By John H. Foote Every film critic has them, those beliefs that are just not popular within critics circles. The question is, do these critics have the courage to discuss what might be very unpopular opinions? I do. 1. THE MARX BROTHERS BORE ME — I have never understood the appeal of the Marx Brothers…
By John H. Foote So many fine performances this year, each category for acting at the Academy Awards is jammed packed with potential nominees, with five slots for each. Rather than listing them by category or even by preference, I just wrote them down, lead and supporting together, again in no particular order. These were…
By John H. Foote When composing a Top 10 List of movies, I always like to follow it up with the 10 worst. So, here it is, the worst of the worst I have seen this year. Not much else to say, except no one sets out to make a bad film. But sometimes they…
By Alan Hurst John’s recent look at the Oscar snubs of Nicole Kidman and Tom Hanks got me thinking. They’re both winners and multiple nominees, but they also have a resume of performances that somehow Oscar overlooked. Coming from another generation of stars, Shirley MacLaine is another one who can be listed with Kidman and…
By John H. Foote With four Academy Award nominations and one win for Best Actress in The Hours (2002), Nicole Kidman appears headed for her fifth nomination this year as Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos. Her win for her performance as Virginia Woolf in The Hours left many cold. Much was made of the…
By Alan Hurst The passing of Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim last Friday at the age of 91 marked the end of an era for musical theatre. Although his musicals often struggled for financial success, their impact was undeniable – both at the time of their debut and in the numerous revivals since. He…
By John H. Foote Tom Hanks is often hailed as America’s most beloved actor. Despite this, the ever-fickle Academy seems to take every opportunity it can to bring him down a notch. The Academy has a long history of ignoring talent once they have received a few nominations. Case in point, Mr. Hanks. Yes, he…
By John H. Foote The Directors Guild of America has nominated him 11 times, more than any other filmmaker in the history of the movies, and three times honoured him as the year’s Best Director. Seven times he has been nominated for an Academy Award as Best Director, winning twice, however it is clear there…
By Alan Hurst A cinephile’s dream: programming your own film festival. We’ve given ourselves a bit of a challenge here at Foote and Friends on Film to start a series of articles where we each get to program our own film festival, maybe even a few. The theme of the festival, the number of films,…
By John H. Foote What scares you might not scare me at all. In the last 15 years, I have come face to face with what definitely scares me in life. Number one was becoming a dad. But in films, though some can work dark magic on me, rarely do I emerge from a movie…