Best Adapted Screenplay: 2008

Actually, it is only written in the screenplay. The book is very different.

My Top 10

1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. The Dark Knight
3. Revolutionary Road
4. Doubt
5. OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
6. Let the Right One In
7. The Reader
8. Iron Man
9. A Secret
10. Appaloosa

note:  Not the strongest Top 5 and a fairly weak second 5.

 

A Century of Film: The Top 1000 Films (#550-501)

This is the 10th part of the Top 1000 list.  The introduction can be found here.  This might be the only group of 50 in the Top 1000 without a single Hitchcock, Spielberg, Kurosawa or Woody Allen film among them.
Except for the four films at the bottom, these are all a 91 which is mid-range ****.  The bottom four films are all 92.

 

A Century of Film: Disney – The Films (ranked)

In a sense this is untrue. It’s been 27 years and Disney has yet to make a better film.

So, I have seen every feature film Disney has ever made, from Snow White through Black Widow.  And now I have ranked them all.

First, there is a full alphabetical list of every Disney film.  I won’t try to include too much information so that it isn’t too ridiculously long but I do have at least a slight blurb with every film.  But it does include the rank.  That way you can find a specific film.  At the bottom is the full ranked list.  This list somewhat supersedes my original Animated Ranking list but it might be pretty close – I haven’t checked.

 

A Century of Film: Disney – Box Office

Depending on which chart you use, each of these films can lay a claim to being the biggest Disney film of all-time.

A Century of Film

Disney

The Box Office

“In 1989, USA Today computed that if one adjusted for inflation and changing box-office prices, Snow White’s theatrical earnings up that time would exceed six billion dollars!”  (The Disney Films, 4th Edition, Leonard Maltin, p 32).  That is patently absurd, of course, but it’s the kind of thing that makes all of the box office earnings for all films, but especially Disney films, so difficult to accurately calculate.  There are a lot of things at play and the first, of course, is the complete mythology that builds up around certain numbers.  So let’s start the look at the box office for Disney by looking closely at Snow White.

 

A Century of Film: Disney

A Century of Film

Disney

The Studio

It began with a man named Walt and a mouse named Mickey.  But of course neither of those things is actually true and that’s part of the image that lies behind the company that is not only the most successful movie studio at work today but pretty much an all-encompassing way of life that can not be ignored.

 

A Century of Film: Kids Films

A Century of Film

Kids Films

The Genre

For a lot of people, Kids films mean Animated films.  Perhaps part of the problem is that I really should re-name the genre to Family Films, which I probably would if it didn’t mean making changes in so many different spreadsheets.  “Kids” implies it’s only for children and a lot of these films are only for children (and really shouldn’t even be for them because they’re so insipid) whereas “Family” opens up the notion to films that are good for kids, that kids can enjoy, but really are also aimed at the whole family where adults can also enjoy them.  That would make people stop thinking just “animated” and open things up to films like The Wizard of Oz, Miracle on 34th Street, The Muppet Movie or Babe.

 

A Century of Film: Animated Film

Of all the categories that the Academy took too long to recognize (like Costume Design or Makeup), this is the most excusable.  It would not be until 1941 that there are even multiple feature length animated films, there aren’t five until 1970 and there aren’t really enough to justify a category until the early 80s.  The awards groups probably should have jumped on things earlier like the LAFC (1989) and Annies (1991) did but they didn’t wait way too long like they did with Costume Design and Makeup.

 

A Century of Film: The Top 1000 Films (#600-551)

This is the 9th part of the Top 1000 list.  The introduction can be found here.  Films #600-571 are a 90 and the rest are a 91 which are both low level ****.

 

The History of the Academy Awards: Best Picture – 2020

I didn’t feel the mixing of the two real actors with the amateurs worked but clearly I’m in the minority on that.

The 91st annual Academy Awards, for the film year 2020.  The nominations were announced on 15 March 2021 and the awards were held on 25 April 2021.

Best Picture:  Nomadland

• The Trial of the Chicago 7
• Promising Young Woman
• Judas and the Black Messiah
• Minari
• The Father
• Sound of Metal
• Mank

Most Surprising Omission:  One Night in Miami…

Best Eligible Film Not Nominated:  The Personal History of David Copperfield

Rank (out of 93) Among Best Picture Years:  #45

 

The Year in Film: 2020

For the first time in over 70 years, Dickens is great on film again.

My Top 20

1. The Personal History of David Copperfield
2. The Trial of the Chicago 7
3. Promising Young Woman
4. One Night in Miami…
5. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
6. Judas and the Black Messiah
7. Soul
8. Minari
9. The Father
10. Tenet
11. News of the World
12. Sound of Metal
13. Emma.
14. Dear Comrades!
15. A Whisker Away
16. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
17. The Painted Bird
18. Onward
19. Wolfwalkers
20. The Dig

They are **** films through #13.  After that they are high ***.5.  A reminder that Quo Vadis, Aida? was not Oscar submitted for 2020 and didn’t get released in the States until March so it’s actually a 2021 film for my purposes.  If it was a 2020 film it would be at #10.