'Any Mike, Dick, or Wolfgang... Any Mike, Wolfgang or Dick ♪ ♫ '
Monday, June 1, 2015 at 11:34PM HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT RETURNS WEDNESDAY NIGHT. Our cinematography-loving series, returns from hiatus on June 3rd. Here are your first three movies so get to watchin' em! Spread the word, rent the pictures, pick a shot and join our more-the-merrier visual party.
DICK TRACY (1990)
Wednesday, June 3rd
Before live action takes on illustrated fiction were regular, and definitely before they were respectable, Warren Beatty brought his terrific eye to this pop colored live-action conjuring of the classic syndicated detective comic with outlandish looking villains and femme fatales. (Like Sin City minus the gruesome machismo and way more color / fun.) Nominated for 7 Oscars including Cinematography (Vittorio Storaro), the all time best haul for a comic adaptation outside of The Dark Knight. and still the record holder for most wins (3). [Netflix | iTunes | Amazon]
AMADEUS (1984)
Wednesday, June 10th
Right before this leaves Netflix Instant Watch let's dive deep into arguably the best biopic ever made, Milos Forman's lush battle of wills and talent between Salieri (F Murray Abraham) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Thomas Hulce) the last film ever nominated for two Best Actor Oscars (before category fraud campaigning rendered those a thing of the past). Nominated for 11 Oscars including Best Cinematography (Miroslav Ondrícek) though it lost that one despite 8 wins elsewhere. [Netflix | Amazon]
MAGIC MIKE (2012)
Wednesday June 17th
Before the XXL sequel hits theaters for the 4th of July holiday, let's stuff some dollar bills into Channing Tatum's G string in Steven Soderbergh's overachieving male stripper drama. Soderbergh's love of yellow filters (he does his own cinematography as "Peter Andrews") can grate, but this movie is worth drooling at, excuse me looking at again. Nominated for Zero Oscars because... it's a male stripper drama. But obviously this is the one Matthew McConaughey should've won his Oscar for. [Netflix | iTunes | Amazon]
Reader Comments (13)
HELL YES Amadeus! That movie is practically the nipples of venus personified.
F. Murray Abraham's oscar win is so underrated that it hurts, cause it's actually superb Acting.
And Dick Tracy also netted Stephen Sondheim his Oscar - for "Sooner or Later."
fadhil: If F. Murray Abraham's win is underrated in the Oscar hierarchy, that's kind of a disgrace because it's the best overall win (making sense on both a qualitative and symbolic level) of that entire DECADE.
1980: Robert DeNiro, Raging Bull (Far from a bad turn, even if it could be called coasting on memories of Bickle, but unneeded due to having already won for The Godfather Part II, especially when O'Toole was RIGHT THERE.)
1981: Henry Fonda, On Golden Pond (Makes sense from a symbolic level unlike DeNiro, but not really justified in terms of actual performance quality.)
1982: Ben Kingsley, Gandhi (Even NOMINATING a performance of this shallow, one note interpretation of Gandhi is questionable, but giving him the win when you have a Paul Newman masterclass in making an already deep and interesting character feel even richer than what's on the page as a nominee? DISGRACE.)
1983: Robert Duvall, Tender Mercies (It might make sense on a symbolic and quality level compared to that field, but who even freaking CARES that Duvall won here? It's 1983, probably their worst year of the decade. The kind of year that's dominated by UK talent but DOESN'T have room for a heaping load of nominations for Local Hero, a film that holds up and is still remembered fondly while The Dresser, Reuben, Reuben and even Educating Rita are mostly forgotten.)
1984: F. Murray Abraham, Amadeus (It's a phenomenal performance AND a great symbolic nod to a character actor being given a huge opportunity. I think DeNiro in Once Upon a Time in America is actually better, but I still LOVE this win.)
1985: William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider-Woman (Was ANYONE watching the same movie? The character is written as camp and performed as William Hurt. Look, I like William Hurt (he's got that Donald Sutherland like soulful wisdom about him at his best), but he's BAD in this. If it was actually about the film? Give the statue to the genuinely phenomenal Raul Julia. If it was more about Hurt? Wait until A History of Violence.)
1986: Paul Newman, The Colour of Money (Career nod. Blatantly so, due to it being a reprise of his character from The Hustler.)
1987: Michael Douglas, Wall Street (He's definitely not supporting and he's definitely not terrible, but he's definitely better in Fatal Attraction. Douglas here is reigning himself in so much that how blatantly evil the character is written as and how much hammier he should maybe be going for because of that starts to sink in. Julian McMahon would give what amounts to a bad impression of this already kind of misjudged performance for his Doctor Doom.)
1988: Dustin Hoffman, Rain Man (I couldn't even say this performance is impressive enough to land in my top TWELVE, let alone as a nominee and Hoffman certainly didn't need it as he'd already won for Kramer vs. Kramer. John Malkovich? Willis? Charles Fleischer? All people in the public eye that could have made for cool nominees, even if they absolutely couldn't have won. Well, okay, MAYBE Malkovich could have pulled it off if Hoffman wasn't nominated.)
1989: Daniel Day-Lewis, My Left Foot (SIGH. Look, I get that DDL showed a fantastic amount of craft and detail with his work here, but if the characterization leaves them with basically nothing to work with beyond physical gimmicks, maybe they SHOULDN'T be a winner?)
I appreciate that you didn't mention Madonna by name in your Dick Tracy blurb. It's nice to be reminded that she's done work in the SERVICE of fun and classic films that hold up on their own. So often she's talked about as a massive distraction or the sole agent of her movies' successes and failures. And while that's true in some movies, it's certainly not the whole story.
It would be so fun to see her in a supporting role circa today. I wonder if ANYONE sends her scripts.
Just on a minor point, I don't really think Amadeus should be considered a biopic. It's a drama about artistry and jealousy that uses historical characters, akin to Shakespeare in Love; it's not really intended to represent the actual Mozart, or actual history.
Thank you so much for scheduling Amadeus. I really need to re-watch that one. :)
Got the chance to see Amadeus again after many years at last summer's Grant Park outdoor film fest here in Chi. It really held up, and it was so awesome to sit outdoors and enjoy it. Hulce is also incredible in this.
Do you pick one of these or review all 3?
R -- it's a weekly thing. you can do any one of them or all of them for each specific date. Each participant picks a best shot, discusses why they chose it, and we link up. Some recent examples so you can see how it works: TAXI DRIVER, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, JOHNNY GUITAR
Cool. I will do Amadeus which I love. I did Citizen Kane which I guess had 3 choices but wasn't sure if that was just for Orson Welles. Should be interesting to see.
I love "Dick Tracy." It's one of those childhood films that will always hold a special place in my heart. I can't wait to watch it again.
Ahem....YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The fact that you expect me to pick one singular image from Magic Mike is an absolutely cruel task