Just answering six reader questions this afternoon for time constraints so we'll do another handful later in the week. Thanks for all the great Qs, readers! Here we go.
GSHAQ: Do you feel the gap is widening between the stories told in mainstream movies and contemporary issues? Oops, that might be an essay.
NATHANIEL: This question hurts my brain but I'll try. I do fear for the health of cinema which directly addresses contemporary issues. For a long time the movies have preferred past-tense filters for social and political issues, once it's safer since history has sorted out consensus. The best of those past-tense films also address the here and now through their resonant power (see: Selma). And there's something to be said for the facility that good genre films have in addressing the way we live via metaphor (The Babadook, Bridesmaids, and Melancholia are MUCH better films about depression than some earnest dramas that directly take it on) Even superhero films can be reflective of the here and now in spite of (or maybe because of) all their mixed messages and contradictory 'have it both ways' politics. I don't think it's an accident that Batman v Superman and Captain America: Civil War, whatever their disparate qualities, are asking the same questions about Might Equalling Right and whether we have the right checks and balances in place for those in power. These are issues that we're facing in very real ways all over the world. But, that said, we do need a reenergized contemporary cinema. If we can only think about tough issues through metaphor or by dwelling on the past, we have some maturation to do as a society!
It's true that movies made in the right-now about the right-now can age quickly (see movies we've recently discussed like Working Girl) but if they're any good -- and sometimes even when they aren't -- they make great time capsules about the way we were, the things we valued, and the issues that laid claim to our collective mental real estate.
BVR: Rank the animated movies from the Disney Renaissance (1989-1999). Extra: which is the most underrated?
NATHANIEL: This is cheating and asking for a top ten list but here's a NON commital answer after the jump...
THE BEST: [tie] Beauty and the Beast / The Little Mermaid - I think Beauty is probably Disney's best modern film (sans Pixar). I'll never forget the morning of its historic Best Picture Oscar nomination. But Mermaid is the one that actually means the most to me so if both sets of negatives were burning in a fire I'd have no idea which one to save and I'd probably burn up right along with them from the hesitation.
MASTERFUL MESSES: Pocahontas / The Hunchback Of Notre Dame Yes, both of these films have a lot of wonky bits and significant problems. But they're also thisclose, every once in a while, to being masterpieces. And that counts for a lot with my fandom. Plus there's never been a more beautiful Disney princess (Pocahontas) or a more underrated Disney song score (Hunchback). So together they're the Most Underrated.
EVERYONE LOVES THEM SO I DON'T HAVE TO: Aladdin & The Lion King. It never occurs to me to rewatch. I get why people love them (mosty) but I can't say I really have a personal connection to either.
I BARELY REMEMBER THEM SUITE: Hercules / Mulan / Tarzan - It would be weird to rank them though I remember thinking Hercules was really funny. But I'm about to rewatch Tarzan (which I don't remember fondly at all)for our Swing, Tarzan Swing! series so wish me luck.
N/A: The Rescuers Down Under -I haven't seen that one.
CARLOS: For some reason I've been thinking of Clouzot's Les Diaboliques this weekend. Are you a fan? I think it's so good and so criminally underseen!
I have actually seen it but it was so long ago that I don't have a firm memory other than a big thumbs up. I watched it around the time of the remake with Isabelle Adjani and Sharon Stone, so at least something good came out of that unfortunateness.
OSCAR MADNESS
PHILIP H: Name an actress or two (from either the 90s or 00s that was kind of expected to have been nominated by now) that you'd like to see have a comeback/nomination in the next few years.
Kirsten Dunst is my #1 hope for major feature film comebackThat list would have to include actresses that emerged in the 80s that still felt like they were ascending in the early 90s through everyone that emerged that decade. That's a HUGE swath of performers. Some of them became mostly thought of as box office players or arthouse queens (Ryan, Diaz, Barrymore, Moore, Aniston, MacDowell, Posey, Gong Li), others moved primarily to TV sometimes with great success (Wright, Danes, Ricci, Barkin, The Parkers Sarah Jesica/Mary Louise, Heche, Kudrow), others vanished for long stretches poking their toes back in on occassion or just disappeared (Glenne Headly, Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Lindsay Lohan, Neve Campbell, Bridget Fonda); and then the really hard to categorize as she's a little of everything (Kirsten Dunst)
The Aughts brought us another batch -- mostly box office or indie queens: (Johannson, Stewart, Fanning, Ziyi, Seyfried, Watson, Howard, Beckinsale, Lopez, Kruger, Saldana, Tatou); mostly moved to TV (King, Washington, Lohman): or have had erratic careers in terms of attention paid and/or vanishing (Gabrielle Union, Naomie Harris, Ashley Judd, Julia Stiles, Selma Blair, Leelee Sobieski, Rebecca Hall, Katherine Heigl); and then the really hard to categorize as she's a little of everything (Eva Green).
I have no idea why we just named 47 people like I'm a listing mad man (oh, right, yes) but it would be bliss to see Eva Green and Kirsten Dunst in the Oscar race some day. I also cross my fingers for Christina Ricci and Dakota Fanning to win back some of their child performer magic and/or popularity as adults -- hey, some child stars do! But there are only two of these 47 names listed that I have total faith will eventually be nominated: Scarlett Johansson and Kirsten Stewart. I think both are too famous to ignore much longer given that they keep challenging themselves and have already been worthy of at least one nomination each.
MIKE: We know we do supporting actress smackdowns because it's the most interesting acting category. And that we don't smack down supporting actors because their category is often the dullest. But if we did, is there a supporting actor year you would want to examine?
When AMPAS comes up with a good list in supporting actor we can safely assume it's by accident, like a broken clock being right twice a day. But there are some years that would be interesting. Here's three I'd probably place high on the "to do" list if we ever went there.
Robert Stack in Written on the Wind (1956)
1956: Murray (Bus Stop), Perkins (Friendly Persuasion), Quinn (Lust for Life), Rooney (Bold and the Brave), and Stack (Written on the Wind). That shortlist is an intruiging mix of varied actors and disparate genres. Plus I have only seen two of the films. The final reason: any excuse to rewatch Written on the Wind is always a good one.
1962: Begley (Sweet Bird of Youth), Buono (Baby Jane), Savalas (Birdman of Alcatraz), Sharif (Lawrence of Arabia), and Stamp (Billy Budd), Why? This one's entirely because I have no idea who would win.
1995: Cromwell (Babe), Harris (Apollo 13), Pitt (12 Monkeys), Roth (Rob Roy), and Spacey (Usual Suspects). I'd choose this year because it would be interesting to read serious takes on the four losing performances that year since Spacey sucked up all the oxygen at the time even if Brad Pitt did sneak the Globe.
Dame Penelope Wilton as The Queen in "The BFG"KERMIT: Of the following British Acting Dames without an Oscar nomination, who should feel most aggrieved? Eileen Atkins, Joan Collins, Penelope Keith, Sian Phillips, Diana Rigg, Harriet Walter, Penelope Wilton, Barbara Windsor.
I tend to think of all of these Dames as primarily television or stage actresses. Did any of them ever deserve a competition Oscar nomination? Atkins, Walter, and Wilton still work enough that perhaps it's not out of the question that a plum nominatable role will fall into one of their laps IF Maggie or Judi suddenly feel like taking a year off. Walter's tight lipped haughtiness tends to win her villain roles but she always aces them (love her as the evil in-law in Sense & Sensibility), I hear Wilton is amazing in The BFG, and Atkins was so good in Magic in the Moonlight that you only wanted to stop the film, rewind, and make it a different film altogether about her giving advice to her hopeless relatives. But the film was so weak she was MVP almost by default. The answer to your question is probably Atkins by process of elimination. Maybe she came close for The Dresser (1983) for which she was BAFTA nominated?
P.S. I don't think she deserves an Oscar but I bet that if another actress successfully played Joan Collins in a biopic about the Collins sisters -- MAKE THIS HAPPEN, UNIVERSE -- she'd be nominated! Could you imagine how fab that movie would be?
Jackie and Joan Collins in the late 70s
YOUR TURN Readers. What do you make of my answers to these questions? Which Disney Renassiance film do you this is most underrated? and which Dames and other actresses are you still rooting for for a first nomination?