14th SAG Predictions

[Steph2]

Somehow, I don't think any of us have mastered "single" as well as you have.

[Sabin]

And go fuck yourself.

Like a lot of girls I suspect you've "been with", I will

Don't throw your back out too much laughing and get paralyzed. Then we wouldn't be able to enjoy your mastery of the single entendre.

[cam]

Titanic, IMO, was an overwritten, overproduced piece of shit.
Boogie Nights, on the other hand, was a great character study , peopled with interesting characters who had great back stories.

[Franz Ferdinand]

Let's not forget the best movie of 1997, "The Ice Storm", was completely passed over by the Oscars. Not their most credible hour, as if they've ever been.

[Akash]

That being said, if anything was going to beat 'Titanic' it would've been 'Good Will Hunting'

If they couldn't vote for Heath and Jake, they weren't going to vote for the even gayer Matt and Ben.

Seriously though, I also think Titanic wasn't that bad -- I know it's fashionable to hate it, but it's a well made action/soap opera with two lovely performances by Winslet and DiCaprio. The film is always totally committed to its own earnestness, which is admirable (and easily dismissed) in the Age of Irony that we live in. The screenplay is among the worst for a Best Picture film and Billy Zane is ridiculous, but both were appropriately snubbed. L.A. Confidential is well made and beautifully directed by Hansen, but I never understood all the love for it either and Kim Bassinger's performance is as hollow as Gloria Stuart. No wonder they were both the front-runners. The acting nominees from that film should have been Russell Crowe (he's never been this good again) and Guy Pearce. Anyway, there were better films than both Titanic and L.A. Confidential that fell within Oscar's radar but failed to make the Best Picture cut -- Boogie Nights, The Sweet Hereafter, The Ice Storm, and Jackie Brown.

As for the rest of the supporting nominees, I loved Moore in Boogie Nights and would have been fine with her winning, but my vote would have gone to Minnie Driver (shoot me) whose scenes with Damon are so effortless, sweet and heartbreaking, achieving a verisimilitude that the rest of the heavy handed plot doesn't allow. Those two make up the very best of a mediocre film. It's not hard to believe a real life relationship developed between them (however short-lived). Robin Williams' win here is one of the worst acting choices ever and perfectly in sync with the kind of over the top, showy crap that wins so many times. His character was completely unnecessary as Will's "transformation" or maturity could have sprung more organically from his interaction with Skyler.

And Elliot Smith's beautiful "Miss Misery" losing to "My Heart Will Go On" is all you need to know about the Oscars.



Edited By Akash on 1201593014

[Eric]

OK, that's funny.

[Steph2]

And go fuck yourself.

Like a lot of girls I suspect you've "been with", I will.

[Sabin]

Thanks for the story about Goldman. Is this common knowledge? I prefer my version where Van Sant has a crush on Matt Damon and some kind of sexual deal was made.

Common knowledge. Lots of stories about it online propagated in part by Goldman himself. And go fuck yourself.

[Steph2]

I thought I deleted every trace of this magnum epic from a span of time I like to call "YEARS I SHOULD'VE BEEN FUCKING GIRLS"

Or, "Years I did Stuff With Guys And Now Hide It Under A Cool Sheen and Some Jokes That Make It Seem Like I'm Just Secure In My Masculinity?" :p It's ok to admit it Sabin. We'll still love you. (I kid, I kid)

Thanks for the story about Goldman. Is this common knowledge? I prefer my version where Van Sant has a crush on Matt Damon and some kind of sexual deal was made.

[Sabin]

I can honestly say I'd take the earnestness and silliness of Titanic any day over the overrated L.A. Confidential.

Enjoy.

Please take back Kim Bassinger's Oscar and give it to...oh right, all the nominees sucked that year.

Yeah, I think you're way the fuck wrong. 'Boogie Nights' is one of Julianne Moore's best performances. She's a fairly overrated performer and damn near every performance she's given since 'Far From Heaven' (including 'The Hours') has been flat-out lousy. In 'Boogie Nights', she's outstanding. I think 'In & Out' is a fantastic showcase for Joan Cusack's particular comedic talents. Kim Basinger is fine but overrated. Gloria Stuart doesn't really give a performance but she's fine. And Minnie Driver takes a non-part and imbues it with a modicum of charm but it doesn't begin to touch the charisma she displayed earlier in the year with the incredibly underrated 'Grosse Point Blank'.

Does anyone out there still really believe Damon and Affleck penned that screenplay? I bet anything it was mostly Van Sant. And I can understand why he wouldn't want credit for it.

When I was 15, I wrote a 300 page "personal" high school comedy that I finished some three years later, thought it was brilliant. How could it not be? It was "personal"! I thought I deleted every trace of this magnum epic from a span of time I like to call "YEARS I SHOULD'VE BEEN FUCKING GIRLS" but Lo and behold! I found a back up last year. I perused it. Unreadable. Probably better than the first pre-Goldman draft of 'Good Will Hunting'. And you know what? If I had Gus Van Sant, an Elliot Smith soundtrack, Harvey Weinstein, and a few hours with William Goldman? I'd have an Oscar right now.

Here's what happened? They wrote an un/der/formatted screenplay of 'Good Will Hunting' desperately in need of structuring and proper screenplay narrative. So who do they bring in? William Goldman. He reads this underdeveloped "personal" epic, has lunch with them, circles some shit, highlights the rest...and goes uncredited for his efforts. Why? Because then the underdog story doesn't work. They're no longer Two Underdogs Who Wrote a Brilliant Screenplay. They're Two Marketing Propositions That Can Act And Needed The Most Expensive Help Money And Prestige Can Buy. It's Matt & Ben on the podium, not Matt & Ben & Will.

Goldman himself leaked out that he had an afternoon with them and "thank God I didn't damage their talent!" Nice choice of words. Matt & Ben wrote the movie but William Goldman found it. I have no doubt that Gus Van Sant is brilliant enough to make it palatable (and I do find the movie to be almost totally palatable) but I think his touches were more performance and scene-driven.

[ITALIANO]

I can honestly say I'd take the earnestness and silliness of Titanic any day over the overrated L.A. Confidential.

Yes, I would probably say the same. There WERE some great movies that year (like The Sweet Hereafter) but I'm not sure that L.A. Confidential was one of them - I wasn't sure even back then.

But Best Supporting Actress wasn't so bad. Julianne Moore deserved to win - it's a very good performance; Cusack was a very close second; and Basinger - while not exactly transcendental - had a kind of iconic charm. The two others were forgettable but bearable.

[Mister Tee]

Then when 'Titanic' just kept winning and winning on March of '98, I really kind of grew disillusioned, especially considering that nobody I knew had seen the damn thing!

Well, apparently your circle of friends is as far from the standard American demographic as one can get.

[Akash]

Julianne Moore was fantastic as the porn den mother, a role she seemed to fit into like a glove.

I'm with Flipp in thinking that a good porn actor can fit into anything like a glove.

[Steph2]

I wasn't that impressed with Moore in Boogie Nights. She's good and all, but I don't understand all the hoopla. She's probably the best in this category but that's more by default. Driver and Cusack were charming (ish) in two underwhelming films and Bassinger and Stuart were completely forgettable. I dunno flipp, to me this was one of the worst line-ups, with supporting actor being only marginally better because of Forster.

Where was the love for Pam Grier in Jackie Brown, Debbi Morgan in Eve's Bayou, Sarah Polley in The Sweet Hereafter, Jude Law in Gattaca, and Rupert Everett in My Best Friend's Wedding?

There were so many viable candidates and they found room for Gloria Stuart and Anthony fucking Hopkins?

[flipp525]

Please take back Kim Bassinger's Oscar and give it to...oh right, all the nominees sucked that year.

Steph, no! Are you kidding? Julianne Moore was fantastic as the porn den mother, a role she seemed to fit into like a glove. And Joan Cusack's comically brilliant turn in In and Out was a delight. While Driver and Stuart were decent, but nothing relevatory, Basinger's work in L.A. Confidential was some of the best she's ever done (then or since). This was a great lineup.