How Had I Never Seen..."Blue Sky"?

by Nick Taylor

If you had approached me on the street and asked if I was a Jessica Lange fan, I would have answered with an emphatic “duh!” But since you clicked on this link, I'm coming to you through your screen to tell you this informatioin. Having originally met Lange in high school via the actress-heavy ordeal that is American Horror Story, watching her communicate an actual character amidst so much lurid, proudly threadbare plotting was revelatory to witness. Lange served Ryan Murphy’s baroque and sentimental grotesqueries with leonine force. Even as subsequent seasons leaned too heavily on her characters as pillars to be toppled, and it became all too easy to project Lange’s distaste towards her surroundings into her vainglorious Supreme and dissatisfied ringleader, she gives a hell of a good show, finding ways to keep herself amused and visibly gratified (or maybe relieved) to play off her talented co-stars. I haven’t touched the show in years, and still I can remember her broken line reading of “in the gloaming” as she stumbles through a crowd of patients in Asylum, her bitchy, hilarious  refusal to act like she’s invading anyone’s space when she saunters through the Murder House despite no longer owning it.

On the strength of this output I quickly searched for her star-making performances in Frances and Tootsie, which further cemented my impression of her as a supernova capable of great versatility. I’ve seen plenty of other films she’s starred in, yet as her 75th birthday approached, I realized there was a major blind spot I needed to correct. How on Earth have I not seen any of Jessica Lange’s post-1982 Oscar nominations? I’ve spent the past week pouring over those features, and though Country and Sweet Dreams are perhaps in greater need of reappraisal, I’ve found pouring over Blue Sky to be the most rewarding, and the most fun to try pinning down. So, without further ado - Happy 75th Birthday, Jessica Lange...

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1963 Convo Pt 1: Liz-Mania and "Tom Jones"

Nathaniel welcomes guests Teo Bugbee, Keiran Scarlett, Séan McGovern, and Brian Mullin. We just wrote about the Supporting Actress nominated performances of 1963 but now it's time to zoom out on the films themselves and the year in question.  

Smackdown '63 Companion Podcast Part 1
(42 minutes)
In which the panel plays "tag yourself" within Best Picture winner Tom Jones while discussing Tony Richardson's cinematic eccentricities in the early '60s, the movie's politics and preference for anarchy and the Academy mindset given the political tragedies of the year. We also discuss Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton mania (Cleopatra + The VIPs). With brief asides to: Maggie Smith, Vanessa Redgrave, Benny Hill, that awkward supporting actress presentation at the Oscars, and more.

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Smackdown 63 Conversation - Part One TOM JONES

Ten Reasons to Remember Tom Jones, a Foundling

Andrew here to celebrate an anniversary. Fifty years ago tomorrow, Tony Richardson’s Tom Jones won the 1963 Best Picture Oscar at the 36th Academy Awards. Up until a few weeks ago it was one of my most glaring cinematic blindspots from that era.

A cursory glance over the Best Picture winners of the 60s (ha, who am I kidding? I know the list by heart) reveals that by my faulty empirical research Tom Jones is easily the least discussed Picture winner from that decade today. Even Oliver, arguably the decade's least respected winner, seems more oft considered and it’s a curious thing because even ignoring the actual quality of Tom Jones it’s not business as usual as far as Oscar winners go. And, usually, we like to talk about when AMPAS throws us a curveball with its winners, for better or for worse.

Certainly, from an outsider's perspective it doesn't seem to be much of a curveball. What's the fuss about another period-piece turned Oscar winner? Although period films are lucky with awards they don't tend to be well remembered, or loved, on the internet. I could imagine what Tom Jones seems to represent to someone on the outisde looking in, another stuffy British drama Oscar bait film. (Something's that plagued Merchant Ivory films two decades after their heyday, but that's another story.) But, Tom Jones in all its unusualness has much to savour and enjoy, fifty years after its release.  

Here are ten reasons to give it another or your first look...

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