Smackdown 1995. Meet the Panelists
Tuesday, July 21, 2015 at 11:00AM IMPORTANT UPDATE: The Next Supporting Actress Smackdown has been pushed back one week to Sunday August 2nd. That leaves us just under two weeks for any 1995 madness we want to get off our chest. That's leaves you just under two weeks to finish revisiting the Supporting Actresses at home and get your votes in by Thursday July 30th. Please only vote on the performances you've seen...
- Joan Allen, Nixon [Amazon Rental | iTunes Rental]
- Kathleen Quinlan, Apollo 13 [Amazon Rental | iTunes Rental]
- Mira Sorvino, Mighty Aphrodite [only available on disc]
- Mare Winningham, Georgia [Netflix Instant Watch]
- Kate Winslet, Sense & Sensibility [Free With Amazon Prime | iTunes Rental]
Just outside the shortlist that year? Who knows but maybe it was Globe nominees Kyra Sedgwick (Something to Talk About) and Anjelica Huston (The Crossing Guard), or SAG nominee Stockard Channing (Smoke) or future nominee Rachel Griffiths (Muriel's Wedding). Or maybe it was Magda Szubanski (Babe) on account of the Best Pictureness of it all. In our fantasies it was definitely Gina Gershon (Showgirls).
MEET THE PANELISTS
Here's a little bit about our panel to prep you for our conversation as they finish up their screenings...
First Time Smackdowners
KEVIN O'KEEFE
Kevin O'Keeffe occasionally stops talking about "Smash" long enough to think about film. He even writes about it sometimes at Mic, where he's the arts staff writer in residence, but he's also written for The Atlantic, The Advocate, LA Weekly and more. Let him be your star by following him on Twitter.
What does 1995 mean to you?
I'm ashamed to admit I was a child in that year, so my big motion picture experience was Babe. (I'm surprised Babe didn't get a nomination for Best Supporting Actress, to be frank.) I hadn't seen many of these movies – the early 90s are a bit of a void for me, since I'm usually revisiting older movies or keeping up with newer ones. That's what drew me to the year for the Smackdown: It was the year I was alive, and yet I knew the least about it of any.
LYNN LEE
Lynn is a government lawyer who spends most of her time outside work obsessing over arts and pop culture. Her current fascination is with "The Americans" on FX. Her first love, though, will always be movies, thanks to parents who raised her on an eclectic diet of Ingmar Bergman, talky French films, 1960s musicals, Star Wars, and Spielberg blockbusters. You can find her occasional musings on movies and TV on her blog and as a new contributor to TFE.
My life as a movie lover can be divided into two periods: Before 1995 and After 1995. Before 1995, I watched movies with my parents and friends, but didn't really seek out movies that I wanted to see for myself alone. All that changed starting the summer of '95, when I graduated from high school and for once had nothing to do but watch movies, and that fall, when I headed off to college in an actual CITY and discovered a whole moviegoing universe I'd only been dimly aware of before. I discovered there was such a thing as theaters reserved exclusively for "arthouse" and "independent" films. (First movie seen in such a theater: "The Brothers McMullen," or maybe it was "Chasing Amy.") I discovered Kate Winslet in "Sense & Sensibility." I discovered that movies could become the college equivalent of water cooler conversation ("The Usual Suspects"). Above all else, I discovered that movies were something you could discuss with communities of fellow movie lovers - and I've never looked back since then.".
CONRADO FALCO
Conrado "Coco" Falco can be described as a student currently earning his undergraduate degree at Hunter College, as an aspiring theater director currently working on a play about the life and death of Taylor Swift, or as a film blogger currently writing for his personal blog Coco Hits New York. First and foremost, however, he is a film lover. [Follow Coco on Twitter.]
What does 1995 mean to you?
One of my earliest (and most traumatic) memories comes from Christmas Eve 1995. I was three at the time. My grandma told me she had wrapped my gift in the "Snoopy" wrapping paper, so I went straight to it before anyone read the tag. To my surprise, the gift was a Pocahontas Barbie doll. I was mocked by all my cousins in what was one of the most embarrassing moments of my childhood. I don't have many specific '95 memories otherwise, except for the fact that "Babe" and "Toy Story" were big staples of my childhood. I'm currently revisiting '95 movies in my personal blog, and discovering that it might be one of the most underrated years in American cinema.
Returning Panelists
Nick gets a big photo because he worked 1995 into his bio photo. Look at all those movies!
NICK DAVIS
Nick Davis writes the reviews and features at the website Nick's Flick Picks. The site's unpredictable cycles of frenzied activity and long dormancy have to do with his also being an Associate Professor of English and Gender & Sexuality Studies at Northwestern, where his research and teaching mostly concern narrative film in different eras, genres, and countries. [Follow Nick on Twitter]
What does 1995 mean to you?
I started college in 1995 and also started going to movies by myself in, at last, a big city with broad offerings. You work out which development was more exciting. I bought the Entertainment Weekly Summer Preview and concluded that five movies were unmissable: "The Bridges of Madison County" (because even the terrible book made me cry), "Little Odessa" (Redgrave, I guess?), "Mad Love" (crush on Chris O'Donnell), "Nine Months" (crush on Hugh Grant), and "Species" (crush on Natasha Henstridge, plus aliens, plus ambivalence about procreating). I saw "Apollo 13" with my dad before I left for school and "Sense and Sensibility" with my mom when I came home, and "Nixon" with my dad over that same Christmas, so basically you're asking me to pick between my parents. I saw "Babe" at least four times and forced skeptics to come with me. I deduced instantly who Keyser Söze was and didn't give a flying coffee cup. I deterred silent, unwanted advances from a friend while we watched "Se7en" and wondered how this movie could possibly be arousing her. I was the only man at near-empty opening-day matinees of "Home for the Holidays" and "How to Make an American Quilt". I walked into a genuine surprise birthday party my friends in the freshman dorm had thrown for me, but I left after two minutes because, I'm sorry, I'd already bought a ticket to "To Die For". I liberally quoted Angela Bassett from "Strange Days" like I was deep. I saw "Leaving Las Vegas" with the same friend I took to "Se7en". She didn't start stroking my neck this time, and we rode home in 20 minutes of unbroken silence, because by that time, a month later, I really was deep. I didn't get "Shorty". I was the face of love. I skipped "Braveheart" till the desperate studio re-released it in February, because these are our crosses to bear, sometimes literally. I skipped "Toy Story" like a damn fool. I saw it plenty of times later. I never saw "Mad Love," so what has it all been for?
GUY LODGE
Born in Johannesburg but based in London, Guy is the chief UK film critic for Variety, and a home entertainment columnist for The Observer. His writing also appears at Time Out, Empire, The Guardian and any outlet willing to pay for long-form thinkpieces about knitwear in the movies. Follow him on Twitter at @GuyLodge.
What does 1995 mean to you?
In 1995, I was twelve years old and in my last year of primary school — on the knife-edge, then, between feeling confidently grown and authoritative, and being tossed out of my depth into adolescence. My cultural diet was in a similarly transitional state. After a hovering period, 1995 was the year I said goodbye to the children's section of the library and devoured “Jane Eyre” and “To Kill a Mockingbird”; at the movies, my parents merged my growing interests with theirs and took me to see “Three Colours: Red.” (It was both the first subtitled film I saw in the cinema, as well as the first with a no-under-16s certificate. I appreciated their trust.) Out in the larger world, my fellow South Africans were celebrating our rugby team's against-all-odds World Cup victory, joyously consolidating the national repairwork started by the previous year's election. It wouldn't last, and Clint Eastwood would later make that moment in time seem that much drabber. But the memory of temporary invincibility remains..
And your host...
NATHANIEL R
Nathaniel is the founder of The Film Experience, a reknowned Oscar pundit, and the web's actressexual ringleader. He fell in love with the movies for always at The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) but mostly blames Oscar night (in general) and the 80s filmographies of Kathleen Turner & Michelle Pfeiffer (specifically). Though he holds a BFA in Illustration, he found his true calling when he started writing about the movies. He blames Boogie Nights for the career change. [Follow him on Twitter]
What does 1995 mean to you?
'I'm getting a bit old for that whorey look.'
1995 is when I graduated from college so it was a big year but it seems to have entirely evaporated in my memory but for the birth of the late 20th century's New Trash Masterpiece "Showgirls".
If I dig a little-bit harder into the memory banks I remember heavy rotation among roommates and friends for Alanis Morrisette's "Jagged Little Pill," Björk's "Post" and the "Pocahontas" soundtrack (showtunes 4ever! Don't judge). Cinematically, I was in deep deep throes of love for broken-winged Brad Pitt in "Se7en," Elisabeth Shue's booze-drenched boobs in "Leaving Las Vegas," and Angela Bassett's fierce elocution and even fiercer hair in "Strange Days." My least favorite movie-going memory was seeing "Braveheart" in the theater and hearing audiences cheering its ridiculous homophobia. My best movie-going memory from '95 is taking my three little nephews to see "Babe" which they loved and kept quoting in their adorable squeaky little kid voices which they would try to make yet squeakier to approximate the mice. One of them just announced his engagement - Eeek! How was 1995 twenty whole years ago!?!?!
What does 1995 mean to you dear readers?
Do tell in the comments.
Reader Comments (71)
Rachel Griffiths not getting in there is a crime! (Although perhaps I should revisit these to confirm.)
Celia Weston in 'Dead Man Walking," should have been there.
I'd also add that it was a strong year for young comedy performers - Brittany Murphy for "Clueless", Jennifer Elise Cox for "The Brady Bunch Movie", and Parker Posey for "Kicking and Screaming" although I feel like I'm forgetting one of the lesser known co-stars in that even as I type this.
GINA GERSHON in SHOWGIRLS forever!!!
Huston should have been a contender for The Perez Family.
Judy Parfitt should have swept the season for Dolores Claiborne. A movie deliberately sabotaged by the studio given its Spring release date when it was clearly a Fall movie.
As always I'm looking forward to the Smackdown but it bugs me that for the first time I don't think I'm going to be able to see all the performances. I have Georgia on the way to see Mare Winningham's work and I've already seen the other three but I've never been able to catch up with Mighty Aphrodite and for a Woody Allen film, especially one that won a big prize, it seems strangely unavailable.
To me the performance that should be included and isn't is Judy Parfitt's brilliant work in Dolores Claiborne. Another standout was Kate Winslet's co-star in S&S Elizabeth Spriggs who was so great as the loquacious and gossipy Mrs. Jennings.
Ooooo Dave S., nice call - Parker Posey is delightful in Kicking and Screaming (especially in the "admit some lies" scene), as were Cara Buono and Olivia d'Abo. And as to Nathaniel's "just for fun" list, I'm with the others wishing Rachel Griffiths had gotten some traction. And even though I love both Stockard Channing and Paul Auster stories, I'd forgotten all about Smoke. One of the great things about this series is reminding us of films that merit another viewing.
Joel6 - I just saw "Aphrodite" this week and you're probably better off missing it. Woof.
What's the consensus on "Claiborne" overall? I remember some fine performances but thought the story/direction was on the shoddy side. Always felt to me like a male author's attempt to write Strong Females rather than something more organic.
Angelica Forever in 95.
@Nat, isn't Muriel's Wedding a 1994 release? Rachel Griffiths definitely should've gotten in that year.
Mira Sorvino, who is terrific, is not-so-borderline lead in Mighty Aphrodite. (Conversely Sharon Stone is arguably supporting in Casino.)
My ballot would've been:
- Joan Allen, Nixon
- Gina Gershon, Showgirls
- Judy Parfitt, Dolores Claiborne (A+ work)
- Kyra Sedgwick, Something to Talk About
- Mare Winningham, Georgia
P.S. Am I the only one who wasn't bonkers about Kate Winslet in Sense and Sensibility? I mean, she was decent but...
Off topic, Elisabeth Shue F.T.W.! She deserved that Oscar at least as much as (if not more than) Nicolas Cage, who would've lost to Sean Penn in my world.
Joan Allen "Nixon"
Eleanor Bron "A little princess"
Rachel Griffiths " Muriel 's wedding"
Judy Parfitt "Dolores Claiborne". Winner
Kate Winslet "Sense and sensibility"
ScottC: Personally, I'd say not to revisit Smoke. I know quite a few people who give Kevin Smith (ESPECIALLY in his modern work (even if, personally, I think only the scorn levelled at Cop Out is fully deserved)) a lot of crap, but there's a genuineness to the previous year's Clerks that Smoke misses ENTIRELY.
Anjelica is a 2 scene wonder in TCG
my nominees
Allen
Winslet
Winningham
Parfitt
Huston
shout out to Illeana Douglas in To Die For.and Glenne Headley in Mr Hollands Opus.
Weird. I ve only seen bits & pieces of all of these movies and none of them
all the way through. I can say the Sorvino win was totally lame...
This smackdown's gonna be good.
My personal lineup that year:
Casino - Sharon Stone
La Ceremonie - Isabelle Huppert
Dolores Claiborne - Judy Parfitt
Georgia - Mare Winningham
Mighty Aphrodite - Mira Sorvino
Showgirls - Gina Gershon
Waiting to Exhale - Angela Bassett
I think Dolores Claiborne was one of the better Stephen King stories to make it to film. interesting structure in terms of unraveling the real story, but I do think the direction was kind of bland. The acting from Parfitt (spoilers) when she upends the movie by telling Bates to kill her husband was brilliant, as was Bates' slow and steady characterization of the protagonist.
I think they thought Bates had already won for a King adaptation, and decided to forget it.
Um, there is Kate Winslet...and then there is everyone else.
And Chloe Sevigny should have been nominated for her debut performance in Kids. She was so raw, honest and heartbreaking.
Everyone:
My ballot for that year
Famke Janssen, GoldenEye
Ashley Judd, Heat
Annabella Sciorra, The Addiction
Sharon Stone, Casino
Naomi Watts, Tank Girl
(6-10: Edie Falco, The Addiction, Erni Mangold, Before Sunset, Gwyneth Paltrow, Se7en, Rhea Perlman, Canadian Bacon, Bridgette Wilson, Billy Madison.) (I'm reasonably certain only my current #6 will stay in my top 10, but I'm curious what everyone thinks of that ballot, overall.)
Note: I view Winslet in S&S as ALSO a lead, would PROBABLY say the same of Sorvino (regardless of quality), and probably find Winningham and ESPECIALLY Quinlan as too bland and mannered to land on my ballot.
Mannered Winningham in Georgia did we see the same performance.
How odd is it that SAG considered Allen a lead in Nixon but Winslet a supporting player in Sense and Sensibility? Seems completely backwards to me.
Regardless, Team Winningham. But what a lineup!
Mareko -- no. Muriel's Wedding came out in 1995 in the states. It's one of those movies that IMDb's dating doesn't tell the true story of (like Crash being a 2004 film. If only... then it wouldn't have stolen Brokeback's Oscar!)
Mira Sorvino seems like such an odd choice.
phlip h -- and she was basically a sweeper, too!
Haven't seen Allen or Bassett yet, but Moore, Streep, Leigh, Winningham, Shue, Winslet, and Kidman's knockout performances make 1995 the peak of 90s actressing. First three all in Top 10 of the decade.
Mary-Louise Parker (Boys on the Side) and Anna Deveare Smith (The American President) are both terrific.
Annette Bening, Maggie Smith,and Kristin Scott Thomas (Richard III) all give interesting performances in Ian McKellen's Shakespeare adaptation that doesn't quite work.
Parfitt is my personal winner, but deserving of a nomination is Lela Rochon in Waiting to Exhale.
I've seen all five of these nominees already! I can finally contribute something to this!
Completely agree about Judy Parfitt. Not to mention, she is so quotable in the movie.
check your library if you need to find Mighty Aphrodite. I found it at mine. Along with most of the other movies too. It's an interesting lineup- 2 supportive wives, 2 supportive sisters, and a kooky hooker. I would like to see Kyra Sedgwick in there, but she also played a supportive sister.
Nathaniel - I date a film by the year that it first opened in cinemas to the public (anywhere in the world). Films can change so much between festival screenings and actual releases.
Crash is a 2005 film that played some festivals in 2004.
Muriel's Wedding is a 1994 film that the USA got a year late. Of course, it was Oscar eligible as a 1995 movie but not the same situation as Crash.
On the subject, I love Rachel Griffiths but Jeanie Drynan gives the best supporting performance in that film.
Team Gwyneth Paltrow here - one of her most natural and effortless performances...
My ballot:
Mare Winningham - Georgia (**Winner**)
Illeana Douglas - To Die For
Jennifer Jason Leigh - Dolores Claiborn
Judy Parfitt - Doloree Claiborn
Juliette Lewis - Strange Days
Other contenders:
Catherine Keener - LIving in Oblivion (lead?)
Kristin Scott-Thomas - Angels and Insects
Illeana Douglas - Search and Destroy
Sharon Stone - Casino (lead?)
1995 has the best set of nominees, but not the best set of winners for me. In acting although don't mind Cage or Sarandon wins at all only Kevin Spacey was really deserving.
Sonja - who do you give Best Actor to? I think that Cage gives by far the best performance of the year... sometimes I wonder how the guy in Leaving Las Vegas, Adaptation and Bad Lieutenant can be the same guy who gives such terrible performances in other movies...
Judy Parfitt. #ThatsAll
Sean Penn, that is all.
1995 is so strong that I basically remove as many candidates by calling them different years as much as possible (so Priest, Exotica, Muriel's Wedding, Bandit Queen, Wild Reeds, etc all 1994 films). I don't generally do that, but otherwise I'd have dozen-nominee categories across the board.
Joan Allen gave my absolute favourite supporting performance of the year
@kermit
Sean Penn quite easily. Especially for the last hour.
But I'm okay with Cage's win overall. It was more the role than the performance that won imo.
I'd given Adaptation 6 Oscars in 2002 for sure: picture, director, lead actor, supporting actor, screenplay and most especially of course best supporting actress.
It also hurts it was a big BO flop.... *sigh*
Anyway regarding Cage, I'm simply impressed that he just doesn't care about anything as long as he gets paid for it and people still seems to pay him year after year no matter what.
Yay! I've seen all of these films, so I can finally contribute something. Very excited!
My ranking of the nominees:
1. Kate Winslet
2. Joan Allen
3. Mare Winningham
4. Mira Sorvino
5. Kathleen Quinlan
Did you see "Georgia" get some love from AV.Club this week? They profiled it under Siblings Week:
http://www.avclub.com/article/jennifer-jason-leigh-boozy-mess-underrated-90s-dra-221431
1995 was the first Oscar ceremony that I ever saw live. I stayed up all night, it came at 4am in Sudan. And even with very liitle access any media coverage I knew Sorvino would win.
I remember that theall night TV ads of "Coming Up Live the Oscars!" had a picture of Sharon Stone. And everytime I was like NO! Without seeing any of the movies I was firmly in the Sarandon camp as my Premiere issue with her on the cover had arrived just a couple of days before.
I was 13 in 95 and it was definitely the point where I started exploring non mainstream stuff. I read reveiws of every film released in my local paper, even movie I hadn't heard of.
Very excited for this.
I love Nick's writeup, and I wish I'd had a 1995 like that, too. But it's such a blip for me - when I look at the Oscar list for that year, I'd only seen Il Postino, Usual Suspects and 12 Monkeys at the time, which is strange because I saw most of the Oscar movies the year before and after. I was 16.
When I look deeper at that film year, it's not like I was seeing much else either - Batman, Kiss of Death (which my and my best girlfriend saw for Helen Hunt, of all people), Brothers McMullen, Smoke, and not much else.
I don't know if that year's crop just didn't appeal to me, an open-minded-enough teenager to have seen Nobody's Fool and Madness of King George in cinemas the year before, or if I was working harder in school or something, but I wasn't really going to movies that year, and it's weird to have no real movie memories about it. (Except for the walk home from 12 Monkeys, which is a weirdly vivid memory.)
1995 was when I first got a subscription to Entertainment Weekly and thus, my first true year of Oscar obsessiveness. Being only 11, I was naturally all about Babe. The fact that I'm STILL all about Babe, and not just for reasons of nostalgia, shows just how strong a film it is. I'm REALLY looking forward to this one.
Also, Nick Davis totally just won the internet with that photo and blurb. That'll do, pig INDEED!
@Mike and @Denny: Glad you enjoyed!
I'm loving all these stories, from participants and commenters alike. Murtada's has to be my favorite, though. (I had that Premiere, too!)
@Nathaniel: I couldn't get worked up about Alanis because I was obsessing on Joan Osborne, who hasn't gotten the career she deserved. Post is beyond amazing. I was still in heavy rotation on Live Through This from the year before, and didn't pick up on PJ's To Bring You My Love, 1995's best album, also the universe's best album, until the following summer. Also, Mariah's Daydream, it goes without saying.
And by the way: so excited about this whole group of panelists. Yay!!
Alas never seen Georgia, so my ballot:
Kate Winslet (Sense & Sensibility)
Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite)
Lorraine Bracco (The Basketball Diaries)
Elizabeth Spriggs (Sense & Sensibility)
Lesley Sharp (Priest)
"Eeek! How was 1995 twenty whole years ago!?!?!"
Indeed...indeed.
Nick Davis, I'm really going to enjoy revisiting 1995 with you. :) (Fun fact: Nick and I were in the same college class, and both reviewed movies for the college newspaper!)
And there was room in my 1995 heart for BOTH Alanis and Joan Osborne! 1995 was also when I started listening to the radio a lot more - and Jagged Little Pill became the soundtrack to my life.