By John H. Foote The race for the Academy Award for Best Actress will be hotly contested with many worthy performances being left out. Indeed, it is a year in which they could easily expand the category to 10 nominees, and it would still not be enough. With a mixture of previous winners, nominees, and…
By John H. Foote It has now been reported Will Smith and his wife were asked to leave the Academy Awards ceremony after he slapped Chris Rock and he refused to do so. Obviously knowing he was about to win the Oscar as Best Actor weighed on his decision to leave. But this goes deeper.…
By John H. Foote So much Oscar history was made last night yet all anyone is talking about is the slap heard round the word, the one WiIl Smith delivered to comedian Chris Rock, who Smith felt had insulted his wife, Jada Pinkett. On one hand, good for Smith for defending his wife, but should…
By John H. Foote Are we part of the trouble with the Oscars? We critics, writers, and bloggers start talking Oscar at TIFF, which is kind of the unofficial beginning of Oscar season, and do not let up until the night of the awards. And then wake up the next morning, bitch about who did…
By John H. Foote By the time the Oscars roll around, it is an anti-climatic event. The glut of award shows since years end, the constant writing from bloggers (including me) since TIFF has worn me down and I just want the whole thing over with. Surprises are rare, they just do not really happen…
By John H. Foote The collective gasps heard around North America at nearly 6 a.m. the morning of the announcement of the Academy Award nominations were just. Lady Gaga, winner of the coveted New York Film Critics Circle award as Best Actress, had been snubbed for an Oscar nomination. GOOD GOD!!!!! The diminutive pop icon…
By John H. Foote The stories of the epic temper tantrums of former hairdresser, lover to Barbra Streisand and movie mogul Jon Peters are the stuff of legend, and witnesses attest, absolutely true. Peters had a ferocious, volatile, hair trigger temper that could be unleashed at any given time though he was called on it…
By John H. Foote By the time he portrayed the disturbed haunted army assassin Willard in Apocalypse Now, Martin Sheen should have been a nominee for Badlands (1974) and had a few Emmys on his mantle for his superb work on television. When actor Harvey Keitel worked five days for Coppola before being fired off…
By John H. Foote The finest film I saw in 2002 was Todd Haynes miraculous homage to Douglas Sirk Far from Heaven, a beautiful film filled with heartache and pain, but superbly acted by Julianne Moore as the fifties suburban housewife trapped between two men. One doesn’t want her after years of marriage as his…
By John H. Foote For one of the most beautiful love stories to come to the screen, Julie Christie was nominated as Best Actress, and Sarah Polley received a nominated for her Screenplay Adaptation. When Daniel Day-Lewis accepted the New York Film Critics Award for best Actor for his riveting performance in There Will Be…