Q&A: Summer Classics, Best 'Action' Acting, and Late 70s Silliness
Tuesday, May 19, 2015 at 11:00AM
NATHANIEL R in A Streetcar Named Desire, Bull Durham, Marsha Mason, Norma Rae, Orlando, Oscars (70s), Q&A, Sally Field, Supporting Actor, TV, books

Yay, reader question time! I did two public appearances, with mic in hand, this weekend which is rare for me. First up was the Q&A with David Dastmalchian for the Animals opening at Village East Cinemas and then on Sunday, a very stressful pre-screening trivia for the Mad Men Finale at The Astor Room restaurant in conjunction with The Museum of the Moving Image. I am always terrified if I'm miked but here at home on TFE, no terror. I type at you, no miking necessary.

Let's take 9 reader questions. I suggested 1979 related questions (our year of the month) but let's do some general questions first on action film acting, summer movies, Oscar sweeps, and classic novels on the screen...

BHURAY: What are your five favorite novels of all time and if they've been translated to film how would you rank the films?

NATHANIEL: I don't feel all that well-read I confess. I spend so much of my time with movies that it's hard to carve out several hours for a book. But when I do read I try to alternate between one for fun and one because-it's-classic when I do read. These are the five best novels I've ever read:

Beloved and lots more questions after the jump...

  1. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
  2. Beloved - Toni Morrison
  3. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
  4. Blindness - José Saramago
  5. Orlando - Virginia Woolf

With the exception of Sally Potter's brilliant take on Orlando starring Tilda Swinton (an absolute must-see and super cinematic) I don't love any of the film versions of any of these and so it would seem silly to rank them as they range from disappointing but really trying to disappointing but forgettable.

BEN: With the amazing reviews for Charlize Theron's performance in the new Mad Max movie, do you think it's possible for an actor or actress to get nominated for an action flick again? Obviously there was Heath Ledger, but that was a unique set of circumstances.

When it comes to breaking through Oscar's anti-genre bias wall, you always need three things:

  1. for your film to be big at the box office
  2. for your competition to be somewhat lacking
  3. ...and, most importantly, a unique set of circumstances. 

Obviously in Ledger's case -- the only acting nomination from a superhero film and only the third from a comic adaptation that I'm aware of (the other two being from A History of Violence and Dick Tracy) -- you would not hope for that particular circumstance. I love Theron in general but the reviews of her performance have been slightly mistifying. It's a good action performance and she is totally a movie star but as hashed out on the podcast this weekend, it's not really a revelatory star turn. The Holy Trinity of action-actressing is still: Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon), Linda Hamilton (Terminator 2: Judgement Day), and Sigourney Weaver (the Alien films). The best 'genre' acting in 2015 is not in Fury Road (though it's a brilliant movie) but in Ex-Machina.

JEFF: What are your top 5 favorite performances in a Summer Blockbuster?

I started working on this and TWO HOURS LATER I still hadn't figured out how to approach it other than to remind everyone that Susan Sarandon's greatest work is in Bull Durham (1988), for which she should have won the Oscar and that if you look at spring & summer hits over the decades Jamie Lee Curtis is absolutely the finest unsung queen of great acting in movies few think of as "acting" movies (Trading Places, True Lies, A Fish Called Wanda, Freaky Friday). The point is: I was clearly never going to finish this answer largely because "Summer Blockbuster" definitely means different things to different people;  It even means different things to the same person #Gemini. So allow me to repurpose this question with my greatest discovery. My least favorite major Oscar category is Supporting Actor and yet, as I compiled a list, performances kept falling into that general vicinity. How about that? Perhaps Oscar ought to fill their roster with this season in mind from now on and we'll have less duller than dirt lineups in the future. 

Consider this a starter list that YOU should narrow down in the comments with your top five. Asterisks by the Oscar nominated. The performances in bold red are gold medalists in their year from our own Film Bitch Awards (or would have been had we been operating that year in some cases). Can you pick just five from such iconic wealth of supporting actors in summer event films? 

and then there's the actual Oscar winners in this category from Summer Biggies... though we have some arguable leads here...

RYAN: I know you're a purveyor of spread-out Oscar years. Has there ever been a year where you think a movie should have swept all the acting awards?


The one and only time in which I would approve this happening is A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951 and it's frustrating that Oscar didn't quite get there (stiffing Brando of all players!). That movie is like the Mount Olympus of acting with the new Gods (Brando) and the old Titans (Leigh) at war. I couldn't love it more. It's not that several movies don't have great performances in all four types of acting (leading and supporting, and both sexes) but it's the issue of being the best of a year... it just doesn't happen that everyone in one thing is better than everyone else in hundreds of things, you know?

1979 INSPIRED QUESTIONS

FOREVER1267: "The Dukes of Hazzard" debuted January 26th, 1979. So pick a team #TeamBo or #TeamLuke. Turns out "The Facts of Life" debuted in 1979 too, so if we want to keep it actress-centric and not hot redneck - centric, you could answer which one of those girls was your favorite?

Ugh. I hated "The Dukes of Hazzard" when I was a kid. Everyone watched it. I want to say #TeamLuke since Tom Wopat reinvented himself as a musical actor on Broadway (he's pretty good, too) but in truth, gun to my head of childhood memories, I was only ever on two teams (when forced to watch) #TeamDaisyDukeShorts and #TeamWhicheverDukeBoyWasHoppingIntotheCar. Does this mean I was an ass man and didn't know it!? As for The Facts of Life. I loved Tootie & Natalie but only in tandem so my answer is Blair and her "brilliant ideas" which consistently gave me life. (I guess I still love rich bitchy frighteningly entitled blondes -- see Jane Krakowski in anything.)

What teams are you on?

 JAMES: Top five sports movies NOT about the big American ones (baseball, football, hockey, basketball) eg 1979's Breaking Away?

Oh god. I have literally never thought of this and it's so narrow if you don't include all sports. Baseball almost always gets the best movies (Bull Durham, A League of Their Own, The Natural etcetera) and boxing almost always the most Oscars (Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby, Rocky, etcetera). They don't really make tennis movies do they (I love tennis)? I WISH there was a great movie about Olympic gymnasts. I'd watch the crap out of that. But I don't really seek out sports movies unless there's a specific reason (great director, favored actor, oscar buzz) so I will just say that I love both Bring It On (they will all tell you that cheerleading is a sport!) and Breaking Away (cycling) and otherwise NO this question is too hard. I give up. 


BROOKESBOY: Thoughts on the Best Actress lineup of 1979? 
ST JEANS: What is your favorite performance by an Actress in 1979?

I'm super OK with Sally Field winning the Oscar for Norma Rae. I think she is truly special and marvelous in that movie. And in pretty much all her other movies. And in her TV series. And on stage. I guess you could say I am a fan. I don't understand why she had to have such a backlash when she won a second Oscar since the deserving winner of 1984 (Kathleen Turner) wasn't even nominated so why does it matter that Field won a second?  As for the other nominees of 1979, I like them. Chapter Two might even be my favorite Marsha Mason performance (is that weird thing to say? -- I have no clue about Marsha Mason consensi). I also loved the non-nominated teenage Diane Lane in A Little Romance though I don't know if that one holds up.

I'm curious if readers have someone they wish had been nominated that year in lead? I think I need to see more 1979 films (I'm weak on that particular year) but in supporting I do wish there had been some love for the All That Jazz ladies.

DAVE: Which movie came in sixth place for a Best Picture Oscar Nomination in 1979? 

I didn't crawl ashored with Oscar legs until 1982/1983 so this answer is from the primordial ooze. Judging from the nominations that year, it was surely a race between La Cage Aux Folles (3 nominations) and The China Syndrome (4 nominations) with Being There, Manhattan, The Black Stallion, and The Rose divvying up various off-consensus votes. I know that La Cage got the lone director spot but I suspect the more mainstream pleasures of the four-time nominated and successful all-star thriller would have prevailed. It was also a big deal at the Golden Globes and we know it had the attention of Oscar's acting branch so that's my firm guess. 

THAT'S IT FOR THIS WEEK'S Q&A. As always, I love to read your answers, too, in the comments.

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