By John H. Foote Of the major contenders for Best Actor this year, five are previous winners, while another is a previous nominee. Collectively, a total of seven Oscars have been won by the actors listed here, while another near 20 nominations have been amassed by the group in the running for Best Actor this…
By John H. Foote I remember years in the seventies and eighties when the Academy was hard pressed to find five worthy Best Actress contenders, the problem being there were just not enough great roles and performances for women. For the last 10 years there has been a bounty of great work from actresses, enough…
By John H. Foote As Bob Dylan prophetically sung in the mournful, timely song “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and indeed 2020 brought many changes that will be felt for years to come. The movie going experience, a collective experience since its creation over 100 years ago, might never be the same as COVID-19 shook…
By John H. Foote 10. EMPIRE OF THE SUN (1987) It pains me to list this masterwork at number 10, but the fact is, there were nine stronger films than this one. The day I screened the film for the first time remains as clear to me as the moment that hooked me on cinema…
By John H. Foote Choosing the 10 worst films of 2020 was much more difficult than in previous years because there were gaps when new films were not released as usual. In many cases I played catch up when they were eventually streamed, but my initial list was still huge, beginning at 83 movies. Family…
By John H. Foote 11. BLUE VELVET (1986) After the acclaim he received for his first feature made for a studio, The Elephant Man (1980), David Lynch took on the massive science fiction epic Dune (1984) with an expansive look at the universe, complicated visual effects, and a huge budget. Based on the huge novel…
By John H. Foote 12. SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1982) Through the course of her extraordinary career Meryl Streep has won three Academy Awards and massed a total of 21 nominations, which shatters the closest rival. No, let’s be fair, no one is close. No one. She was been nominated for the Golden Globe Award 32 times,…
By John H. Foote 13. THE RIGHT STUFF (1983) “There was a demon that lived in the sky. They said whoever challenged him would die. Their controls would freeze up, their planes would buffet wildly, and they would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach One, on the meter, seven hundred and fifty miles an hour,…
By John H. Foote 14. UNDER FIRE (1983) There will be no surprise from me if you have not heard of this film. It opened and was out of theatres within a month. Incredibly it earned rave reviews, and I thought after seeing the film for the first time, it would be rewarded with no…
By John H. Foote 15. DO THE RIGHT THING (1989) Spike Lee became the voice of African Americans in the eighties, making films about black people, created by people and for black people, but in a unique way he spoke to all Americans willing to embrace his work. There was a barely concealed anger in…