Nine to Five: "Best Shot" Visual Index

For this week's episode of Hit Me With Your Best Shot: the classic comedy Nine to Five (1980). We chose it to coincide with the forthcoming premiere of Grace & Frankie which will reunite Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin at last. Pity that Dolly Parton doesn't figure in! 

Nine To Five was a smash hit when it premiered in December 1980, finishing that year as the top grossing movie without light sabers. Awards bodies weren't as kind as the public. Though the title song won two Grammys for Dolly Parton, she didn't win her Oscar category (the film's only nomination) and even more bizarrely, the movie wasn't nominated for Best Comedy at the Golden Globes. The film has endured quite well in pop culture so it doesn't need resuscitation but we thought it would be interesting to think about the way it's shot. Comedies are rarely considered in that regard. The film was directed by Colin Higgins who only made three films (all of them comedy hits) due to an early death at only 47. It was shot by cinematographer Reynaldo Villabolos who is, more happily, still with us and still working in film and television.

Best Shots from Nine To Five (1980)
10 shots from 12 participating blogs

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274 Days Until Nomination Morning!

WOOoooOOo Multiple Oscar Dates Announced!
Important dates for this forthcoming season.  I've included Off-Oscar business, too. So mark your calendars...

• Nov 14th, 2015 Governors Awards. (We don't know who will be honored yet but they generally make the announcement in late summer. They've already chosen two of the women on our top ten most deserving of honoraries list so hopefully we'll get a third this year!)
• Dec 30th, 2015 - Oscar Nomination Balloting Begins

• Jan 8th, 2016 - Oscar Nomination Ballots Due
• Jan 10th, 2016 - The 72nd Annual Golden Globes
• Jan 14th, 2016 - Nomination Morning. Merry Christmas! 
• Jan 23rd, 2016 - Producers Guild Awards
• Jan 30th, 2016 - SAG Awards

• Feb 8th, 2016 - Oscar Nominee Luncheon
• Feb 12th, 2016 - Voting Begins on Winners
• Feb 13th, 2016 - Sci/Tech Awards. Which beauty will host this year? It's usually a rising young actress. Margot Robbie did the honors (with Miles Teller) last year
• Feb 23rd, 2016  - Final Oscar Ballots Due

Your Weekly Reminder The Julianne Moore is an Oscar winner. She won 52 days ago!

The High Holy Nights
• Feb 28th, 2016 -88th Academy Awards. Predictions Ongoing Here.
Yes, I know I need to continue. We'll try to start again tomorrow!
• Feb 26th 2017 -89th Academy Awards. 
• Mar 4th 2018 - 90th Academy Awards. Ohmygod. Soon we're just a decade shy of Oscar's Centennial! They better pull out all the stops in 2028 and have every living Oscar winner there. Hopefully we'll all still be alive to see it!

We Can't Wait #2: Ricki and the Flash

Team Experience is counting down our 15 most anticipated. Margaret with our runner-up...

Rick Springfield & Meryl Streep. Will they make lovely music together?

Who & What: Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme teams up with Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody for a dramedy starring Oscar-winning(-and-winning-and-winning) actress Meryl Streep. The story is about a woman who left her family behind to realize her dreams of rock'n'roll stardom, and returns years later to try and make things right with them. The script has been described as funny and touching, and the supporting cast includes Kevin Kline (Sophie's Choice reunion!) and her daughter Mamie Gummer (Heartburn reunion!). If you listen really close, you can hear the sound of the HFPA penciling this onto their 2016 ballots for the Best Musical or Comedy Golden Globe. 

Why we're excited about it: First of all, who among us can say they don't want to see Meryl "Greatest Living Actress™" Streep all tatted up, strutting around in leather pants and combat boots while shredding on an electric guitar? And given the creative talents involved, the potential for this is sky-high. Both Jonathan Demme and Diablo Cody may have some misses in their filmography, but Demme is on an upswing following actressy gem Rachel Getting Married and if there's a chance that Diablo Cody has written a lead character half as excellent as Mavis Gary in 2011's Young Adult I will be camping out in front of my local multiplex from right this second until opening night. Plus 'musician neglects family, becomes rock star' is a kind of story that's almost always told about men, and has been at least a dozen times in the past decade. Points for freshness!

What if it all goes wrong?: The last time Meryl worked with Jonathan Demme, it was on The Manchurian Candidate, one of her worst performances to date. There's also the omnipresent danger of Meryl fatigue. 

 

When: August 7, in that dependable spot where Streep vehicles have had so much counter-programming box office success.

Previously...

#3 Macbeth #4 Mad Max: Fury Road #5 The Lobster #6 Crimson Peak #7 45 Years #8 Bridge of Spies #9 Taxi #10 Freeheld #11 A Bigger Splash #12 The Dressmaker #13 The Hateful Eight #14 Knight of Cups #15 Arabian Nights Sidebar 3 Animated Films Sidebar 2 Tomorrowland Sidebar 1 Avengers: Age of Ultron Intro Pick a Blockbuster

Fairy Tales, Witches, and Oscars. An 87 Year History

Over on Twitter Alex posed an interesting question to me and I thought I'd share it with you. Is Meryl Streep the first actor to be Oscar-nominated for playing a witch, or anyone in a fairy tale for that matter? As far as I can tell the answer is "in the way that you mean, yes" and "I believe so."

Though no witches in the fairy tale or broom-riding sense have been nominated before Streep, technically a witch star turn has won an Oscar and another spell-caster has been nominated. The first would be Ruth Gordon's diabolical coven leaderbusybody in Rosemary's Baby which we discussed in worshipful detail here.  And Sir Ian McKellen was nominated for playing "Gandalf the Grey" who, being a sorcerer, is basically the male equivalent of a witch. Otherwise, no witches. The famous witches we think of when we think of the movies weren't actually nominated. No, not even the greatest of them all, Margaret Hamilton in The Wizard of Oz (1939). 

After the jump let's look back through cinema history and see how fairytale or witchy films like Into the Woods have fared at the Oscars shall we?  (This is an incomplete history. Feel free to share things I missed. Especially great witchiness.)

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Remains of the Globes: 9 Questions and Carrying On

It's all over... for this year. As you read this and if you happen to live in the States, Nathaniel (c'est moi) might well be flying over you en route to Los Angeles. There we leave the Globes behind and move on to the next awards show: the Broadcast Film Critics Association's "Critics Choice Movie Awards" which are on A&E this Thursday night. 

But before we leave the Globes behind for good, 9 questions. Please to answer them in the comments.  

01 Common described Ava DuVernay as a superhero. What are her powers?

02 Since Kevin Spacey said he wanted to "be better" from now on, does that mean he'll come out? Or try new things as an actor... like, doing a super-repressed / inarticulate / restrained character? That would surely test his range. 

03 Would you rather: Colin or Colin? Hulk or Hulk? 

04 Who did you think was best / worst dressed? So sorry we had no time for a red carpet lineup.

05 With Transparent's big wins does its heat transfer to Emmys and does Amazon become a true threat to Netflix? 

06 Ms. Golden Globe gets to be on stage and get her own press release and everything. But this guy providing balance for Amy, does far more actual work. See how he makes himself invisible (disappearing underneath the stage) until he's needed, a suddenly visible and visibly cute gentleman escort to get the ladies up the steps without tripping on their gowns.

Who is he? What should we call him?

07 Biggest Bombs: Jennifer & Jeremy? Streep & Cho?

08 Was this really Tina & Amy's last hosting job or will the HFPA just offer them an enormous raise to keep them?

09 Will Oscar voters want to hear a full Eddie Redmayne speech since he was basically just cut off at the Globes?