the product placement quiz #4
All right, to simplify things this time, I’m giving you three images, all of which are product placement samples from movies that feature the same actor. Can you name any or all of the movies and the connecting actor?
remember when: CAST of BIG LOVE
Amidst all the hoopla of Oscars this, SAGs that, it seems it’s time to take a trip back to normalcy for a bit. Time to return to Remember When, this time starring the cast of Big Love, which just recently premiered its final season (and it’s already better than season four!), namely some former roles you may’ve forgotten about…
Before he was clan leader and Home Plus owner Bill Hendrickson, Bill Paxton did his fair share of roles as ’80s super-jerks, one of them being the infamous Chet in 1985’s Weird Science.
Long before her stint as first wife, casino manager, and now-lost soul Barb, Jeanne Tripplehorn’s big-screen debut was as Dr. Beth Garner in 1992’s Basic Instinct.
Before she was scheming compound escapee and middle wife Nikki Grant (and before she was an Oscar nominee for Boys Don’t Cry), Chloe Sevigny was part of the cast of the controversial teen sex drama Kids in 1995.
Before she was cutesy third wife and jewelry peddler Margene on Big Love, and prior to that string of romantic comedies she’s hitched her wagon to, Ginnifer Goodwin made her acting debut on an episode of Law & Order in 2001.
Before she was staunchly faith-filled, though diabolically masterminded, matriarch Adaleen Grant, Mary Kay Place played Loretta on the cult classic 1970s series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
Long before playing controversial prophet of Juniper Creek Roman Grant, Harry Dean Stanton played dozens of roles in television, including a one-off role in a 1959 episode of the western series The Rifleman.
Before playing the nutty mother and exotic bird smuggler Lois Hendrickson, Grace Zabriskie had a variety of screen roles, including one as one of Sally Field’s fellow workers in 1979’s Norma Rae.
Now-big-name movie star Amanda Seyfried, before her stint as confused daughter Sara on Big Love, got her start on daytime television, including a regular role from 1999 to 2001 on As the World Turns.
Before he played boneheaded but harmless son Ben, Douglas Smith played several roles as a child actor, including performing as a young Brendan Fraser in the 1999 comedy Blast from the Past.
say goodbye to the gallery…
Though it eventually became a seemingly pointless effort on my part, that gallery of title down and to the right of “2010 Movies Seen” will be vacating the premises soon. So take one last look, as it’s about to become the zone for review links. I’m going to attempt to actually write reviews on this blog! My stars! It’ll start off with my recent reviews of Made in Dagenham and The Way Back over at Anomalous Material. In other news, I’m conducting some year-end polls over at the LCT Awards website and could really use all of your input! Click over here, and navigate to the polls section to vote on the big six categories (minus Best Director).
best films: #11: TITANIC (1997)
It’s only fitting that another big prestige movie (The King’s Speech) garnered a higher-than-average Oscar nomination count just a few days ago (and that it happens to be a little polarizing to viewers), as my number 11 entry in my top 100 (this is circa 2009, so expect a revision once I finally finish counting down this version) fits both bills. Garnering 14 Oscar nominations, Titanic tied a 47-year-old record set by All About Eve, but was arguably the most successful film ever at the ceremony (Eve received six wins, while Titanic managed 11). And, since no seemingly infallible success can go without its detractors, it also happens to be a movie that polarized critics and audiences alike. Due to its placement on this list, you can assume which side of the aisle I fall on. I’m the first to admit that Titanic is deeply flawed in many ways. There are historical plot holes and scientific inaccuracies – and hey, it leaned on the melodrama time and again throughout the romantic trials of Jack and Rose, but I will always love it for the following reasons.
For one, it launched the careers of the two people that would become the greatest actors of their generation (feel free to fight me on that), or, at the very least, two of the most lauded actors. Without Titanic, we perhaps might never have seen the countless stellar performances that have occurred for the duo since. Imagine the roles that happened simply because they were the stars of the biggest movie ever! (And yes, I’m fully aware that Kate and Leo were both Oscar nominees at this point, but let’s all agree they’ve grown into their abilities since 1997.) Second on my list of insistences is that the grandiose effects, art direction, cinematography, and sound editing were incredible even by today’s standards. Third, though James Cameron’s head may be bigger than the ship itself, the man can achieve spectacle without schlock (for the most part) – the only other director that I think can achieve this degree of spectacle effectively is Peter Jackson (see King Kong for proof of this). And last, James Horner happens to be one skilled composer. Check out his filmography, and come back to me with any missteps you can find in his soundtracks – really, because I can’t find any. So I guess what I’m saying is, at first glance of the above headline, I’m sure you were sent into a tizzy of negative comments, but I implore you – don’t let backlash get the better of you. It’s been almost 15 years; Titanic deserves another viewing.
oscars 2010: what the acting nominees are up to in 2011
the 2010 LCT nominees, the ones that just missed the cut
As was previously announced in the past couple days, the LCT Awards’ film nominees for 2010 are all stacked up. But what of the rest of the crop? I mean, I screened about 120 films this year (yes, exhausting), so there were bound to be quite a few deserving candidates who didn’t quite make the cut… and here they are:
the 2010 LCT nominees, music categories
Pick up the phone! It’s Lady Gaga telling you to head over to the official LCT Awards website to check out the 2010 nominees in the music categories, where Lady Gaga and “Telephone” lead the nomination count with five nods, and Cee Lo Green comes second with three mentions. Go check it out, and come back here for the conversation!
the 2010 LCT nominees, tv categories
Yes, Phil Dunphy is urging you to go check out the LCT TV nominees for 2010 over at the official website, where Modern Family leads the pack in nomination counts with seven nods, followed by Parks and Recreation with five. For the detailed rundown, click that link
the 2010 LCT nominees, film categories
Not to be eclipsed by today’s obviously more important announcement, last night’s live stream here on the blog announced this year’s nominees for my own personal awards, the LCTs. We’ll break it down into pieces, starting with the film categories. Accompanying each fivesome is their past nomination count with my awards – you can see some history (so far as far back as 2008) by visiting the new official website, linked on the right side of the blog screen. What they’ve been previously nominated for is below each nominee.
previously nominated for Zodiac and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
previously nominated for directing and producing The Dark Knight
Best Lead Actress
*Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right (6th nomination, 0 wins)
nominated for The Grifters, Regarding Henry, The American President, American Beauty, & Being Julia
*Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole (4th nomination, 1 win)
nominated for The Hours and Cold Mountain, won for The Others
*Natalie Portman, Black Swan (2nd nomination, 0 wins)
nominated for Closer
*Emma Stone, Easy A (1st nomination)
*Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine (2nd nomination, 0 wins)
nominated for Brokeback Mountain
Best Lead Actor
*Robert Duvall, Get Low (2nd nomination, 0 wins)
nominated for The Natural
*James Franco, 127 Hours (2nd nomination, 0 wins)
nominated for Milk
*Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine (1st nomination)
*Tahar Rahim, A Prophet (1st nomination)
*Kodi Smit-McPhee, Let Me In (1st nomination)
Best Supporting Actress
*Patricia Clarkson, Shutter Island (1st nomination)
*Dale Dickey, Winter’s Bone (1st nomination)
*Ann Guilbert, Please Give (1st nomination)
*Melissa Leo, The Fighter (2nd nomination, 0 wins)
nominated for Frozen River
*Dianne Wiest, Rabbit Hole (5th nomination, 1 win)
nominated for Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway, and Parenthood, won for The 10th Kingdom
Best Supporting Actor
*Christian Bale, The Fighter (2nd nomination, 0 wins)
nominated for Empire of the Sun
*Andrew Garfield, The Social Network (1st nomination)
*Tom Hardy, Inception (1st nomination)
*Richard Jenkins, Eat Pray Love (2nd nomination, 0 wins)
nominated for The Visitor
*Sam Rockwell, Conviction (1st nomination)
Best Adapted Screenplay
*Michael Bacall & Edgar Wright, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
*Robert Harris & Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer
*Laeta Kalogridis, Shutter Island
*David Lindsay-Abaire, Rabbit Hole
*Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Best Original Screenplay
*M. Arndt, J. Lasseter, A. Stanton, & L. Unkrich, Toy Story 3
*Stuart Blumberg & Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
*D. Cianfrance, C. Delavigne, & J. Curtis, Blue Valentine
*Raymond de Felitta, City Island
*Nicole Holofcener, Please Give
Best Original Score
*Alexandre Desplat, Harry Potter and the… (3rd nom, 0 wins)
nominated for The Queen and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
*Michael Giacchino, Let Me In (4th nomination, 1 win)
nominated for The Incredibles and Ratatouille, won for Up
*Byung-Woo Lee, Mother (1st nomination)
*Rachel Portman, Never Let Me Go (5th nomination, 0 wins)
nominated for Marvin’s Room, The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, and Grey Gardens
*John Powell, How to Train Your Dragon (3rd nom, 1 win)
nominated for Mr. and Mrs. Smith, won for Chicken Run
Best Original Song
“I See the Light,” Tangled
“Lay My Burden Down,” Get Low
“Same Changes,” Morning Glory
“We Belong Together,” Toy Story 3
“When Will My Life Begin,” Tangled
Best Documentary Feature
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Last Train Home
Prodigal Sons
Waiting for Superman
Waking Sleeping Beauty
The TV categories are next! Stay tuned (likely later today) for those nominees.
oscars have a few surprises yet…
Though Best Picture proved a pretty standard lineup (although not exactly with my predictions – more on that later) there were still a few surprises in this morning’s announcement. For starters, Julia Roberts still must have some swing in Hollywood, as the man she held a torch for, Javier Bardem, came in and pushed Robert Duvall out of the competition for Best Actor. Beyond that, John Hawkes (hometown Minnesota hero – woo!) snuck in for Best Supporting Actor, but unfortunately at the expense of Andrew Garfield. But you still gotta love the fun of a few surprises. A successful Oscar morning again!
[UPDATE]
Well it seems that the nomination leader – by my possibly incorrect count – is The King’s Speech with 12, True Grit managed 10, followed by The Social Network and Inception with eight each. The biggest surprises in the remaining category have got to be I Am Love in costume design (great choice, in my opinion) and the fact that 127 Hours went from “swiftly descending” to “six nominations.” And also, my proudest moment in predictions has got to be picking out The Tempest for costume design. Here’s how I did on predictions:
Best Picture (9/10)
Best Director (4/5)
Best Lead Actress (4/5)
Best Lead Actor (4/5)
Best Supporting Actress (4/5)
Best Supporting Actor (4/5)
Best Original Screenplay (5/5)
Best Adapted Screenplay (4/5)
Best Foreign Language Film (4/5)
Best Costume Design (4/5)
Best Cinematography (5/5)
Best Art Direction (4/5)
Best Film Editing (3/5)
Best Visual Effects (3/5)
Best Makeup (1/2)
Best Original Score (3/5)
Best Sound Mixing (4/5)
Best Sound Editing (3/5)
Best Original Song (3/4)
Best Animated Feature (2/3)
Best Documentary Feature (3/5)
…so all in all, better than last year’s predictions I believe, but just missing one on practically every category. Bummer Academy!
Journalistic Skepticism 