Happy "Annette Bening Is Awesome" Day

by Jason Adams

When was the first time you took note of Annette Bening? I had probably seen her play Dan Ackroyd's wife in the John Candy comedy The Great Outdoors in 1988 but it was the next couple of years after that made a movie star out of her, coming to a head when she coupled up with Mr. Beatty for Bugsy. That film was released in theaters on this very day in 1991, meaning she's more or less been "a name" for precisely 25 years to the day.

And coincidentally five years after that - to the day! - Tim Burton's film Mars Attacks! came out, in which Annette gave what was up until this year my favorite performance of hers. As the space-cadet Barbara Sand she's a comic riot, tapping into the sometimes flightniess of her voice - Bening's voice has always been her secret weapon, switching between high and low registers with ease; one second she's confused, the next she's deep-throated with determination.

I wish that 20th Century Women was coming out today not only because I would love to go see it a third (and a fourth, and a fifth) time right this minute, but because it'd be a swell coincidence, making December 13th a lucky charm for the actress. 20CW isn't out until Christmas Day. But we'll sing its praises anyway! Nathaniel ain't alone in adoring the movie - I cannot get enough of it, and The Bening's performance as Dorothea has already in my mind shoved all of her other work out of the way and taken the acting crown. May Oscar feel the same!

Beauty vs Beast: Everything's Coming Up Con

Jason from MNPP here with our weekly battle of the good-to-bad guys called "Beauty vs Beast" -- today I'm taking us deep inside all of the shades of gray in between. This past weekend marked the 25th anniversary of Stephen Frears' first US film, the electric noir The Grifters, which came out in limited release on December 5th, 1990. It is a very good movie! If you haven't seen it in awhile, you should. It was nominated for four Oscars -- Frears was nominated for Director, writer Donald Westlake got a Best Adapted nod, and the final two nominations went to the two lovely, too awful ladies making muck out of John Cusack's poor-sap-life...

PREVIOUSLY We're really loving on the year 1990 this month - last week it was Misery's turn, and with a swing of the sledgehammer Annie Wilkes took Paul Sheldon down for the count again, walking off with just over 3/4s of the vote. James Caan had his cheerleaders though (besides myself, even) - here's what brookesboy says:

"Kathy is so entertaining in this, but Annie is torturing some poor dude who does not deserve it one lil bit. And I don't know anyone who isn't fully delighted when Paul cracks her skull with that brass pig. Annie gets the bronze--where it counts; Paul gets the gold."

What was your 'Sophie's Choice Oscar Moment'?

Kyle here. We’re rapidly barreling into the holiday movie season—aka, the time when we plebeians can catch up with all the fare deemed Award Worthy. I’m sure you’re aware, just how amazing our lineup of actress contenders is this year, as Murtada recently talked about. How difficult it’s going to be to be a fan this winter! Which is to say is there anything more painful than those moments when we’re torn between competing loyalties? Or between loyalty and taste? 

My most painful instance of this came in 2000, when Hilary Swank and Annette Bening duked it out for Best Actress. I loved Boys Don't Cry. It was such an important film—even its nomination was important, given its low-budget indie status—and Swank was utterly heartbreaking. But then there was Bening in American Beauty, tap dancing on that high wire. Her Carolyn Burnham is broad and deep, tenderly tragic and yowlingly funny at the same time. Bening not only achieves this difficult balance, but shows us that it’s indispensable to this character’s, this type of person’s, reality. 

So, what was your most painful Sophie’s Choice Oscar moment?

Podcast Extra: The Trouble with Diane Keaton

In this free flowing conversational extra [23 minutes]  Joe Reid tells Nick, Katey and Nathaniel  about where his devotion to Diane Keaton has taken him: to the "nothing" of And So It Goes (2014). We discuss the dangers of "comfort zones" and working with paychecks.

The conversation drifts to Edge of Tomorrow and Broadway musicals including Into the Woods. But mostly the 1989 & 1990 Oscar ceremonies. We always end up at Oscars. It's a sickness! Name checked in this extra episode: Emily Blunt, John Lithgow, Graham Greene, Michael Douglas, John Lithgow, Annette Bening, The Silence of the Lambs, Reba McEntire, Michelle Pfeiffer, and the musical stylings of Jasmine Guy. 

You can listen at the bottom of the post or wait till it shows up on iTunes (which usually takes about a day). Continue the conversation in the comments. We'd love to hear your comments on how it's going with Diane Keaton and your memories of the 89 and 90 Oscars, should you have any that is.

Articles Referenced: 
Joe & Kevin on Diane Keaton's career, Nathaniel on King Lear, and Nick & Joe's halfway mark capsule brilliance. 

And So It Goes...

Stage Door: "King Lear" in the Park

Shakespeare in the Park shutters for another year this Sunday August 17th, so you only have a couple more chances to see King Lear. I can't claim that King Lear is one of my favorite plays and as far as interpretations of it go, nobody is ever going to beat Akira Kurosawa's Ran (1985), you know?

The Bening and John Lithgow star in "King Lear" in Central Park

John Lithgow headlines and is quite strong as the rapidly declining hot-tempered looneytunes King who stupidly gives everything away to his two eldest daughters (Annette Bening and Jessica Hecht) while shunning the youngest who truly loves him. Lithgow is having a good year; I urge all of you to see his excellent work in Love is Strange when it opens later this month. I had entirely forgotten about the B story in King Lear which is like a reflection of the A story, in which another father is (literally) blinded when it comes to his sons. I didn't fully love this production where much of it was good but few things excellent. Oddly, I was most drawn to the actors I was least familiar with like Jessica Collins as Cordelia, Eric Sheffer Stevens as Edmund, and Steven Boyer as Fool. Most disappointing for me was The Bening. You know that she is my beloved but her lines were spoken without a lot of discernable emotional content (one review claimed "learned phonetically" which I thought was terribly mean but it's not her finest hour). She does memorably fire up in the final act once her loins are ah stirred by the bastard troublemaker Edmund. 

I love the tradition of Shakespeare in the Park but I wish they would go back to the time when they did more non-Shakespeare things in this summer event series like Mother Courage and Hair and Into the Woods and whatnot. This summer they only did the Bard. You know what play would be excellent to see outdoors? Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana.

WHAT OTHER PLAYS DO YOU THINK WOULD BE GREAT IN AN OUTDOOR SETTING?

P.S. What about Cate Blanchett and Isabelle Huppert in The Maids?

You're probably wondering why I haven't written about "The Maids" starring Huppert, Blanchett and rising actress Elizabeth Debicki (remember that wonderful first impression she made in The Great Gatsby?) and that's because I didn't get tickets. Above my price range but Shakespeare in the Park is free which is definitely within my price range! Here's a collection of reviews to read if you're interested. I've talked to two friends who've seen it and they both felt exactly the same: Debicki was best in show. How's that for a surprise... and a career-maker, at least on stage.