Best Actor, 2003

When Sean Penn won Best Actor in 2003, it was the first and, to my memory, the only time I’d ever seen the host himself apologize to one of the other nominees. That’s because while Penn’s victory wasn’t a total shock - there was a late surge of support for him and the film - conventional wisdom at the time had Bill Murray as the inevitable winner. Both Penn and Murray won Golden Globes, but Murray had also been crowned by the New York critics, the LA critics, the Indie Spirits, and BAFTA, an actual industry group! The only other nominee to be honored by people who’d actually vote for the Oscars was Johnny Depp at the SAG Awards, and many felt the nomination was the win for him. Murray was a beloved comedy icon who many agreed probably just missed on a Supporting Actor nomination for Rushmore, it seemed inevitable that the Academy would reward him and his career. For once, the inevitable did not occur:

Here are the performances, ranked from 5th to 1st:

Best Actress, 2003

I will never forget that photo of Charlize Theron in full Aileen Wuornos drag, clad in a prison jumpsuit with hands clasped while awaiting mercy in a courtroom. It's the picture everyone used to say "this is our next Oscar winner", the picture everyone chose to say "gorgeous women can only win Oscars win they de-glam!" Hell, in 2006, the Academy Awards itself made a joke by saying Charlize Theron was once more "ugging it up" for North Country. If you read "We Predict the Winners" articles from the era, everyone tries to build suspense by saying it's a narrow race between Theron and Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give...and everyone predicts Charlize Theron. I was three days from turning 15 and even I knew who'd win:

Who should have won? The performances ranked, by me, from 5th to 1st:

Best Director, 2003

What do you look for when it comes to “best” directing? I confess, for me it’s about consistency: all the performers, all the “crafts”, even the rhythm of the edit (not always under the aegis of the director, by the way), are on the same page, delivering the same tone. If it’s slow and meditative, you’re not bored, because everyone is doing their job to make that purposeful instead of plodding. If it’s broad and loud, no one is over-the-top but everyone is Stylized, Theatrical. You believe in the world of the film because the director has worked on every element to make it real.

I think that's what everyone was responding to in 2003 when Peter Jackson made his inevitable ascent to the Dolby stage, a consistency that spanned 438 days of shooting, three years of release (and reshoots), a cast and crew of thousands, and beaucoup box office. Everyone knew they were waiting for the third movie to give him his reward:

As you see, he wasn't the only nominee, and nobody turned in a bad movie. Ranking them is more a matter of who you love most than who you like least. Here they are, ranked from 5th to 1st. 

Best Supporting Actress, 2003

What a lineup, huh? We have Shohreh Aghdashloo giving a performance that made American critics and Hollywood sit up and take notice, Patricia Clarkson riding the momentum of 2002’s Far from Heaven and her other 2003 indie The Station Agent, Marcia Gay Harden returning in a Best Picture nominee after her shocking Oscar win in 2000, Holly Hunter back for the first time since her 1993 double-header, and Renee Zellweger on her third consecutive nomination after just missing out on a win the previous year (so we assume, anyway). Zellweger had the ol' "When are we giving it to her already?" going for her, and just like Tim Robbins, her win was considered "in the bag":

The performances, ranked from 5th to 1st:

Best Supporting Actor, 2003

Much of the 2003 race felt like an inevitability. We all knew Best Picture and Best Director were locked for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. We all knew Renee Zellweger was getting Best Supporting Actress. And we all knew the winner for Best Supporting Actor was gonna be Tim Robbins. And we were right:

My ranking, from 5th to 1st:

The End of the Year: 2003, Day Six

Here they are, the last 13 films of my 2003. My first time watches here were Cold Mountain, The Company, The Fog of War, House of Sand and Fog, Mona Lisa Smile, and The Station Agent. The movies I’ve seen more than just the two times are The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Big Fish.

Christmas in November: 2003, Day Five

New to me this round: 21 Grams, Bad Santa, The Barbarian Invasions, Brother Bear, The Cooler, In America, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and The Missing. Everything else I was seeing for only my second time, except Love Actually, which I’ve seen many many many many times.

First Kisses: 2003, Day Four

This set of films goes from September 26 through Halloween, 2003.

In the midst of all this was my first real date with a girl. I met her through my summer theatre camp, though we didn't do a show together, she was friends with friends of mine. Cute girl, dated two of my friends before me, we saw Runaway Jury.

I regretted it when she started making out with me. Good kisser, cute girl, don't get me wrong, but I was enjoying the movie and missed an important plot point, a blank that wouldn't be filled until, well, this year. That’s when I realized I was not a movie date guy, not for a first date, anyway, and definitely not for a first kiss. My best friend later told me the mistake was going to one I was interested in but I don’t think that matters. I love the movies, I want not just to watch them, but to tell you what I liked, what I hated, why something was good or bad! I think I would’ve felt the same frustration if we had seen, I don’t know, The Room. Cinema was already My Girl.

We split about a month later, amicably, and I never saw her again. Twenty years later, I saw Runaway Jury without interruption.

Thirteen films here. My first time watches were The Human Stain, In the Cut, Shattered Glass, and Under the Tuscan Sun. The only ones I saw multiple times before this were Mystic River, Kill Bill: Volume 1, and Intolerable Cruelty.

Predicting the 97th Academy Awards Nominees

UPDATED 1/23/25 with the actual nominees. I've kept my predicted titles: incorrect guesses are now in red, unpredicted nominees in green. I'll warn you, the only categories I predicted perfectly are Best Director, Best Actress, Best Sound, and the Supporting Acting categories.

The nominations for the 97th Academy Awards are tomorrow, a celebration of the best in 2024 cinema.

'Anora' won the Palme d'Or at Cannes - can it also win Best Picture?

For the first time in a decade, my own tally for 2024 viewings currently sits at 60, but I'm gonna give myself another ten days to catch up. In the meantime, based on nominations given by the various guilds, critics' groups, Golden Globes, and BAFTAs, here's what I think will be nominated tomorrow at 5:30am PST:

A Third Costner: 2003, Day Three

We're in the thick of Summer '03 now, July 25-September 26. Two Best Picture nominees were released in this peiod, the studio sports drama Seabiscuit and the indie dramedy Lost in Translation. But as I said in 1990 and in 1997, we're here for Kevin Costner, so let's focus on that.

After a gap of only six years, Costner returned to the big screen with Open Range. Based on The Open Range Men, a 1990 novel by prolific Western author Lauran Paine, the film follows a group of men herding cattle across the land who are stopped in their endeavors by the powerful rancher of a nearby town who detests open range cattlemen, and is willing to kill, so, you know, our main duo elect to stay in town and prepare for the inevitable. 

Costner grew up reading the works of Paine, and I think it's interesting that the novel he went with came out the same year as his Dances with Wolves. He cast Duvall, who made his directorial debut with 1997's The Apostle, the same year as Costner's second film, The Postman. I'm sure these vague connections were not thought of at the time, but it always strikes me, the way lives are just always circling around each other, time constantly in conversation with itself.

Filming between June and September of 2002 on a, for Costner, modest budget of $22 million, the film opened to good reviews and good box office. Heck, I remember seeing the TV ads ("You're the one killed our friend?" BANG!) during every commercial break. Why it never managed to take hold in the Oscar race, I'm not sure. Just one of those things, I guess. It would be 21 years before Costner gave us another movie...which we'll discuss another time.

Of the thirteen discussed below, five were brand new to me: American Splendor, Freaky Friday, Matchstick Men, Open Range, and Thirteen. Of the rewatches, Party Monster and Freddy vs. Jason are the only ones I've seen more than twice (more than thrice!). 

Legends Are Born (and Retired): 2003, Day Two

Continuing our journey through 2003 with the films of May 2 through July 25. A lot happened in this period: the beginning of Pirates of the Caribbean, the end of Sean Connery, Pixar and comic book films leveling up artistically and commercially. It was quite the time to be alive.

Of these thirteen, three were brand new to me (Camp, Capturing the Friedmans, Dirty Pretty Things). Of the remaining ten, I’d only seen half of them multiple times before this (X2, The Room, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Down with Love, 28 Days Later).

On the Defensive: 2003, Day One

The difficult thing about doing “retrospectives” of Oscar years is that, the closer you get to the contemporary timelines, the more you hear, “Oh, you didn’t watch [blankety blank] you have to watch [blankety blank]!” People can forgive missing a Bacall or two because, hey, those are old; tell people you missed Bringing Down the House and you might as well say you didn’t take the project seriously.

But I swear I did! Remember, I was a moviegoer in 2003, albeit still at the mercy of friends’ and parents’ availabilities: the closest theater was miles away and besides, I wasn’t exactly driving at 13/14 years old (nor am I at 35 years old). Point being, there were “popular” movies I missed then, there are “popular” movies I miss now - there are “popular” movies you miss now, admit it!

Ach, such a defensive way to begin this retrospective! The films we look at today cover the period from January 17 to April 25. There are thirteen in all. Four of them are new to me: Bend It Like Beckham, City of God, A Mighty Wind, and Phone Booth. The rest I’d seen before, though only three of them I’ve seen more than twice: Identity, House of 1000 Corpses, and Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie.

Let’s begin:

2003: Beginnings

Obviously, there's been some delay in the 2003 posting due to life stuff.

I am still prepared to start with the reviews on Sunday. I watched 78 films total for this project - and, since 2003 was a year when I started to ramp up my moviegoing and cinephilia, over 50 of them are rewatches, some for the hundredth time, many for the first time since seeing them in cinemas.

The 78 films are:

21 Grams

28 Days Later

Anger Management

Anything Else

Bad Santa

The Barbarian Invasions

Bend It Like Beckham

Better Luck Tomorrow

Big Fish

Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie

Brother Bear

Camp

Capturing the Friedmans

City of God

Cold Mountain

The Company

The Cooler

Daredevil

Die, Mommie, Die!

Dirty Pretty Things

Down with Love

Elephant

Elf

Finding Nemo

The Fog of War

Freaky Friday

Freddy vs. Jason

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Gothika

The Haunted Mansion

House of 1000 Corpses

House of Sand and Fog

House of the Dead

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

The Human Stain

Identity

In America

In the Cut

Intolerable Cruelty

The Italian Job

Kill Bill Vol. 1

The Last Samurai

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Lost in Translation

Love Actually

The Magdalene Sisters

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Matchstick Men

A Mighty Wind

The Missing

Mona Lisa Smile

Monster

Mystic River

Open Range

Party Monster

Peter Pan

Phone Booth

Pieces of April

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

The Room

Runaway Jury

The Rundown

The School of Rock

Seabiscuit

Shattered Glass

Something's Gotta Give

The Station Agent

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Thirteen

The Triplets of Belleville

Under the Tuscan Sun

Underworld

View from the Top

Whale Rider

Willard

Wrong Turn

X2

We begin Sunday with the first 13 films released that year, taking us from January 17 to mid-April, including Oscar surprise City of God and Marvel embarrassment Daredevil. Do join...

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The 1997 Retro Hollmann Awards: The Winners

The biggest gap from the beginning of a year to its conclusion in a while. Nevertheless, here we are: you've seen my take on the Academy Award nominees in six categories, my Top Ten, and my nominees. Now, here are my winners, the best of the best, for the 1997 Retro Hollmann Awards: