Film Experience Blog

Michael C. here from Serious Film for another episode of Unsung Heroes. With Halloween fast approaching I thought now would be a great time to shine the spotlight on my pick for the best horror movie of the last decade.


I was researching Neil Marshall's The Descent for a post I was writing about horror movies when I was surprised to stumble upon this trivia item:

No real caves appear anywhere in the film.

Goes to show that it's easy to be guilty of the same behavior we so often criticize awards groups for displaying, namely, having a narrow idea of what greatness in a particular field looks like. Despite being a huge fan of the movie, until that moment the brilliance of Simon Bowles' production design for The Descent had not occurred to me.

Of course, if you think about it for two seconds you realize they're sets. Real caves wouldn't be safe, would be impossible to light, would not match the needs of the plot, and would most likely look boring on camera. But Bowles' work is so convincing you don't pause to think about it. All you can focus on is the horrible trouble these women have gotten themselves into.

Horror films live or die on atmosphere. Studios can produce successful comedies that are indifferently filmed, but not horror movies. If The Descent ever gave the impression, even subliminally, that the actresses were actually filming safely on a soundstage somewhere, the suspense would vanish instantly. As it stands the feel of the film is so strong that it's easy to forget it's a horror movie at all. The cave-diving sequences are already nerve-wracking enough. When the horror elements do kick in it is so well grounded in reality that the terror increases exponentially. It's like 127 Hours if James Franco were attacked by monsters halfway through.

Like Buffalo Bill's basement in The Silence of the Lambs or the Overlook Hotel in The Shining, The Descent's caves are destined to be one of those touchstones of the horror genre. One wouldn't think something as dull as caves could be made so interesting, but I can vividly recall the various twists and forms the tunnels took as the women descended deeper and deeper into the Earth. From the putrid nest of the creatures to the chasm the women attempt to cross via the cave ceiling; from the huge, yawing entrance to the claustrophobia-inducing tunnel where poor Alex Reid gets stuck, every stage of the journey has its own distinct personality. Not bad considering roughly half the screen is pitch black most of the time.


The theme of this series is shaping up to be the showy versus the subtle. It's already come up with costume design and special effects. The design of this movie is another example of work that does the job without calling attention to itself and has therefore gone overlooked. So here's to the production design of Simon Bowles along with the art direction of Jason Knox-Johnson. Considering how much junk horror clogs the multiplexes, their contributions to one of the few truly effective horror films of the last decade should not go unrecognized.

I've been freaking out about Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan ever since the day the trailer debuted and it's not healthy. I mean what if the trailer is better than the movie? Lord knows that's happened before. Since I don't want to know any plot details, I'm avoiding reviews like the plague (even from people I love) since you can trust virtually no one to be spoiler free these days. Even when they are, you end up knowing too much and having too many voices in your head before you see a film. But I haven't been able to help looking at various Venice born tweets.


Mostly though I've watched the trailer too many times and fear that there's no way that I can last another three months until the release without the movie becoming too familiar before a first viewing. Oh cruel world!

Take the following image for an example.


Now, sure, the first time through you're all "OMG, Natalie Portman is masturbating!" but the sixteenth time through don't tell me that you weren't, like, "That bedroom is possessed! And not by hormones."

Now the IMDB claims that the production design / art direction team is Thérèse DePrez (The Reader) David Stein (Eternal Sunshine) and Tora Peterson (After.Life) but that's only half the story. I suspect they were merely the chanting disciples at the Rosemary's Baby style f***-fest between Frank, freed from his Donnie Darko wormhole, and Mariah Carey somewhere betwixt her Butterfly and Charm Bracelet LPs. This room is their devil child. And it is sick.

Don't even try to count the number of stuffed animal species and the sheer volume of girlish ghastliness from every surface; the cow in a tutu is the least of the evil spirits.

I don't mean to frighten you.

As a mental tonic, here's Natalie Portman's untroubled gorgeousity on her first day in Venice. And why should she be troubled. She's already earning sensational reviews.


As any Oscar pundit worth their weight knows, that doesn't necessarily mean Oscar will be doing pliés with her come 2011. People always equate great reviews with Oscar nominations but the equation is not half that simple. For one thing there are usually dozens upon dozens upon dozens of people who win great reviews in a year. These things just SEEM like they equate months before the actual awards season gets underway. Plus, AMPAS has trouble with movies that people refer to as "deranged" or "visionary" or "on acid". They just do.

We're optimistic about the movie -- but Oscar less so. Still, you never know. Aronofsky's career momentum from The Wrestler (2008) could definitely help. So... stay tuned.
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Sad news to report. Robert F Boyle, a four time Oscar nominee for Art Direction and Alfred Hitchcock's Production Designer during the Tippi Hedren years, passed away on Sunday at 100 years of age. He nearly made it to 101.

Here he is at the February 2008 Oscars with Nicole Kidman when he was 98.


When I published the list of Oldest Living Oscar Nominees last month, I didn't mean it as a morbid countdown, but as a tribute to these enduring artists and I hope it reads that way, even as they depart. We all must pass on eventually. Boyle had been the oldest of them all. May Luise Rainier, now the oldest at 100, live as long as Methusaleh.

Among Doyle's credits are classics like North by Northwest (Oscar nomination), Fiddler on the Roof (Oscar nomination), In Cold Blood, The Thomas Crown Affair and Cape Fear (the originals). In the last ten years of his career (roughly the 1980s) he mainly worked on female star comedy vehicles like The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Troop Beverly Hills and Private Benjamin.



He had a long and rich career. May we all find such great use of our talents.
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Heh. I am going to be very disappointed if that isn't the title of Demi Moore's forthcoming memoirs. I'm just saying.

Some context for those too young to have seen Demi's 80s breakthrough, released twenty-five years ago on this very day. Joel Schumacher's St. Elmo's Fire is a story about a group of college grads who are struggling through their quarter-century life crises together. Jules (Demi Moore) is the messiest (and most fabulous) of them all. In the middle of the night she calls her most responsible friend in a panic. "I'm with these Arabs and they've been forcing me to do coke all night. I'm not sure because I don't understand much Arabic but I think I heard the word gangbang. You've gotta come and get me!" He rushes to her rescue only to find a tame unthreatening party. She refuses to leave with him and starts making booty calls instead. He tries to reason with her, until she lobs that delicious dismissal his way.

"And waste all this good coke?"

I have loved Demi Moore ever since. Which was not always a wise life choice, but what can you do? We love the actresses we love.


Because I can't quit there -- this movie is so addictive -- a Monday Monologue from the same film.

Uptight Leslie (Ally Sheedy) and Frumpy Wendy (Mare Winningham) have convinced Wild Jules to eat lunch at the soup kitchen where Wendy volunteers. This is not, shall we say, Jules' natural environment. It turns out her girlfriend's have an intervention in mind. They're worried about her obsession with her stepmother and her crazy-making sexual dalliances.


"Moi?" Jules asks, caught off guard. After a quick silent beat with a flash of 'how to navigate this?' worry on her face, Demi unleashes Jule's defensive fabulousity posturing.

Forrester? Come on, he's wonderful.

Forrest is her married boss. But she's got it all figured out.

This is the 80s. Bop him for a few years. Get his job when he gets his hand caught in the vault. Become a legend. Do a Black Mink ad. Get caught in a sex scandal. Retire in massive disgrace. Write a huge best seller and become the fabulous host of my own talk show.

"Well, it was silly of us to worry," Wendy says in disbelief and the kind of snark-free sarcasm only found prior to the late Nineties.

It really is. He's helped me so much. He's come up with so many alternatives for my stepmonster's funeral.

It turns out cremation is just as expensive as the non torch method and if I don't come up with a cheaper solution, I'm going to end up a bag lady...

Of course I'll have alligator bags.

A head toss, the laugh of the self-amused and then a look at the time get me the hell out of here avoidance of the real issues she's just been so flippant about.

And she's outta there... and every time she's outta there the movie deflates a little. Demi's comedic skills are underrated and paired with that famously husky voice and needy screen energy, she turns out to be the perfect match for this charismatic trainwreck.

A parting shot just to underline Jules' trying-too-hard fabulousity -- this is her apartment.


Naturally she's wild about her decorator "Gay became very chic in the Seventies!"
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I don't have the energy to continue berating the Academy for shunning brilliant below the line talents each and every year like I just did with five separate costume designers (scroll down). You can see for yourself how many major names are still waiting for a little golden light to shine upon their enviable filmographies. See the start up prediction pages for Cinematography, Art Direction, Editing and more...

Return and comment. Your comments are like fuel to keep on going.

By now, Pandorans have probably already begun weeping, swaying side to side from their seated, cross-legged position in communal mourning. Only Eywa can save Avatar's Oscar chances now. [Listen to the podcast for more on foot-in-mouth James Cameron] but Eywa doesn't take sides so Pandora is basically SOL. Like most pundits, I'm predicting The Hurt Locker to triumph. If Avatar does manage a Best Picture win, Goliath dodging David's stone-throw if you will, it'll be the first Science Fiction film ever to nab the top honor. Incredible but true.


Let's take a look at Oscar's history with science fiction films. You're a savvy crowd so it probably goes without saying that the Academy thinks that the Visual Effects and Sound categories are the only default place to award sci-fi pictures. They don't even tend to win art direction prizes and they're also rarely seen in costume design categories, Star Wars being an exception on both fronts.

The Only SciFi Best Picture Nominees

• 1971 A Clockwork Orange (4 nominations, 0 wins)
• 1977 Star Wars (10 nominations, 6 wins. Plus 1 special Oscar)
• 1982 E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (9 noms, 4 wins)
• 2009 District 9 (4 noms, ??? wins)
• 2009 Avatar (9 noms, ??? wins)
  The expansion to ten Best Pictures ended the drought with a double whammy! I suppose if you loosen your definition of sci-fi up a bit you might find another...
  

Its Reputation Suggests It Was Nominated. It Wasn't

• 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey (4 nominations, 1 win but no Best Picture spot)
• 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (8 noms, 1 special prize but no Best Picture spot. One can assume it came very close to the shortlist)
• 1982 Bladerunner (2 noms: art direction and visual effects, both of which it lost. Utter Insanity... especially when it comes to the art direction. Possibly the most influential work in that category in the past 30 years or so)
  

The Only Oscar-Nominated Performances from Sci-Fi Films
It's possible I've forgotten someone(s). Help me out in the comments if I have.

• Melinda Dillon, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• Alec Guiness, Star Wars (1977)
• Laurence Olivier, The Boys From Brazil (1978)
  
• Jeff Bridges, Starman (1984)
• Don Ameche, Cocoon (1985... winner)
  
• Sigourney Weaver, Aliens (1986)
• Brad Pitt, Twelve Monkeys (1995)
  Which should go to show us that that brief burst of Zöe Saldana talk was just that, talk. They don't go for acting in sci-fi movies even when they aren't given computer assists. If you included fantasy films, you'd have to add. But I'm trying to keep this sci-fi.
  

Random Sampling of Famous Flicks and Oscar's Reaction

• 1927 Metropolis (zero nominations. Inside Oscar lists this as an eligible film that failed to be nominated in the Academy's first official year as an organization. But the IMDB lists its release as March 1927 which was before the eligibility period which stretched from August 1927 through July 1928)
• 1931 Frankenstein (snubbed)
• 1935 Bride of Frankenstein (1 nomination, sound recording)
  
• 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still (zero nominations... though the Golden Globes noticed its Bernard Herrmann score)
• 1953 The War of the Worlds (3 nominations, 1 win)
• 1959 Journey to the Center of the Earth (3 nominations)
  
• 1966 Fantastic Voyage (5 nominations, 2 wins)
• 1968 Planet of the Apes (2 nominations and 1 special Oscar)
• 1968 Barbarella (snubbed)
• 1973 Soylent Green (snubbed)
• 1979 Alien (2 nominations and 1 win)
• 1980 The Empire Strikes Back (3 nominations, 1 win. Plus 1 special Oscar)
• 1984 Dune (1 nomination, sound)
• 1984 The Terminator (snubbed)
• 1986 The Fly (1 nomination and win, makeup)
  
• 1989 The Abyss (4 nominations, 1 win)
• 1991 T2: Judgment Day (6 nominations and 4 wins)
• 1997 The Fifth Element (1 nomination, sound effects)
• 1999 The Matrix (4 nominations and wins: editing, sound, sound fx and visual fx)
• 2002 Minority Report (1 nomination, sound)
• 2007 Transformers (3 nominations, both sounds and a visual effects. The safe categories for massive grossing sci-fi movies that aren't "respectable", critically speaking)
  

Biggest Awards Haul To Date
That honor still goes to Star Wars which managed to take home 1 special and 6 competitive Oscars. E.T., T2 and The Matrix are tied for second place with 4 competitive trophies each.


So the question is...

How will Avatar fare on Sunday night? I think we can safely expect four statues: Art Direction, Cinematography, Visual Effects and at least one of the Sound categories. If it can manage a second sound category win and just one more trophy (Score? Film Editing?) it'll tie Star Wars as Oscar's favorite sci-fi flick. But my guess is it's going to fall short of that lofty goal, a mark which is itself considerably shorter than some pundits were guessing a month ago when a lot of people thought it was taking two handfuls of gold men. The Hurt Locker has too much heat to lose the race... or does it? You tell me.
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Nathaniel R: I led with the Reality Television problem yesterday because I'm trying to work through some, um, "personal issues". I actually snapped at two friends this week for no reason other than that something they said reminded me tangentially of reality television and how much I hate it and inbetween these outbursts I sat through the entire new episodes of Amazing Race, Project Runway and RuPaul's Drag Race on my DVR. I'm part of the problem! So I needed to binge and purge the reality television issue before moving on. My chief problem with its dominance is the samey samey ness of everything. Art thrives on variety and so often the pop culture pie -- of which the Oscars are my favorite slice -- comes in only one flavor at a time.

And Peter landed on the category that, invariably, I find the most difficult to stomach year in and year out for the exact same reason: Supporting Actor. They seem to use this category as a dumping ground for "types" even more so than the other categories. This will be three years in a row they've gone with a psychotic/charismatic killer for the win... and meanwhile they fill out the category with aging man career tributes. I won't attempt to argue that that winning threesome (Javier/Heath/Christoph) aren't worthy choices but there's something more to it than just coincidence, yes?


Maybe this psycho-killas and revered old men category is actually a metaphor for the glamorous brutality of Hollywood -- they're always trying to kill you but if you survive for any admirable length of time they're sure to kiss your ass...

I'm stretching but anything to take my mind away from this category!

And to take my mind away from Bringing Down The House's blinged up homie --uh, thanks Tim-- because that leads me right back into The Blind Side territory. Racial landmines ahead!



Speaking of... Precious. What Tim said. But the issue of who-gets-credit, which he briefly alluded to in regards to the performances, is so fascinating here (and elsewhere). But for my money, Tilda Swinton in Julia aside, Mo'Nique gave the one performance this year that I can't even wrap my head around fully it's so titanic.

Guy Lodge: Best Supporting Actor may be a dumping ground for "types," but that's no excuse to make it a dumping ground for bad performances too, which is precisely what they've done this year. If they really found Anthony Mackie and Alfred Molina that hard to accept (despite apparently liking everything around them), perhaps they should have applied their new Best Original Song rule to this category, and curtailed the number of nominees. Because, frankly, I'd rather see a two-strong field than have to scratch my head any longer over who was actually impressed enough by Stanley Tucci's sweaty psycho kvetching, or Matt Damon's (more justifiably sweaty, at least) approximation of Afrikaner hulkiness by way of Opie, to place them at the top of their ballot. Because someone did.

Read the rest of DAY TWO
Wherein we move on to individual nominations and snubs that delighted and confused us, what makes some movies click with Oscar or miss entirely, that weird relationship in Crazy Heart and the internal conflict of Inglourious Basterds.

Then return and comment. Continue the conversation.
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With 10 days until Oscar, it's time for theme days. Today's special: Precious.


It's late February 2010 and he's been pushing Precious, in one way or another, for years now. In our chat he amiably conveyed (elated) exhaustion. Though he noted a strong desire to "get my life back in order, get my head clear" before the next project, he was definitely in high spirits. If he were an actual politician I could only imagine that he'd be great at campaign promises, handshaking and kissing babies.

Here are some highlights from our conversation.

[He had just spoken with a university cinema class]
Nathaniel: Do you suddenly feel more authoritative about it after all the Oscar attention? Like 'I AM AN OSCAR NOMINEE!'
Lee: [Laughter] Here's the thing. I don't feel more authoritative but they seem to feel that I have more authority.

[On directing actors]
Nathaniel: What do you feel you did to pull that amazement out of them? Mo'Nique's performance... I still can't wrap my head around it.
Lee: I think there was a level of very deep trust. Trust is very hard to come by. Actors have been burned by directors that um... well, inevitably they're guarded. It's rare that an actor trusts and opens their soul up to a director. I think that's what Mo'Nique did. And Gabby didn't know any better [Laughter]
Nathaniel: She hadn't had the opportunity to be burned yet!
Lee: There was a deep respect and trust there. It was a magical experience. I hope to have it again.

[On the campaign trail with the directors]
Nathaniel: I think it was Quentin Tarantino that said all of you director nominees were spending so much time together you could start a rock band?
Lee: It's really sick. It's like being in production with these clowns. I love them. We've gotten to become almost like a frat pack. They're terrific people. Like, I can't even be upset if someone wins outside of me. I can't believe I'm even saying that. But that's how I feel because I've grown so fond and respectful of each of them. We started out wanting to win -- I certainly do want to win -- but I'd be okay if any of my other posse wins because they deserve it. They've been so supportive of me and I've learned so much from them on this journey. It's an amazing once in a lifetime experience. Well, I don't know if it's once in a lifetime. I hope not!

[On weathering the backlash]
Nathaniel: ... if there's too few representations of one type of thing it takes on extra weight rather than just being a movie. Precious becomes a Black Movie rather than a movie.
Lee: I'm sort of over it. I'm over it being... At first, you really want to have people talking so it doesn't matter. But then it spreads like a virus almost. You find yourself defending your work. I don't have to defend my work.
Nathaniel: It's already thematically provocative enough without having to deal with being a representation of race. Child abuse... that's plenty to discuss. It's such a potent movie that I kind of wish that people wouldn't put all that extra weight on it.
Lee: The people that continue to... I think they have issues of their own. I think we have, as African-Americans, we really strive to be Obama. And in those aspirations we forget the Preciouses of the world. We don't want to be a part of that. We don't want to know that. We don't want to see that. We don't want to be reminded of that. Guess what? We are that. That's where we're coming from. If we're not from the projects we're a generation away from the projects. No African-American is not a generation away from the projects, from that world. You can't really grow as people until you understand yourself and see yourself. So, that bothers me. It bothers me more that I have been reduced to even articulating those thoughts.


[On the Production Design by Roshelle Berliner... He was very pleased I brought it up, since it's one of the technical elements of the movie that people haven't been discussing.]
Nathaniel: The reason I bring it up is that shot of the stairwell inside the apartment when Mary is yelling up at Precious. That shot! I just think the production design was very smart. Did they come to you with these ideas or did you find a place?
Lee: I knew exactly what I wanted. Everything in that apartment was replicated from a hodgepodge of apartments that I lived in and grew up in Philadelphia. In Harlem and in New York -- especially in the projects -- its hard to find an upstairs/downstairs apartment.
Nathaniel: I live in Harlem so that two-story thing was shocking to me but I loved the art direction of the apartment.

[On Gabourey Sidibe as Precious]
Nathaniel: One of the things I like most about the movie is how small, in a way, Claireece's character arc is: she doesn't have to conquer the world she just has to learn to read and step away from that environment. That reads like this huge emotional triumph -- which it is! -- but in the grand scheme of movie plots, so to speak, that's really small. Since she was a new actress, did you have to talk to her a lot about the modulation of the arc?
Lee: No, no. Complete natural... she was a complete natural. What we had to do was just find it. She's so good that she found it and then some. We didn't shoot in chronological order. Precious grows as a person that's not to a person that is literate. And she grows as a spirit because of Ms. Rain and the girls. In my head I had the arc from A to Z sort of planned out. Gabby doesn't know Precious and that's what's so beautiful about the acting that she was able to find her; Her voice was deeper, her posture was slouched, she walked slower, she moved her eyes barely. And then slowly she blossomed. I'm not good at order, my memory is pretty shot, and so Gabby would remember exactly where this girl was supposed to be at exactly the right time. You can't do it alone. It really was the two of us finding her.


And find her they did... and they uncovered Oscar nominations, too. Those are often tricky to find. Congratulations to the cast and crew of Precious.

Lee Daniels' next project is rumored to be Selma which may star Robert De Niro as Governor George Wallace in Alabama during the struggle for civil rights. Generally speaking, I'm not big on bios or true stories, but I'm curious. Shadowboxer, Daniel's first, was a bizarre film but it was idiosyncratic in ways that made you wonder where the 'man behind the curtain' might be coming from. Precious was obviously a huge step forward artistically and career wise. Will you be there for round three?

With 2010 well underway and arguably the first big new movie about to open (The Wolfman) I want to get a bit more organized. Over at headquarters, I've updated the review index pages so that you can find things easier and 2010 now has a grades page which you can also access from the sidebar here (under screenings/reviews) if you like to follow along as the year goes.

2009 Awards: Art Direction, Best Sound Mixing and Sound Editing have been added. Every time I think I understand sound in film, I learn something else technical that throws me. So my awards are always a mix of thought about which films relied on their sound and used it expressively and which movies are most pleasing to the ears for a variety of reasons (i.e. not always explosions). As for art direction, don't you sometimes just want to crawl into these worlds and look around and touch everything. Coming Soon: Costume Design, Cinematography, Actor, Actress and Best Picture.

I've also reposted an overview of my favorite films by year. I'll fill in with more details later once we're clear of Oscar season but for now it's just the top film.

The National Society of Film Critics, typically the last critics group to announce, have finally done the deed. They've gone with the following...

Picture & Director: The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
Actress: Yolande Moreau, Seraphine
Actor: Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique, Precious
Supporting Actor (tie): Paul Schneider, Bright Star and Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds


Foreign Film: Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas)
Cinematography: The White Ribbon (Christian Bergen)
Production Design: Fantastic Mr. Fox (Nelson Lowry)
Screenplay: A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Documentary: The Beaches of Agnes (Agnes Varda)

The acclaim for certain pictures and performances continues. I knew about the Cesar award but it's strange that I remember hearing nothing from the critical community about Yolande Moreau until her two big awards (LAFCA and NSFC). But it's nice to see Bright Star getting a smidgeon of last minute acting attention. It's not so strange that Whishaw's pensive sensitivity was overlooked (that's not what voters go for in male actors, no matter how skilled they are at delivering it) but it was a mildly strange development that Abbie Cornish couldn't generate awards season traction at any point... though she did come in third with the NSFC.

Do you think Fantastic Mr. Fox could be the first animated film to win an Art Direction Oscar nomination or is that a pipe dream?
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Last year the DC Film Critics Association gave Slumdog millions (of prizes). This year they express their desire to fly George Clooney's friendly skies. I'm not here to judge (well not in this particular sentence) as I'm totally in love with Up in the Air, too. But then I just saw it and am still fanning myself from the heat coming off of Clooney & Farmiga. I need a little distance and a cold shower before I commit to any "best!" notions. Thankfully I allow myself that. Most organizations do not. Hence the hasty decision making.

I didn't share their nominees with you yesterday because I found them vaguely embarrassing, like the assembled journos all just came in late and frazzled having left their notes on the Metrorail. Instead of thinking it through they scribbled the names of Oscar buzz du jour types and called it a day. My point is this: I am scared of these people that think The Blind Side is better written than [insert name of a dozen films of high and low profiles here]. The only thing that's making that movie glow is Sandra Bullock's charisma, which even when surprisingly and purposefully buttoned down, is pretty damn shiny. The writers didn't write that. Bullock brings that with her when she reports to work.

Film Up in the Air
Director Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Actress Carey Mulligan, An Education
Actor George Clooney, Up in the Air
Supporting Actress Mo'Nique, Precious
Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Adapted Screenplay Up in the Air
Original Screenplay Inglourious Basterds
Breakthrough Performance Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Animated Film Up
Foreign Film Sin Nombre
Documentary Food, Inc
Art Direction Nine

These awards mostly seem like Oscar winner predictions and as such they're pretty very good... I could see all of that happening or nearly. But you know my feeling about using your awards to predict: Two different things! Two different things that should never be mixed!


And on that note I have to both give and takeaway: I think John Myhre's work on Nine is gorgeous BUT (there's always a but with me. I'm so difficult!) one does have to wonder how many Oscars and other prizes John Myhre can collect simply dressing up theatrical stages (Dreamgirls, Chicago, Nine). I do think his work on Nine trumps his other features including the ones that don't take place on a stage (Elizabeth, Memoirs of a Geisha) [tangent] or aren't supposed to. I definitely think Geisha looks like it takes place on a stage and it shouldn't... I thought it was the least deserving of the nominees that year so of course it won. Here's who shoulda been nominated in 2005 [/tangent] ...but this many prizes for dressing up stages? It seems to me like the cinematographer is the one doing the work when the movie takes place on stage. Am I right or am I missing something? Either is possible.
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First and Last: the first image you see after the opening credits and the final image before the closing credits (well actually it's just the starry sky but we're slow zooming towards that.



Can you name the movie?
Highlight for the answer: It's the clean sci-fi lines of GATTACA (1997) with cinematography by Slawomir Idziak

for more quizzes, click the "first and last" label below

Growing boys need their breakfast. Toasted Corn Flakes it is.


Christine Collins actually makes a joke about eating it before it gets cold. Ha! (Would that Angelina had found a way to bring that sense of humor into the character later on in the movie. sigh) Her son Walter, so independent and capable he won't let her pour it for him, informs her that cereal is supposed to be that way. Kids are so literal. Lighten up, Walter.

I love how absolutely plain the box is but I was curious as to how accurate it was (James J. Murakami and Gary Fettis were Oscar nominated for their 20s/30s based Art Direction). I couldn't find any blue Corn Flakes boxes from the 20s but google searches often let me down. And maybe Christine Collins was buying generic brands. She seemed like the thrifty type. The cereal boxes sure were plain back then ... at least by today's gaudy multi-colored cartoon branding / synergistic tie in standards.

I don't know why I love such random details within movies but I sure do. I will now have a bowl of cold cereal in honor of Walter... though I'll have to substitute Rice Krispies because that's all I got.

previously on "breakfast with"...