyone starts tossing it around? And the balloon drifts and it catches the light, and it’s always just about to touch the ground, but someone always gets there just in time to tap it back up. That balloon – that’s God. The very best in all of us.” As they say in Les Miserables, “to love another person is to see the face of God.” And surely Jeffrey, with his love of Broadway musicals, standing there, with love in his eyes, tapping that balloon back to Steve, would understand that it is the very best in all of us.
Judging from the box office, the fairly full viewing I saw of An Awfully Big Adventure at Cinema 21 was the only U.S. showing of the film
Under-appreciated Film of 1995 #2
An Awfully Big Adventure (dir. Mike Newell)
My love for Jeffrey, a film that so few people I know have seen meant that I could not help but write about it. But this film, which grossed less than $300,000 and never played in more than 12 theaters, in spite of re-teaming Mike Newell and Hugh Grant, who the year before had made the huge Oscar-nominated hit Four Weddings and a Funeral, saddens me. Is it because it isn’t a straight up comedy that people wouldn’t go see it? It is the dark, twisted, cynical performance by Hugh Grant, the opposite of his romantic, bumbling Charles from the year before, that turned people away, in spite of the fact that it really showed what kind of range Grant had? Or was it the dark secret at the heart of the film, unknown by any of the characters at the time, and only made clear to a character who divulges it to no one before his untimely death that was too much for people?
Either way, it’s too bad that more people didn’t go to see it. First of all, it is a reminder of one of the very best things about The Muppet Show. Part of what made that such a wonderful show, wasn’t just the muppets or their humor, but the very concept itself – behind the scenes at a theater. It’s always great fun to go to a theater, even if it isn’t done very well (and part of the fun in both The Muppet Show and An Awfully Big Adventure is that what happens on stage isn’t necessarily all that good, though, thankfully for these actors, Waldorf and Statler aren’t there to heckle them). But it’s much more fun to see what is going on behind the scenes – being part of something like that is always an amazing experience, and this film allows us to see inside this experience, through the eyes of a starstruck young, beautiful girl, hopelessly in love with the caddish, roguish (“You were all the best people we could get,” he tells his actors, then adds “for the money.”), and quite obviously to everyone but her, gay, stage director.
That director, Mr. Potter, of course, is Grant himself. He has never been better on film, before or since. When first interviewing the young Stella, he sees right through her desperation, and there is a wonderful moment where he starts to walk away and she complains that he hasn’t seen her act. He turns back, and with a delightfully roguish smile, replies “Oh, I rather thank I have.” He brings her aboard, not as an actress, but to work behind the stages. Her youth and beauty (it really is a wonderful performance by Georgina Cates, really the one bright spot of her career) captivates so many of the older men and they all fall for her in the way that is so common among groups of people that work closely together. But she has eyes only for her director.
Enter the actor. He has saved the company before, has worked with Potter before. He’s played by Alan Rickman and this role, combined with his role in Sense and Sensibility (also opposite Grant), was the first reminder that Rickman is just as suitable in the romantic charming role he played in Truly, Madly Deeply as he his in the villain role that made him a star in Die Hard (which is perhaps why he was so perfect to play Snape – a rather odd combination of the two). He falls instantly in love with Stella and their affair propels the second half of the film.
The title, of course, comes from Peter Pan, the play that they must perform and that requires a perfect Hook – and we actually get a couple of them. But we also remember what it refers to – death, that final adventure, that always seems to be hanging around in the background of the film.
It’s a smart, funny, really charming film that absolutely no one saw. It was absolutely ignored by all the awards groups, but it wins my Best Makeup, gets nominations for Adapted Screenplay and Costume Design, comes in sixth for Best Actor, and in my Golden Globes, wins Best Actor, while earning nominations for Picture, Actress, Supporting Actor, Director and Adapted Screenplay – a far better film than The American President and Sabrina, the films that the Globes actually gave their accolades to.
20 November, 2011 at 7:21 pm
I hate Kids. I hate Harmony Korine, I hate Larry Clark, I hate the way they tell this story, I hate how they seem to think that what they are telling is anything other than exploitation.
There are so many films here that I love that you seem to think are second rate, and considering that this is a bad year for film, that’s saying something. The American President is easily my favorite Aaron Sorkin movie (yes, I like it more than A Few Good Men). Babe is a film that has always been beloved in my house, perfect for kids and endlessly heartwarming.
Best Film from a Director You Consider Overrated: Before Sunrise (I think this is one of Richard Linklater’s best films)
Best Film You Refuse to Mention Twice: Casino (I really love this film, though I understand the complaints people have with it)
Worst Film You Put into a Top Ten: Don Juan DeMarco (Really? This film blows. Anyone will tell you, even die-hard Johnny Depp fans)
Funniest Film Not Mentioned in this Article: Dracula: Dead and Loving It (Love Mel Brooks. This is his most underrated film)
Best Film Taking Place in a Single Workday: Empire Records (though Mallrats is also wonderful to watch)
Best Meg Ryan Film of the Nineties: French Kiss (blame Kevin Kleine for making this movie far too enjoyable)
Best Animated Movie: Ghost in the Shell (Yes, Toy Story is a landmark film. Yes, it was the first full-length CGI animated feature. Yes, it is heartwarming and beautiful. This is better)
Last Alfonso Cuaron Movie I Have Yet To See: A Little Princess (By the by, I am still massively unimpressed by this man. Really, out of your top four for his films, I only thought that Children of Men is worth anything, and I don’t think nearly as highly of it as everyone else seems to. Yes, we get it, tracking shots look cool, but you can’t rely on them all the time)
Worst Movie Considered a Cult Classic: Tank Girl
21 November, 2011 at 7:57 am
does’t this impress you?? really??
21 November, 2011 at 7:59 am
I so disagree with you across the board here.
I don’t like Kids and I have never felt more uncomfortable when watching a film – especially because, with the style, and the unknown actors, it felt like a documentary, which made it more disturbing. But I thought it was well made and that Sevigny was very good.
I didn’t think the American President was anything better than a standard rom-com. My review of Babe will be up in the next few days.
I hate Before Sunrise with a fierce passion. It, more than anything, is responsible for my dislike of Linklater and, coming after Reality Bites, sealed my hatred for Ethan Hawke.
Casino is okay, but for Scorsese just felt like a re-tread.
I happen to really like Don Juan DeMarco.
I considered mentioning Dracula: Dead and Loving It with a read the book, don’t see the film, but since it’s a parody, I felt it didn’t count. As a Dracula fan and Mel Brooks fan who had still been enjoying a lesser work like Robin Hood: Men in Tights, I was really looking forward to it. I think it is far and away his worst film and there is almost nothing funny about it. I recall laughing once (“She’s dead.” “No.” “She’s alive?” “No. She’s Nosferatu.” “She’s Italian?”).
I feel that both Empire Records and French Kiss are mediocre.
To me Ghost in the Shell is ***.5. Toy Story is ****.
A Little Princess is more enjoyable than I expected, but I can’t understand your dislike for Prisoner of Azkaban.
I’ve never actually seen Tank Girl, because I knew it would suck. But even so, by far the worst film considered a cult classic is Showgirls, which is one of the worst films ever made and has become a cult classic, partially because of this, and partially in spite of this.
21 November, 2011 at 8:04 am
No. The score is well-done. But it’s edited like he didn’t have enough extras to pull back and do a nice wide shot, so he would try to get around that by editing like a kid on speed. What’s the average shot length on this? Two seconds? And everytime Gibson speaks, I can’t take him seriously.
21 November, 2011 at 11:59 am
well in my opinion this battle sequence is simply outstanding, maybe the best of all times, and I love the dynamic editing in it. frankly speaking, I think Gibson deserved the oscar
moreover, what I really like is that You did not include “Casino” on the list. some people tend to overrate this mediocre movie, which is a much worse version of Goodfellas.
However, “Toy Story” is by far the best movie of the year for me. Actually it is one of the best movies of all times in my opinion, and I am really glad many critics share this opinion, as can be seen on rottentomatoes.com
21 November, 2011 at 12:56 pm
You might want to skip my next post where I take Gibson to task.
21 November, 2011 at 1:34 pm
I haven’t watched it in years, but I recall liking “Braveheart” well enough when I saw it (one of the main things I remember from that period was that it required two VHS tapes, which was something I don’t think I’d ever seen before then).
I don’t think you mention “GoldenEye” anywhere in this article, so I’ll just chip in that it did a great job reviving the Bond franchise (and made for a seminal videogame).
Best Kenneth Branagh Shakespeare Performance in a Movie not Directed by Kenneth Branagh: Kenneth Branagh in “Othello” (the movie as a whole is pretty mediocre, but Branagh himself is a superb Iago).
Speaking of Shakespeare, “Richard III” is probably my favourite film of the year. It does such a marvelous job, and on such economical budgeting. Ian McKellen’s lead performance is one of my all-time favourites, and my choice for Best Actor for that year (both his and Branagh’s performances involve a lot of villainous talking right-into-the-camera, which can be hard to pull off, but Shakespeare was very good at it).
Speaking of the actual Best Actor winner for that year, ah, Nicolas Cage. So talented, so WTF in your movie choices. I think he made three good films in the last decade (“Adaptation”, “Matchstick Men”, “Lord of War”).
21 November, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Why don’t you like Dead man walking?
I really love the performances by Penn and Sarandon (the best of the year)
I understand the hate for Mel Gibson: Braveheart is only good for the technical achievements. The script and the acting are terrible.
21 November, 2011 at 3:22 pm
I didn’t say I didn’t like Dead Man Walking. I think it’s a very good film, with very good performances. It just isn’t quite up to my Top 20. I don’t think Sarandon’s was the best of the year, though – but she did make my nominees.
21 November, 2011 at 4:13 pm
Braveheart was just OK, in my opinion, but it doesn’t change the fact that Gibson’s still a vile human being.
I’ve actually seen Jeffrey! I think an ex-boyfriend showed it to me a few years ago. Problem is, I don’t remember it very well. Except for the elderly woman bit, which made me laugh hysterically.
21 November, 2011 at 4:15 pm
Well, a lot of it is on YouTube, and I link to both the Nathan Lane and Sigourney Weaver scenes (and Patrick Stewart’s brilliant line) in the Notables.
21 November, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Why I hate Kids: I think that the documentary feel is most certainly a good thing. I deeply appreciate it and the way it influenced City of God. But unlike City of God, by nature it felt more like a bunch of people make a teensploitation film, almost as a parody of ’80s teen movies. And no, I don’t find that titillating or sensational. At best, it makes it a one-trick movie. The actual content is so absurdly awful that I could barely stand to watch it. Also, it does not help that I saw Ken Park (Kids without the documentarian concept) first, and it rather ruined my opinion of Larry Clark and Harmony Korine. Sevigny was good, though not excellent.
Why I love The American President: One scene. The scene where Michael J Fox tells Michael Douglas “People cry out for leadership like water in the desert. And when they don’t see it, they’ll chase after a mirage thinking it’s an oasis. But when they arrive and don’t see any water, they are so thirsty they’ll drink the sand.” But Douglas responds “People don’t drink the sand because they’re thirsty. They drink the sand because they’ve been doing it for so long they don’t know the difference.” Yes, this movie features an idealized president and a demonized opponent. Yes, they seem more like cartoons than characters. But Reiner uses them to make bigger statements about polotics, and he does it cleverly.
Why I like (not love) Before Sunrise: It is a beautifully shot Vienna story, and is a sweet love story that describes precisely how I fell in love, fast and hard and without abandon, so much that I wanted to stay awake for every second so that I could spend it with her. I’m sad that you don’t enjoy it, but as always, I understand. I do not understand how this contributes more to your hatred of Richard Linklater than Slacker, which is an awful movie. And for the record, Ethan Hawke is a fine actor. Not wonderful, but perfectly adequate in some movies. We’ll get to your hatred of Linklater in full when we reach A Scanner Darkly and Me And Orson Wells.
Why I love Casino: It feels much more subdued, and burns longer and slower than most Scorsese movies. Yet while most people find that to be a detriment, I think it makes it feel like a big cigar, rich and delicious. Is it a re-tread. Perhaps, but DeNiro in the lead feels great, and the line “We are legitimate businessmen” is a classic.
Why Don Juan DeMarco sucks: To quote Roger Ebert “Brando doesn’t so much walk through this movie as coast, in a gassy, self-indulgent performance no one else could have gotten away with.” It is sappy, stupid, has awful dialogue, and I think it is an entirely worthless movie nobody would want to watch twice. I will not think any less of you for liking it, I merely would like to know what you find so likable.
Why you are absolutely correct about Dracula: Dead and Loving It: You’re right, it is not that amazing, I just like it for the minor laughs and the silliness. And Leslie Nielsen is fun. And when pretty much all of Mel Brook’s work is acclaimed except this, I feel justified in calling it his most underrated movie.
I never claimed that Empire Records or French Kiss were anything but enjoyable. They are not good or interesting films, but empty calories that don’t taste overly sweet.
Why I think Ghost in the Shell is better than Toy Story: Toy Story represents a massive childhood joy that shall never be replaced or topped. All together, the three movies represent so much happiness and wonder, so much perfection in animation and storytelling, that sometimes we refuse to acknowledge that the first was in fact the weakest of them. It lacks a strong villian (Sid seems a bit stupid and too big). I think that Ghost in the Shell succeeded at creating a beautifully paced movie that is far more intelligent and remarkable, as well as more impressive animation-wise. I am not saying that Toy Story is a bad movie. I consider it a **** movie as well. But Ghost in the Shell is better.
Why I hate hate hate HATE Prisoner of Azkaban: When I read Prisoner of Azkaban, it immediately became my favorite Harry Potter book. I thought that the kids were believable as kids still, yet were grappling with a bigger idea that they didn’t know how to handle yet. I loved the secrecy of the Marauder’s Map, sneaking in and out of Hogsmeade, and the very real possibility that Buckbeak might die but more importantly how Harry doesn’t really feel that strongly about it, and feels instead much more worried about Hagrid than Buckbeak. But most of all, I adored the introduction of the backstory. Suddenly, there was more than the people at Hogwarts and Voldemort in the World of Magic. There was history, there were old friends of Harry’s parents, a lasting character in Lupin, a bigger explanation of Snape’s history with Harry’s father, and most of all there was no focus on Voldemort. The Prisoner of Azkaban was not just where the books stopped being ordinary kid’s fantasy and started becoming serious kid’s stories on good and evil, but it is where they ceased to be linear and instead became dynamic. Alfonso Cuaron destroyed that. He broke it into little bits and stitched instead a time travel movie with a dark and moody atmosphere that almost seemed to brood. No, I hate Prisoner of Azkaban. When I watched it as a child it destroyed me. It was the first movie I ever hated, the movie that made me understand that there were movies that were not enjoyable.
Why you’re absolutely right about Showgirls: I have this idea in my head that a cult classic must be a cult classic for some reason other than “It was just so bad we had to laugh at it over and over”, whether it be due to Tank Girl’s excellent comic origins or Rocky Horror Picture Show’s interactivity. But that’s wrong. Plan 9 From Outer Space is proof enough that some movies can be enjoyed as cult classics simply because they are ineptly made in every way. And Showgirls is exactly that. And it is most certainly worse than Tank Girl.
21 November, 2011 at 8:58 pm
I understand your dislike for Kids, and I also hated Ken Park, but I saw Kids in the theater, long before Ken Park came out.
I understand your liking for American President, but never felt like it achieved anything more than its romance.
I also dislike Slacker, but I disagree. I think Hawke, with the exception of Tape and Lord of War is a wretched actor who should be beaten with a stick for Reality Bites and only doesn’t kill Dead Poets because he’s perfect for the whiny Todd. I thought Orson Welles was fine, but I never saw A Scanner Darkly and never will because I hate Keanu Reeves much much more than I hate Ethan Hawke.
I understand your feelings for Casino, but it still feels like minor Scorsese to me.
It has been a long time since I saw Don Juan DeMarco, but I enjoyed Brando’s performance and I enjoyed the way he inter-acted with Depp.
In terms of Ghost in the Shell, I thought it sacrificed too much story-telling for its effect (I thought the same of Akira). I actually thought the second Ghost in the Shell was better.
As for Prisoner – I loved that it was dark and moody, but I was an adult when it came out. I loved that it could do so much more with the Harry Potter films than Columbus had done. I loved the book and the film, especially with the overt way it approached Ron and Hermione’s obviously burgeoning relationship added to the book – especially with the performances from Thewlis and Oldman. I think it’s the best of the Potter films by far and you’ll have a hard time convincing people otherwise – it is a fairly commonly held belief. It was the first of the films that actually transcended the books – no, they couldn’t show everything and for people who hadn’t read the books, that probably rushed things, but I also have a good understanding of what has to be sacrificed to make a good film from a long book. That said, I understand your reasoning – it’s hard to separate things from how you saw them the first time, especially depending on how old you were.
For instance, my intense hatred of Ben Stiller and Ethan Hawke dates to the fact that they made the piece of shit Reality Bites, that was supposed to be about my generation, but really had nothing to do with my generation and I will never get past that.
21 November, 2011 at 10:29 pm
Okay, the second Ghost in the Shell, while excellent, sacrifices the effect for story-telling, and fails because of it. It’s a good movie, but it destroys all that made the first one good simply by trying (and failing) to integrate CGI animation with its amazingly beautiful traditional animation.
I now understand your dislike for Ethan Hawke, although to be fair I only really enjoy his (rather minor) performance in Lord of War. Everything else was either whatever or passable. Before Sunset saw him being adequate, but the real actor of that film was Vienna.
As for Prisoner of Azkaban, you may be right that there are many people who consider it the best of the movies. However, this is not a good measurement of a film, even if the people polled are movie critics. Nor do I think I would ever change anyone’s opinion of a film, nor would I want to. I am merely trying to explain my own feelings, as you expressed confusion as to how I could ever dislike Prisoner of Azkaban. I believe that the Prisoner of Azkaban book gave Alfonso Cuaron the most possible material to work with, and he through all of it out the window, sacrificing the larger story of the Harry Potter Universe for the meanest section that would be the coolest to film, time travel. To be fair, I don’t think he could have put the material I wanted to be in the film in without it turning into fan-only material, but one of the things I like most about book is how the mood is still buoyed by the childish attitudes of the characters, which wouldn’t really change until the fifth book (end of the fourth, really), and instead he made it far too dark, and was an especially jarring, sudden switch in tone, especially for a child. Terry Gilliam would have done a much better job. The fourth movie did an excellent job of going from that childish attitude to serious.
As for your comment about the relative pragmatism in adapting a dense book, I agree, sometimes things must be sacrificed. But an pragmatic adaptation does not need to be disloyal. Take Adaptation, for example. Pragmatic, yet very loyal to the (frankly awful) memoir it was based on, largely focused on the amazing adaptability of orchids and the lengths people go to get them, only creativity is a metaphor for the orchids (or maybe the other way around). Another (much simpler) example could be the Donner Superman movies, while making large stylistic changes, was very loyal to the story of Superman and what Superman stands for.
You should watch A Scanner Darkly. I take that back, you should read A Scanner Darkly and then watch the movie. The two compliment each other in a way that’s hard to explain. It’s odd, but Philip K Dick has had some of the best movie adaptations of his works out off all the famous sci-fi authors (though some could argue that 2001 A Space Odyssey automatically makes Clarke #1), yet despite this the movies are not really all the same as the stories they are based on. Total Recall, The Adjustment Bureau, Minority Report are all based on short stories that were expanded, while Blade Runner was described by Dick as not his story, but complementing it, so that fans of the film could enjoy the book and fans of the book could enjoy the film. And for the record, that is an excellent description of what a pragmatic adaptation should feel like… in something OTHER than a series, which requires a more taut similarity, otherwise sacrificing elements necessary for future movies.
21 November, 2011 at 11:41 pm
Amusingly, on the day we get into a discussion of “Before Sunrise” (which, for the record, I’m a fan of; “Sunset” is better, though), Ethan Hawke announces that a second sequel is in the works.
21 September, 2012 at 9:06 am
No top foreign films list for this year?