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Run, the Oscars are rigged!
Hollyfeld, here, and I have an announcement to make.
The Academy Awards are rigged.
There you go. I told you in the last column that if Zhang Ziyi wasn't nominated for Best Supporting Actress, then the Academy Awards were rigged. Thusly, they are. I am becoming more and more disillusioned with this process each passing year, and the fact that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon go NO nominations for its performances (in my opinion, the best parts of the whole film) is simply a tragedy. Now I guess it's time to analyze the nominations and see how John and I did with our predictions yesterday, but I do so with a heavy heart.
Best Picture: Chocolat, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Erin Brockovich, Gladiator, Traffic
John beat me, here, getting four out of five. Now, personally I thought that this would be a Miramax-free year in the Best Picture category, the first in quite a while, but good old Harvey Weinstein campaigned his way into a yet another nomination. Chocolat is officially a long-shot, however, since it failed to get a Best Director nom. But I think the biggest surprise this year is the absence of Almost Famous from the nominees. It might not have been the best movie of the year, but it had a lot more heart than almost all of these put together (with the exception of CT,HD, that is).
Best Director: Stephen Daldry, Ang Lee, Ridley Scott, Stephen Soderbergh, Stephen Soderbergh
John and I tied here, with four out of five each. As usual, and as I stated earlier, the Best Picture and Best Director nominees never match up exactly, and Billy Elliot director Stephen Daldry got the wildcard spot. I don't have much of a comment, here, as I think that most of these are well deserved. Again, look for Ang Lee to win.
Best Actor: Javier Bardem, Russell Crowe, Tom Hanks, Ed Harris, Geoffrey Rush
I called it earlier, stating the Crowe, Hanks and Rush were shoe-ins. John and I apparently agreed on that, each accurately predicting only those three, and were both surprised by Bardem (Before Night Falls) and Harris being included in this list. Especially Harris. The two nominations for his film, Pollock, really came out of nowhere, and having not seen it yet I cannot say whether this is a good thing or not. An odd category this year, with what I think were the best performances of 2000 (George Clooney, Sean Connery and Chow Yun-Fat) being completely snubbed. What a jip.
Best Actress: Joan Allen, Juliette Binoche, Ellen Burstyn, Laura Linney, Julia Roberts
Okey-doke, this one I have some problems with. Joan Allen, while I love very much, did not deserve this nomination as much as she deserved to flat-out win in previous years, and Michelle Yeoh was unforgivably left out. Just a shame. A flat out shame. I did a little better than John in this category, predicting three nominees to his two, but I'm still disappointed anyway. Sigh... At least there is always...
Best Supporting Actor: Jeff Bridges, Willem Dafoe, Benicio Del Toro, Albert Finney, Joaquin Phoenix
This one, on the other hand, I have no real problems with (especially since I got all of them right - go me). Jeff Bridges deserved his nomination (his fourth - it's nice to know that he gets recognized), as did Dafoe, Del Toro and Finney. Phoenix is the weaker link here, but while I agree with John that Jack Black and Bruce Greenwood deserved nominations, too (John got three out of five), it's hard to complain about his inclusion in such a strong category.
Best Supporting Actress: Dame Judie Dench, Marcia Gay Harden, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand, Julie Walters
Crappy, crappy, crappy. Admittedly, I have no problem with Hudson and McDormand's nominations here, but the absence of Zhang Ziyi just really tans my hide. The second surprise from Pollock, too. Again, I haven't seen it, so I cannot be any kind of judge. John and I both predicted three here, so I guess we have some cause to celebrate. I guess...
Best Original Screenplay: Almost Famous, Billy Elliot, Erin Brockovich, Gladiator, You Can Count On Me
Pretty much as I predicted it this year, although Gladiator got my Chicken Run spot. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, although as a screenplay it is probably the weakest of the lot, here. (Haven't seen You Can Count On Me, though, so I might be wrong.) As I stated in the last column, this was hardly a stellar year for original screenplays, but the upside is that Cameron Crowe is pretty much a lock for once. Good for him.
Best Adapted Screenplay: Chocolat, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Traffic, Wonder Boys
Again, I got four out of five. I admit to be very surprised, however, with the inclusion of O Brother, Where Art Thou? That was only the second pick I had this year that I afforded myself out of personal opinions and it came to pass, so I'm really happy. I am also somewhat stunned by the exclusion of High Fidelity, a film of which I am hardly a fan but nonetheless was a frontrunner in this category. Huh. How about that?
Although our predictions were not a competition, it wouldn't have mattered anyway since John and I had pretty much the same average nonetheless. I think we did pretty well, all things considered. I'm still pissed about Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi, though...
And thus, in honor of my bad mood, I am going to do a Look Closer... focusing on one of my favorite, forgotten, latter-day Hitchcockian action films, 1991's Run.
Run (not to be confused with Akira Kurosawa’s classic film Ran) features once and former teen icon Patrick Dempsey (Can’t Buy Me Love, Loverboy) as Charlie Farrow, a smug law student who spends his time jogging, beating his friends at poker and working as an auto mechanic to help pay for his education. One day his boss hands him the keys to a mint condition Porsche and tells him to deliver it to Atlantic City. Naturally Charlie jumps at this opportunity, but while on route the car promptly breaks down. While waiting for his ride to get fixed, he finds his way to a (presumably illegal) casino, where he makes a killing at the poker table, much to the aggravation of Denny Halloran (Alan C. Peterson), who attacks Charlie in a fit of anger. While rushing our hero, however, Denny slips and hits his head on a desk, killing him instantly. Charlie frantically tells someone to call for the police, and then realizes that no one has moved since the incident. A group of men grab him and try to drag him away, but Charlie manages to escape, and soon finds out exactly what kind of trouble he is in.
Charlie discovers to his horror Denny is the son of "Mad" Halloran (Ken Pogue), a mob boss who owns the whole town, and who has rather expediently offered $50,000 for anyone bringing Charlie to him alive. Our hero now has to run throughout the movie from mob bosses, corrupt police officers and everyday individuals who have seen his face posted all over the local news as a cold-blooded murderer. Problems continue to escalate as he is subsequently framed for the crimes of those attempting to catch him, and the people in pursuit are getting more and more desperate. Although he has an occasional ally, including Kelly Preston (Jerry Maguire, For Love Of The Game), a dealer at the casino where all the trouble started, Charlie finds himself helpless throughout most of the film, with nothing to help him except his quick feet and ability to hotwire cars.
I remember seeing Run when it first came out and being very impressed by the over-all quality of the film, though the well-written characters and taught pacing stand out especially. Patrick Dempsey’s Charlie is a particularly likeable hero, who is capable of being smarmy and helpless at the same time. And even though almost everyone he meets is trying to either kidnap or kill him, he never turns on his attackers, occasionally even attempting to save their lives. (Frankly I think it is a shame that Patrick Dempsey hasn’t had more of a career in the last few years, although his supporting performances in With Honors and Scream 3 have been top notch.) In addition, the bulk of the supporting characters are very three-dimensional, from the Wiseguy who helped raise Denny, the Police Chief who refuses to believe that his officers are corrupt, and two police officers with differing feelings on their pursuit of the main character. Kelly Preston, unfortunately, gets comparatively little to work with (especially considering the size of her role), although she comes across well. For some reason she is written out of the script towards the end of the film, which is a shame because it leaves the film with an unnecessary loose end.
As mentioned earlier, Run is also very well paced, keeping its levels of suspense consistent throughout most of the film. Almost every scene after the plot is established either features Charlie running for his life or about to. The music for the film is somewhat unimpressive, especially for those of us who are Run Lola Run fans, but it serves the film’s needs and hasn’t dated as badly as other film scores from ten or fifteen years ago have. (A great score would have helped the film considerably, though.) The situations Charlie finds himself generally get more outrageous as the film proceeds and his methods of survival are always entertaining and usually unpredictable (there is an especially memorable scene involving a game of Chicken in a parking garage with patrol car which I won’t ruin for you).
Frankly, I think the best thing that can be said about Run is that it is just a very entertaining film that deserved to make far more that its four million dollars at the box office. I used the term "Hitchcockian" in describing this film earlier and I meant it – Run incorporates all of the elements of a classic Hitchcock film: a likeable main character with the world against him, an attractive female to distrust and then help him (Preston’s not blonde in this, but no one’s perfect), and a series of memorable action sequences. Though there are flaws, including a less-than-memorable main villain and a few fairly big plot holes, Run still stands as one of the better small-scale action films of the early Nineties. It is currently only available on video, but it is pretty easy to find. Check it out – it’s worth your time.
Next Time On Look Closer… Something Else! (Not sure what yet, so we'll just have to see what comes up. Don’t forget to send those reviews in!)
As always, Hollyfeld can be reached at hollyfeld_@hotmail.com
You there! You think you could do this job better than I can? Well, you might be right! Look Closer… is always looking for guest columnists, and you might as well be one of them. Just write a review of reasonable length for a movie that you think is under-rated, over-rated, no one knows, etc., and if it makes the grade we will print it in an edition of this column! Those whose reviews are published will also receive a free piece of (slightly cheesy and really inexpensive) promotional merchandise from a movie, to be sent when their review is published, courtesy of me. Just send any and all reviews to the above address. Thank you for reading and participating in the site!
Lazlo Hollyfeld is the pseudonym of an aspiring writer/actor/director located in Southern California. With one screenplay under his (collaborative) belt and more to come, he is sure to work his way up in the world with the help of his talented and close-knit group of friends, co-workers, and penguins. Yes, you heard me, penguins. A film student since before he can remember, he has devoted much of his life to the study of the silver screen and its related art forms.