Almost There: Joan Allen in "The Upside of Anger"

by Cláudio Alves

Just as we did last week, today's Almost There was chosen by you, the reader. From a group of 2005 Oscar hopefuls, Joan Allen came out victorious for her work in The Upside of Anger. She got 25% of your votes, beating performances like Zhang Ziyi's watery Sayuri in Memoirs of a Geisha, Maria Bello's steamy turn in A History of Violence, and Scarlett Johansson's arresting Oscar bid in Match Point. All those actresses got closer to the gold than Allen realistically did, but she was still part of the conversation. After all, it's difficult to believe someone could watch The Upside of Anger and not want to shower its leading lady with accolades…

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Vintage '05

The Supporting Actress Smackdown of 2005 is just a week away so get your votes in! Before we get there it's time for more context of that year in showbiz history. Ready? 

Great Big Box Office Hits:
Franchises of multiple kinds dominated the box office with Harry Potter 4, Star Wars Episode 3, and the launches of Chronicles of Narnia and Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy as half of the top ten list that year. Other huge hits were the romantic comedy Hitch, the Brangelina pairing of Mr & Mrs Smith, the remakes Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, War of the Worlds, and King Kong, and the comedies Wedding Crashers and Meet the Fockers.

Oscar's Best Picture Nominees: 
In the mid-Aughts the Oscars were veering away from big hits in their Best Picture lineups (to eventually rule-changing results) but Brokeback Mountain was the most successful of the lot with $178 million globally...

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The New Classics: Wonder Boys

By Michael Cusumano 

Scene: The Suicide List
Curtis Hanson’s Wonder Boys understand that writers are often their own most carefully crafted creations. You can often catch the writers in the film pausing to appreciate when they hit upon just the right turn of phrase. Life doesn’t allow for second drafts. So very satisfying to nail it on the first. 

By understanding the way writers reveal themselves through narrative shapes into which they attempt to force their lives, Wonder Boys solves the age-old problem of making writing cinematic. We never hear a word of Grady Tripp’s prose that gets blown away at the film’s end, but after we spend two hours stumbling through the shambolic mess of his life, it feels superfluous. His life is already one long, run-on sentence crying out for an editor’s red pen...

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The beauty of Dion Beebe’s cinema

by Cláudio Alves

Despite some dubious victors, the 78th Academy Awards honoring the films of 2005 had many great lineups filled with splendorous movies. Later this month, Nathaniel and his guest panelists will take a look at the Best Supporting Actress category. Before that, however, I invite you to bask in the beauty of that year's Cinematography nominees. Specifically, we'll be taking a look at each of the five nominated cinematographers, their filmographies, and characteristic style. First up, we have that year's winner, Dion Beebe (Memoirs of a Geisha). The Australian filmmaker is a master of color, always up to play with wild palettes and shadow games which make bright pigments look even bolder. His best achievements tend to avoid naturalism in search of something more unreal, be it the metallic sharpness of a Californian thriller or the spectacle of Cinecittá.

Here are ten highlights from his filmography…

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Introducing the Smackdown Panelists for '05

The Supporting Actress Smackdown season is roaring along. Up next on August 20th, in two weeks time we'll talk 2005.  Let's meet the panelists!

PLEASE WELCOME (IN ALPHA ORDER)... 

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