Probably my mother’s favorite movie, at least in part because Chris Cooper actually plays the hero.
You can read more about this year in film here. The Best Picture race is discussed here, with reviews of all the nominees. First there are the categories, followed by all the films with their nominations, then the Globes, where I split the major awards by Drama and Comedy, followed by a few lists at the very end. If there’s a film you expected to see and didn’t, check the very bottom – it might be eligible in a different year. Films in red won the Oscar in that category (or Globe, in the Globes section). Films in blue were nominated. Films (or directors) in olive are links to earlier posts that I don’t want to have show up in blue and be mistaken for a nominee. Films with an asterisk (*) were Consensus nominees (a scale I put together based on the various awards) while those with a double asterisk (**) were the Consensus winners.
I’m listing the top 12 in the categories but only the top 5 earn Nighthawk nominations.
Nighthawk Awards:
- Best Picture
- Lone Star
- Trainspotting
- The English Patient
- Fargo
- Hamlet
- Secrets & Lies
- Jerry Maguire
- In the Bleak Midwinter
- Cold Comfort Farm
- The Crucible
- Romeo + Juliet
- Emma
Analysis: There are a lot of years that have a better #1 film than Lone Star. But not many have a better #2 than Trainspotting. Even fewer have a better #3 than The English Patient. The Top three films are tied with several others years for third best to-date (behind 1946 and 1950). But Fargo is the best #4 film to-date (actually, it’s almost certainly the best #4 film ever). And only a handful of years have a #5 film as good as Hamlet. As a result, this year is tied with 1946 for the best Top 4 to-date and Top 5 to-date (and, probably, all-time). There is a three point drop after that, so it’s only the second best Top 6, then another two point drop. But, because all 10 films are ****, it is in the 6th best Top 10 to-date, behind only 1989, 1960, 1994, 1962 and 1991.
One thing I must make mention of here. I don’t count documentaries, as I have mentioned in the past. That is particularly relevant in this year, a year in which I actually went to see two documentaries in the theater (The Celluloid Closet, Looking for Richard) and there are a couple of others which are phenomenal (When We Were Kings, Paradise Lost). I went with 12 films because this is my whole list of **** films.
Two of these films rank among the films I have watched the most over the last 20 years (Trainspotting, In the Bleak Midwinter). (more…)
